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Messages - cseyfert

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Waste Motor Oil / Re: 3/4" needle valve
« on: June 18, 2021, 07:58:07 PM »
Hi Mike,

That one you linked is for hydraulic service and has a one-way check valve in it.  Gravity won't open the check, so unless you can remove the check valve I doubt it will work.

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Waste Motor Oil / Re: My new "Roger Sanders" style waste oil burner
« on: May 26, 2021, 07:33:42 PM »
Hi mikenash,

Hadn't seen your versions, but I did see some variants of the "Ozzirt" burner on YouTube before I built mine.  I think you're the first I've seen who just couples it into a woodstove, that's smart.  One needs a lot of surface area to radiate heat, but most builders just make a burner and don't think about heat transfer . . . Let me know how your testing goes, I'd be interested in your results after you crank a few hundred gallons or so through it.

Now that the warm weather has returned my burner's already done for the season, but I am looking forward to fixing the fuel delivery so I can burn 100% oil.  It sure burns easy with a little diesel mixed in, but if I can get the fuel for free I'd prefer to burn it free, rather than mixing money into it :)

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Waste Motor Oil / My new "Roger Sanders" style waste oil burner
« on: April 21, 2021, 12:09:42 AM »
Hi all,

New member/lurker here, one of these days I intend on starting a Listeroid project . . . soon, very soon . . . anyways, I visited the other day and saw the recent-ish postings on waste oil burners.  As I just finished my own waste oil burner, I thought I'd share.

I initially was looking at a Babington style burner but after tinkering with a prototype I determined that it was too finicky for easy use with waste oil, and went looking for something simpler.  I found the "Roger Sanders" style oil heater and immediately decided to build one.  The Sanders heater is based on an old Mother Earth News design with improvements of his own.  It uses a 40-gal gas-fired water heater tank (or similar), is a drip-fed style burner, and requires NO electricity.  You can download the instructions here (a bit wordy, but comprehensive):

https://www.slideshare.net/QZ2/e2g30

I resisted being an "engineer" and making unwarranted improvements.  I made my version exactly as the instructions laid out, and it worked the first time.  I mention this because I've seen people building this style burner in other forums and I was surprised at those who tried building one but couldn't follow directions, and did stuff that Sanders explicitly said NOT to do - with predictably poor results.  So, I built first, and might modify later.  First fire was in March 2021, and so far I've burned about 20 - 30 gallons without issue, as spring is here and I only use it when out in the pole shed.

My fuel feed is a temporary lashup so I could get it working for the last few months of winter.  It's just a 6-gal poly tank lashed to the rafters of the shed with a bulkhead fitting in the bottom.  A 1/4" copper line goes to a sight-glass drip valve purchased from McMaster.    With such a small head pressure (about 6' = 2.5 psi) I did find that the fuel line was too small to run the burner to full heat on straight WMO, but the quick work-around was mixing in a bit of kerosene to lower the viscosity.  For next season I will either increase the fuel line diameter (possibly the drip valve size as well) or convert from gravity-feed to a low-pressure feed tank.

Side safety note - the "Burner" pic shows it on first fire day, and yes, the table of junk behind the burner was too close, but the goal was to fire first and move the table in heated comfort.  There is now 4' of clear space all around the burner.  Roof flashing was added later too ;)

Chimney is 6" pipe.  A ~2' angled section of black stovepipe comes out of the burner tank and joins to 4' of vertical black pipe, followed by 6' of Class A pipe through the roof.  The chimney was nearly all of the cost of the build, probably less than $75 in the burner itself but the chimney was ~$400.  I price-shopped extensively, by the way, and for those in the US the cheapest Class A can be found at Menards.


Sanders describes pros and cons of his design quite well, but a few of my own observations/key points:

Cons:
 - Manual operation only, not suited for automation/unattended use
 - A bit messy, lays down soot inside burner/flue, requiring periodic cleaning
 - Can't go from a cold burner to full output quickly, requires ~30 minutes to work up to full output

Pros:
 - SIMPLE and CHEAP
 - No electricity
 - Burns fairly clean, exhaust has a bit of soot that dissipates within 5 - 10 feet of chimney.  Looks like a typical Listeroid exhaust  :P
 - Stable burn - the fuel is not located by the burner so viscosity doesn't change with temp.  Once it's up to desired output, it is very nearly set-and-forget.
 - Very wide burn range, burns just fine from a few drips/second up to enough to make the bottom ~18" of the tank glow red.

I am quite pleased with the results and if anyone's looking for a simple WMO burner I don't think you can get better than this one.

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