Thread: Oil burning shed heaters

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

Ozzirt's posts have enthused me further.
Too much on the plate at the moment but would really enjoy building one of these.
KEEP THE THREAD ALIVE
Andrew

Hasten slowly, go on with your current work but just keep a weather eye open for useable bits 'n' pieces. Old condemned LPG cylinders, heavy castings etc. The design is only limited by what materials you have available.

Originally Posted by p38arover

I no longer own any Hillmans. However, I do have a set of Moon discs for them.

I earlier suggested perhaps using the bottom of an old LPG cylinder. That sent me looking for some photos sent to me by one of the people building a copy of my heater.

This shows how how used one of these cylinders to make his bottom pan, however they could still be used as in the Roger Sanders heater as a burner.

Well mine is almost done! Flue,intake,door,vaporizer mounting etc now done... No pics tonight


This thing looks and likely is ordinary compared to the other heaters posted here. I can say so far has been quick to knock up though. See how long it takes from now to tune it up

Originally Posted by Rangier Rover

Well mine is almost done! Flue,intake,door,vaporizer mounting etc now done... No pics tonight

This thing looks and likely is ordinary compared to the other heaters posted here. I can say so far has been quick to knock up though. See how long it takes from now to tune it up

With heaters, "looks" are only a secondary consideration, the important thing is that they keep your tootsies warm and cost as little as possible to run.

Shirl nearly had a fit when I first suggested leaving ours in the living room, gradually she has seen the upside of such things as, heat whenever you want without worrying how much fuel you have, and spending 10 or 12 weekends a year, out cutting firewood,... which is now getting almost impossible to find. Not to mention me tracking mud and wood chips into the house every night when I filled the wood box.

I'm just pleased to see the axe going rusty and my chain saws collecting dust. I now spend 6-7 hours a year collecting oil and filling my tanks, the slowest part being my motorised pump which takes about 50 minutes per cub/mt to transfer the oil into my home tanks. I'm looking for a larger vane pump as this one is only one of those $55 Chinese drum pumps. I have actually considered putting another in parallel but it would be a plumber's nightmare.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oaehdI1SbI"]YouTube - Drip Feed Waste Oil Heater, Oil Storage[/ame]

Originally Posted by ozzirt

With heaters, "looks" are only a secondary consideration, the important thing is that they keep your tootsies warm and cost as little as possible to run.

Shirl nearly had a fit when I first suggested leaving ours in the living room, gradually she has seen the upside of such things as, heat whenever you want without worrying how much fuel you have, and spending 10 or 12 weekends a year, out cutting firewood,... which is now getting almost impossible to find. Not to mention me tracking mud and wood chips into the house every night when I filled the wood box.

I'm just pleased to see the axe going rusty and my chain saws collecting dust. I now spend 6-7 hours a year collecting oil and filling my tanks, the slowest part being my motorised pump which takes about 50 minutes per cub/mt to transfer the oil into my home tanks. I'm looking for a larger vane pump as this one is only one of those $55 Chinese drum pumps. I have actually considered putting another in parallel but it would be a plumber's nightmare.
YouTube - Drip Feed Waste Oil Heater, Oil Storage

That's a great setup you have Given me an idea. Once my heater is in its final resting place I happen to have a 1800 litre fuel tank on a stand. Wonder if it would work as a header tank. I have a few old power steering pumps about here to pump it in but would be slow
Water separation is something I haven't considered yet.

Originally Posted by Rangier Rover

That's a great setup you have Given me an idea. Once my heater is in its final resting place I happen to have a 1800 litre fuel tank on a stand. Wonder if it would work as a header tank. I have a few old power steering pumps about here to pump it in but would be slow
Water separation is something I haven't considered yet.

That would be an excellent header tank, and power steering pumps would be OK because you could use only a small electric motor to drive them which would keep power consumption down. It just might take a while, which brings up the next consideration,... a timer switch, and to make sure that the overflow from your header tank returns to your main or suction tank,.... I had forgotten mine on several occasions prior to fitting a timer. Only to go outside later and hear the pump still grinding away. If you have a relatively fast pump, you tend to stay and watch, but when it is slow there is always the temptation to go away and do something else.

I have never had a major spill as yet and don't want to even think about it. So if possible try to have all possibilities covered. the only thing remaining for me is to have a bund around the storage area, but unfortunately that is not a practical consideration for me as my shed is on a fence line.

Water is often a problem in oil from garages, as they usually have their dirty oil storage outside where rain gets in to it, and also the mechanics tend to throw in used coolant occasionally. Then you need filtering, you can see I have the de-watered oil flowing into a large tun dish fitted with a conical fly screen filter to remove grass seeds and dead insects etc., you'll be surprised how many their are.

I also have a coarse pre-strainer on the end of my pickup pipe for the motorised pump to prevent any things like broken piston ring pieces, washers and small nuts locking up your pump, it's a bastard of a job to have to dismantle a pump full of dirty sump oil in the middle of a transfer, this, is once again a cone or rather dish shaped piece of heavy stainless gauze scrounged out of the "radiator" section of a scrapped gas heater, it is about (16 holes/sq.")


This strainer is made in such a way that it can either be attached directly to the bottom, or inline at the top of the pickup tube. It was originally made to go on the bottom, and it's size was of no inconvenience when sucking out of the bulker as it has a 6" dia lid, I altered it when i had to suck out some dirty 200lt drums as it would not fit in the bung.

Originally Posted by ozzirt

and spending 10 or 12 weekends a year, out cutting firewood,...

Holy crap, you can cut you years wood in a weekend, 2 at the most if you serious and have a decent saw or 2

Great thread but, very interesting

Originally Posted by rovercare

Holy crap, you can cut you years wood in a weekend, 2 at the most if you serious and have a decent saw or 2

I've got three,... a Stihl 041 122cc with 36" bar. A Partner 52cc with 20" bar and a Stihl electric for pruning the fruit trees.. Fortunately they have all been tucked away in their boxes for many years with only the electric being used to prune the dead wood out of an old almond tree in the back yard.

I think the big'un would break my back if I had to use it today. I'm gettin' soft,... and loving every minute of it.