Oil furnace burners

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Used cooking oil fuels foundry... Metalcaster: Go heavy on the oil when making those french fries. Chef: But sir, what about the fat and cholesterol? Metalcaster: Oh, my furnace doesn't care about that!

Even before I started melting metal with propane I dreamt about building a

burner that cleanly burned used or "waste oil." I got interested after seeing an old article from "Mother Earth News magazine" about a homemade heating stove that burned waste motor oil. A guy like me is big on recycling, Earth friendliness and saving money... So if I could build a burner that used FREE fuel, was clean burning and easy to use then I'd be set. Nov./5/2002 CAUTION! Working with or around burning and hot oil/grease can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken. Water should never be used to put out an oil or grease fire. Use dry sand or dirt. Because of the variations in materials and workmanship there are no guarantees on the information in/on this web site. This information is simply what I have been successful with in my own experiments. I will not assume responsibility for any injury, loss, or damage that may result from following the instructions, advice or plans on this web site. There are always dangers in foundry work and they have been pointed out whenever possible but it is not the purpose of this web site to, nor is it possible to mention all known or unknown dangers.

This is my first oil burner which is working but I won't call it a success. Controling and maintaining the flame isn't easy or practicle. This flame produced a little smoke and would leave a lot of soot in the furnace. And if you're wondering... no, this is not a Babington burner. There is a watering can in the background but it is NOT to put out any oil fire. Water is one of the WORST things to use when putting out oil fires (it spreads it and gets it to flare up more)! Cover the fire with dirt or sand. Believe it or not the picture above shows what I consider a "lazy flame". Look how

soft and "loopy" it is. And notice how quickly it starts arching upward. Plus there is a little smoke coming off the top. A soft flame may be good for hot water heaters but it's not for metalcasting. This one will leave soot all over the furnace and therefore needs a more forceful air blast to tap the real power of this flame! I collect used cooking oil by pouring it into a steel can straight from the frying pan. Every time some fish or chicken is fried I pour the oil into this can and store it. The bits of fish, french fry etc. settle to the bottom and I can pour off relatively clean oil. Any well used cooking oil will do. For those who demand the best for their foundry I suggest extra virgin olive oil imported from Italy or Greece.

Page contents copyright © 2002 by L. Oliver II www.BackyardMetalcasting.com For easy refueling and storage I pour the used oil into a container (in this case the empty olive oil bottle). The solid matter settled to the bottom forming a thick crust that stayed in the can so I didn't have to filter the WVO (waste vegetable oil). This oil is ready to be poured into the fuel tank. Chef: Oh my God! There's a grease fire in the kitchen! Do something! Metalcaster: Ok, hold on... I'll get some aluminum! Here's a quick look at the fuel tank. It's nothing more than a 1-gallon steel can that I attached a threaded fitting to the bottom of leading to the fuel line. The tank is hanging from a fixture made from a steel pipe. Gravity feeds the oil into the burner and valves regulate it.

www.BackyardMetalcasting.com There's just a little flame coming out now since I closed the valve down some. The Lab has expended a LARGE CHUNK of its department of energy research budget into the development of a new burner... And that $10.00 went a long way.

I melt metal with used cooking oil (sometimes even discarded engine oil)! As I was conducting oil combustion research in the Lab I received a packet of oil burner design information in the mail. It was sent by a mysterious unknown figure with no return address... ...Okay, not exactly. It was sent to me by Vincent Phelps. He wanted to share his oil burner info in hopes that it will 'cause clean burning homemade oil burner designs to evolve and become as popular as the propane burners did recently. The Lab's "department of energy and combustion" was happy to assist since it was already involved in this research field. CAUTION! Working with or around burning and hot oil/grease can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken. Water should never be used to put out an oil or grease fire. Use dry sand or dirt. Because of the variations in materials and workmanship there are no guarantees on the information in/on this web site. This information is simply what I have been successful with in my own experiments. I will not assume responsibility for any injury, loss, or damage that may result from following the instructions, advice or plans on this web site. There are always dangers in foundry work and they have been pointed out whenever possible but it is not the purpose of this web site to, nor is it possible to mention all known or unknown dangers.

No lazy flame here!

This burner was inspired by the info I received. Vincent sent me a few pages of a mail order info kit (advertising stuff, not construction plans!) from the 1940's about a burner called the "Ursutz" burner. It appeared to be a device that the designer built in his shop and sold through the mail. The advertisement info's short description was enough for me to build something based very roughly on the same principals. While it was far from a set of plans I was able to "wing it" and make something that works. The original burner was made from what looks like a large steel pipe with fittings and ports welded to it. I lacked the ideal material so decided to use sheet metal for the body. Being that square parts are easier to attach than round ones (at least for me) I made everything square and popriveted the parts together. This work was done with the crudest of sheet metal working tools (i.e. regular pliers, a wood board to bend and form the corners, blah...blah...blah...)

I collected the waste (used) motor oil from the lawn mower and a friend's motorcycle. I put about 1 quart into the burner's fuel tank to compare it to used cooking oil. It lasted about 15 or 20 minutes (equals about 1 U.S. gallon/hour). I prefer used cooking oil, also called WVO (waste vegetable oil) since it's potentially safer to burn. I hope to hook up with a restaurant to supply a few gallons/month. I could also buy kerosene or diesel fuel but that's not recycling... Metalcaster: I need to change my car's oil every 3000 miles. Better get to it! Metalcaster's friend: But didn't you change it yesterday? It's only been 11 miles! Metalcaster: Close enough! This rig is cheaply made and needs some improvements but I've successfully melted aluminum with it on two occasions prior to these photos. This thing seems to burn very cleanly. The only visible emissions were a little smoke which was actually unburnt oil vapor which was escaping through the cheaply put together burner body.

