O.T. (Sorta)- Shop Furness

One of my friends heats his farm shop with a standard wood heater with a waste oil drip feed line into the heater using a valve outside the heater that will rotate 360 degrees. They put a bushing (jet) in the center of the valve, and when it clogs, they just rotate it 180 degrees to flush out the trash. Another of our mutual friends runs a transmission service, so waste oil supply is no problem. I have built and used a firebox with the through tubes with a common manifold and fan pushing air through them, and this will do a pretty good job of broadcasting heat.

RJ

Here's plans and parts for waste oil heater:

Karl

A fair percentage of factory-built furnaces develop pin-hole leaks over time, so trying your hand at designing one and fabricating it doesn't sound like a safe or profitable project to me. I've been knocking around the shop heat idea for a while, searching ebay for natural gas heaters, etc.. I'm leaning toward a ceiling mounted radiant unit. I will situate it so that my main machines stay warm. I'm concerned about the cost of natural gas, but the radiant unvented units are extremely efficient. Kerosene currently costs about $1.75 a gallon here, so that's not the greatest option either.

On Sat, 27 Dec 2003 19:52:17 -0400, Howard Eisenhauer wrote:

When I lived up north I used to have a homebrew oil fired furnace, I made out of sheetiron. It was basically a chamber lined with firebrick, and suspended inside and above with a space between the outer furnace shell was another chamber with a series of holes going up thru them with pipe welded in the holes which formed flue pipes. Just below these open ends on the pipes was a steel baffle that was simply suspended on a piece of bar stock, so it would divert the flame and not make direct contact with the flue pipes so they wopuld not burn out as fast. Ducted into this inner chamber was a squirrel cage blower. I used a regular oil fired burner to heat it all with. I used to burn most anything that was flamable and free from used cooking oils, stale diesel fuel, regular paint thinner to used motor and tranny oils. The end of the nozzle used to coke up every now and then but it put out lots fo cheap free heat for many years. Once it was up to temp it smoked very very little. I used a regualr old oil filter setup as found on most domestic oil fired units, and ran my "fuels" through a pre-filter to strain out cigarette butts and leaves etc from lots of the oil I used to collect from various sources. Before I made this furnace I had two 55 gal drums setting horizontal on top of each other, had a bunch of journal box packing (oil saturated compressed and glazed cotton waste that was used in the wheel journal boxes of train cars, that were submerged in oil and acted like wicks to lube train axles in their intended life ) that I laid on the bottom of the bottom drum. This drum had a copper tube running into it that had a valve on it and it just dripped used motor oils etc onto the journal box packing and burned like a coal oil lamap would burn. Add a little draft and it would make those drums glow red. To light it I used to throw a couple of newspapers in it and a cup or two of kerosene. Once again free cheap heat from used motor oils.

I am currently playi8ng with a foundry furnace fired by a home type oil fired burner and have been burning nothing but used motor oils. I start it offon diesel or kerosene and switch it to the used oil supply. No smoke and its hotter than hell. I can melt aluminum in a simple steel shell for a furnace, without any refractory as quick as my regular foundry furnace melts it. It ought to be one awesome burner when I get it installed in a lined furnace one of these days. Visit my website:

expressed are those of my wifes, I had no input whatsoever. Remove "nospam" from email addy.

I got a used Carrier 150K BTU propane forced hot air unit from a buddy who is an HVAC tech. It has one cracked heat exchanger. I set it up in the garage with no plenum, just a 3 X 3 sheet of 16 gauge steel leaning at a 45 degree angle to push the air out into the shop (4 car garage) Total cost is about $40 and it'll make it 70 degrees in there in about 10 minutes no matter what the temp is outside.

J

Yeah, but doesn't the propane cost a lot of money? I'm more concerned about keeping the shop just warm enough to keep the rust down to a minimum. I have space heaters that can cook things up pretty quickly, but I want something I can control automatically all winter and afford.

I just replaced my overhead (hanging style) natural gas shop furnace over this past summer. I got a new 50,000 btu Resnor from Oregon Valley Greenhouses:

They were the cheapest I could find and included free shipping to me in Northwest Washington State.

Highly recommended. No I'm not affiliated.

Larry Wager

Truly unique creations for Home and Yard

Howard Eisenhauer wrote in article ...

Why not simply rebuild the heat exchanger rather on the original furnace rather than try to engineer something new?

I have several friends who are heating their shops with furnaces salvaged in this manner.

Just cut away the punky portions of metal and replace with similar or heavier guage.

Once you re-assemble the whole thing, you have an entire system of burner, controls, and heat distribution that was engineered to work as a single unit.

Bob Paulin - R.A.C.E. Chassis Analysis Services

Burning used oil may be illegal where you live and for good reasons, check:

or (and probably others as this is the result of an instant google search).

And since somebody posted about a propane heater: burning propane, butane, etc... produces impressive amounts of water, so that will not solve your rust problem.

Maybe a better shop insulation would give a second life to the old stove?

The old furness has been landfill for a couple of years, all thats left is the burner. Coulda used the blower :(.

H.

Figure on losing any insurance you have on the shop if your agent ever finds out...

I solved the problem with a wall mounted gas heater with a sealed combustion chamber - it uses outside air for the flame. No worries about any fumes in the garage getting ignited by the pilot.

As I recall, it was something like $400 some years ago. Thermostatic control, blower and, best of all, my tools don't rust.

The new shop has floor radiant heat run off of an 87% efficient tankless water heater. This one also uses external air for combustion. It will be interesting to see how well that works out (it won't be done until next year).

Paul

Howard, I have an oil fired forced air furnace in my garage (separate from the house and about 150' away) that I picked up for a "song" from a guy that has a small business in furnace installation. This furnace is older, and was replace because the firebox had a crack in it, filling the house with fumes. I got it home (complete) and disassembled it, welded up the cracks in the firebox, reassembled and have been using it for about 10 or 12 years. It was cheap, repairable, and sized just about right. It may pay you to look around at the heating contractors in your neighborhood - you may be able to get one just for hauling it away..... Ken.

"ATP" spluttered in news:2FsHb.434527$ snipped-for-privacy@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net:

Someone in this ng mentioned his technique for keeping things from getting rusty.

Run a fan.

That's it.

Go buy a Carbon Monoxide detector for your garage. Please.

Just in case that crack decides to open up again, and you have the garage sealed up tight for the winter while you work, you /really/ don't want to catch a nasty case of Mild Death...

Check that the UBC required fresh air vents on the garage walls are still open, so that the furnace flue can draw properly.

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Thanks for the concern, but my garage isn't at all sealed up tight. I only run the furnace when I'm out there working, and since I do a lot of small engine repair, the running of weedwackers, etc., probably generates more carbon monoxide than the furnace could in a week. The ceiling is open to the underside and there are peak vents in each gable end and fresh air flowing in around the garage door and man-door to keep circulation up. If I am running a lot of small stuff, I even lift the garage door a bit, and have an exhaust fan in the back window to pull fresh air thru the length of the garage. (besides, the headaches only last for a little while ) Ken.

(Ken Sterling) spluttered in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.teranews.com:

If it's anything like the buddies' I work in, the added benefit might be to get the racoons to move out. :0

finds out what?