Got My Waste Oil Forge Up and Running and got a ??

[Will Leavitt]

Finally got my waste oil forge built and running. I'm using a variation of "the brute" it's 17x1 1/2" black pipe with a 9"x 1/4" oil drip tube that enters the burner tube at a 45 degree angle.

 

The forge body is 10 diameter 15" tall with 1" of kaowool on the walls and 2" top and bottom, it seem kinda slow to come up to heat. Should I add another 1" of kaowool or add satanite (got some coming but wanted to heat up the forge first or do both, add 1" and satanite?

 

Still learning how to get the fuel/air mix right but it's not bad at all. Just chunk in 2 pieces of matchlite charcoal and let her rip. Gotta leave the fan on after forging to burn out any remaining oil.

 

Will

[Leif S]

sound cool. got any pics?

[Will Leavitt]

Picture of it running, I wound up putting 2 pieces of thick board under the bucket to insulate it and to improve fuel flow:

 

 

 

Picture of the burner.

 

[timmy2knives]

Nice. Is that gravity fed? I have no idea even how those WORK.

elaborate?

[Matt Bower]

That's functionally identical to v.1.0 of my oil burning forge. What do you consider "slow" and what is "heat" (as in, how long does it take to get to the temp you want, and what is that temp)? Do you have any kind of hotface, or just a ceramic wool lining? And are you preheating with anything other than a couple charcoal briquettes?

 

I'm betting you don't have a hotface, and you're just using a couple charcoal briquettes. In which case I think you'll find that a thin Satanite lining and a much more robust preheat (a serious propane burner for 15 minutes, or a good quantity of wood or charcoal with an air blast) will make it run a whole lot better. Oil doesn't burn easily, and it takes more than a couple charcoal briquettes to get that forge hot enough to digest serious quantities of oil (and thus produce serious amounts of heat). Ideally you want the entire interior of the forge at at least a red heat before you cut in the oil.

 

Having said all that, oil burners are NOT the thing to use for a quick heat-up and short forging sessions. If you want fast and simple, use propane. Oil burners are good for generating pit-of-Hell levels of heat for hours on end, cheaply. I have melted stainless steel in mine (unintentionally).

 

Another couple words of advice: get those air bubbles out of your fuel line, and elevate the fuel tank more. It'll run much better that way.

Edited March 25, 2008 by Matt Bower

[Will Leavitt]

Matt,

Yeah, I added Satanite to the forge lining and raised the bucket and reduced the amount of tubing. I don't even use charcoal anymore to start it, I toss in some cardboard and let it rip, it does take about 10 minutes to come up to speed. I do have a steel plate in the bottom on top of the satanite to act as a "hotface" I guess. I normally forge about 3-5 hours per session. After I've gotten more experience with air/fuel mixtures I'm seeing improvements. I'm very happy with the forge and am glad I built it over another propane forge.

 

Timmy, it's basically a blown propane forge that uses oil for fuel and is gravity fed.