Here's a glimpse inside the hot combustion chamber. You can't really see it but the oil is entering the combustion chamber and being vaporized by the hot interior. It is then ignited into a violent vortex of heat and fire.

The way this burner system melts metal is simply by pushing the flame exit port up against the hole in the furnace which ordinarily would hold the propane burner (or air blast on a charcoal furnace). Here's the burner nestled up to the flowerpot crucible furnace. Since charcoal isn't being used as fuel there is more room for the crucible and I can actually get a full load of metal from my 4" diameter crucible with ease. The flame is very dark orange which I think means that there isn't enough oxygen in the mixture. This picture is from a seperate test I conducted using old mixed with NEW motor oil. New oil doesn't seem to burn very well at all (I was expecting that) and left

some soot on the furnace lid. I have no doubt that I could melt brass and bronze with this burner. And with a few improvements I could probably melt iron.

In 2003 the waste oil research budget was stepped up... ...I had an extra $5 in my pocket.

A lot of people are against waste oil as a fuel and assume it always burns with a smokey, dirty flame. This is only true if your burner design sucks! Therefore in 2003 I took it upon myself to begin perfecting homemade waste oil combustion technology.

I'm convinced that for anyone wanting to melt large batches of any metal at one time or melt iron (except for iron in a cupola), oil is by far the most economical fuel. I think waste oil burners could become the majority in hobby foundries in the future. The burners are destined to become more compact while the ease of use and efficiency continues to increase. And the fuel is FREE! -June/20/2005 CAUTION! Working with or around burning and hot oil/grease can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken. Water should never be used to put out an oil or grease fire. Use dry sand or dirt. Because of the variations in materials and workmanship there are no guarantees on the information in/on this web site. This information is simply what I have been successful with in my own experiments. I will not assume responsibility for any injury, loss, or damage that may result from following the instructions, advice or plans on this web site. There are always dangers in foundry work and they have been pointed out whenever possible but it is not the purpose of this web site to, nor is it possible to mention all known or unknown dangers.

This is the furnace unit back in 2003. THE STEAM is from a newly poured openface mold. This is a self contained unit. The furnace, burner assembly, and fuel tank are attached to a cartlike frame on wheels. The unit has experienced many modifications since this photo was taken, some small others large. The top goal for this unit is to be able to melt iron as easily as most backyard metalcasters can melt aluminum...

This is a photo of some of the early mockup and initial planning of the foundry unit.

Here I'm welding together the framework for the waste oil burner unit. The frame work is made up of steel water pipe and rebar. It was pretty fun to watch the thing start looking like the image I had in my mind.

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This is an experimental rotor that I cast from aluminum for the blower assembly. It has reverse inclined blades because I read that they are more efficient. I also cast a noninclined rotor for the blower. I didn't notice much difference in efficiency between the two. I built the blower for this foundry myself. I made a pattern for each half of the blower housing and cast them. The motor was purchased from Ebay and was originally meant for a home heating system oil burner. Here is a picture of the original "Hot Momma" Ursutz derived waste oil burner which I refer to as the G1 (generation 1) and next to it is an improved version (built about april or May 2003) called the G2 version. Notice that the G2 version is smaller and is one piece with no seperate lid.

Metalcaster's friend: Gosh, these french fries are really oily, I think they cooked them wrong... Metalcaster: I know what you mean, there's entirely too much potato in this oil!

This is my stockpile of used cooking oil. There are about 32 gallons here (each jug holds 5 1/3 gallons). At one time (after this photo was taken) I had over 70 gallons of used cooking oil in storage!. A small local "southern fried food" restuarant let me collect all of their used cooking oil (about 15-20 gallons/month). This is cheap vegetable oil, but if you demand the best for your foundry I recomend extra virgin olive oil from sicily. This is my fuel of choice since it's organic and there's no risk of toxins or heavy metals being in it as is potentially the case with used motor oil. Also, environmentalists call vegetable oil "carbon neutral" because burning it doesn't release any more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the original plants abosorbed from it.

Here is a small stockpile of used motor oil. The blue jugs are actually 5-gallon capacity kerosine jugs. I can store 15 gallons in the jugs and another 20 gallons in the steel drum next to them if I choose too. I'd love to obtain a 55 gallon drum. Then I can just pour all my oil into it and attach a manual pump to the top and pump out 1 gallon at a time into a small container for filling the fuel tank during furnace use. This is the fuel tank made from a barbecue grill sized (20lb) propane tank. A "dipstick" style fuel level guage was added for convenience even though I usually just look into the filler hole. This tank can hold 5.75 gallons of oil versus the original 3 gallons of propane that they usually contain (propane is stored in pressurized liquid form) For safety the propane tank was filled completely with water during all welding procedures to prevent fire or explosion from propane fumes.

Here's a picture from back in 2003 of the G4 burner in it's test stages without the furnace. The G4 design is very different from any previous versions. One of the biggest improvments is the "intake manifold" for improved air/oil mixing. The flame is about 2 feet long. No smoke, no soot just clean waste oil combustion. And according to this U.S. government EPA document the clean burning of waste oil for the recovery of useable heat is a form of recycling.

Can this burner explode? No, oil is far less flammable than gasoline or propane. It requires so much heat energy to ignite and maintain combustion that if too much oil were to enter the burner the flame would cool off and begin to extinguish, not explode!

Used cooking oil shows aluminum who the boss is! This website is sponsored in part by America's waste oil producers.

