Micro waste oil forge

[Turboconqueringmegaeagle]

I started out with a fairly simple idea, i wanted a tiny forge that would be at operating temperature quickly and would run on a free fuel source, having been told it was impossible to make waste oil burners small i obviously had to prove it was possible, results were mixed, yes it is possible to make small waste oil burners, but i was not able to make one reliable and practical, I had many problems including spotting on my work, ie drops of oil would hit the work and create cool spots, warm up time started off at 20 minutes but i managed to get it down to about five, I tried vaporizing but as anticipated this lead to build ups of contaminants and subsequent blockages, eventually I settled on an adjustable pre heat that could be cleaned out simply by removing a bolt and passing a drill through it.
Conclusion is that this works fine on a known substance but the second it has heavy or contaminated fuel it needs adjustment and time to settle down, if anyone builds or sees an oil burner working nicely of similar size, please let me know!

[Practical]

Many years ago Mother Earth New published a design to filter waste oil to use in a waste oil heater. It was basically a long filter column of a stack of toilet paper rolls maybe 10 or more a solid core support center with a tube or duct large enough to fit the rolls in. waste oil was poured into top of column drained into pan at bottom an incandescent light bulb was place over the top of the oil surface which served to evaporate the volatile organic compounds. The result was said to give a consistent 30 W
oil suitable to reuse in an engine for those who recycle their oil. A friend of mine in Canada a garage mechanic built one to improve the consistency of his waste oil burner. Since he had a virtually unlimited supply of waste oil, he not only heated his shop but build a larger forced air unit that he heated his entire house with during those Canadian winters for free. He also build an electric car out of a 1960's dodge dart removed the engine beefed up the suspension and filled the engine compartment the trunk and the back seat with old car batteries. With a 5hp generator that sat in the trunk to provide a surface charge when he was stopped in traffic. He put the car on charge at home and at the shop. Claimed he got better than 150 mpg and could drive for about 100 miles between charges. The motor was a 20hp DC surplus starter motor. He utilized the existing transmission on the car top speed was only about 45mph. This was back in the 1970's and I very much admired him.

[NortonDommi]

Toilet roll filters were invented by an Auckland taxi driver in the early 1970's. At present a complete system is available off the shelf made under license in America for hydraulic oil filtration. Used to bleed off a small amount as a bypass to main filter and dramatically increase main filter life. A roll of paper and a liter of oil once a week is cheap.

[Practical]

Toilet roll filters were invented by an Auckland taxi driver in the early 1970's. At present a complete system is available off the shelf made under license in America for hydraulic oil filtration. Used to bleed off a small amount as a bypass to main filter and dramatically increase main filter life. A roll of paper and a liter of oil once a week is cheap.

It certainly makes sense that one did. I hear they are a hardy bunch. I don't know if their is still a rivalry between New Zealand and Australia but one of the most brilliant engineers I have ever worked with was an Australian citizen. I very much admired and respected him too. I have always been fascinated by the "Gold Coast Area" where they have all the inventors and technical start ups,sort of a Silicon Valley south if my understanding is correct.

[DIYer]

Thanks Turboconqueringmegaeagle! We've added your Micro Waste Oil Forge to our Heating and Cooling category,
as well as to your builder page: Turboconqueringmegaeagle's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Micro Waste Oil Forge by Turboconqueringmegaeagle

tags: forge, oil

[Turboconqueringmegaeagle]

Consistent 30 W sounds fantastic however my sources for waste oil are rather varied, at work i collect waste from light aircraft, this will include mineral engine oil, mineral hyd fluid, dirty thinners, waste solvent, kero, avgas tea and coffee, I also collect from a couple of local farms to heat my workshop, while a lot of this will cook off with the light bulb, i suspect there are elements that will not but i shall give it a go so thank you.

Australians have a way of doing things that seem to defy all logic, there is a lovely story about there sentinal tank produced during the war, in the space of a couple of years lacking much previous experience with heavy manufacturing and borrowing components from several other vehicles they produced their own, i believe the entire hull was one casting, something no one else has ever managed with a tank and due to the limited availability of sensible engines they ended up with 3 Cadillac v8s powering the thing but they did it and apart from the obvious issues arising from operating 3 petrol engines in a confined space in a hot country it was reportedly reasonably dependable.

[Practical]

I will have to look up the sentinal tank sounds like a good story. About the toilet paper filter assembly, you need a long column is my understanding and the chemicals used to manufacture the paper actually add chemical elements to the oil which improve the properties of the oil. So it is not just the filtering properties that are acting on the oil it is the residual chemicals in the manufacture of the media that also have a positive effect on the final product. I have never build one but my friend had and his was about four feet tall (1.22 meters) good luck hope it helps some.