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Messages - Rapidrob

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1
I preheat the stoves burner with about 1/2 cup of old Diesel. This gets the brake drum burner and oil feed very hot with the air off.
Once the oil supply pipe is hot I have a parasitic pump that will give the burner a shot of oil via an adjustable timer. This way the same amount goes into the burner no mater what the oil level is in the supply tank.
I have on order a magnetic high limit switch in case of a run-away-stove. The oil feed and air will be shut off.
I found that a tank holding 5 gallons ( 19 liters) is about right. My tank can be removed from the stove in a matter of seconds for cleaning and the weight of a full tank ( steel paint can) is about what I can lift without spilling.
The tank is 250 m/m from the stove to heat the oil and always allow the oil to flow no matter how cold the oil is initially.
Once the stove is at operating temperature a thin sheet metal shield is placed between the tank and the stove.
The shield catches the air from the automatic  room fan and helps divert it into the shop where I work.
The forced draft blower is a Hot Tub bubble blower. (see photo) It is on a motor control for speed. The one I'm using is actually too powerful, and I could have used the 3/4 HP version. You could enclosed a 4-6" Muffin-Fan and have more than enough air through a steel pipe at the burner.
Sorry to hear about the fire.
I live at 7,000 feet on the side of Thunder Mountain and fires are a real threat . Smokey Bear was from an area 100 miles south of my home. I hope you and yours will be safe.

2
Fuel burn is about 5 gallons in 9 hours with this burner at the air flow set to minimum. If I was to restrict the air flow more I may be able to get 11 hours. The air flow now is so efficiently burning the oil that you have to keep the fuel drip at a slight trickle or the fire will be blown out by being too lean. There is no ash in the brake drum as it is "Cherry Red" all of the time as it is running. There is a slight odor of combustion as my fire door is not air tight.
This burner is a prototype and I will see just how well /not is works. The blower is quite,the oil burning is a fairly loud roar in the stove. You can hear it clearly outside.

 

3
I've been running my stove I built as a drip system for several years now. It worked very well but had one draw back, the stove took more than an hour to reach 250 degrees F to turn on the circulation fan.
I needed heat fast to warm my shop.
I saw how to make a forced air drip feed system that is so simple to make its amazing.
The amount of heat the burner produces has to be felt to be believed. The burner is a simple steel pipe with a 90 degree bend firing into a Dodge Truck rear brake drum.
Oil is dripped into a 1 1/4"  steel pipe via a 1/4" pipe cut at  a 45 degree angle and the cut is placed towards the brake drum.
The pipe is directing air flow from a Hot Tub Bubble Blower. The blower is controlled by a Harbor Freight 120 volt motor speed control.
The rushing air passing the 45 degree 1/4" drip pipe end causes a low pressure to form. This pulls the oil out of the pipe as an oil fog and blast it into the red hot brake drum where it flashes into white/blue flame. The burn is complete leaving no ash and there is only smoke at start up.
Starting is by a shot of Diesel in the brake drum and light. The flames heat the end of the burner until it is hot enough to flash the oil fog to self ignite and spread the heat into the brake drum and stove body.
The stove now reaches 450 degrees F in 8 minutes! And the stove weighs 450 pounds. Adjusting the drip feed keeps the stove at this temperature all day long.
Running full oil feed will heat the stove to excessive temperatures in 20 minutes . I stopped the feed at 650 Degrees F.
The heat melted the copper Diesel feed start up line. I need to replace it with Stainless Steel tubing.
I will also install a Fail-Safe Blower Hi Limit control that will kill the blower power and stop the air flow.