No matter how nice your propane burner is, propane is still very expensive is

many parts of the U.S.A. (and other parts of the world) It cost me $21.00 last time I got a refill on my barbecue sized tank in 2004 (up from $17.00 in 2003). This price gouging has caused many metalcasters to return to cheaper, simpler fuels like; wood, charcoal and even regular coal. But more interestingly it has helped spur an increase in various types of oil burners (kerosine, diesel, waste oil

etc.). Now oil in general is the "newest" backyard foundry technology. Used cooking or motor oil fuels the Lab's foundry for free and can melt any metal from lead to iron! -June/20/2005 CAUTION! Working with or around burning and hot oil/grease can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken. Water should never be used to put out an oil or grease fire. Use dry sand or dirt. Because of the variations in materials and workmanship there are no guarantees on the information in/on this web site. This information is simply what I have been successful with in my own experiments. I will not assume responsibility for any injury, loss, or damage that may result from following the instructions, advice or plans on this web site. There are always dangers in foundry work and they have been pointed out whenever possible but it is not the purpose of this web site to, nor is it possible to mention all known or unknown dangers. Here is a hefty heap of scrap aluminum that was given to me. All I had to do was take it away and confine it neatly until I had a chance to melt it. It took several hours of bending, folding and cutting to get it to fit "neatly" in several large garbage barrrels Which I stored out of site. Its almost entirely "extruded" aluminum... meaning that the objects were formed by rolling or stretching the metal etc. rather than casting it. There is a lot of aluminum house sideing, storm doors, lawn chair tubing, rain gutters etc. This alloy is excellent for decorative castings since it is very shiny after casting. But the drawback is that it shrinks a lot more than

alloys used for casting aluminum auto parts. In this photo I'm refilling the fuel tank from a jug of juicy golden-brown USED COOKING OIL. It smells like fried fish and chicken and contains MASSIVE heat energy ready to be unleashed by the burner. When empty the fuel tank can easily accept this entire jug. Since it's painted black it really holds in the sun's heat and warms the oil! During the summer I don't completely fill the tank since the oil heats up and expands on hot days. One summer day I lost about 1 pint of oil out the vent hole in the tank's cap from the oil expanding and flowing out! Fortunetly the oil is biodegradable and easy to clean with dishwashing soap. For awhile I was wondering how the F all that oil got on the ground. Then it occured to me after I opened the cap and felt how warm the oil was.

Here is a piece of window screen in a funnel to filter the oil going into the fuel tank. It is ESSENTIAL that a piece of screen be used to filter out the crud in the oil. This cooking oil contained coagulated chicken fat, crystalized salt and other crap. I use window screen as a filter but mesh sink strainers might work better since they fit the funnel well with their circular shape. One night, the oil would barely flow through the fuel line. I had just finished refilling the tank with used cooking oil from a restuarant, but I DID NOT filter the oil. To make a long story short... The fuel system was CLOGGED with minced garlic! I had to drain the fuel tank and flush it out with filtered oil. The amount of minced garlic that came out was ridiculous!

www.BackyardMetalcasting.com Here is the flame from the G2 burner. It produced soot in the beginning but burns cleanly after a few minutes. This picture was taken during daylight, but the flame is so bright the digital camera automatically adjusts causing everything around the flame to look

dark like this. Popular myth! Burning used cooking oil smells like doughnuts (or french fries, or etc...) NO! If the oil is burned cleanly there is no smell. I do not smell anything from my oil burner whether the fuel is used cooking oil or used motor oil! Here’s a look at a crucible of molten aluminum, the crucible is almost full and I'll be pouring some ingots with this. This is about 12 pounds of molten metal. Here I'm pouring some aluminum ingots. The ingot mold is actually an "open face" (no top) greensand mold. I made ingot patterns so I could cast the ingots to the exact shape and size I want. These ingots are 5 pounds each. The little ridge in the center of each ingot cavity creates a break point for the ingots so I can snap them in half for two 2.5 pound ingots for smaller melts. This steel crucible is 6" in diameter. It can hold about 14 pounds of aluminum when filled to the brim (dangerous) so to be safe I usually only melt 13.9 pounds

at a time. This is about 215 pounds worth of aluminum ingots. From a heap of scrap to this aluminum bullion. One of the ingots looks darker because it's from a 10 pound crucible load that I accidentally overheated so the ingot oxidized on the surface. Yes, you've gotta be careful with a bad boy like this waste oil burner. As the saying goes... "With great power comes great responsibility." The ingots are 5 pounds each +/- a few ounces and can be broken in half at the gap. The hammer is for size comparison. Cost of melting this with used cooking oil vs. propane? Don't make me laugh!

Metalcaster #1: The rising costs of a barrel of foreign crude oil is really making my propane foundry expensive! Metalcaster #2: Gosh, waste oil is $0.00 per barrel but I expect that cost to soon double! Here I had loaded a complete lawnmower engine in the furnace and let the heat melt it. The molten aluminum dripped out the burner hole in the furnace and into a steel pan. Instant ingots! Much easier than breaking the engine apart manually. I did this with three

lawnmower engines and some alloy wheel parts. This was about 11PM one night. It's easily possible to melt so much metal that you run out of molds for it. This is especially the case with the huge scrap piles I had to deal with. So I scraped a trench in the garden and poured metal straight in making these rough ingot logs. I later remelted the logs to create regular ingots. The short "log" toward the upper right corner is actually bronze left over from a decorative casting session. Some advice if you use this method is to make sure the "logs" are narrow enough to fit through the vent hole in the lid so you can easily slide them into the crucible from the vent hole and let the logs melt into it. With this new burner and metal capacity I've been experimenting with metalcasting for profit. In this photo there are two sizes of contoured grip sand rammers (for making sandmolds "big willy" style), and a small aluminum flask.

