Alrighty . . . .
See this bloke here - see link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAmHNp6fOUAI would like to have a play with something similar
His stove is philosophically similar to mine in that it has a grate, and has its main air flow from a secondary (ashpan) door below the grate, and has a flue set back and a bit indirect
My boss was away from the workshop for a couple of hours this morning so I knocked this up - see pics? It's mostly 5mm/8mm stuff and might take a lot to get hot initially? I guess we'll see?
The thinking isn't sophisticated in any way. We have pipe and flanges and stuff lying around so I cut a 70mm slice off a piece of 200mm pipe (5mm wall) and welded it onto a flange with a 90mm hole in the centre. Then I took a bit of 80mm NB pipe, drilled a couple dozen 13mm holes in it (a pure, unadulterated guess - I can always drill more or weld some up later), welded a cap on it out of a bit of 8mm plate, and welded that onto the aforementioned flange
I'll stick it out in the yard later with a half a litre of kerosene in it & give it a burn to see what it does. if it doesn't appear to do anything inherently dangerous then I'll clean the ash and charcoal out of the woodstove and stick it in there to see what happens . . .
In THEORY, if I plonk that on the grate, block the rest of the grate off nicely with some 3mm plate that's lying around and start a fire in it with some kerosene, open the ashpan door wide and close the firebox door tight, then maybe the draft will "draw" up through the 90mm hole in the bottom and, thence, through the holes in the little steel tower . . .
If that works OK I'll introduce a crude-but-controllable drip of oil . . .
If I'm lucky the wee tower will get hot enough to "vapourise" the oil that drips into the pan and the draft MIGHT be right enough to burn that vapour - to some extent or another . . . .
If that works - then I guess it's suck-it-and-see. if it doesn't work - then I guess it's plan B
From my POV it doesn't have to be very good to be a "success". If I have a winter's day pottering about the workshop, and could keep it warm & generate hot water by burning waste oil rather than firewood - well that would be good
Challenges around metering, finding a way to maintain a constant "oil pressure", safety , how much fiddling it might need IF it does work . . . .well, some of them might be fun?
Once again, there's a wealth of experience here on this site - I'd appreciate any comments or thoughts based on experience
There is a million videos on youtube of burners with a "pot", below a "diffuser, attached straight to a draft/flue, and they seem to generate a LOT of heat. I'm not sure one would fit in my woodstove . . . but if that's what it takes, then that might become plan B. But for the meantime - I'll have a go with this
Cheers