Latest foundry oil burner experiment

I have been fooling around with using oil as the fuel in my foundry furnace. Some of you may remember my experiments using a small paint gun as a burner for diesel fuel. A kind gent wrote to me and offered me a Becket gun style furnace burner for HHO (home heating oil). I am burning diesel fuel in it to start, just because I had some from an old fuel tank and it looks too nasty to put back in my truck. I got it going (needed a new nozzle) and melted some aluminum with it. It sure is nice to be able to just plug it in and it lights. And hot...ooh MAMA! I hope to convert it to WMO (waste motor oil), but it does real well as is. Lots of pictures here: Click the links titled: Melting aluminum with diesel fuel The beginnings of a waste oil foundry Unaltered Becket home heating burner as a foundry furnace burner

Thanks,

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

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Reply to
Ron Thompson
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I remember adjusting that sort of burner, with home heating oil, we went for a blue flame. There's a shutter somewhere on the unit that adjusts air mixture. The orfices were changeable on the units I worked on, you could control oil consumption that way and heat output, of course. With that yellow a flame, I'm surprised you didn't have a lot of soot deposition.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

I remember adjusting that sort of burner, with home heating oil, we went for a blue flame. There's a shutter somewhere on the unit that adjusts air mixture. The orfices were changeable on the units I worked on, you could control oil consumption that way and heat output, of course. With that yellow a flame, I'm surprised you didn't have a lot of soot deposition. I'm not surprised at melting aluminum with it, one unit I worked on would throw a 4' flame into the furnace, lots of heat, was a big church.

Stan

Reply to
stans4

Well there certainly is more to a oil burner nozzle than just simply replacing nozzle with like item, especially if its not going back into the original furnace it was setup in. Depends on distance from nozzle face to chamber wall and how large and what shape the combusiton chamber is and it can dictate a nozzle change entirely different than what you now have, and yes, it should be burning blue with white for it to be operating efficieintly and at peak heat.......yellow is a sign of insufficient combustion and could be caused by too much fuel or too large of nozzle or using wrong style (hollow vrs solid) and the nozzles cone degree..... Go to Delevans website a read up on oil burner nozzles.

Even air gap between electordes andhow far ahead air spiner is from nozzle face and electrode placement all afects how a burner burns, as well as psi from pump and air supply. HOwever lots of screwups inproper adjustment can be eliminated once a furnace is up to heat, and only efficiency loses, but with a waste oil burner its not really an issue.....maybe in a home and paaying for heating oil it may make a big difference in operational costs but probably not in a furnace. About the only thng one can do with a nozzle is clean the filter. SOme use sintered metal others us fine mesh. Trying to clean the orifice is not gonna work as its way to easy to get hole off centered or nick it. Trying to clean one usually causes more problems than its worth. If its setup right the nozzle will not coke over and get spray pattern off......if filtered fuel is used it won't clog up.....as that nozzles filter on the backside is sufficient to catch any junk that may get past a filter, an its much smaller than the nozzle orifice is, so its not always a good idea to swap filters on one nozzle with one of a different size just because it fits. Those filters are sized according to orifice openings.

Also having wrong nozzle and setup and too close to chamber wall can also cause the face of a nozzle to deform and also the air spinner diffuser and flame retention ring to melt or deform...... Yea, it may be only a foundry furnace, but its still easy to adjust and do it right since you have the parts on an operating burner., may as well make it the way it should be. Delevans website has lots of info on nozzles and adjustments etc, well worth looking at.

On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:39:08 -0500, Ron Thompson wrote: I have been fooling around with using oil as the fuel in my foundry furnace. Some of you may remember my experiments using a small paint gun as a burner for diesel fuel. A kind gent wrote to me and offered me a Becket gun style furnace burner for HHO (home heating oil). I am burning diesel fuel in it to start, just because I had some from an old fuel tank and it looks too nasty to put back in my truck. I got it going (needed a new nozzle) and melted some aluminum with it. It sure is nice to be able to just plug it in and it lights. And hot...ooh MAMA! I hope to convert it to WMO (waste motor oil), but it does real well as is. Lots of pictures here: Click the links titled: Melting aluminum with diesel fuel The beginnings of a waste oil foundry Unaltered Becket home heating burner as a foundry furnace burner

Thanks,

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

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------- I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Reply to
Tristan

Forgot to mention, My oil burner furnace I made uses a 2 pgh nozzle, and once it up to temp I switch it over to waste oil or anyhting else that is liquid and burns. I can dump in a couple of entire small gas engine, which I usually only remove quick and easy items like recoil housings and such. I normally can fit 5 or 6 small engines in the chamber at one time, and within an hour all aluminum is molten and flowing into ingots at the bottom of furnace chamber. I have a side opening door I use to rake out steel parts like cams and cranks and springs etc, as well as various dams that also collect or catch small steel ityems that goes woith the flow. Its more or less a continuous batch melt furnace for quick reduction of scrap alumin like small engines, wheels, cylinder heads 4 cyl engine blocks bbq grills etc etc.....I can also pull burner and place it in a foundry furnace that holds a #40 crucible......I routinely melt cast iron with my oil burner running waste oils.

\ On Mon, 05 Feb 2007 10:39:08 -0500, Ron Thompson wrote: I have been fooling around with using oil as the fuel in my foundry furnace. Some of you may remember my experiments using a small paint gun as a burner for diesel fuel. A kind gent wrote to me and offered me a Becket gun style furnace burner for HHO (home heating oil). I am burning diesel fuel in it to start, just because I had some from an old fuel tank and it looks too nasty to put back in my truck. I got it going (needed a new nozzle) and melted some aluminum with it. It sure is nice to be able to just plug it in and it lights. And hot...ooh MAMA! I hope to convert it to WMO (waste motor oil), but it does real well as is. Lots of pictures here: Click the links titled: Melting aluminum with diesel fuel The beginnings of a waste oil foundry Unaltered Becket home heating burner as a foundry furnace burner

Thanks,

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

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------- I forgot more about ponds and koi than I'll ever know!

Reply to
Tristan

Thanks for this info. Once I get it the larger furnace I am building, I'll have a go at tuning it.

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

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Reply to
Ron Thompson

I'd love to see that! Got any pictures?

Thanks again,

Ron Thompson On the Beautiful Florida Space Coast, right beside the Kennedy Space Center, USA

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Reply to
Ron Thompson

I have been refining my prototype Waste Oil Heater project for the last

3 years, us> I have been fooling around with using oil as the fuel in my foundry
Reply to
JR North

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