Thread: Project El-Cheepo Shop Heat

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Looks good, let us know how it works out.

I have been burning waste oil for several years now and my little Frankenstove has evolved considerably over time. It started out with a 55 Gallon drum outside the shop with a simple drip pipe that dripped oil onto a wood fire…..mostly just to have a way of getting rid of the waste oil the shop generated rather than paying to have it hauled off.

A few years ago I converted to a straight waste oil burner based on the plans you link to. It worked, but I had a few issues with it. Probably the biggest is that the basic design of the wood stove (rectangular) is just not as efficient as the cylinder you’re using. The other major problem was getting the oil to burn consistently and clean. The burner also need cleaning every other day or so. I ended up building two burners so that way I could have one out to clean and still have the stove running.



I lived with it for a couple of years, but it could get pretty aggravating and you definitely had to keep an eye on it. After doing some reading about using forced air on these I did a complete revamp on mine last year.

I’m still using the same “frying pan” burners the Mother Earth article shows.


The big difference is now rather than being fed air by draft, the air is forced thru the 2 ½” pipe directly in to the burner…….think forge (the pipe you see terminates about 2” above the burner). The fuel feed lines (3/8” copper tubing), go down the center of the air pipe so they can drip directly on the burner. I also built a couple of sight glasses which are invaluable to regulating the fuel going in.

The air is provided by a 110V blower motor and squirrel cage I picked up off E Bay. Going at full speed is way too much so I picked up a variable speed fan controller. Between controlling the fuel drip and the air I can get a really efficient burn.



You might notice that there are 2 fuel lines going into the air pipe. One is connected to the 55 Gal waste oil drum and the other is connected to a 4 gallon can of diesel fuel.

I start the stove by letting the diesel fuel run into the burner for a few seconds, then squirt just a bit of lighter fluid into that and throw in a match. Once the diesel fuel is burning good, I start a slow diesel fuel drip and turn the fan on. After a few minutes the burner is hot enough to start the waste oil drip and cut the diesel fuel. The 4 Gallons of diesel will last me anywhere from 2 weeks to a month. When I shut it down, I cut the waste oil and burn it on diesel for a few minutes to help clean the burner.

With the forced air the stove burns a lot more consistently and cleaner on the same amount of oil. I can also go up to 2 weeks between cleaning the burner. The heat exchanger in the stove pipe was also a good investment and really helps heat up the rest of the office. It takes a bit, but the setup can get the office area to 70 degrees eventually (on mornings when it's below freezing), which ain’t bad for not having any insulation.

The biggest problem I have with it is getting enough oil to get thru the winter now that I’m not working on customer cars. I did get lucky this year though. Now that oil prices are down they are charging to haul off waste oil instead of paying for it. That being the case, my buddy who runs a transmission shop let me haul off 120 gallons a couple of weeks ago.

Sorry if I hijacked this.


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