Shop heat, converting to a waste oil burner (questions)

admin

I know fuel prices are low right now but they won't be that way forever. I'm considering converting my diesel furnace in my shop to a waste oil burner. From what I have found on the Internet it appears that I have the right burner to accept the conversion, Beckett AFG. Anyone here have experience in converting over to waste oil?Thanks JAS1963 SA 200 Redface, rebuilt by me, bodywork by CEP Everlast 255EXT w/W300 coolerMiller 212 AutosetMiller Xtreme 375Bridgeport MillSouth Bend 9" Lathe
Reply:In a former life I was an HVAC guy. I never cared for those becket pumps. Make sure you filter the h €LL out of that oil. I made a lot of money servicing waste oil system. An old man that was putting them in passed away. I picked up a lot of them. After several years most of those guys changes to LP or Natural  gas because the maintenance  was so high. Make sure you tune the system at 105~115 psi. YOU HVAC TO HAVE A COMBUSTION  ANALYZER. Any little thing will make these units go screwy.
Reply:Work faster, that will warm you up!Don’t pay any attention to meI’m just a hobbyist!CarlDynasty 300V350-Pro w/pulseSG Spool gun1937 IdealArc-300PowerArc 200ST3 SA-200sVantage 400
Reply:I heat my shop with waste oil. My burner has a huge nozzle on it compared to what you have and I still have to maintain it fairly frequently. I wouldn't really consider waste oil for heating a house. Just way to much maintenance and dirty as well. Mine burns very clean with no real smoke output as long as every things right. But at least once a year sometimes twice I have to clean my heat exchanger and flue from the soot build up. I end up with black dust all over the shop when that happens no matter how much care I take doing it. I've got to clean the first intake screen fairly regularly as well. Very nasty job.  There's just no real way to prevent getting at least some black oil and soot when using waste oil.   When it works it's great and I may go for a good while without any problems at all. Then I may end up fighting with it several times a day for a week to keep it burning right. A lot of it depends on the quality of the oil you manage to get. But that ranges all over the board as to how much trash, and water is in it. As well as how thick or thin it is. It's got so many variables that I'm constantly adjusting for the different ways it burns with different batches. But I've got several ways that allow me to adjust for it that I've built into the stove over the years. It took me a good many years to get it working as well as it does today but it's still not perfect.Millermatic 252XMT 304'sDynasty 280DXHypertherm PowerMax 1250Miller Trailblazer 302 EFIOptima PulserXR feeder and XR Edge gun and more athttp://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm
Reply:I fought one of these things with the maintenance headaches for years. I finally gave up and built my own. I used a Minark ac/dc controller feeding a Bison motor, driving a Suntec oil pump through a Riello burner. The nozzle is a Delavan but I cannot remember the size as I kept testing different ones till finding one I like at 30 degree discharge through a six inch gun. Figuring about 140KBTU per gallon of waste oil, the firing rate was set to about 400KBTU to heat the shop floor. I built the boiler myself using 1.5" fire tubes of schedule 40 steel pipe and 1/4" plate I had plasma cut to fit. The burner chamber is 18" diameter and 30" deep. It is a single pass unit which keeps 28 gallons of water at 185 degrees. It doesn't matter if you burn pure ATF, or 90W gear lube though this thing it burns the same rate all the time. I filter first through a 100 mesh screen, followed by a 50 micron filter, then a 10 micron filter. The mesh, and 50 micron last about a month between cleanings and the 10 micron is changed annually. I have a 2000 gallon outside oil storage container where any settle out and water separation takes place, and a 250 gallon day tank inside the boiler room from which the filtration takes place on it's way to the burner. The boiler room is a small room off the side of the building and stays warm constantly. I have a "Cromalox" electric heater on the day tank but never use it.It's always a mess to service these things but they can run a pretty good amount of time if good filtration is used. I always clean the filters on the weekend as you have to interrupt the fuel supply and thus the heat to clean them. Both the larger filters are set up as canister type with ball valves to drain the bowls but the 10 micron is a spin on type.SlobPurveyor of intimate unparalleled knowledge of nothing about everything.Oh yeah, also an unabashed internet "Troll" too.....
Reply:i burn waste oil mixed 50/50 with #1 or 87 octane. works great. just have to filter the oil before dumping into the main tank. no mods just a regular furnace..... to get it going in the bitter cold ( -25f ) i have to crumple a small piece of paper and light it in the burn chamber. other than that it is great... plus the change back to normal fuel oil is easy... just fill it and leave it.. no nozzle swap or nothin..
Reply:Hmmmm, yeah the idea of converting my existing shop furnace is loosing its luster. I have a friend that has a factory made unit and he loves it.1963 SA 200 Redface, rebuilt by me, bodywork by CEP Everlast 255EXT w/W300 coolerMiller 212 AutosetMiller Xtreme 375Bridgeport MillSouth Bend 9" Lathe
Reply:Originally Posted by CEPWork faster, that will warm you up!
Reply:I heat my shop with waste oil. I use a clean burn unit. They use a siphon nozzle which atomizes the oil using compressed air, essentially the pump only delivers the oil to the heat block and the air draws and atomizes the oil. I'm in the process of converting a couple small boilers for another application. I've looked at the acetone blend but haven't tried it. Many years ago I experimented burning WVO/diesel blend and found the beckett burner would start and run well with a 10% to 15% blend of diesel.My business partner has a bunch of 500,000 btu furnaces burning WMO. We found very early the key was cleaning the oil. In addition to the dirt and soot, WMO often contains a lot of paper fiber from the filter media. This consequently rapidly clogs the standard screens and filters. We also had issues with nozzle erosion which led to over firing and/or failed starts. Water would also collect in low spots in the line and freeze in the winter. We now centrifuge all our oil and life is great. Just like burning diesel. The furnaces burn much cleaner and nozzle erosion has been eliminated. At the farm on a 6 week burn cycle the ash buildup used to be a few inches, now the same period is about a quarter inch. He burns 6 weeks straight, 24/7.Here's a link to just some of the stuff we've pulled out of our oil.http://www.simplecentrifuge.com/gallery-series-1.htmlI'm in the process of converting some burner heads to used motor oil. I've picked up the correct syphon nozzles but I still need to build my heat block. I may try the acetone blend before I go too far... but acetone isn't as cheap as compressed air. If you want a turn key burner, you might look at the Kagi burner. Tom Kagi is a heck of a nice guy and they are in Spokane. Tom Sr. did most of the original design for the clean burn burner. http://www.kagiburner.com/
Reply:Originally Posted by forhireIf you want a turn key burner, you might look at the Kagi burner. Tom Kagi is a heck of a nice guy and they are in Spokane. Tom Sr. did most of the original design for the clean burn burner. http://www.kagiburner.com/