Converting a fuel oil furnace to burn waste oil? Possible?

[mccutter]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

So I ended up grabbing my little 1 gallon shop vac, and vacuumed the oil up from the floor...
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Be careful using shop vacs for flammables. The motors can spark and cause a fire!

[allessence]

centrifuges with heaters can too if there is ample gasoline in the oil.

I test every new batch of unknown oil if I smell gasoline at all..

The vapors from the gasoline come out the vents for water at the top of the centrifuge dump line.. I collect these in a peanut container and then put a match to the vapors..

Gasoline flares up like no tomorrow.. I do this right away when I first turn it on..

If the vapors flare.. I shut off the heater and continue as normal.

No flare I leave the heater on to get the cleaniest oil possible.

[allessence]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

Walked into the shop this morning to find it colder inside than outside

I had a nice story on my phone when I hit the back arrow by mistake.. argh..


So, on your story about heat out..

I walked into the school last night to find the burner had run exactly 1hr in a 24hr time frame.

So still 50F in the school with 24hrs with temps between 20 and 30F.. Not bad.. .

Becaue there are red lights for the heater I know if the light is on and burner not running that there is a problem.

yup, hard lockout. which either means no fuel, no air, or both..

I then looked at the feeder tank and the bubble referenced earlier was good. So knew I had good oil feed with no vacuum leak.

I then decided since it had been a year since the burner was cleaned that I'd take it apart and clean it.

The heater in this furnace is exposed to oil so pulled it and steel wooled it to remove the crusty and then polished it with metal polish.. Its' stainless steel and find the crude comes off better with it polished..

I then inspected the nozzle and it had blobs in it so took that apart and sprayed it with a little brake clean and blew it out.

then I ran a cleaning jag/brush thru the heater tube port and removed the crusty in there and blew that out.

since the furnace with down and cold I decided to install the new liner I had purchased a few weeks back because the original liner was missing in a few places and the sheet metal burn chamber is pretty thin metal..


The liner I purchased was Lynn easy liner in a 13" size even though the chamber is 10.5" . I wanted a slightly thicker liner..

the burner arrangement for this furnace was designed to use a 60 degree hollow nozzle which would burn in free air of the chamber..

the burner also comes in at a 90 to the chamber which means the flame with the used oil is hitting the back wall.

Not a great design for a used oil burner chamber.. The burn pattern can not be changed to burn shallow enough to keep it off the back wall..

The new replacement liner is a 2300F so that should help some.

The last liner was melting in places.

I want to build my own multi fuel furnace but that is in the future.

I will have to change the design of this furnace so the burner sits at the end and in line of the burn chamber instead of 90 to it.

this means having to redesign the the inside end of the chamber but also the air ducting.., they have the cold air being pulled in from on top thru the heat exchanger then thru the blower around the firebox up to the duct work.

The burner can't be in that vacuum position so will need to put it in it's own shroud to ambient air and or make the burn chamber longer which would be ok with me.

I think having a redesigned chamber would help with maintenance as well..

The nozzle and burn retention head get a lot of extra heat with reflection when the burner shuts off.

Here is a photo of the liner installed.. (not sure happy about the seams)

and the burner running after cleaning and reinstall with the new liner..

The CAD sensor is showing as low as 250ohms and between 250-400ohms while running..

about 1psi of oil pressure..

[toprecycler]

Thanks for the feedback. You have me thinking about building a multiple fuel stove now.

My comment about it warmer outside than inside wasn’t because my heater stopped. I only run it when I am in the shop working. Which is only a couple hours in the evening after day job, or weekends.

It had warmed up outside enough that the shop hadn’t caught up yet, is what I meant.

Someday, I want to run the natural gas line back to the shop, so that way I can keep a heater going 24-7 and hopefully frugally to keep shop maybe around 40 degrees, and then kick the used oil furnace up to bring it to 60 degrees working temp.

But those thoughts might change as to when I actually do that. My shop (heated part) is just slightly smaller than square footage I am heating in my house trailer/ small wood shop shed with natural gas now, and my biggest gas bill is about $220 a month, so if that doubled to heat the hobby work shop, I might be able to do enough side jobs to warrant heating shop up more with natural gas and less hassles with used oil/ wood heat.


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[arizonian]

Originally Posted by allessence

I had a nice story on my phone when I hit the back arrow by mistake.. argh..


So, on your story about heat out...

...

You have a history list on your phone. My Galaxy has 3 dots at the upper right, a menu will pop up and one of the selections is "History".

You're welcome...

[allessence]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

Thanks for the feedback. You have me thinking about building a multiple fuel stove now.

My comment about it warmer outside than inside wasn’t because my heater stopped. I only run it when I am in the shop working. Which is only a couple hours in the evening after day job, or weekends.

It had warmed up outside enough that the shop hadn’t caught up yet, is what I meant.

Someday, I want to run the natural gas line back to the shop, so that way I can keep a heater going 24-7 and hopefully frugally to keep shop maybe around 40 degrees, and then kick the used oil furnace up to bring it to 60 degrees working temp.