4
User Projects & Pictures / Repost of lost photos topic
« on: November 06, 2019, 01:34:42 pm »
I retired two years  ago and spend a lot of time in my Reloading/Repair shop.  It is my above ground Man-Cave. I live on a mountain in New Mexico and it gets cold here. Minus 15 degrees F is not too uncommon.
I have a propane furnace in my shop but fuel prices are going nuts out here. I needed to find a cheaper alternative to heat my shop which is only occupied during the day for a few hours normally.
Many decades ago the “Mother Earth News" a 60/70's publication would have great articles on how to do just about anything to make life easier and on the cheap.
I remember a Waste Oil burner that had no moving parts to speak of that would produce a lot of heat for a little fuel.
The concept is so simple you'd think it would not work but it does. You slowly drip waste oil (it does not matter what it is) onto a very hot surface in which the fuel flashes into vapors which ignite instantly and burn at a very high temperature. No smoke and almost no odor what so ever.
Jump to 2016. Why not build a Stove containing a burner and capture most of the heat produced and then move the hot air around using a small fan? To increase the thermal output and temperature of the burn, add a forced air stream.
So I did a list of materials of what was needed. I pondered the stove design for a day or so and worked out in my head what I wanted. It had to have a good mass for heat retention and still be able to be moved if need be. It had to be 100% reliable and as safe as possible.  I wanted as few moving parts ( KISS) so it will always work and anyone can run it. It had to be HOT!
After all it is the whole idea. A nice warm shop in the dead of winter.
The stove is a 24” I.D and is ½” thick. It stands about four feet  tall. It is made from high pressure oil pipe line (how ironic) and the floor of the stove is ½” high carbon steel plate. It will never burn/rust out in anyone’s life time.
The top of the stove is a step down for the larger pipe left over from an old Cracking Plant. The chimney is off the shelf. A thimble is used to protect the roof as it exits outside.
The burner is a design I thought of but cannot take the credit for as I know someone else has had to think of it before. I like simple.
I’m using free parts from an automotive brake shop. The “firebox” is a dodge pickup truck rear brake Drum. The top of the firebox is a brake rotor from the same truck. The two slip together as if made to do so! I cut the center out of the disk and welded on a heavy piece of steel pipe that I perforated to increase air flow. The drum is welded shut to contain any oil. A hole is drilled through the brake disk to allow oil to drip into the burner. You do not need to do this. You can drip the oil right down the chimney into the burner.  I wanted a safer and longer lasting oil feed.
I then drilled a hole at the bottom of the chimney to allow the air fitting. The air is spun in the chimney as if it was a “Flamenado” This is where all the magic happens. The heat produced is amazing.
Waste oil is fed by gravity via a 5 gallon steel pail and a steel line via a petcock valve. The valve controls the drip rate. This is the only moving part in the fuel delivery. It is fool proof and easy to clean.
The pail is far enough away from the hot stove wall as to not be a fire hazard but close enough to warm the oil for a free flow.
The only real complicated part is the air compressor. And that is pretty much bullet proof. It is a surplus twin piston Air Brush compressor. It does not provide a high pressure, but it is constant. You don’t need much air. The pump is about the size of a kid’s lunch box. The running of the compressor is the same as a 75 Watt bulb. Not much in cost.
A rubber hose goes to the stove from the compressor and then to a copper air line to the burner. I used a salvaged gas orifice from an old stove to restrict the flow and speed it up to a jet of air. 
You don’t need the forced air for this burner to work but it really increases heat output for a given fuel amount.
Inside of the stove, above the burner, I have stacked several steel plates and old brake rotors each with an air gap. Think of a pagoda as they absorb and deflect heat to the walls of the stove. This works very well and reduces heat loss.
To light the stove requires an ignition source. I use Diesel. Gasoline is far too dangerous to use.
I pour into the burner about a ¼ cup of Diesel and drop a match into it. The diesel fuel heats the burner walls to about 600 degrees F in a matter of seconds. A flu draught is created and it gets hotter as the seconds pass. I then open the petcock on the waste oil to a small stream of oil.
The oil is fed by a stainless steel tube.
 The burning diesel starts to vaporize the waste oil and it burns. I then turn on the air compressor. Instantly the vapors ignite and the flame temperature starts to climb. Within minutes the burner is running at over 1,000 degrees F and has a nice whooshing sound to it. At this point the burner is self sustaining. It will run as long as there is fuel.
Fuel is not reduced to control stove temp. I like a drop of oil a second.
 There is neither smoke nor odor inside the shop. Outside there is a slight odor of something burning, but it does not smell like oil more like hot steel.  No smoke to be seen.
Within 20 minutes the 500 pound stove is producing hundreds degrees of heat which is controlled by oil flow. A drop a second of oil will keep the stove at 350 degrees all day long. At 150 degrees F a thermal switch kicks on (magnet and sensor on side of stove) and starts a small fan to blow the heat at the ceiling downward.
The stove burns 5 gallons of oil in ten hours. The shop is at 70 degrees F. And it cost less than 50 cents in electricity to do it. The oil is FREE!
I have not found oil that will not burn.
 No PCB’s in my waste oil . My suppliers have it tested if it is transformer oil from before the 70’s.
Oil is so abundant I have to turn down suppliers.
Cleaning out the burner is fast and simple. The burner opens instantly and what is left would not fill a coffee cup after burning 55 gallons of oil.
The stove stores heat for many hours after shut down.
Since I built the stove last year I have moved the compressor outside of the shop to its own weather-proof container to reduce noise in my shop ( I listen to a lot of music/news as I putt around)
I’ve added insulated corrugated steel to the walls closest to the stove of my shop just in case of a run-away stove temperature. The stove has never gotten hotter on the outside than 550 Degrees F on a wide open burn.  Better to be safe.
There are several designs on the web to use. They all work well but I would be worried about fire as many of them operate at very high temps that would burn you or start a fire almost instantly if touched. Not good.
The cost of the stove pipe and roof thimble cost more than the stove to build!
I doubt I have the cost of a good Mosin Nagant ’91 rifle in my build.
My stove is safe, clean and I’m doing my “Green” PC stiff burning oils that will never be illegally dumped into the ground or our waters. The oils are not in danger of being in a truck wreck as they are transported across the country to be refined again or incinerated.
Did you know many of the incinerators do not capture the heat nor do they use the produced heat in anyway? What a “waste” of waste  oil.
You are saving the suppliers lots of money not having to pay to get rid of the waste oils.
My design burns very, very hot. You can add more air flow, or spray the oil into the burner to get the burn even hotter if you wanted. Some do.
 I kept my design simple and safe as possible. The inside of the firebox can reach over 1,200 Degrees F to provide a very clean burn and many states really like this.
 I thought I share my little project. You might want to save some cash as well.


