Not sure if this is the right forum but here goes.


Ive got an old waste oil burner designed for number 2 waste oil which is pretty much diesel ( i think ) I remember reading about modifying these units to use biodiesel or any other oils like old motor oil, it had some sort of preheater to get the oil to temp and that was about the only modification, but for the life of me i cant find anything on the preheater. Most of my searches have yielded either something on the babington burner or companys selling these already made burners.

What im wanting to do is hook this burner to the door of my homemade outdoor wood boiler hook it into a switch and the thermostat so i can go back and forth between wood as fuel and waste motor oil.

Check out
groups.yahoo.com/altfuelfurnace

There's a load of info and help there. You can run bio and WVO in both pressure and siphon type burners if you use a preheater. Most are using home built heaters, unit heaters on pipe or immersion (water heater) elements in a pipe before the pump. The biggest thing I noticed was the flame gets very long with the thivker fuels and needs a deep firebox, probly not an issue with a wood burner though.
It definately makes starting a cold stove easy, load with wood - Flip switch - Done!!!

Im thinking about trying to eliminate as much wood consumption as possible. The last two winters i spent ever weekend either using a log splitter or a chainsaw. As for starting fires ive got a pretty good homemade setup that even my wife and kids can start. Ive got a squirrel cage blower mounted through the front of my stove door that is hooked to a series of timers. Throw some news paper in then a layer of kindling, then some good size stuff , light the paper, close the door then press the button. When the buttons pressed the blower kicks on at high speed 2200 rpms ( i think ) which turns the little paper fire into a small jet engine. After 5 minutes the blower goes down to low speed which ive cut even more with a rheostat. The blower stays on low speed for an hour and then the cycle repeats, unless the thermostat is to temp , if it is the blower turns off and its natural draft once below temp the cycle starts all over.


Oh and i wasn't making fun of women starting fires before anyone thinks that. The first year we had a wood stove my wife decided to start a fire before i came home , she had a nice little tee pee made out of small pieces of wood and she even had kindling under it, but she on of those easy fire starters and it was ON TOP of the Tee pee she built. So she is pretty green when it comes to making fires.

Check out the discussions under the "biodiesel for heating" section (here) of the biodiesel forum, it contains several discussions of home built or modified heaters.

http://www.stream.cz/video/6/2...-lukanky-bozske-dilo

http://www.stream.cz/video/6/288654-spalovac-prototyp

my waste oil burner