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Messages - olscout99

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16
Metering Pumps / Re: More pump information needed
« on: November 23, 2017, 08:37:53 pm »
Okay, it's still not working but I think I have it figured out.  I swapped over the two Love PID's I have to 5v output which should work with the SSR, but one won't power up completely and the other shows a set point error. I programmed and reprogrammed and I can't get beyond that, so it won't work.  In frustration I went to one of the Rex C-100 PID's I got with another setup. I wired it according to the diagram on the PID, I got lights, a set point, and a good reading from the thermocouple. It also showed the 'Out 1' light indicating that it was energizing the output. Nothing at the relay, and nothing at the back of the PID at the 'Out' terminals checking with a voltmeter. By now I'm pretty frustrated, but with the Rex I'm a lot closer than I have been.....I just need to be able to turn on the freaking heater!  I come in and do the google thing, and lo and behold, there are a bunch of 'pirate' PID's out there that were sold as SSR capable but really only had a 10 amp internal relay. I had brought one of the Rex into the house and pulled the case off, and lo and behold, that's what I have- a relay, no SSR output voltage. There is a small transformer in the Rex that puts out 12v that can be jumpered to the output to make it trigger an SSR as it is, but rather than that, I'm just going to use the relay as a switch (which is what it is) and run 24volts from my power supply through it and to the heater relay. When the PID calls for heat it's internal relay closes, 24 volts is supplied to the SSR triggering the power to the heater, voila. At least in theory anyway, we'll see tomorrow, ate too much turkey to go out and mess with it tonight!

17
Metering Pumps / Re: More pump information needed
« on: November 23, 2017, 11:10:27 am »
I'm going to use the hydraulic pump setup, at least to begin with, and see how it works. I have the unit basically hooked up and I powered it up the other day to make sure the heaters, PID, and all that worked. I had power at the PID, and it was reading the ambient temp so the thermocouple was working. But the heater in the block would not come on, the relay it's hooked to wouldn't energize so I got no heating action. I messed with it a bit, I think it should work because the PID is set for the SSR output, but for some reason no go. I'm about to head out there this morning to do a little more troubleshooting, I'm so close, if I get the PID and heater and all working it's a matter of doing a little replumbing on the tank and pump (remove one filter and add two Goldenrod filters, and add a screen and check valve on a new pickup tube) so it's frustrating. If I can get the gun functioning I'm there......crossing my fingers.

18
Waste Motor Oil / Re: New to the forum/ thinking about burning waste motor oil...
« on: November 10, 2017, 11:34:36 am »
One thing to consider is that waste oil heaters are prohibited from residential use. Even though you're OK with doing it, and I don't see the problem either, the main thing I'd be worried about is if something goes south, even not involving the furnace, it gives your insurance company grounds to deny a claim.  That to me is a bigger issue and enough to make the decision all by itself. One option, since you have a source of oil, would be to install a free standing outdoor waste oil boiler and use insulated PEX (the same way they install outdoor wood furnaces)  to heat a coil in your furnace ducting.  Although this could be pretty spendy, one thing you would gain is reliability and redundancy.  It could easily enough be set up to where if the outdoor waste oil boiler went down, the in home hot air furnace would take over at a preset low temperature. And, if both failed, you still have a 'stock' indoor furnace that your wife or whoever could have serviced by any heating and air company that works on oil furnaces. If you had a waste oil burner in the house and it went down in your absence, a regular fuel oil tech would take one look, charge you for the call, and leave.  You need to sit down and research options and cost benefit scenarios. It could be, if you're mechanically inclined, you could source a good boiler yourself and make the conversion on the existing gun, place it in a shed on your property along with a dedicated waste oil tank, and be up and running for fairly cheap. If you have to pay to have everything done, then it's going to get spendy, but with the cost of fuel oil going up and down the payback might be as little as a year or two.

19
Metering Pumps / More pump information needed
« on: October 30, 2017, 08:14:02 pm »
So, I'm about to put my 'frankenmonster' waste oil heater together, and I have choices to make. I have bits and pieces of several different units, including two CK type burners. I also have two older Lanair units, one of which I plan to use the actual 'furnace' assembly of.  I'm going to pass on the Lanair burners for now because I think I can do a better job of burning with the CK kit burners. My question is how to set them up...I have choices. I'm setting the Lanair furnace on a steel shelving unit that is about 5 feet tall, both because I have it and because it makes the gun easy to work on. I have one CK unit that I described in an earlier post, it was hooked to an old hydraulic pump with regulators and bypasses that ran anytime the furnace was on which was pretty much always since it was heating a huge uninsulated pole barn. This pump is mounted on a large tank on wheels, which makes it handy, and I am considering using it that way. Anybody have an idea of the PSI I should be looking at after the regulator to feed a siphon burner?  A thought I had was to put a return line in at a T where the siphon tube starts, so that any 'excess' oil is returned to the tank. It appears that that is how one of the Lanair units I have worked, with a two line system that returned overflow to the tank from the siphon at the gun. I have that pump also that I can use, but I was leaning towards using it with a constant level tank (which I also have) that is heated. I can see pluses and minuses for both systems. My shop is unheated other than the furnace, and it won't be run much when I'm not out there unless I'm doing something that requires it to stay at temp overnight. The CL tank I have does have an over flow, but since it was gravity fed it just used a ball float valve. I have bought a separate float switch to install in the tank to turn  the pump on and off, and also bought a time delay relay that can shut the pump off if the float sticks after a preset time. So, for people who have been using the CK type kits for a while- am I better off to go with the pump option, regulated and/or with a return line, or to use the heated float tank? I have pretty much everything I need to go either way, including several 'regular' furnace oil pumps if one of those would be better suited.  It's just a choice of what method would work best and be the most dependable. Thanks!