5
I got a system figured out. Never mind.

6
My home made stove has been heating my shop for many years now. To start the stove I dump in a few ounces  of Diesel fuel, add paper soaked in diesel and then light it with a gas match and away it goes. I have to dump the Diesel fuel up and over my burner, stuff in the paper first. While easy to do,it can be messy and I normally end up smelling like diesel fuel all day long.
I'd like to add a small external diesel fuel feed line and some sort of device to control the amount of Diesel fuel as it is very hard to see inside of the burner ( disk brake rotor and read drum type burner) .
I was thinking a small tank mounted away and above the stove with a copper or steel feed line. I have a few ideas as to how to portion the starting Diesel fuel but would like to see or read what you may have done to your stove?
Thanks for any info.

7
Since I posted the 300 deg.F on the stove body it has become more efficient do a drip tube placement and can run as high as 700 degrees.
I found I can reduce the drip to one a second and the stove will run all day at 450 D-F.
I now have the oil drip hit the edge of the hole and splatter (vacuum sucks it into the burn chamber) and it is instantly flashed into vapors. The stove now roars a little but I can heat the shop all day long on three gallons of used oil.
I'm using old Fork Oil from a motorcycle shop, the kind that is not supposed to burn or foam, but it sure does in this stove.

8
The stove body will heat to 300 degrees F. at fast drip.

9
Other than the burner's chimney and fittings for the air the parts are free. A local mechanic gave me a brake drum and brake rotors. The chimney is extra heavy for heat mass. It could be just about any metal that can take the heat.
The other used brake rotors are stacked like a pagoda above the burner to trap and divert heat as it rises in the stove.
 

10
We all fell into the pit of darkness after Photobucket decided that 300 bucks would free-up your third party photos.
This is an update on an oil burning stove I did last year.
The stove body is very heavy being made from high pressure gas/oil pipeline. The walls are 1/2" thick. The base is 3/4" cold rolled steel to prevent burn/rust out for a lifetime.
I tried several burner designs for a modified air/drip system and settled on a modified automotive brakes burner.
What this is is a truck brake drum is used as the fire box.The hub and stud holes are welded shut.  The top of the drum brake is sealed by the same maker truck disk brake with the center cut out. A flue is made from heavy walled steel pipe and perforated to allow air flow and proper mixture of the dripping oil vapors and air.
Out side of the stove is a gravity feed 5 gallon steel pail and pet cock valve. I found this works very well to pre-heat the oil and allow a drip rate to be set. My oil is a verity of mixed waste oils and not super clean.
The air is provided by a small two cylinder air brush compressor. It only draws as much current as a 75 Watt bulb.
I fed the air to the side if the flue via a copper line and a small orifice I made with a hole just large enough to really swirl the air in the burner. The pump is now outside of the shop in a weather proof box. This removes all the noise.
The stove takes 20 minutes to heat up before a thermostatic fan kicks in to move the warm air around the shop.
The stove body heats up to 600 Degrees F if I let the oil flow and 350 DF if I let it drip.
The mass of the stove stays hot for a couple of hours when shut down.
Inside of the stove I have stacked several heavy steel plates as well as old brake disk to slow the rising heat and disperse it around the body of the stove.
The stove is fairly efficient in that I burn 5 gallons of oil on a really cold day in ten hours of drip time.
This will keep my shop a 65 Degrees F. If I need to go warmer to dry paint,etc I will increase the temp to 75 Degrees F and burn the oil in 6 hours.
When at temp there is no smoke nor any smell.
The burner comes apart instantly for removing the ash in the drum brake. I only need to do this once a month depending on the quality of the waste oil.
So far I have not found an oil that does not burn well in this stove.


