Oil burner suggestions?

Hello all, I've been melting iron for several years with a Kwiky burner and mostly diesel fuel. It will also work with WMO if diluted some and the temperature outside is warm. I generally like it and it does a great job of firing the furnace. But I'm thinking of using mostly WMO and WVO in future and I'm trying to decide if I should switch to another burner for that.

What I like about the Kwiky:

1.) no secondary fuel needed to preheat the furnace. It lights immediately because the Kwiky atomizes the oil into a fine mist which is ingnitable.

2.) no pump or gravity or pressure feed needed. the burner creates a vacuum in the oil line, drawing oil up from a tank which can be lower than the burner. An oil line can simply be lowered into a 5 gallon jerry can after removing the cap.

3.) It's also a safety feature. If the compressed air line to the burner is shut off, the oil in the line drains back into the tank (if it's lower than the burner.) A leak in the oil line can't create a spill, it just kills the vacuum in the line and the oil stops flowing.

What I don't like about it:

Frequent running of the small air compressor trying to keep up with the demand, probably wearing it out prematurely.

So suggestions anyone, for a burner that can burn WMO, and has, say, gravity feed (siphon fees isn't a requirement, though the Kiwky has it). Ideally no pumps, pressurized tanks, or secondary fuel for preheating like propane.

I am aware of and to admire ironsides burner, but that one does use propane and a pressure tank.

Thanks for ideas!

 

Well after posting the above I started to think about it, and I suppose it might be possible to rig up twin orifices in a single tube. The first, just for preheating the furnace, would use compressed air and a mig tip, like the Kwiky, to atomize the oil for lighting. Once heated the compressed air would be shut off, and the other main oil orifice would operate. This would minimize compressor use, and not require a propane line.

I guess it would still need an elevated tank or compressed air maintained fuel tank like @Ironsides and a necking down of the main pipe to a venturi.

I wonder how high the elevated tank would need to be for gravity feed to work? Steve Chastain had a really tall heated tank setup for his tilting oil furnace. Lionel had a driveshaft tube set vertically on his small oil burner. Colin Peck used what looked like about a 4 foot head from a plastic jerry jug for his. His burner had a flamed preheat straight out of the lower furnace. I'm a little leary of that.

 

Maybe just a single oil delivery orifice with a shallow Y shape, oil in one feed-line, compressed air in the other. Compressed air needed only for atomizing during initial furnace warm-up.

 

I think Luckygen on Youtube just squirts a stream of oil at the far wall after it's preheated and glowing hot, he even has a wire poker inside the fuel tube to clear blockages. There are a number of methods from dripping onto a hot surface to pressure pumps and nozzles to a pet favorite of mine: the spinning disc burner. The spinning disc has drawbacks like a flat plane of droplet spray from the periphery of the spinning disc but it tolerates particles in the fuel and needs minimal gravity feed to work. I might revisit that once I have the new furnace working

 

Thanks Mark, yes I'm very familiar with Luckygen's (Ironsides') burner, and like it very much. If I can't find a way to eliminate the propane start, and pressurized oil tank, that's exactly what I will use. They aren't deal killers for me. I was just hoping there might even be a simpler possibility. I am going to do a little experimenting here.

I don't know anything about the spinning disk burner, however. Will search for that.

 

A spinning disc or spinning cup burner were used on US navy ships and for apartment building central heating around the 1920's or so. I'd played around with various configurations driven by high speed motors. It had some advantages in that it only needed gravity feed fuel and could tolerate nozzle blocking particles but the disadvantages were the flat plane of spray that needed a powerful airflow around the spinning cup to shape the spray into a cone of maybe 90 degrees. There could be a variant that blocks off all but a small section of forward spray but I moved on to pumped spray nozzles.

 

Thanks Mark. That sounds a bit too complicated for my small furnaces. My hope is to simplify what I have if possible.

Actually, other than the need for continuous compressed air, I think the Kwiky burner I have is really a good match. I'd just like to not have to run a compressor continuously during a melt.

I heat with wood, and notice that Lionel Oliver used to light his oil burner by starting a wood fire first (instead of propane) I suppose I could do that. But there are times in the summer when things are dry here, droughts, in fact, and I don't want to create a shower of sparks, which I bet the wood start will create when you turn on the blast..

 

You’re right Hacksaw. Anything flying out of the furnace on fire is sketchy. If you’re looking to eliminate your compressor entirely then the propane preheat + Lionel type drip burner ala Rasper, Tobho, and others is the way to go. I use a Delevan/Hago nozzle which does utilize a compressor, but when using straight WMO, lighting it off can be hit-or-miss. So I preheat with propane and just switch out the burner when it’s go-time.

Pete

 

Thanks Petee716. Actually I'd rather get rid of the propane start more than eliminate a compressor altogether. If the compressor was just used temporarily to start the heat, rather than run continuously throughout the heat (my Kwiky uses continuous CFM at about 30 PSI) then I'd see that as a step forward for me. So that's what I'm thinking -- use Kwiky to start, then turn on main WMO jet, and turn off Kwiky. I think it's do-able. I just have to work out whether I can actually just modify my Kwiky, or build a new burner from scratch.

Actually, I'm beginning to wonder if I just pressurize the oil tank with my present Kwiky burner, and have a needle valve on the oil feed, and a compressed air shutoff valve, I might be able to get the Kwiky to do it all. These are my thoughts:

Start with a shut needle valve and with compressed air running through the Kwiky. Oil tank is pressurized @ say 30 psi. Gradually open the oil valve until I get an atomized oil fog. Light that with torch. Start the blast air blower and adjust for a strong flame in the furnace. When walls start glowing, gradually open the oil needle valve further, and simultaneously turn down the compressed air through the Kwiky, until off. Adjust blast and oil feed until proper flame.

 

I have just got a diesel burner working with a fuel pump and a commercial oil burner nozzle. Some more info here.

https://athimblefullofhell.blogspot.com/2025/05/diesel-burner.html

 

I couldn't say as regards waste oil, but I will be trying cheap veg oil to see if that works... it would be a little more than half the cost per liter of diesel