New guy who built one.

[Pilot5517]

Hello from Iowa.  It's getting really cold here so I decided to build a burner for my hanger after pondering it for many years.  Anyway - it works.  But I would like to get more heat out of it.  My burner is based on a video I found on YouTube under "Simple Waste Oil Burner 1 Video".   I have a wood burner I've used for years that is a 1/2 inch thick steel tube capped on one end with a door on the other.  I drilled a 2" hole on top and inserted a 2" exhaust pipe down inside right above a cast iron skillet.  Inside the pipe is a 1/4" copper oil line running to a Kitty Litter pale for my oil tank.  LOL  A $10 Walmart hair dryer is my blower source stuck in the other end of the exhaust pipe.  

I light it by taking a little kero and hitting it with a torch.  Like I said, it works and burns well but I would like to get the flames to a white hot nature.  Any ideas?  Also, what are you guys using for an oil pre-heater?  With the cold temps the oil runs like molasses!

Thanks,

Paul

[doug]

Your hair dryer may not be able to give it the air it needs to burn hotter.

[Pilot5517]

Well I normally run the dryer on low but have ran it on high.  On high, the flame is much larger and seems hotter but I'm not sure that's really the case and maybe the larger flames are just deceiving me.  I do think that when the dryer is on high I need to give it more oil.  Any ideas on a good cheap oil pre-heater?

Thanks,

Paul

[Moov]

Basical principle which is only for testing.
Final design is another story, but this also works fine.

My english isn't that good so a major grammar error might happen. But i hope you'll still can understand me. 

[Pilot5517]

It's true!  More oil = more heat.  I changed my oil line from 1/4" to 3/8" last night and had 825 degrees and climbing on the side of the main burner drum.  Not the burner plate mind you - the barrel itself.  600 degrees was going out the flue.  I had to shut it down because my 1/2" barrel was starting to get red hot.  This is while running my hair dryer on high.  It only took around 15 minutes to get to these temps.  I just wanted to see what it would do full out.  Below is my setup.

Paul

[Moov]

What happened with you. You wrote that you got your heater working and not a sound (letter) out of you since then.
Give us some details.

While the hair drayer is still working. Does it blow hot or cold air?

[Pilot5517]

The dryer is running on hot, only because that's the only setting it has for high.  I really don't think the heated air is doing much in the way of adding to the combustion.  Right now I am re-doing my setup so it looks a little more professional and hopefully functions even better.  I'm also looking for a different blower source as the hairdryer is very loud on high.

[Moov]

Put the hairdryer in a carton box. And make one (not to big) hole for air intake. The box will dampen the sound. Or take a hair dryer out of the room and connect on heater with some pipe.  Don't expect the fan from the car or something else to be much quieter. After some time, it's noise also begins to get on your nerves.

[Pilot5517]

Well, I thought about building a box around it but I would rather have something a little more substantial ( and looks better).  So, I'm on the hunt for a small squirrel cage fan or something like that.  A lot of videos I've seen are using such fans but without spending $100 or more for it I'm not sure I'll find one.  Part of the "fun" of building this thing is trying to do it cheap.