Waste oil burner design evolution* *For political correctness feel free to call it "intelligent design"

After 4 years these vintage photos have finally been...

DE-CLASSIFIED Over the past 4 years I've received probably over 200 e-mails asking for more details about the waste oil burners. Specifically the G4 and G5 designs. Well here it is so don't say I never gave you anything! - May/31/2007 Let's start at the beginning. This is the G1 (generation one) of this "box" type waste oil burner. It's body is a simple folded sheetmetal box. A paper and wood fire is started in the burner's chamber and the oil drizzles in. The air blower blasts the oil into droplets that ignite off the wood fire. By the time the wood burns away the burner is hot enough to be self sustaining off the oil. A basic ball valve controls the oil rate and the oil just drizzles in front of the air blast out the end of the fuel line. It's dead simple and crude, but was "state-ofthe-art" for me back in 2002.

Here is the sheetmetal shell for the G1 burner. This is a vintage photo from 2002 that I pulled from the vault. You can say that this is the great grandfather of the G5 design. To be politically correct you might instead call it the great grandmother if you choose. I have to admit that when I built this form I just knew that the burner would work. I mean how can't it, start a fire in a chamber feed it with flammable liquid and blow some fresh air into it to keep it burning and the flame blasting out the exit...

Here you can see that the refractory is simply rammed into the shell just like when making a furnace. The form used to create the chamber is 4" diameter.

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Here is an old rough diagram I found of the G1 burner.

Here is the empty sheetmetal shell for the G2 burner. It's ready for refractory.

This is the G2's shell nearly filled with refractory. Notice a cardboard form is used to leave the central chamber hollow (like building a furnace). The ports have cardboard tubes as well. They of course burn out when the burner is first fired. I had rebuilt the G2 burner more than once so I could experiment with inner chambers of different shapes to compare combustion characteristics. If you look at the side of the shell you may be able to tell that it is painted black already (except for the new flame port). This photo is of one of the rebuilds.

Here is the primitive intake "manifold" system for the G2 burner. Nothing more than some fittings. The 90° reducing elbow was to provide a crude venturi effect for the oil to enter into. Needless to say the performance was lacking so with the G4 I began making custom built intake manifolds.

Here is the rear of the G2. The G2 made the G1 obsolete because it is slightly smaller and it has steel ports for the blower to attach and the oil to enter. The port at the bottom was used for ignition. I'd load wood and paper into the burner chamber from here and ignite it to get the burner hot. The wood fire would then ignite the oil. One bad thing is that the void created by the port disturbed the air flow inside the burner messing up the flame. And it got hot. On top of that a vertically standing burner like the G1 and this G2 has a worse flaw. The flame is created at the bottom of the burner chamber, then it has to rise up and exit the burner chamber perpendicularly. I considered this orientation a contradiction to simplicity... ...Thus I designed the G4 burner. It is basically a G2 burner on it's side. The flame blows straight out of the burner in a straight line. It doesn't need to turn any corners or angles thusly allowing the heat to easily enter the furnace rather than be absorbed by the burner's refractory. Additionally I further improved the oil and air mixing by producing a special "intake manifold" So the oil is broken up more finely. Notice I didn't mention the G3 burner. It was simply a G2 with an integrated refractory intake manifold. It was crap.

Here is a diagram illustrating the differences between the burner orientation of the G2 and the G4 burners. Notice how easily the flame can exit the burner and enter the furnace. The faster the flame exits the burner the more heat there will be to melt the metal. Rather than it being wasted by being absorbed by the burner. Go to the; Previous page -- Next page.

Waste oil burner design evolution De-classified photos part 2

Here are some miscellaneus photos that you may consider interesting. Rumor has it that Lionel's Laboratory is like the government... No technology is declassified unless something better exists... - May/31/2007

This is the method I devised for mounting the motor and blower. I cast two half circle "clamps" to wrap around and grip the motor. The clamps are attached to a mounting post attached to the cart.

This mold is for the side of the blower where the air enters.

Here is a comparison between the blower patterns on the left and the castings. The blower rotor in this photo is actually rather ruff since I was overly gentle when ramming the mold causing the sand to contact the pattern poorly.

Here is the frame before it's all been painted and without the fuel tank and burner.

Tragically even the advanced G4 burner had a serious design flaw. The sheetmetal body did a poor job of supporting the refractory and allowed it to shift and crack. Flames burst forth and oil runeth out...

This is the welded steel shell for the G5 waste oil burner. The holes (cut with a hole saw) and the flat spots surrounding them are where the intake manifold and flame exit port are bolted on. I used diamond tread plate because that's just what I had available. But flat plate would be easier to work with.

A respectable waste oil flame

This is the G5 (Generation 5) burner and it's potentially iron melting flame! The poor quality of my furnace refractory prevented reliable iron melting but I did melt some. It has many improvements over the G4 burner. The most obvious improvement is that this burner has a welded steel body composed of steel diamond tread plate. It looks nice and I just happened to have a big piece of it. The rugged tread plate design can also be a metaphor for the merciless brute force of the massive thermal energy out put of this device. The overall problem with the "box burner" design such as this is that the flame is generated inside the burner box and therefore a lot of the heat is absorbed by the burner and doesn't contribute to

melting the metal. None-the-less back in 2005 this was the state-of-the-art in homemade waste oil burners here at Lionel's Laboratory. Now I think of it the same way most people think of black and white televisions...

