Oil pump?

[9 LIVES]

I've recently built a babington burner from plans I looked at online. I have a 15 gallon oil tank 3 feet above my burner which is located inside a 55 gallon drum that is laying on its side.

The problem I've had is that I first tried siphon feeding the oil into the burner since the oil tank is above the burner by 3 feet. That didn't work....

I have copper tubing going form the fuel tank to the burner. It does a series of 3-4 loops around my burner tube to help keep the oil coming in heated. I think that is where I was loosing feed pressure when I was gravity feeding.

Next I dropped some $$ on Murphy Machines MP-1 3 GPH waste oil furnace pump. I thoughts that would solve the issue because it flows the rate that I need. Well that does not seem to fit my need seing that its a piston pump I get inconsistant pressure. Each time the pump is on a return stroke my flame goes out. So my fire is ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF......

Any suggestions?

[doug]

9Lives,

Welcome to the forum. Is your tank vented, what size is your copper tubing, is there any kinks in your tubing, whats the viscosity of your oil?

doug

[9 LIVES]

It's 1/4" copper tubing. No kinks....although it coils around the burner tube to be used as a pre-heater.

The fuel tank is not vented but the heater unit it self is vented.  Im wondering if the piston pump isn't the wrong  kind of pump? I know I need more of a constant flow pump but couldn't find anything that would pump 2-3 gph. 

[9 LIVES]

Most of the oil is 15W40. I have roughly 2K gallons of it.

[doug]

 if your tank isn't vented it's like sucking milk up a straw and pinching the top of the straw. the milk won't run out the bottom of the straw till you give it some air from the top.

 what size copper line did they run on the burner you found on line?

doug

[9 LIVES]

Ok so I took the piston pump off, got rid of the 3 coils of 1/4 copper tubing that go around the burner for pre heating. AND IT WORKS now.....for tuning I've got to figure something out.

Im running 60PSI air and it smokes like a mad man.

Mine is in a 55 gallon drum on its side

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Waste-Oil-Heater-plans-Babington-no-drip-burner-/120832549267?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c222e6193

Looks VERY much like the one in this photo. If I plug off the 2" bung on the drum that you usually would access the contents through it chokes out the fire. If I leave it open I have a solid stream of grey/white smoke billowing out of it. Along with the 6" stack on the top is billowing smoke out of it.

I understand the flame needs oxygen to an extent to feed the fire. How is everyone feeding the fire? Do you have a fan blowing into the combustion area some how?

[doug]

have you tried looking on youtube? "babington burner"

[9 LIVES]

I watched every video I came across on youtube before I built mine. None of them give any tips on how to tune them.

Most brag about how it is "smokeless" while operating. Mine looks like a coal fired train (except white smoke).

[doug]

 i don't think there is anybody on this site with experience with babingtons. maybe you need to ask one of the babington youtubers some questions.

 have you tried to fire your burner outside the barrel?

 i found this site: http://www.aipengineering.com/babington/Babington_Oil_Burner_HOWTO.html#Compressed_AirPressurized_Gas
 there's more detailed information there than i found on other sites.

 can you describe how you are trying to fire and adjust your burner?

[tightwad nik]

hi there you dont have enough air in the combustion chamber, although using a babington does put air in the combustion chamber thats really only the first stage of combustionyou need extra air to have complete combustion, id get a gun type oil fired boiler arrangement, take everything off it, leaving only the fan and oil pump(the oil pump will give you a constant flow of oil you require with little if any modification) and use the fan to add extra air in, easypeasy,id be happy to help you if you need any help, but you sound like your 90% there

[UnHippy]

i ran a babington burner all last winter and used a piston type drum pump that runs on compressed air with an air pressure regulator to control that pump output.

i ran the pump output into a header tank above my burner head to smooth out the surges of oil delivery...my header tank had a overflow that tied into the main oil return to tank

solved all the oil surge problems.

heres my set up http://youtu.be/kh8E_dAM3Yo

http://youtu.be/1KkqxlXdjJQ

[Russ]

Unhippy, do you have any more information or links to the air operated pump?

That sounds interesting...

[UnHippy]

its this type of thing http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200323328_200323328 altho my one is a "love you long-time" special made in the peoples republic of bok choy.

i had to seal pretty much every thread on my one with thread tape altho at the price i paid for it i can't really complain.

to silence the exhaust air i ran a piece of garden hose from the exhaust-port down into a 5 gallon oil container filled with water