used oil furnace....

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has anybody made one of these? I am interested and would like any tips or links to plans. Thanks
Reply:I hope someone has some insight on this subject.  I'd like to build one too.DewayneDixieland WeldingMM350PLincoln 100Some torchesOther misc. tools
Reply:me too...  A friend and I are currently working on *several* designs for burners, boiler/ hot water, and air to air heat exchangers...BUT... I'll share what info we've collected.  Used motor oil, we can't get to atomize from our burner nozzle.  That is, unless it's heated.  So... finding a way to heat the burner nozzle and oil is our next adventure.  Using a pot type burner, vaporizing the oil... we've had good luck.  google "turk burner".  Seems to burn anything that'll flow down the fuel pipe.So far,... we figure we'll get a burner that will work with whatever fuel we decide to burn, then work on extracting that heat.  I run hydronic heating in my house ( and in the future, shop )... so a 'boiler' style is what Im shooting for.  For him, an air/air will work.I've got a picture of the heat exchanger,... i gotta resize it for easy viewing, but it appears to be a sweet setup.  It's a rather large air/air unit...
Reply:As promised... here's the dimensions and pics.  note, i did not build this, lol.  A rather sweet deal from an auction...Length: 70", not including tubes on either end.Width: 36"Height: 46"not a working unit,... but a work in progress.  Still trying to make the best burner for the fuels at hand ( used vegetable oil to used motor oil, and anything inbetween ) Attached Images
Reply:I have searched alot and found this to be the best information with diagrams.http://www.eqg.biz/wob/
Reply:doesn't the oil in the combustion phase stink up the house?..i tried putting a tiny bit in the fireplace..last time i ever do that,family members weren't impressed!
Reply:slamdvw,You mentioned that you couldn't get the used oil to atomize in your burner unless it was heated.This might be of some help to solve your problem. Make up a heat exchanger that will fit in the burner box. Pipe the exchanger to and from a small storage tank and install an inline pump. When the pump is turned on it will pump the oil through the exchanger, in the burner box, and back to the tank and keep circulating the oil until it is preheated to the temperature you want it. Then the burner can pick up the preheated oil from the tank and use it in the burner.It works the same as making a circulating hot water system in your home, in order to save money on your electric or gas bill, depending on which type of water heater you have.I built one for my house and it has saved me lots of money over the years. My son just added a new addition to his house and he built one.It works like this. Where your hot water line comes to an end add pipe and plumb it back to the water tank. At the tank, remove the tank drain valve and replace it with a short nipple, a tee, another short nipple and the drain valve. Now route the new pipe to the tee and tie it all together. Now what you have is a complete loop from your water tank to all the hot water  faucets  in your house and back to the tank. Next, install an inline pump in the new piping at the tank. Any size pump will do, just enough to move the water through the system. Tie it in to a breaker so it runs all the time and keeps the water moving. Once completed you have a system that when you turn on your hot water faucet, you instantly have hot water and you don't have to always preheat the water pipes from the water heater all the time. You'll be surprised how much money it costs to preheat the pipes everytime you turn on the hot water, even if they are insulated. Try preheating the oil by running it through a heat exchanger and it should solve the atomization problem. These systems are real easy to build. Hope this helps.
Reply:Thanks Bill!The idea we came up with - *drum roll*... a molested fog machine!!  Took the heater out of an old fog machine ( still got to work on the control circuit ).  Plumbed the oil from the pump, thru the heater, to the burner nozzle.Startup and shutdown are still giving us issues ( cold oil in about 12 inches of tubing, hard to start, and real HOT oil on shutdown, boiling and dribbling out of the end of the gun )  It's a work in progress, I'll get some pics of the burner as it stands.  looks funny but when it works, it works great.  Burns old used nasty engine oil just as if it were diesel - no smoke, very little smell, and lots of water vapor condesning on the heat exchanger (stainless).  I'll post pics probably tonite, got a TON of 'em.Anyone know anything about thermocouples?  This fog machine heater has a thermocouple that was hooked to the control board.  Problem is ( so far ) the control needs to be reverse engineed to get rid of the 'remote pushbutton control'  Just want it to maintain temperature.    We have a snap disc on the output, but takes too long to respond.
Reply:I was reading about these the mother earth website and got the idea to control the preheat with a crockpot.  Those pots get up to about 220 degrees (or just above boiling for water) but are pretty adjustable on the down side.  Would temp this work?  If so, you can get a 2 gallon crockpot from a fleamarket for about $5-$10 and they last forever.  Another idea was to use a big 5 gallon coffee purculator...the temp is a bit lower in those, about 180 deg, but the plumbing to pipe the oil is easier to modify.  Just some thoughts I had when reading about the oil temp control problem.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:My son, who is an electrican, told me that you can change the thermostat is those coffee makers and crockpots to get any temperature that you want. They bought a new coffee maker and the first thing he did was take it apart and change the thermostat in order to get a good "HOT" cup of coffee in the mornings, before work.All the companies had to change to lower thermostats in order to keep from getting sued by dips**ts who are sue crazy. Just a thought, in case you have a need for more heat.
Reply:Originally Posted by Diverbill45My son, who is an electrican, told me that you can change the thermostat is those coffee makers and crockpots to get any temperature that you want. They bought a new coffee maker and the first thing he did was take it apart and change the thermostat in order to get a good "HOT" cup of coffee in the mornings, before work.All the companies had to change to lower thermostats in order to keep from getting sued by dips**ts who are sue crazy. Just a thought, in case you have a need for more heat.
Reply:We always heat our fuel slightly above the flash point prior to combusting it in a boiler.  IF380 gets heated to 205 degrees F.  Motor oil has a high flash point and will be need a lot of heat as a result.  Vegetable oil shouldn't require nearly as much heat.  Be careful, fuels heated above their flash point are dangerous.  Motor oil becomes just as combustible as gasoline when it too is above its flash point.
Reply:76gmc1500... what kind of boiler?  and what are you heating with it.(( just for giggles and grins ))we found out that diesel fuel will BOIL, much like the fog machine intended it to do..  oops, then the burner didn't want to ignite the diesel steam.  it's a learn as you go process.
Reply:well, if I did it right, there should be 3 pics of our furnace...  still a work in progress.Fireworks.jpg: Just a cool looking display of molten metal from the plasma cutter, blowing straight up.Fuelheater2.jpg:  our... poor white boy engineered fuel heater system.  crude, but almost effective.fuelheatercontrol.jpg: if you look close, you can see the snap disc switch.I figure we'll get it to work on diesel fuel first, then worry about getting it to work on the 'alternate fuels' Attached Images
Reply:coleman made a oil furnuce for RV's way back and you can use one of them for small shops just need to add the used oil and make sure there is not chunky stuff in your oil. I have seen alot of these folks want hauled off.
Reply:check the mother earth news webb site, they have a plan for a simple one
Reply:The boiler that we burned IF380 in was a Babcock and Wilcox D-type water tube boiler.  950 psi working pressure, 905 degree superheat, and a 110,000 lb/hr evaporation rate.  We used steam atomization, but air or mechanical would be best for a "small" boiler.