Doesn't the flame have to be blue to be superior? Short Answer: Negative. The G5 burner's flame is the perfect color for this burner, yellowish white. Oil molecules have so much more carbon than propane has that the oxygen in the air can not burn it all at once. So the temperature of the excess carbon drops down to the yellow/orange color range and burns slower. The great quantity of this yellow burning carbon blocks out the blue areas of the flame which would otherwise be visible. Oil burners which use a coil to vaporize the oil can burn with a blue flame because the coil removes the excess carbon and turns the rest of the oil into a gaseous vapor (like propane). But just like propane there is less heat provided from this method because much of the carbon has been removed and left in the coil as soot and crud which must be cleaned out from time to time!

Long(er) answer:

Lionel's scientific discussion on the colors of flames and the reason for said colors. Many people believe that a flame must be blue in order to provide complete combustion. For the standards of backyard metalcasting, complete combustion can be had with a yellow flame and incomplete combustion can result with a blue flame! For our particular discussion the flame's color depends on how rapidly the carbon in the fuel is combined with oxygen and burned. Blue flames are called "non-luminous" because they put out very little light. Yellow flames however are very luminous putting out a lot of light. The real experts test for complete combustion not by flame color but by testing for the presence of carbon monoxide in the flame byproducts (exhaust). Complete combustion combines each of the carbon (C) and hydrogen (H) atoms in the fuel with sufficient oxygen (O2) molecules resulting in nothing but Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). If there is insufficient oxygen then the exhaust contains carbon monoxide (CO). Oil is MUCH more dense than gas (such as propane or natural gas) Oil molecules have many more carbon atoms in their molecules. Also the bonds between the molecules are stronger (as oil is used the heat weakens the bonds breaking them down which is partly why used oil is easier to burn than new oil). However as the oil burns the bonds between the carbon and hydrogen atoms must be broken for the oxygen to

combine with the carbon and hydrogen properly. This takes more time with oil than with gaseous fuels. Oil molecules have so much more carbon than propane has that the oxygen in the air can not combine with and burn it all at once. So the temperature of the excess carbon drops down to the yellow/orange color range and burns slower and further from the burner (sometimes as an orange flame that blasts out of the furnace vent if the furnace is too small). The great quantity of this yellow burning carbon blocks out the blue areas of the flame which would otherwise be visible. You can think of this orange flame as millions of tiny sparks all grouped together. That is in reality what it is! A spark is a burning piece of material, such as the sparks from charcoal are burning specs of charcoal. The orange flames blasting out of the furnace can be considered millions of tiny sparks created by the excess carbon atoms burning in the orange color rage! This is lost heat/fuel. If the furnace were larger then this carbon would burn within the furnace chamber and the heat would not be lost. If this excess carbon contacts a comparatively cold surface then it may cool completely and form soot (the excess carbon)! However given enough space (a large enough furnace chamber or out in the open) the carbon can combine with oxygen and burn completely (at least in theory since there are other variables to consider). Oil burners which use a coil to vaporize the oil can burn with a blue flame because the oil has been turned into a gaseous vapor (like propane). But just like propane there is less heat provided from this method because a lot of the carbon is left in the coil as soot and crud which must be cleaned out from time to time! And this carbon is therefore lost as a fuel source! Thusly, an oil burner with a true vaporizer assembly may burn with less heat than a propane burner! Additionally since the propane flame is blue (a higher temperature color) the flame is hotter than a yellow oil flame, but the larger oil flame and oil's higher heat density (British Thermal Unit - BTU content) makes up for it with a quality burner!

Unfortunately the manifold design was flawed. There seemed to be some air turbulence in the manifold which prevented the burner from running properly. The turbulence seemed to be some "back flow" of air. To solve the problem I removed the cap from the top of the manifold and replaced it with this swiveling lid which provided a gap for the excess air to "leak" out of. This greatly reduced the turbulence and let the burner run much better. Unfortunately again, The gap from the swiveling lid allowed oil droplets to splash out fairly often. So to "encapsulate" the sprayed droplets I used this elbow fitting and section of pipe. The turbulent air was still able to escape but the oil droplets were mostly caught. Most of the oil shown on the manifold was from it dripping down when the swiveling lid was in place. Often a lot of this oil would vaporize off the surface when the burner was hot. Even so this burner is now a part of the Lionel's Lab museum of retro technology. The small oil heating chamber became a problem when I didn't heat the oil. It tended to allow sludge to buildup. Therefore I had to pressurize the fuel tank to push the oil through. If I regularly used the oil heater this probably would not have been necessary.

Waste oil burner design evolution

De-classified photos part 3

This is the final page of photos taken out of the Lionel's Laboratory vault. I

have dozens of others. I always take a lot of photos that usually never make it onto the website. Maybe new "vintage, nostalgia, throwback" pages will be put together in the future. - May/31/2007

Metalcaster #1: So I see you're melting metal with used motor oil, how's that working out for you? Metalcaster #2: It's great but I only accept it from American cars to reduce my dependancy on foreign oil! Here is a bunch of used motor oil that was given to me by an auto mechanic who works out of his home. He found out that I have a waste oil burner and is more than happy to give me his used oil and avoid paying to dispose of it. The guy even delivers it to me! You know you’re a metalcasting "pimp" when people bring the fuel to you! Here is one days haul of WVO (waste vegetable oil) from a small local fried food joint. The restaurant is very small with a kitchen the size of a kitchen found in a typical house. But I ended up getting about 15 gallons of oil per month from them. The four jugs in the back are empty but good for later collections. At the time 15 gallons/month was an overload because the technology was still very crude and caused a lot of problems. But now I could burn 5 gallons a week easily if I want to do a lot of aluminum casting. Regularly casting brass, bronze or iron can easily double that figure. In the green bucket are my collection tools. The

most important of which is the manually cranked oil pump.

Here is a venturi that I cast in aluminum using a two piece wood pattern. This venturi is inserted into the air pipe of the intake manifold.

