Heat your shop for FREE.

[EricJB]

Disclaimer

If you burn your shop down or give yourself carbon monoxide poisoning, dont blame me. I cannot take credit for this idea or design. I just decided to try what others have done, since I am tired of freezing my ass off in my hollow brick shop with no insulation. And my bridgeport is starting to rust.

 

This is also a scaled down model since I had everything to make it this size and nothing to make it bigger. What is it? A waste oil heater, that runs on dirty old motor oil. And after some tuning ( with more yet) it works pretty good.

 

I started with an old freon bottle that I used as an air tank for a very long time. Cut a hole for the door and one for the chimney.

 

  

 

 

Most of the ones i've seen use a 6 inch chimney, a 4 inch intake, and an 8 inch burner. Mine is half that, almost. 3" chimney, 1.75" intake, and a 4" burner.

 

Next cut a hole for the intake. I made mine adjustable since I have no idea where is should be in relation to the burner. And then weld a pipe bung on the top and drill it through. This is where the copper tube from the oil tank enters the intake.

 

 

My first burner was 1/4 wall pipe. 4" x 2" with a 1/4 base welded together. I later made it 4"x 4".

 

 

The door I made turned out to be my weak link. I should have made it more airtight. But it works.

 

 

The handle is a part I made at work, then the mill guys drilled the holes in the wrong place.

 

 

Next put ten or so 3" bolts flat in the bottom of the burner, 5 one way, and 5 the other on top. Insert the oil feed line through a fitting and down the intake tube, and position it 2" Above the bottom of the intake tube. Time for a test run

 

 

Pour a half inch of kerosene in the burner, and put some paper in the back to start the draft. Light it all with a propane torch, close the door, and start the drip.

 

I started with a needle valve, but went to a ball valve. Also put a bit of clear tubing in the line as a sight glass for flow. For mine, a drip a second works pretty good.

 

Here it is in the shop, mounted on the best stand I could think of. And later put a 280zx turbo fan in the intake tube.

 

 

 

I had to block the intake as it is a bit too much. More tuning needed.

 

This is the first burner.

 

 

And this is the second.

 

 

Big difference.

 

 

I ran it for 7 hrs today wide open. ( as hard as I can without it leaking out the door) and it only went through 2 3/4 inches in the bucket. I would guess about 3 qts. I started at the sharpee line above the sticker.

 

 

It burns really clean with the fan on and a light drip. But get damn near glowing when you turn it up. A lot like tuning a carb. My shop is warm enough to work in and drying out finally. And now I dont have to try to figure out what to do with 15 gallons of dead motor oil.

 

Buyer beware, dont hurt yourself. I will post up changes as they happen.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Farmer Joe]

this is good stuff!

[Tristin]

Wow, great project. I used to use a propane heater on a propane tank before I moved into this apartment. Worked great, but you had to buy propane. This would be awesome to get rid of old oil... though it would be interesting to know where the oil actually goes. I doubt thats good for the environment. 

[wayno]

It's an oil burning stove from when I was a kid, just smaller, we had about a 250 gallon tank on the side of the house on legs that the reservoir sat just a few feet above the stove height in the house.

This was a common way of heating houses in the 1950-60s, what you did was turn on the adjustable valve on the back of the stove, then go take the garbage out, or some other chore, then take a small piece of news paper and wad it up sort of, light it and throw it in the belly of the stove, sometimes a wood match would light it if your timing was right, then close the door and adjust once house was starting to warm.

Absolutely do not forget to light the stove 5 or 10 minutes after you turn on the valve, otherwise you will flood the stove.

[EricJB]

Wow, great project. I used to use a propane heater on a propane tank before I moved into this apartment. Worked great, but you had to buy propane. This would be awesome to get rid of old oil... though it would be interesting to know where the oil actually goes. I doubt thats good for the environment. 

 

 Thats what I thought. but when set up right, They burn pretty clean. Almost nothing comes out the stack. If you turn the oil up to much it will chug like a train. run it lean, it burns white hot. The bolts are glowing red. The only residue in the burner is brown and black dust.

 I was running propane and kerosene at the same time trying to stay warm. But they are not a dry heat, and I had water dripping off the garage door. Old wet brick shop. 

 

It was running when I took this pic.

 

 

 

[Tristin]

I mean, the particles and contaminates have to go somewhere dont they? I doubt that heater gets hot enough to vaporize them into nothingness. 

[EricJB]

I mean, the particles and contaminates have to go somewhere dont they? I doubt that heater gets hot enough to vaporize them into nothingness. 

 

 

I got the design from a website called Mother Earth News. According to them it is the most efficient way to dispose of motor oil, and the EPA agrees. Seems like a tall order to me as well, but it really does a good job. Maybe they're comparing it to pouring it down a storm drain, LOL.  

[Tristin]

Good enough for me then! Thanks for sharing. 

[Draker]

Yeah, this is rad! I'd want to do this to heat my garage!

[EricJB]

I think I found the sweet spot for air/ fuel mixture. I opened the door just before shutting it down and the burner was glowing bright red.

 

 

Here is what is left of a gallon of oil after 10 hrs of running.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EricJB]

[JoeCool]

Awesome write up. Used oil heat is the best. I worked in a shop (AAA car care) that had it. Warmest place I ever worked. We all worked in short sleeves in the winter.

[EricJB]

Awesome write up. Used oil heat is the best. I worked in a shop (AAA car care) that had it. Warmest place I ever worked. We all worked in short sleeves in the winter.

