Melting aluminum in my experimental waste oil furnace

Test-firing my experimental waste oil fueled, metal melting furnace with a crucible of aluminum inside.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• aluminum
• melt
• melting
• waste
• used
• motor
• oil
• furnace
• heat
• hot
• fire
• flame
• flames
• burn
• crucible
• foundry
• hobby
• fuel

[waterwart]

I read somewhere online that if you heat up the oil before it enters the chanber that it will burn better. The one I saw the guy used a candle to heat a section of the line near the tank he had suspended.

[ab48726]

@waterwart The oil doesn't necessarily burn better, but it flows much easier when it's hot. So preheating the oil does make for better flow control and faster vaporization. So in a sense preheating can indirectly make for more complete combustion.

[boochieboy814]

Is there any risk of backfiring? I mean the flame traveling backwards up the oil feed tube to the oil source?

[ab48726]

@boochieboy814 No, not really. Waste motor oil burns so slowly and requires such a high temperature to burn that it can't sustain itself, like gasoline does, in air without something to hold the heat. Actually with waste oil the goal is the TRY to get the oil to burn in the burner tube before it enters the furnace. But in this video it is igniting inside the furnace.

[k0ent]

whats that black thing sitting on the wooden frame? is it to introduce air?

[ab48726]

It's a vacuum cleaner blower, and yes it is used to introduce and control the combustion air.

[surfaceradio]

your oil/air mixture is too rich. more air or less oil. much hotter and cooler looking flame ;)

[ab48726]

The tank is held up on a pole for gravity feed in the hose running out of the bottom of the tank there is a ball valve (very touchy) and the red hose from there runs straight into the pipe. My mistake, in this video there is no funnel and the pipe is just a straight piece of pipe with a hole in the top.

[compujan]

Ok, but how do you presume that the whole can of oil is running out. Is there very small hole or a valve or so as a (manual) regulator?

JB

[ab48726]

Actually this is running on used motor oil. The burner is a vacuum cleaner blower with a speed control that blows into a small pipe, which expands to a bigger tee where the oil runs in from the funnel. That's basically it, not to complicated.