20
Commercial Waste Oil Heaters / Re: lanair hs90 hot shot
« on: October 23, 2017, 08:41:09 pm »
If anybody else happens across this post, I have a copy of the manual for the HS 90 I can email to anyone that may need it. Not sure if I'm going to go with the Lanair burner, or just use a CK kit that I got complete and working from a burned out house furnace.

21
Commercial Waste Oil Heaters / Re: heat exchanger rust
« on: October 23, 2017, 08:39:46 pm »
One alternative for a shop your size is a 'pot burner', especially since you say you don't use the stove when you're not in the shop. I've had a couple, and I'm selling one now (Thermobile AT307) that would probably run you out of the garage. They're more work, you have to light them manually using diesel to get going, and you have to clean out the pots (I've found using industrial aluminum foil to line the bottom of the pots makes it easy) but they put out a lot of heat and burn pretty clean once they're going. I just found I'm using my shop more lately and I'm upgrading to a regular thermostat operated furnace to save warm up time. I don't know what the smallest unit you can get is on a pot burner, they're getting tough to find.

22
Commercial Waste Oil Heaters / Re: lanair hs90 hot shot
« on: May 28, 2017, 09:17:13 pm »
If it comes to that we will, I'm hoping the manual will surface so I can figure out how the pump is wired in. This thing looks nearly new, although I realize it's probably around 20+ years old. I basically bought it for parts and to mess with, but it's in such good shape that I may end up using it!

23
Commercial Waste Oil Heaters / Re: lanair hs90 hot shot
« on: May 28, 2017, 12:55:05 pm »
Anybody have a manual or scanned copy for the Lanair HS90? Just picked one up complete and great shape, but a manual would help with hooking up a couple of disconnected wires.....thanks!

24
Buy - Sell - Trade / Re: Thermobile AT 307 Waste/veggie oil pot burner
« on: May 25, 2017, 08:41:45 pm »
Price reduction for summer, $750 firm!!!!!

25
Buy - Sell - Trade / Thermobile AT 307 Waste/veggie oil pot burner
« on: March 28, 2017, 03:55:54 pm »
Selling my Thermobile AT 307. Unit has been used for about three or four years, it was bought as new old stock still in the box from a farm supply store. This unit is pretty much trouble free and is easy to start. Has a built in 15 gallon or so oil tank, built in circulation fan, and it does a good job of heating my 30'x48'x10' ceiling pole barn in the winter. Going to a furnace style conversion to make it easier to keep the shop warm all the time. This same unit is now sold in the states by Thermobile as a waste vegetable oil heater; a friend of mine bought one the same time I did and runs his on veggie oil and says it stays much cleaner than WMO. If you have a source of WVO and want a cheap way to heat with it, this might be your best option. Located in zip 46365, Northern Indiana, and I can help with hauling if necessary for a reasonable distance. Asking $950 OBO, these go for over $2000 new. Thanks!

26
Metering Pumps / Re: Ebay metering pumps?
« on: February 21, 2017, 11:35:02 am »
The furnace is about 75K btu but he was probably running about triple that or even more with the oil pressure, air pressure and nozzle size he had installed. He had a huge shop to heat, so by 'overfiring' I mean pumping way more btu's through the heat exchanger than it was ever meant to handle. And he had the furnace set to run all of the time when it was switched on, throw a wall switch on the furnace and heater and pumps started and ran until it was manually turned off, he didn't run it through a thermostat so it would cycle. I want my setup to work 'normally' where I set a temp on a thermostat and the furnace kicks on and off to maintain it, so when I move everything over to a 'new old furnace' I need to make changes to the wiring, just not sure what changes I'll need to make.  And not sure if the pump setup he is using will work for me, or how to trigger it, I need to move my drip pan evaporator style heater first then I can get started on modifying and installing the new furnace. The good story is that I posted on CL and have about five or six candidates so far for a replacement furnace, which gives me some options. A front chimney would work great for me, so I'm going to try to hold out for one, hopefully one of my candidates have that.

27
Metering Pumps / Ebay metering pumps?
« on: February 16, 2017, 08:37:24 pm »
I just picked up a working furnace using one of the CK kits due to the owner upsizing to a new Cleanburn. He's been overfiring it something terrible, so I'm on the lookout for a 'new' old furnace to swap parts into, and I'm looking for a way to do a metering pump. He has had an electric motor running a small hydraulic pump, but I'm sure he's running more oil than I want or need to; in addition I think he was running it continuously, and I'm going to run it off of a thermostat. Maybe I'm missing something, but is there a reason that the chemical type metering pumps sold on Ebay wouldn't work if they can be slowed down to an appropriate flow rate? Lots of them are 1-2 gph rating, although the pressures are up there. If I'm not understanding something, clue me in please! I've got all summer to make this work, but I want to start early so I'm not messing with it in the cold.

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