Going waste oil at last, with a kwiky burner.

So I did a video on how the kwiky all fuel burner works. It kind of goes with the project I thought.

Let me know what you guys think.
Patrick
P.S I have actually finished the kwiky all fuel burner, and burned oil with it, now I am just adjusting it.

 

So how close exactly? I have mine within 2.5" of the inside wall of my furnace, and I have been having some trouble getting it to burn steadily. Now in one of Dave's videos he has the burner all the way at the back of the tube. Here is the video:

So anything obvious that I need to do? I have my oil placed about 3.5 feet above the burner, so I shouldn't have any trouble there right? The oil did seem to flow better once I heated it a little bit, even though it has been about 50 deg F here for the last week.
I am pleased at how well it burns diesel, I just need to get it to burn oil in the same way. I can't wait to get it fully functional, it is just going to be awesome!
Patrick

 

These will burn 6feet up a tube, but you will wash the walls and piss fuel all over.

2.5" should be plenty close enough. Mine is working fine at 3" from tip to inside wall face.
If you are at 50f, you will need to cut your used motor oil with some diesel, kerosene or Jet-A. Figure at least 25% fuel added to that oil and give the tank a good shake. A 3.5ft drop is plenty of fall to gravity feed it. When I burned oil, and the oil was around 50, I would preheat the tank with a small space heater and also dilute the oil. Then I would light the furnace on straight jet-A, and while waiting for the bronze to melt, I'd make the switch off my jet a and over to the oil/fuel mix. By the time that happened and add another 10minutes, I was pouring. See for a small pot of bronze, it just didn't make sense to go through all this bs, when straight diesel, jet-a or kerosene will accomplish the same job. There is something cool about being able to burn all the free shitty used motor oil you want, but the reality of messy oil, burning heavy metals from god knows what and breathing that really made me question wtf I was doing. And that is why I decided to be content with burning free jet fuel. No preheating, no second fuel storage issues, less risk standing around for my lungs.

Remember, oil will only burn once the furnace is screaming hot and even then you do not actually have a burner spraying oil with a flame coming out the end. The oil combusts when it enters the hot chamber. And then as you keep injecting oil, you thus maintain the temperature. Concentrate on getting it to run smoothly on straight diesel and getting up to a glowing white hot temp. Shoot a video of it running like this. We can tell plenty by the sound. I should sound like a jet engine or you need more tuning work. Until you have that, stay away from oil.

 

Okay, so I just published a video. But it was not about the kwiky burner, although I did sneak some footage of it in at the end of the video. There timestamps in the video description so you can go right to the part where I am burning diesel with the kwiky. Listen to it and and tell me what you think.


Patrick

 

Yeah, if it's not in the furnace running with the lid closed, I can't help.

 

I can't tell how it sounds due to the music track but it looks way too much rich, maybe rig a hairdrier to blow some air into it and see.

 

Oops! I should have left that music out. Well I will post another video soon, and it will have better sound. I had a hair drier on it when it was in the furnace, I just might need to increase the power.
Now when I was playing around with it today I noticed it wasn't really siphoning the diesel, and several times I had to manually siphon the diesel to fill the hose, and once I did that it would burn good.
In one of Dave video's on it, it just sucks the kerosene right in, and it is sitting on the ground. I don't get it, my diesel is sitting about 4.5 ft off the ground and it is having trouble keeping the hose filled up.
What could be causing pour flow? Wrong kind of hose? Bad tip configuration? Spray plug too loose or tight? I am lost, but I am going to keep working on it.
Patrick

 

Keep playing with it. Did you ever conduct a gallons per minute flow rate test with water??? This is where you adjust your square tip and dial in your compressed air pressure. If you find you need more than say 20psi compressed air to flow .75-1gpm, you have more work to do either on the shape of the mig tip or the adjustment of the square end. I'm able to run mine on 15psi, but it all comes down to how you dial it in. I will tell you, when I built mine, I had to remake the guts and nailed it the 2nd go around.

So get a milk jug of water, your stopwatch and do your water test! This is how you will dial in your siphon and prevent problems like no feed. I run 3/8" pvc hose from blowes. I use the stuff with the string in it to keep it from collapsing.. (not that it sucks that hard)

 

I can't see the fuel tubing you're using to transport the fuel but fuel hose bore diameter has a big effect on the fuel flow rate, use some 1/2" or garden hose to reduce the flow friction effects of oils etc.

 

Now that I think about it, I think my hose is 1/2"... I always confuse hose size. Must be an HVAC thing. They arent sized the same for some stupid reason.

 

The few times I’ve had flow issues in a siphon setup has been either from scrap or burr from hose-cutting, or else (potentially), my tank not being vented properly. As a suggestion, you may want to blow some compressed air back through your hose and/or check for blockage. That may not be the issue but it wouldn’t hurt to check.

Pete

 

Another thing that will kill a siphon is a small air leak. Make sure your connections are all tight.

I use a pressurized tank so not an issue here. So I never have to worry about oil viscosity or thinning it with diesel.

 

I siphon straight diesel only to preheat. A kitty litter jug with a hose barb and hose on the side about an inch off the bottom. When it’s go time I just swap the hoses over to my pressurized system. Easy-peasy. These are the connectors I use.
https://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=37290&catid=743

Pete

 

So this is confusing me just a little bit, the difference here is just a typo right? And if it is which one is correct?

So I believe the outside diameter of my hose is 1/2" and the inside diameter is 1/4". Is that too small?

Sure thing I will do that.

Yeah there is a pretty good possibility that I have an air leak, so I will go and double check everything.
I will keep you guys updated as I go, thank you for your help and advice, I really appreciate it.
Patrick

P.S
And here is the link to the video I just posted.

There is a timestamp in the videos description to take you to where you can hear the furnace burning some diesel. I hope the play time is long enough.

 

Without pressure feed I would expect that 1/4" is too small. However, an air leak would potentially be your biggest problem.

 

I tried 1/4" bore copper for gravity feed from about 6' or 1.8 metres and had issues which went away with 1/2" bore.

 

All right I did a whole rebuild on my kwiky, this time with a 3/8" inside diameter hose. So it should work now! There was also a small leak that I fixed so that should help too. I made a video on making it, and here it is.

I will be calibrating it tomorrow, and then I will fire it up with some diesel and melt some copper. I can't wait!
Patrick

 

Yahho!! I got it calibrated and burning nicely. I calibrated it to burn about 1 gallon per hour, that is what I should be after right? I am super pumped to start melting with it tomorrow, I am just too happy.
Patrick

 

good job. Now keep the fuel setting very close to that and add enough of blown air to make it roar. Get flames licking out the hole a few inches and a loud jet engine roar. You can fine tune the fuel from there. Enrich until it starts to look black smoky, then lean it away, but keep the flames out the exhaust. If you lean so much and suck the flames back in, you are too lean. Dont do that!

 

Thank you all for your awesome tips along the way with this build it has been great. I finally finished the video on how I calibrated my kwiky. And I must confess I have probably melting nigh unto 150lbs of copper and a fair amount of brass and aluminum with it this summer. I did have some trouble burning with it inside the furnace, where it was hard to get up to temp and there would be this carbon buildup (several inches deep) directly across from where the flames enter the burn chamber. After working with it and playing around with different ideas it finally came down to too much air. Has this been a problem for any of you? I am just using a regular hair dryer so I don't know why that would pose as problem. But I do know that when I would stick a piece of plastic on the back of the hair dryer to choke the flow performance doubled.
Now it would be great if you guys now what is going on. But if not do you guys have any suggestions for a highly variable blower. Because I would rather not rely on a piece of plastic.
Thank you guys,
Patrick