Thread: Oil burning shed heaters

We used to have one at a place i worked, it was basically a big bowl at the bottom with a flue coming out the top, it stood about 6 foot tall. you'd fill the bottom with old sump oil and throw in a bit of burning paper and off it would go. It had a little door on top of the bowl to fill it with and a sliding door with breather holes to control the burn rate.
Another mate of mine converted his coonara to run off old transmission fluid (he is a trans builder so had heaps of it), he tapped a small copper pipe into the back of the heater with a fine spray nozzle of some type and a small electric petrol pump to feed the fluid(it worked something like that, not 100% accurate now), heated his whole house (30+squares) for nothing.

your a bit late, a cople of years ago i could have given you one for nought. Over here they are called choofa's

A yank i know called them smudge pots, and funnily enough I saw dozens of them in the wine growing paddocks around Napa california.

Can't think of anyone that still has one, they used to be good in big sheds( a lot of the rellys up in the new england had them) but alas ye old workcover put stop to it.


try a smudge pot search you may come up with a nifty design.


john

Andy, I was going to have a go at building Roger Sanders' design: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_...arth/me11.html

See also Mother Earth: Waste Oil Heater

Originally Posted by Vern

Another mate of mine converted his coonara to run off old transmission fluid (he is a trans builder so had heaps of it), he tapped a small copper pipe into the back of the heater with a fine spray nozzle of some type and a small electric petrol pump to feed the fluid(it worked something like that, not 100% accurate now), heated his whole house (30+squares) for nothing.

Stinky

Originally Posted by JohnE

your a bit late, a cople of years ago i could have given you one for nought. Over here they are called choofa's
john

Common name is a Choofa, but they are sold commercially as aDemon.

2 truck rims, the bottom 1 with the holes plated over and sealed up and the top with the wheel nut holes welded up and the centre hole for the flue.

Inside the top you fit a plate under where the flue comes in so the flames dont go up the flue but about an inch below the opening.

You need to cut a hole in the top to 1 side of the flue which is the size of a piece of pipe that needs to be welded in to be completely sealed and you need a fairly snug slip on cap (like a soup can or something like that.

The pipe needs to sit about an inch off the bottom and stand about 6" above the top.

You also need to drill some holes in the side to control air flow, Ive seen them with just bolts that screw in but seems it gets pretty hot I made sliders which took a bit of time but worked really well as I had about 10 holes on each side and could be adjusted to suit what temp you wanted.

You can either have it so you can just tilt the 2 rims apart to start it (as mentioned before just a bit of burning news paper) or you can cut a hatch in the top.

To fill it you poor the waste oil down the pipe in the top, (the bigger the pipe and the longer it is the easier it is to fill) you need to keep the oil level above the bottom of the filler pipe or else you will need it to go out before you can fill it again as the oil may catch fire as your pooring it in if you poor it directly onto the fire.

Now if you want to be really clever but only if you are using it outside as it gets a bit smelly but you can build a choke for the flue and lock off the intake air and as long as the oil level is above the botoom of the filler pipe then it will choke it self when you want to put it out.

I havnt got any pics or diagrams but I made it off one that I had seen several years before when I was a kid so they arent too hard to build and I only built ours because I came across 2 truck rims that I wanted to do womething with them.

Here's my effort. I have been using it now for 11 years, and it has only just (two weeks ago) had it's first overhaul and update.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lwSmYz_g6U"]YouTube - Drip Feed Waste Oil Heater[/ame]

Ugly,... maybe, but it certainly saves a lot of wood cutting, not to mention racing down to the wood shed to get wood then tracking mud, and wood chips all through the living room carpet.

It's going now and the back of the house is 23deg C. some heat comes up the passage and takes the chill off the bedrooms.

Doesn't get cold enough here to need a heater. 26 degrees today.