Exactly what I was going to say.
If the stove puts out any heat you are setting yourself up for a runaway.
I suggest putting the oil resivour far away, high as possible and make the tank as large as possible.
The head height of the oil will make a big difference so you want it high to make the oil level as small an influence as possible by getting it high to start with. Same with large tank. The level will be more stable and so will the output.
You do not want to be adjusting the thing every 5 Min because 5 min burning changes the oil level 10% or whatever.
The best way of all to do this is use some sort of float bowl like in a carburettor. By putting in the intermediate resivour/ control, the oil level would always be the same.
Don't underestimate how much this affects the burn nor the thinning of the oil through warming up. It makes a big difference
An easy way to get flow control would be to have the oil come from the main tank into a secondary lower one.
The lower resivour could be an old jam tin with an outlet on the bottom going to the burner and another half way up going to a catch tank. You have the oil slightly overflowing into the catch tank which means the oil going to the burner is always the same height.
As for air, make a pot burner style with holes that direct the air down to the oil pool and a mixing flue in the centre.
I have built these and they Kick out a huge amount of heat.
You'll have to pay attention to airflow within the tank you are using it in though.
The best way to get max heat radiation would be to take the flue from the burner to the top of the tank and have the flue out of the tank half way or more down. That will give the best surface area for the heat to radiate from.
I did this with one of my drum burners and the heat the thing radiated was insane. Putting the flue at the top just makes the heat go straight out without doing much. making it travel around and giving an area of hot air to impinge the tank walls and radiate from there will make a world of difference.
Also where you install the thing, make the flue run as far as you can before it exits the building if you are heating a shed or something. Ducting the flue straight out is illogical. It carrys so much heat with it you want to give the flue the longest path possible to give that heat up.
I'm going to put a burner in my shed and the heater will be at the back and the flue will exit the front and I'll have a fan blowing along it to take as much heat out as possible.
