This is a variation on the MEN (Mother Earth News) waste oil stove from 1980. Many of you may have seen that article and the subsequsent postings from that guy in Canada. I gotta tell you, I tried the original design, and the Canadians mods, and what I ended up with is far superior to any of them. Attached is a quick sketch. Let me know if you need more detail. The burner assembly I made from two stainless steel electric motor housings (cans) with the guts (windings) removed. Gotta be stainless, or you will be making a few of these assemblies. Not that they are hard, just time consuming. One is just a larger frame size than the other to obtain the "plenum" around the inside "can" which I call the burner. There are a series of 1/4" holes drilled around the inside of the inner can, approximately 16 of them, and then a few at the bottom in about the location shown on the sketch. Drill these before you weld the cans to the bottom plate. Then fabricate a ring to enclose the top of the two cans, from inside to outside can. Weld the 1 1/2" pipe to the outside can after cutting the appropriate size hole for the exhause pipe. I made the pipe leading into the tank out of a size which slips over the one used on the burner assembly. No air-tight necessary here as when it's burning, it is a positive pressure so you don;t have to worry about fumes coming back out the blower.
Since it slip fits into the pipe leading in from the blower,, it is extremely easy to remove, chip out the residue left from the burning oil (and you WILL have residue) and slip it back in.
I used an adjustable orfice (kind of like a gate valve) for the valve instead of a needle valve, it keeps the clogging to a minimum. also, it is placed AFTER the pre-heated oil....much easier to adjust the heated oil rather than the sludge that is going into the pre-heater coil made from 3/8" copper line that is wrapped around the chimney pipe.
Lets see... what other tips can i give you... oh yah....make sure you have some speed adjust capability to the blower. The one that was out of the car works just fine for me. I usually throw a piece of oil soaked paper towell (not dripping wet) in the burner assembly, turn on the drip feed to a good rate, light the paper on fire, and the blower on low speed.
As soon as its going at a good clip, turn the blower on medium speed and katie bar the door. The outside of my stove gets up over 550 degrees F, and keeps my 120 sq ft shop toasty by having the gate valve open only a half turn. I can make the outside of the heater glow red, but it will chase me out of the shop. Now lately it's been pretty warm here in Arkansas, but today it dipped down pretty far. It'll be a good test of the critter here tonight. I still don't trust it going all night without attendance, because I am still pondering filterint the oil to prevent clogging of the supply line. I don't want to come into the shop in the morning with a puddle of oil on the floor. although, the saving grace here is that if the fire does go out... the flow rate slows severly.
thats about it for now...unless anyone has any more questions...I think I already mentioned that my local junk yard is missing a few GM blower motors (heh heh)
rj
robotmakr@aol.com