I made wildbill's instant waste oil burner

[dudevato]

I started with a 1 lb coffee can and poured in about 1" of used motor oil, then threw in some fiberglass insulation that I rolled into a ball, about the size of a tennis ball.  I stired it around in the oil until it was saturated. This pretty much soaked up all the oil and things looked alot more like an oily paste than a ball of fiberglass in oil.  I poured about a table spoon of terpentien (sp) on top of the ball of fiberglass and lit it.  It lit well and smoked pretty good.  I found a length of chainlink fence post and held it down into the coffee can and pretty quickly the flame/smoke got a 'draft' going and began 'sucking' the flame up the tube.  This must have got things burning more effeciently because the smoke went away and there was a sound comming out of the tubing like a jet engine. Someone standing 30 feet away would have heard it faintly.  I help the tubing over the tincan a number of times, until the thing got too hot to hold.  This little bit of oil burned for 3 hours. I then cut a hole in the side of another coffee can about the size of a quarter.  This was done so the bottom of the hole was some 2" from the bottom of the can.  I poured in oil till it was ready to run out the hole, then added another ball of fiberglass. This time the tube was mounted to sheetmetal that covered the top of the cofee can.  I poured in a few drops of turpintine and lit it through the hole in the side of the can.  The stove Really heated up and the first 6" of the tube got red.  I'm sure the hole should have been larger, as there was quite a bit of smoke coming from the stack and the flame would 'puff' out the hole quite a bit.  The results are in:  Next time I mess with it I'll cut a larger hole for the air inlet and will use a larger container, like a 20 lb. freon bottle. I'm thinking I can put 2 quarts of oil in and give it the 'long term test.  My oxy/ace tanks are going to be refilled tomorrow so I can weld up the smoke stack 'right'  I'll get this all set up and lite it early on the weekend and see how long it burns.  This was a real fun project.  

   

[wooferhound]

Used motor oil huh . . .

It has been pointed out that Used Motor Oil is bad stuff to burn and you and your neighbors should'nt be inhaling that smoke !

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/12/13/231219/86

[Norm]

  Where I used to work we had a special treatment plant to burn out sodium containers (sodium smoke is bad! specks of it drift down and feels like a hundred needles on your skin)anyway the smoke went thru a spiral water curtain zero emissions out of the stack....(EPA approved)however then the water was allowed to evaporate in a settling pond then the dry waste was shipped off to another state(hey we don't want that stuff in our state...but you can have it!)

     You could do the same thing with burning waste oil too ...so I guess veggie oil would be better and easier.

   Same thing goes for nice smelling softener fragrances from a clothes dryer...(even if it smells good doesn't mean it's good for you...)

             ( :>) Norm.

[wildbill hickup]

I too, would be extreamly concerned with used motor oil. The toxins as mentioned in previous post are varied and can be very high. Also if you happen to get some with a high concentration of gasoline you may wind up with a fire that is uncontrolable. The WVO I use burns very slowly on it's own. I use wide open dampers and vents so it has plenty of ox for the burning process. This seems to burn fairly clean and produces a low steady heat (top of stove 200 - 250 F) Used motor oil on the other hand may have to be dampered down to control burning, increasing the emmisions. Low heat is what I had in mind. Also keep in mind that if you increase surface area of the single container and add a large quanity of oil you have a BIG potential for a runaway. While it (motor oil) does burn and it sounds like you have plenty I would urge you to use WVO as it doesn't contain all the extras that have been mentioned in these posts.

Closing thought:

Burning anything, mineral, vegitable, petrolium, wood, gas exe. is not a fix for the inviroment (know I didn't spell that right) and I will continue to experiment with wind, hydro, and solar power, and as soon as I can burning systems of any kind will be replaced.

 

[skravlinge]

Used motoroil is a fuel but very dangerous to the enviroment if you not spend some thousend dollars of recover the bad stuff. It is as like poison even if you transport it to an other state. Waste dumping is in a larger scale a big global problem, dictators profit. It seems you built a jet intsted of a stove. Fun but just for a small test.

If you trough the wast oil, you can a likely burn it, you spread the bad stuff around, and you do not have to send it to an other state, but it will be known in your  area.

[zmoz]

Come on now....used motor oil isn't THAT bad. What do you think all the recycling places do with their oil? They burn it. As long as you make an efficient burner that isn't pumping out clouds of black smoke it burns very cleanly. Commercially made, home waste oil burners are available. Do you think the EPA would allow this if it was that bad? I'm surprised the EPA allows us to fart without putting it through a filter...

[nothing to lose]

Yes, I agree with Zmod I think it was, waist oil burners are readily available to buy and burn waste engine oils. I also agree there is alot of toxics and other bad stuff in that old oil. It's a balance, burn the oil, get the heat, capture the bad stuff.

That being said, for burning Veggie oil from the deep fryer when we change it I have been making sawdust oils. Oiley sawdust, what ever. Anyway, take 1/4 - 1/2 coffee can of dry sawdust, add oil, stir well. Spoon over hot coals and burning wood, it burns hot and clean. Also for a pretty good neat fire starter pack it tightly into a toilet paper or paper towel tube, nice little wax log to start fires with. The oil does soak into the cardboard tubes and they should be stored in the coffee can or wrapped or something to prevent a big mess.