Here is the venturi installed in the intake manifold. Notice how the oil drip pipe enters into it. It is interesting to note that the intake manifold's air pipe on the G4 burner was made from 1-1/4" steel pipe and did not require a venturi. On the G5 burner manifold the air pipe was changed to a 2" steel pipe and the venturi is neccesary.

This photo is of making the fuel line connection. I use 1/4" copper tubing for the fuel line. And to ensure no oil leaks I use a double flared connection. I bought the double flaring tool from JC Whitney. It's actually just an extra piece that is used with the regular flaring tool.

Here's a look at the foundry furnace unit with the G5 newly inserted and the G4 nearby it on the ground.

Here is the G5 burner in use. This unit looks like a mass of pipes and bars but it's simpler than it may appear, the photo is just cluttered. I didn't have a proper blower mount at this stage. The blower is simply resting on a 4" X 4" block of wood. I didn't design a new blower mount because I knew how often I change the burner design. Of course this entire foundry unit will eventually be ditched for a completely re-designed one. This is my homemade miniature charcoal ignitor. It's just a small version of the store bought ones used to ignite charcoal for a barbecue. This one is for igniting one or two pieces of charcoal, which I use to ignite my oil burner. Crumpled newspaper is stuffed into the bottom and ignited. The charcoal sits on a wire grid just above the newspaper and is ignited by the direct flames. Here I'm actually using some hardwood charcoal left over from my mini-cupola fiasco.

Here is a bunch of wood pieces. It's hardwood, mainly oak and maple. I load the burner with 8 or so of these pieces and drop the burning charcoal in on top of it. I turn the blower on and the wood ignites almost instantly. A minute or two later the burner is hot and I open the oil line valve. A big flame bursts forth... It's an easy way to ignite the burner and the wood can be spilt into thin strips then cut to size very rapidly. I've even tried scrap lumber split and cut to size. Plywood scrap is somewhat decent but since most lumber is pine it burns away too quickly. Hardwood like the blocks shown is by far the best.

An evolutionary leap... After seeing the success of Colin Peck's waste oil burner I decided that the "box burner" design that I have been working on was the wrong way to go. There are too many problems to resolve with the style. So I discontinued that design and developed my own "injection" style burner which I call the G6-IS1 (Generation 6 Injection Style 1) and it gets busy!

The new Lio G6-IS1 A.K.A. "Lio's Hammer"

Here it is, the first true oil injection style burner that I've built. It's actually designed to be able to run on either oil alone, propane alone, or both simultaneously. Check it out!

CAUTION! Working with or around burning and hot oil/grease can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken. Water should never be used to put out an oil or grease fire. Use dry sand or dirt. Because of the variations in materials and workmanship there are no guarantees on the information in/on this web site. This information is simply what I have been successful with in my own experiments. I will not assume responsibility for any injury, loss, or damage that may result from following the instructions, advice or plans on this web site. There are always dangers in foundry work and they have been pointed out whenever possible but it is not the purpose of this web site to, nor is it possible to mention all known or unknown dangers.

Here is my first attempt at an "injection" type burner. Technically it's called the G6-IS1 which stands for "Generation 6 Injection Style 1" since it is my sixth generation of waste oil burner and the first of the injection type rather than the "box burner" like the G1-G5 designs. But since the name sounds more like a model of Lexus autos I've decided to give it a more "human" name. Therefore since it's shape is some what like a "T" or a "hammer shape" I decided to call it "Lio's hammer." That rolls off the tongue better than "Lio's T-shaped burner" and sounds more macho as well. For the protoype burner I made the fuel line out of this clear vinyl tubing. Here you can see the used motor oil flowing through the line. I've since switched to a slightly larger fuel line. So 2-3 gallons of oil per hour can flow through the line when melting iron. What does "Box burner" and "injection style" mean?? Those are two terms that I use to classsify the burners based on their method of igniting the oil. The "box burners" are the G1-G5 designs. They are basically metal boxes internally lined with refractory. The oil ignites and burns inside them and the resulting flames are blown into the furnace. Plenty of heat is produced but the burner itself absorbs a tremendous amount of it making the system less efficient. And the insides can get clogged with ash and oil residue like creosote. As if that weren't enough the refractory lining can melt and deform decreasing the effectiveness of the burner. Problems... The "injection style" burner is like a fuel injector in a car engine. The oil is sprayed (injected) directly into the furnace as small droplets that burn mostly in the furnace chamber. Almost all of the heat is generated in the furnace. The burner is much more efficient, lighter and can be built in about an hour from scraps. There's basically no maintanance. Nice...! In truth since the oil is merely blow into the furnace and it burns there, the oil burner is not really a burner but

rather an "oil injector."

Page contents copyright © 2007 by Lionel Oliver II - www.BackyardMetalcasting.com Here is a general overall view of the burner with what I call the "thermal transfer ring" on it. Basically it's a ring that fits over the burner's tip. The flame heats the tip and conducts the heat into the ring. At the top of the ring a pipe is cast within it and the oil moving through the pipe absorbs the heat. Waste heat put to good use. The front of the burner is resting on a brick because the base legs are un even. I retrofitted this burner to fit my current furnace framework which was designed for the previous burner designs. Here is another overall view of the burner. The propane line is installed in this photo. The reason the blower is attached to a "T" fitting is because when I first tested the burner the blower pressure blew the propane flame out, and I used propane to warm up the furnace before I opened the oil line. So a "shutter" was put on the open end of the "T" for air regulation. I've sense learned that this "T" fitting is not neccesary with furnace use.