 

 

It heats the shop up in a hurry. I need to move it out from the wall and insulate it, then get some  high temp wallboard behind it. A lot of heat is going outside there. I started out just wanting to dry the place out, but this thing is like a new toy. Works way better than I thought it would.

[Conner]

I would be concerned about placing the red hot, glowing heater too close to your wood framing!  How hot is that wood getting behind it? 

[EricJB]

I would be concerned about placing the red hot, glowing heater too close to your wood framing!  How hot is that wood getting behind it? 

 

 

I need to move it out. It gets hot to the touch. I didnt think it would put out that much heat, so I have some rethinking to do. Right now i;m not getting more than 10 feet from it. I dont run it if i'm not out there.

[TENDRIL]

this is really cool, i have no application for it as of right now but its great to know, so the idea is, that a drop of oil falls every couple of min. from the bung directly onto the fire? or does it kind of drip along the side walls of the intake pipe and drip some where in the fire?

[oldskoolvws]

Do yourself a life saving favor and go to home depot and get a carbon monoxide detector.

 

I think I would go on more step and it would be a little safer as you could put the unit outside or in a safe location. I would not use the indirect heat from the vessel. I would use the stack exhaust, flow it through a homemade sheet metal or otherwise box with a car radiator or other heat exchanger in it. A condenser unit even a car heater core would work. Run the exhaust through the fins of  the heat exchanger while water or oil are circulated through it to pick up the heat. Pump that water through another radiator/heat exchanger with a fan on it. Position radiator and fan where you want in the shop and now you have forced heat that you can control. You could get most parts from a yard.

 

Great job on what you got though! Are you using old motor oil?

[graveltrapp]

Cant wait for the next installment, But I agree with the CARBON MONOXIDE DETECTOR. Its the silent killer you know,

[Dat Lurka]

Ooooh nice build. 

How about shrouding it and adding a fan? Like a buckstove

[converted_to_datsun]

I like this idea! I have to make one of these

[72240z]

Do you have a link that proves this is a clean way to get rid of oil? Because I dont buy it lol. 
On this scale I doubt its as harmful as say a semi chugging out across the usa but I honestly dont see how outright burning motor oil can be clean... 

Even burning used un-esterified veg oil without being processes has been proven many times over to be bad. Drive behind one and see how fast you start feeling sick. 

All that said cool project. One could burn all kinds of stuff in there too. I would do it, with a few mods. 

I wonder if a cheapo catalytic converter could be used. Right off the tank it would def be hot enough to do its job and the fact it would most likely be ceramic wouldn't matter since it wouldn't be getting jostled around. Also on the scale it would prob last for a decade before going bad. 

[freaky510]

What about a Heat exchanger on the exhaust ?? Had a buddy with one on his tiny little fire place and he could heat his shop and house with it. 

[Tristin]

Do you have a link that proves this is a clean way to get rid of oil? Because I dont buy it lol. 

On this scale I doubt its as harmful as say a semi chugging out across the usa but I honestly dont see how outright burning motor oil can be clean... 

 

Even burning used un-esterified veg oil without being processes has been proven many times over to be bad. Drive behind one and see how fast you start feeling sick. 

 

All that said cool project. One could burn all kinds of stuff in there too. I would do it, with a few mods. 

 

I wonder if a cheapo catalytic converter could be used. Right off the tank it would def be hot enough to do its job and the fact it would most likely be ceramic wouldn't matter since it wouldn't be getting jostled around. Also on the scale it would prob last for a decade before going bad. 

 

I did some research myself as I asked this question earlier in the thread. It seems that burning used motor oil is very common and on the EPA website even lists it as a correct way to recycle oil. The only thing the EPA doe not like about burning motor oil is that it can only be recycled once using this process. Other methods yield multiple recycles for the oil. 

[72240z]

So then whats the difference between burning it with this method then others that are not good? 
How is slow burning motor oil packed with nasty shit better then burning it in a motor or a number of other ways? 

I like the idea dont get me wrong but I take the EPA with a grain of sand. They are like a toothless guard dog these days.

Not saying it cant be true either I'm not a scientist. It just goes against most of what I know and unless I see proof I'm inclined not to believe it lol.  

[EricJB]

Wow, tough crowd.

 

Waste oil heaters have been around for 30+ yrs. They were used quite a bit in service stations. (remember those?) My former employer had 2 big commercial units that heated a 27,000 sq ft machine shop with all the dead way oil that lathes and mills use and then piss into the coolant. 

 

I had the same concerns and doubts as well, which is why I built a scaled down unit instead of spending $$ on the real thing. And the first time I try anything, I have it completely redesigned by the time i'm done.

I dont think the EPA is going to give you a free unicorn for building one. And I'm not saying the stack is where rainbows come from. So how about I say it's a cleaner alternative to some other ways of disposing of it. And by putting it to use once more, I dont have to buy and burn something else.

I have gone through 35 gallons of kerosene, and 10 gallons of propane this year trying to get the same result. I dont think those belly tank kerosene heaters are very clean, at least it doesnt smell that way.

 

The reason I posted it up was not to get everyone ot build one just like mine, but maybe just google waste oil heater and look around. Grease the wheels. Mine is not a well built unit, nor is it permanantly or completely installed. Really more of a test model. I dont leave it running unattended, and the bay door is opened quite a bit to check the stack, and let out the burning paint fumes ha ha.

 

It will get moved out from the wall, some fireboard will go up, and the tank will go outside. And yes I will buy a carbon monoxide detecter since they are all the rage these days.

 

Yesterday I was trying to decide whether I would post up that my shop burnt down or that I was hospitalized for smoke inhalation, just to fuck with you. You guys are no fun anymore.