Adventures with WVO, etc Part II

[Bucky]

I left off the last post with a successful running heater that required a lot of "Hands On" to keep running.  We were asking for a lot of heat and so we kept dumping more fuel.  In the last picture of the Ist post I posed with the stove during a good burn.  As you can see it was cherry red and I was still in 3 layers of clothes, gloves and a hat.  As we dumped more fuel in, we would hit a maximum combustion potential for the available air and the heater would begin to huff and puff and belch smoke.  This was usually followed up by the fuel overflowing out of the front door in a stiff black ooze.  In an effort to increase the available air we supercharged the stove by taking the blower fan out of a propane space heater and mounting it in the air intake.  Man did that make some heat!  It came with a drawback though.  Due to the cold temperature of the air in the building the combustion temp would gradually go down and then out, this took about 1 to 2 hours.  During all this, we would end up with burning fuel soup in the bottom of the heater that eventually pooled and overflowed (this was a recurring problem with the fuel soup and the temperature.)  We ditched the original fry pan design burner and after reading about Roger Sanders but not wanting to buy the unit we found a chimney cap from 4 inch flue and turned it upside down on the pedestal and filled it up.  This worked very well but the stamped steel had no thermal mass and would cool down, bubble up a black crust around the rim and then go out.  At this point we shelled out the money for the fancy aluminum Sanders unit and put it in.  One hour is all that it lasted.  The fuel overflowed the side and melted half of the aluminum into a puddle at the bottom of the heater.  So much for that idea.  In a moment of inspiration later that week I decided to stop fighting the pooling fuel in the bottom and embrace it.  I lifted the heater onto some cement blocks and directed the sidewalk torch we had been using to light the stove through a pipe elbow and blasted the bottom the heater.  The bottom of all these heaters is a pressure dome and thusly was just the inverse of the sanders idea and capable of dealing with a lot more fuel.  I left the burner pedestal in place inside the heater to act as a splatter plate.  This worked awesome.   We could open the valve full bore (1/2" line) and actually change the temperature in the building!  As the photo shows we were getting the stove REALLY HOT.  It was uncomfortable to be within 6 feet of it but it was definitely controllable with the valves.  With different site conditions I bet you could heat a pretty large space with this version of the MEN heater.      I think I finally came to a proof of concept with the new design and I would love figure out how many BTU's I was creating.  Look at the pictures and feel free to ask questions or tell me I was crazy. 

[Russ]

Yea Bucky, you are crazy!!  Ha!  Looks like you were working with some serious BTU's, wow!  With that setup it looks like you are going to be burning lots of oil, and staying nice and warm too!  Good luck with the set up and let us know how it continues to work.

[stubborn66]

Hi, I know this post is old but I dont see alot happening in these forums so I thought I might get some discussion going using the older post.

I have a drip system that is controlled by a pump.  This will be my first year using this heater although I used to work in the shop that originally bought it new 25 years ago.

I have a friend who makes biodiesel and has glycerin as a by product.  Is there anyone who has had luck with burning glycerin in a mix? 

The guy who was doing it in this original post seemed to have a bit of trouble but I am wondering if my pump will help me regulate the fow better than jst a drip with a valve

Thanks

[Cmdr. Ron]

Old doesn't mean bad.

Reading the malady of melt-down during R&D leaves me curious.  If I remember correctly, aluminum melts around 800 F.
 - That alone makes it completely unsuitable for a burner plate.
What did Bucky finally use that would stand the heat produced?

I'm trying to dodge cutting a bigger hole (requires a new door, sealing, etc.) to use a cast iron Dutch oven.
 Because this is going into my house, cleanliness is mandatory.
  Fuel & fire must be properly contained with no black oozing onto the hearth.

When I was a kid in the cold & snowy mountains (1/2 a century ago), many folk used oil stoves with the fire contained & little or no chimney smoke visible.  Warmed to a usable constant viscosity, filtered waste oil should (should, I say) exhibit flow, burn, and heat production characteristics similar to #2 stove oil.

Rant off.  Fire at will.