I would think engine oil could be used about the same way, mixed with saw dust, but you still have the toxins to worry about. Nice thing about the sawdust is it soaks up oil very nicely and holds it well. Not a big liquid mess if spilled, no leaks to worry about, helps controll the burn rate of the oil etc..

Using these sawdust/oil logs I been making has been working pretty good, I can generally start them with a piece of paper. The oil soaks into the tubes some so the tubes act as a wick on a candle. The burning tube and oil heats the sawdust and oil inside so when it is exposed to air it burns hot and clean. I've only been playing with these a little while, it has been really warm here this year compared to normal and I have not needed nearly as much heat. Except for 2 or 3 nights that hit around 5F I dought we got below 35F more than a Week total.

[hiker]

been using used motor oil for years--for starting a fire in my barrel stove..

even as a kid in my dads big 100 gallon double barrel stove..gets a nice fire going in a hurry...i tried putting oil in a coffee can years ago  to burn wast oil..

works better in a cake pan--still it never really put out that much heat !!

  just my 2 btu"s worth.................................

[zmoz]

By the way, dudevato, I would love to see pics of that once you get it welded up!

[nothing to lose]

I think to get the most heat out of engine oil it needs to be added to a really hot fire. Probably alot of good ways to do it, simplest is drip it onto red hot coals slowly when you have a good wood or coal fire going already. The sawdust/oil logs I been packing with veggie oil would probably work well also if tossed onto the hot coals. I like this idea best myself at the monent (subject to change) because no leaks, spills, messes, or anything to worry about. Also when the oil is burned out of the sawdust it burns to ash. I was going to build a drip system, but we haven't had enough cold to need that much heat so far, and I like the little tube logs. Don't have alot of waste oils rught now anyway, but plenty of free wood and sawdust.

[cdg378]

I used to work on Heavy trucks for a living and used oil was available by the 55 gallon drum if I wanted it, I decided to modify my wood stove a little with a cast iron pan and drip system.

I would mix the first batch of oil with gasoline to start it easily with a match, once lit and hot the waste oil would then burn when dripped into the pan.

I found it to be economical for me because it was free but the soot that built up insulated the heat from making it to the exterior of the stove where you really needed it.

In short the interior of the stove was nice and hot, but the soot gave the stove an R factor insulating the heat to the exterior for radient heating to the room.

I gave up on that quick!! This was about 20 years ago.

[takeabeatingkeeponeating]

According to that document: "It is the Department's experience that the vast majority of used oil generated in motor vehicles DOES meet specifications. When used oil exceed the specifications, it is likely because it is used oil other than automotive lubrication (drain oil) or hydraulic oil. Types of oil used that routinely do not meet specifications include metal working fluids and used oil that has been mixed with other waste."  

[Bill Kichman]

I also built a good working drip style waste oil stove.  But abandoned it almost immediately.  More maintenance than cutting firewood, and ten times more dangerous. Tthe fuel drip rate (via valve or otherwise) is CRITICAL and tends to vary on its own, as the copper fuel line wrapped around the exhaust stack gets hot, and even worse, as tiny bits of crud slowly stop up the valve. The only saving grace is that at lest the thing tends to drift towards shut down rather than taking off like a blow torch on crack, which is also possible if you walk away after making a valve setting change.  Did I mention cleaning?  Every day (or avoid it for a couple days for triple the mess) you ned to scrape out the filthy carbonaceous mass that quickly builds up and slowly suffocates the stove's output.  Did I mention these things can get out of control?  I had more than once stepped away after making a tiny valve setting change and returned to find the exhaust stack and upper third of the stove outer enclosure a cherry red color.  Not good.  Isn't worth losing a building or possible several lives over an experimental stove that is capable of putting out almost 2000F like a jet engine.  Save it for intermittent use melting metals. Here is a better solution!

I found a company that sells the major brands (Clean Burn, Saratoga, etc.) of waste oil furnace guns in rebuilt format with a 90 day warranty for only $600 to $700.  That's CHEAP folks.  These things normally cost about $2500 to $3500 WITHOUT THE BOILER OR FURNACE THEY BOLT TO.  Add $25 for a full one year warranty.

So I made a few calls, rounded up a perfectly good 10 year old New Yorker 320k BTU boiler without gun for $125 from a local HVAC contractor, bought a Saratoga brand burner (based on the popular Beckett burner and uses easily replacable off the shelf available parts) for $700 (no tax add shipping) and add circulator and other electrical parts already on hand, for well under a grand I have a waste oil burner that is inherently safe, dependable, clean burning, and hey, I can sleep at night knowing the thing won't burn down my house!  Just food for thought, hat works for some doesn't for others, but clean out one of those drip stoves a couple times and you will surely see things the way I do.  

A couple other notes I gleaned while setting this unit up.  Buy a boiler 2-3 times the size you need.  Not sure why, but I think it's because of the higher firing temp and burn rate of these burners.  Also standard boilers are not UL Listed for waste oil.  What that means, is all, from what the salesman told me, is that most standard boilers don't have real firebrick, but use K-wool in the burner area.  That is not as good for waste oil due to possible overheating from higher output, and the possibility that unburned waste oil residues can build up in the k-wool on the floor directly in front of the burner and possibly burn all at once at some future time, possibly causing a fire.  I don't see it happening, the thing burns very cleanly, but $10 worth of firebrick added to the boiler will take care of that.

Good luck, be safe.

[Bill Kichman]

Correction to the previous post, I meant Shenandoah brand burner, not Saratoga.  Good luck, stay warm.