Click photo for a larger view I'd like to mention that my work with injection style burners was inspired by the success of two waste oil burners. One was built by Colin Peck in England and can be seen at Colin's website. He probably casts more iron than any other individual in Europe and has published an interesting book on his design! The book is a valuable addition to a backyard metalcaster's library! The second burner is fueled by used automatic transmission fluid and was built by Cameron McKeown in Australia and can be seen at Cameron's website here and another here. Had these two burners not been built and put online I probably would not have begun design work on my own injection style burner and would still be working on solving problems with the "box burner"

designs. Here you can see the patterns for and the actual part I call the "thermal transfer ring." The pipe inside the casting is connected to the fuel lines and oil flows through it. The ring is installed on the flare pipe and as the flare pipe gets hot (it always does since it protrudes into the furnace) the heat is conducted into the ring and through the pipe to pre-heat the oil. So the oil is warmed by heat that would otherwise be lost. Here is a view of the thermal blah... blah... blah.. assembled and ready for the oil lines and installation on the flare pipe. Notice the reducing elbows, I made those because otherwise I'd probably have to go to a plumbing supply specialty store to find them and pay an excessive price. The ring is aluminum since it conducts heat better than most other metals. Notice how hot the flare pipe is, it's glowing orange. But notice also how the glowing stops at the thermal transfer ring. It is effectively absorbing the heat. Also notice the soot on the ring. While it's hot it's not hot enough to burn it off since oil absorbs the excess heat. This thermal transfer ring WORKED!! But unfortunetly it worked too well... The oil was heated so effectively that it vaporized and created pressure that pushed oil back up the fuel line preventing it from reaching the burner. So the flame was very erratic.

Click photo for larger view

When the thermal transfer ring stopped the oil flow it began to really heat up since no oil was passing through and taking the heat away. So it actually began to melt and fall off. I think this idea would be much better with larger fuel lines and a larger oil "reservoir" inside the ring so the oil doesn't heat so fast that it vaporizes. I'm not very motivated to solve the problems with the design because I've learned that preheating the oil is not neccesary. With these lessons I've built a new burner with a bigger fuel line, no flare pipe and no oil preheater. I call it "The Brute." You can check it out melting iron!

Details of "The Brute" waste oil burner Technically it's a homemade fuel injector not a burner

A lot of interest has been shown in this form of waste oil burner so I have

included more details about it. I classify these burners as "injectors" because all they really do is inject (spray) the oil into the furnace. The oil actually burns inside the furnace NOT in the "burner." Thusly it's just an injector. -Jan./21/2008 CAUTION! Working with or around burning and hot oil/grease can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken. Water should never be used to put out an oil or grease fire. Use dry sand or dirt. Because of the variations in materials and workmanship there are no guarantees on the information in/on this web site. This

information is simply what I have been successful with in my own experiments. I will not assume responsibility for any injury, loss, or damage that may result from following the instructions, advice or plans on this web site. There are always dangers in foundry work and they have been pointed out whenever possible but it is not the purpose of this web site to, nor is it possible to mention all known or unknown dangers. Here is a diagram of "The Brute." The burner is basically a steel tube into which air blows into. Oil enters near the tip and the air stream blows the oil into the furnace where it ignites. The furnace must be hot to ignite the oil. I preheat the furnace either by running it on propane for 5 minutes then switching to oil or burning some wood in the furnace to ignite the oil. The fuel hose has an inner diameter of about 5/16". It must be large enough for at least 2 gallons per hour which is about 1/2 to 3/4 cooking type measuring cups of oil per minute. Actually more is best so you can regulate it down to the desired flow with the valve. Preheating the oil is optional but will make it easier to burn.

(Click diagram for a larger view) The optional propane attachment is just a small piece of pipe that allows propane to flow into the 2" pipe. No special jets, or mig tips or anything like that. Once the propane is in the 2" pipe it mixes with the air from the blower. The air/propane mix ignites and burns in the furnace. To ignite the propane I put a wad of newspaper in the furnace and ignite it. Once it is well ablaze I turn on the blower and then open the propane valve. The propane usually ignites immediately. If the propane does not ignite, close the propane valve and let the blower ventilate the furnace of propane fumes and start over with a larger piece of paper (or paper with a few drops of oil on it) if necessary. Burning pieces of paper will be blown out of the furnace vent so use caution.

Here is a short piece of pipe that I'll demonstrate forming the taper on. The taper on the end of the burner acts as a venturi. I have however built a burner without a taper and it also sprayed the oil nicely so it might not be necessary. But the Brute uses one for insurance. The taper in the tip of the burner tube is made by first cutting four "V" shaped notches 1-3/4" long and 5/16" wide at the ends. These notches are 90 degrees from each other making them evenly spaced. An angle grinder with a cutting disk makes this task pretty easy but a hacksaw will work also. Bend the flaps between the notches downward evenly (I tap them down with a hammer) until the ends contact. The result is a tapered end. A weld bead along the seams will seal and strengthen everything. To see the burner melting iron visit this page.

Igniting the oil with a wood fire: The cheapest method of igniting the burner is by starting a fire in the furnace and letting that fire ignite the oil. I usually use this method because it allows me to burn away a lot of the scrap wood left from other projects. First ignite some big wads of paper in the furnace. Once the paper is burning add some strips of cardboard. Small sticks are thrown in after the cardboard is burning. When the sticks are thoroughly ignited

turn the blower on. The larger wood scraps can be added a couple at a time until they ignite. Here is the wood fire building itself up. Once well ablaze it will easily ignite the oil. When the wood is mostly coals but there is still a strong flame coming off it (usually after about two minutes) I turn the oil on. After several minutes the remainder of the wood will be burned away. The oil burns best at this time since there is more room for combustion. Using wood to ignite the oil will cause ash to accumulate in the furnace. This ash should be removed regularly since it absorbs the oil that gets sprayed into the furnace and slows it's burning. Slow burning oil produces lower temperature flames and smoke. No good... The easiest method to ignite the oil is to first run the burner with propane. "The Brute" as detailed in the diagram has a propane hookup point for easily attaching the hose. Air hose quick couplers make connections quick and easy. Running the furnace on propane for five minutes easily ignites the oil. The procedure I use is to wait five minutes with the propane burning. Then I open the oil line's valve. Once a large flame forms in the furnace and begins to blast out the vent hole I know the oil has reached the furnace and ignited. As soon as this occurs (It's usually within 5-10 seconds) I completely turn the propane off and the oil is adjusted as necessary.