   

11
User Projects & Pictures / Re: Please help me design this oil stove.
« on: December 07, 2016, 07:01:31 pm »
I ran the stove last winter and up to now. I have a supplier for used motor oil and other oils. So far, all the oils I have tried work very well. I use a small two piston air compressor for a paint gun. It provides more than enough air and is inexpensive to run. The brake drum combustor  runs at 900 Deg F. I built a heat collector inside of the stove to reduce wast heat going up the chimney.
The stove operates at 450 degrees F and once it is hot ( 30 minutes) it heats my shop well. I burn two gallons of used oils a day. Very little ash is left over. A fan on a thermostat turns on once the stove reaches 150 degrees F.
There is little odor in or outside. No smoke. 

12
Welcome Center / Re: Howdy from New Mexico
« on: May 31, 2016, 08:20:34 pm »
Since I posted the topic the weather turned south and it was cold for several weeks.
I burned about 20 gallons of old auto oil and other oils I will not mention with outstanding results. The stove takes a good hour or longer to really warm up but once it does it will stay hot for many hours after shut down.
I run my stove at 250 degrees F (body temp) and the stack temp is 180 degrees F.
I recoup the stack heat by use of a ducked fan.
There is no smoke no matter what fuel I burn. Odor is very slight outside. Nothing can be smelled inside of my shop after it is up to temp.
I now have an unlimited source of free oil for my winter heating.

13
User Projects & Pictures / Re: Please help me design this oil stove.
« on: March 09, 2016, 09:42:37 pm »
I did a 16 hour test burn of the stove using three different oil burners, The 60's Hippie MEN burner, the car rotor and brake drum and  the 'Aluma-Tuna" burner I built.
The stove interior is large and max BTU output is a must. The MEN burner and the Aluma-Tuna burners worked well but could not get the stove mass hotter than 250 degrees F. Not good enough.
The auto brakes burner showed the best performance overall. It got the stove up to 400 degrees.
None of the burners burned clean. Oily smoke to some extent was always seen. I tried adjusting the air flow going into the burn chamber and it did help. I fired up a small compressor for a test and fed a 1/4" ID  hose and fitting into one of the air holes in the burner's stack. I adjusted the air flow until the burner sounded like it was at max efficiency. No smoke at all. The burner was putting out the max heat it could. I did not let it run any further as the hose would have melted.
I let the unit cool down and then drilled and tapped the burner's stack for a 1/2 pipe close nipple that I also tapped the inside for 1/4" pipe. The fitting is at an angle to the stack to cause the air and fumes to swirl. This now allows a metal tube to deliver the air to aid in combustion.
I do not want to run the compressor for hours on end. I'm thinking I will use a large aquarium air pump instead.
I'll post the results.

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User Projects & Pictures / Re: Please help me design this oil stove.
« on: February 14, 2016, 06:40:12 pm »
The build of this stove was a 1970's design that burns wood,coal and oil.
No advantage what so ever,more a multi-use.

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User Projects & Pictures / Re: Please help me design this oil stove.
« on: February 12, 2016, 05:38:14 pm »
not a problem. I too had to re-think how I was going to get enough air into the burn area. I have the stove pipe and "through Roof" adapter arriving next week and I can start to play with the first initial burn. The good thing about a welder is that I can correct my screw ups!
Shame this site is so dead. I bet it was a lot of fun a few years back.

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