But those thoughts might change as to when I actually do that. My shop (heated part) is just slightly smaller than square footage I am heating in my house trailer/ small wood shop shed with natural gas now, and my biggest gas bill is about $220 a month, so if that doubled to heat the hobby work shop, I might be able to do enough side jobs to warrant heating shop up more with natural gas and less hassles with used oil/ wood heat.

Sounds like a great plan.. I have the infra red heater in the school too..

Just don't have it hooked up yet. I'm looking forwards to that as well.. but I'm hoping I won't be a huge propane user for heating..

If the school takes off and I can do a few classes a month and it pays for itself upkeep then so be it..

But for the mean time, frugal is good.. And with all things I'll probably tool up for all the used oil bits and then die.. LOL.. Stranger things have happened..

But for the mean time.. I love going out to the shop and it's that 60-65F even when it's 13F out..

Things can only get better from here as more of the stuff I've been collecting for 30 years gets put into place.

Last time I checked propane it was 3.70 gallon

Originally Posted by arizonian

You have a history list on your phone. My Galaxy has 3 dots at the upper right, a menu will pop up and one of the selections is "History".

You're welcome...

yes, history comes up.. But not the response I started writing and when I accidently hit the back arrow at the bottom of the screen it closes the browser..

Am I wrong? I've tried it a few times and none of the typed response is saved.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong.

[arizonian]

I don't think you're wrong and I did not realize you were in the middle of writing a response. Ce le vie!

[greywynd]

Having heat in a building, even if it’s a lower temp ‘base’ heat is great. Most of us have big hunks of cast iron and steel in our shops in various pieces of equipment, and keeping that stuff above freezing to avoid it sweating, rusting etc is really nice.

I think any of us that had unheated spaces in the past can really appreciate that heat, and more so as we all get older.

I’m enjoying watching you develop this system of yours. I’ve known a lot of people that had waste oil furnaces, and had a lot of grief and upkeep with them. Seeing how you have put a little extra oil cleaning into the mix, and have simplified your burner maintenance is an interesting piece of knowledge.


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[allessence]

Originally Posted by arizonian

I don't think you're wrong and I did not realize you were in the middle of writing a response. Ce le vie!

Bummer.. I thought you were onto something.. I don't know why they would design a phone to delete the writing with the back arrow..

it's at the bottom of the screen and so easy to hit when typing.

Originally Posted by greywynd

Having heat in a building, even if it’s a lower temp ‘base’ heat is great. Most of us have big hunks of cast iron and steel in our shops in various pieces of equipment, and keeping that stuff above freezing to avoid it sweating, rusting etc is really nice.

I think any of us that had unheated spaces in the past can really appreciate that heat, and more so as we all get older.

I’m enjoying watching you develop this system of yours. I’ve known a lot of people that had waste oil furnaces, and had a lot of grief and upkeep with them. Seeing how you have put a little extra oil cleaning into the mix, and have simplified your burner maintenance is an interesting piece of knowledge.

Amen on the heat.. Aging is not the friend I was told it was in my adolescents.

Yesteday I spent 3hrs out in the 20F replacing a rear wheel bearing on my 01 Audi A4 Avant.. The car lift is still out in front of the original shop..

No sun.. just cold.. Had to come in and put my insulated coveralls on and wash my hands in the warm water...

Then went out to finish it..

its things like this that were normal for many years.. Head gaskets in February, transmissions, axles,. etc, etc.. In the snow and cold.

I still work outside everyday for 3/4 of the day but having that warm space to go into does make a difference.. Mental is huge..


Thanks.. I think it's great when I search for something and SFT comes up with a thread.. Thats how I found this thread originally..


I'm thrilled with how the oil cleaning stuff and storage (pressure/vacuum vessel) has come about.. And this is because of SFT and you guys..


If and when I build my own furnace, this will address the burn chamber issue I have now.. With this said.. I will be able to put in a number 2 fuel oil burner back into it's home spot when I move the used oil burner to the new position. More than likely not, but was thinking it would be kinda neat..


I want to build a copy of this with a few extra things.. I'll use diamond plate for the the firebox and fins.. those little diamonds will help with air turbulation.

I'll also design it for a air draw down like the furnace has now.. Instead of mounted on the side.

So here is the outside inside temp..

The hours the furnace actually burned oil, and the level in the oil feeder tank.

Forget the lines on the side... Those were put in based on 25gallons as reference but the true 5gal line is further down.. I need to remake the level gauge but want to do it right..


I'll fill up a 5gallon pail and dump that in and measure the difference..

Last 5 gallon line I did was with the oil going thru the centrifuge so there is about a quart that is held in there..

[arizonian]

...Thanks.. I think it's great when I search for something and SFT comes up with a thread.. Thats how I found this thread originally...

Gotta hand it to ya, Jen. You took a one page 18 yo thread and added another ten pages.