Additional notes: I currently do not use any preheating with this burner. No preheating of the oil (but I may in the future). The "hot tank" shown on the brass casting page was removed after I scrapped the last box burner and started using injection burners. There's no air preheating either. In fact I don't ever plan to preheat the air because hot air is less dense and therefore contains less oxygen. This view is reinforced when you consider that cars and trucks that use turbochargers often include an item called an "intercooler" which cools the air blast from the turbocharger thereby providing additional horsepower. I've also noticed that the furnace runs better during cold winter days then it does during the hot summer. This seems to indicate that air density is more important than oil temperature. Preheating: I've run the furnace on days as cold as about 20 degrees F. and it ran perfectly. I merely increased the preheat time by using more scrap wood. A thorough preheat of the furnace is a must. The oil used on these cold days was always used motor oil which doesn't thicken nearly as much as vegetable oil (used cooking oil). I've had a jug of used cooking oil that literally turned to slush when I had it stored on the uninsulated outdoor steps leading to the basement. Oil flow rate: Another important thing to note is that there is a minimum amount of oil that needs to enter the furnace to sustain smokeless combustion. This seems to be the result of the burning process. Since liquid oil doesn't burn, but rather the oil vapors burn, if the oil flow doesn't keep up with the vaporization rate then there won't be enough heat to both vaporize the oil and then ignite the resulting vapors. I call the minimum quantity of oil needed to maintain clean combustion the "minimum clean combustion flow" or "M.C.C.F." This quantity changes based on furnace size and that change can be calculated mathematically by what I call "Lionel's oil equation" (Hey why not?!). Unfortunetly I haven't yet formulated the equation... As mentioned earlier in this page the "MCCF" for my 10" bore furnace is about 2 gallons per hour which breaks down to roughly 1/2 to

3/4 of cup per minute (cooking type measuring cup). I was not able to obtain this with 1/4" copper tubing. It would produce smoke and a lot of soot and often extinguish. So I upgraded to larger tubing with 5/16" inner diameter.

Miniature waste oil burner test #2 Running a small furnace on oil

The first test was considered a rousing success since it actually worked on the first attempt. The only problem was that too much oil was entering the furnace. After a few burner modifications the new results should be a lot closer to what I want! -- June/10/2008 CAUTION! Working with or around burning and hot oil/grease can be dangerous, especially when proper safety precautions are not taken. Water should never be used to put out an oil or grease fire. Use dry sand or dirt. Because of the variations in materials and workmanship there are no guarantees on the information in/on this web site. This information is simply what I have been successful with in my own experiments. I will not assume responsibility for any injury, loss, or damage that may result from following the instructions, advice or plans on this web site. There are always dangers in foundry work and they have been pointed out whenever possible but it is not the purpose of this web site to, nor is it possible to mention all known or unknown dangers. Here is a good look at the hot furnace interior. Look at the textbook swirl of the flame. It looked even more pronounced in person. This is a pure waste oil fueled flame. Notice the white vapors exiting the burner tube on the right side. This is from the oil that vaporized in the burner tube. The tube is very hot since it extends into the furnace. I've therefore designed it to be easily replaceable. Also notice the dark spot on the left

across from the burner. This is where the oil droplets splatter against the furnace wall before igniting. The soot that you see along the top of the furnace was from the prior experiment.

Click photo for a larger view Here's a look at the entire setup for reference. This is basically just like the first test run. This test took place about a month after the first test firing in September of 2007 so I was very excited to finally fire it up again and see how it turned out. In this photo the burner is already firing on waste oil. Note that the propane hose has been disconnected and is on the ground beside the furnace.

Here's a look at the oil flowing through the clear fuel line. Yes the photos are out of order...

Plenty o' heat here. Notice that the propane line is detached and laying on the ground in the lower left corner of the photo. Propane was only used to preheat the furnace. Propane is just an "opening act" for waste oil's concert. So for everyone who e-mailed me asking if the HobbyMelter™ can be converted to run on oil... The answer is an complete, absolute, thorough, definite and undisputed YES! In fact with an "oil retrofitting kit" such as this I'm willing to guess that almost any gas fired furnace can be converted to oil! Here's a shot of the flame on low. Notice the shear volume of oil vapors blowing out of the burner. And notice how hot the tip of the burner is. At temperatures like this the air inside the burner tube is so hot that much of the oil vaporizes as soon as it's injected. Remember that this furnace has an 8" diameter chamber. The crucible is made from 3" pipe so indeed a small furnace can run on waste oil. A clump of old brass is in the crucible. It melted easily.

Click photo for a larger view Here is the inside of the burner tube after the furnace run. Notice the buildup of soot and creosote. This is the result of the oil being injected into the back of the burner tube near the reducer coupling (refer to burner diagram on previous page). Some of the oil naturally splashes inside the tube and vaporizes inside it leaving

this creosote (and therefore some fuel energy) behind. The oil injection pipe will be lengthened to extend to the tip of the burner tube like it does in The Brute burner. That way the oil will spray completely out the tube. Go to oilburners part; 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11