How to light a waste oil furnace

This was on Alloy Avenue back in the day. People there said it was useful, so I am posting the Utube link here.



The burner is a Lionel Hot Shot, a simple burner that dumps a stream of oil into a stream of air. The combustion takes place inside the furnace. I start it with propane, and when the crucible is beginning to get red, I begin introducing the oil. When the oil is burning well, I shut off the propane.

This burner will melt a 20 pound pot of bronze to pouring temperature in under 20 minutes. There seems to be no limit to how much heat it will produce. Just pump in more air and more oil. I could melt the furnace in twenty minutes if I tried.

The Hot Shot also works well as a pure propane burner if necessary. Once my oil tank got rainwater in it so I melted my metal with propane.

Richard

 

Nice video , Richard. Your setup is the epitome of simplicity. Simplicity in design is almost always a big advantage.

Toward the end of your video, when it looked like you had your burner tuned for a melt, you pointed out you were producing no smoke. I also noted there was no visible flame coming out the vent. Do you tune for little or no visible vent flame?

Denis

 

I generally like to have maybe two or three inches of flame coming out above the vent hole. I have to be careful with waste oil. It's easy to start melting the furnace. I used to run this small shop-vac at full speed after I had gotten the furnace burning well, but I found I was damaging the furnace. Even the Mizzou hot-face can only take so much heat. God only knows how much heat could be made with a large shop-vac and waste motor oil.

Richard

 

Maybe I am runninig my furnace too hard. After 44 iron melts of about 105 mins duration each and about 2500 pounds of iron, I can see that the lining is starting to show its age. Then again, how much do I need to throttle back? How many hours longer will it last if I cut back an estimated 20 percent----10 percent longer? 50 percent longer? I just run mine as hard as possible with my current setup. I wish I knew the answers.

Denis

 

44 melts seems like a good run to me. Iron temperatures are hard on any refractory.

I think you'll find that moderate reductions of temperature will result in significant increases in refractory life. In industry, the refractory is a consumable and it's more important to run hard and make production than go easy and try to make the linings last.

 

OIF,

First, So good to see you posting here! I amy be missing out but I had wondered where you'd been and how you were doing.

Second, I appreciate your insights. I think I'd drive myself crazy trying to throttle back and then wondering how much time I was wasting, would more time times less heat equal less wear actually, and then there are the weather-window factors as well. In the summer it is not so much a concern, but in winter I often have just a short time to get out there, fire it up and get it done. Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead. ;-)

Denis

 

That is very informative! If I ever try iron I'm gonna imitate your setup.

 

Good to look around. Great to be remembered!

Hi Kelly!

After my wife died in 2019 I kinda ran out of fuel. It has been a struggle even though she was in slow deterioration for 12 years I wasn't ready. Just been casting out of necessity, I need to post a few projects.

Been hanging around a friend of 40 years who was my wife's friend of forty years as well. We seemed to be hitting it off and I decided to build her a house. That's taken almost two years but she is moving in as I finish up trim and cabinets, landscaping to go. Somebody might be interested in how you build a house when all you know how to do is pound sand.

 

Here's how I do it. Easy! Just wish I got to do it more.

 

You're setting the bar way too high for the rest of us Chief, what ever happened to washing up, flowers, dinner, and a show?

Feel free to tell us more about the house project, sounds interesting.

Thanks Jason. I was under the impression that a Delavan siphon nozzle thingie needs to be removed from the furnace tuyere after heating so as not to cook out any o-rings. Is running the combustion air fan after shutting down fuel and compressed air for the siphon enough?

 

That's the kwiky burner. I run straight jet fuel. No one rings in that thing, but I still pull it out. Don't want a bunch of little kwikies running around the house.

 

I run a Delavan siphon and you are right about needing to be removed from the furnace for cool-down. Mine just rests on an angle-iron support during the burn. When I pour, I just shut the fuel off and pull the crucible leaving the combustion air and atomizing air alone. Once I finish pouring I just grab the burner and set it on the ground for a couple minutes to cool it completely. It is not that hot, really, when I pull it as the combustion and compressed air prevent residual heat from the furnace warming it beyond its normal operating temp. I am guessing the tip of the tube is 300F and the nozzle inside is about 80F——just barely warm. The constant wash-down of air keeps it cool throughout the burn even though only inches away is the ??3000F?? furnace cavity.

On the other hand, if you leave it in the furnace and shut off the air sources, it would quickly get to close to red heat on the end. That cooks the o-ring—-I did it ONCE. I keep a spare on hand.

Denis

 

No need to pull out my burner after a melt as it has been welded in 30 years ago and still works really well melting iron.

 

Forgive me if you’ve posted details of your burner before. I’ve seen you light your burner in your videos a number of times and always just assumed it was a drip burner set up much like Rasper’s.

 

Yes you are 100% correct it is a drip burner like rasper's It will start from cold with diesel but needs to have a 2 minute warm up with propane if I use 80% wmo 20% diesel. I did a experiment with 100% diesel and 80% wmo and 20% diesel to compare the results and found the melting time is the same and used the same volume of fuel. Diesel is very expensive where I live so I use wmo as a cheaper option.

 

Nice movie Richard - thank you! I need useful advice like yours as I have to build my first waste-oil furnace this year.

Nice to see you back OIF! I was wondering earlier this week what had become of you - guess I sung-you-in,

Cheers Charlie

 

Thanks, Charlie!

I only run WMO in my drip burner but occasionally add bad gasoline to my charge tank. I can see less heat when I'm burning gasoline, but it burns fine. I always start with propane.

 

Can I ask why you want a waste oil furnace? Are you planning to melt iron?

 

I found the same thing when I used petrol instead of diesel to thin out wmo.