The Home Machinist!

Has anyone used a oil burner from a home furnace for their foundry?? I am only interested in casting aluminium.

Is this something that is so obvious that I should not have asked or has no one tried it??

I haven't, i use propane. you need to go to this forum and seek help.

http://backyardmetalcasting.com/forums/

You can read for days.

Tom C.

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tom_at_srclry_com
Lost somewhere in Michigan!

I'm not convinced it is obvious, and share your question. My future furnace will be oil fired, of necessity. I would like to entertain the same idea, so I was hoping to hear from others that may have blazed the path.

Harold

I hate to take the discussion away from this group, but you should look at this other group.

http://backyardmetalcasting.com/forums/ ... d38de7bf92

About a dozen years ago, I tried to set up anoil burner from a home furnace to run used motor oil. I would mix furnace oil about 1/3 with motor oil. fitration was a night mare. I determined that settling the 55gal barrel, straining the collection putting it in and siphoning the clean oil to filter was the best. As gas for me is simple, I abandoned the project without any production.

Add to that fact some busybody turned me in to the County for 'Storing toxic chemicals', it made for even more worries.

The barrier I had to get over was the oil nozzle size and the filtration issues to allow enough pressure for a good burn. I didn't get there.

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Big Dave

Be Alert! The world needs more Lerts.

Umm, forgot to mention, at the time I saw a Web site with such an oil brurner, blowing into a brick pile, for an art class, and they were pouring iron into lost foam molds. Pretty inspiring. All temporary. Pretty dangerous looking, but it was working where my stuff was not.

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Big Dave

Be Alert! The world needs more Lerts.

Sounds like this is a road not frequently taken. Im not trying to use old oil so filtering is not required. I just have a spare oil burner and was wondering if I could use it. I have oil heat in the house which means I have a large supply of oil around. I was hoping to get a few tips. Ill keep everyone up to date on anything I find.
Thanks
wm

I for one would be interested in the results of your trail. My Ideas often revolve around the nostrum of getting something for free, and that is sometimes the biggest limits one would run up against.

Get a slide rule and figure the open BTU value for your burner, the fuel use per hour and the 1/5 value for its input use, and see what it costs per hour to run. 20 % efficiency may be a bit high, but will get you in the ball park. Furnace oil is still about $2 and change in bulk delivery, I got used oil for the asking, or could buy mixed fuels for .30 per gallon in drum from a handler. That was my interest in using cheap fuel.

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Big Dave

Be Alert! The world needs more Lerts.

I got the burner off of a old furnace that was being replaced. It had a ID plate saying it had an input of 105k btu. The furnace was pretty rough but the burner looked like it had been replaced at one point. I guess the 105k btu is based on the 1.0 gal/hr nozzle. And the best part it, was free.... I knew driving past the dumpster behind the HVAC store would pay off...

upon pondering this old idea, it occured to me that hardware stores used to carry oil furnace nozzles. The oriface size largely determins the burner input rate. So upsizing a few notches would be a good move, as long as you dont outrun the pump capacity.

When using an oil burner into a brick liner it is important to getin close, without letting in cold air around the burner, and not overheat the gun parts themselves, as they will be cooled only by what passes through them. I can see a gun firing through a port, that has glass insulation stuffed around it to limit outside air. This would allow removing the gun for service, or storage.

I lay awake at night thinking these things.

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Big Dave

Be Alert! The world needs more Lerts.

Steve Chastain has written an excellent book on building a tilting furnace that uses an oil burner. It actually will melt about 70 lbs. of aluminum (I believe) in about an hour. I have the book and it is very informative and he has made it work. I will look at some of the details and let you know; he has got it down to the tee. Besides doing the oil burner furnace he also has built a cupola furnace for melting iron and a muller. I want one of these cupola furnaces so bad that it isn't funny.