Waste Oil Forge

This instructable will take you through he steps necessary to constructing a waste oil forge and lighting it. The forge takes in oil, atomizes it, and injects it into a combustion chamber along with a steady stream of air (provided by an electric leaf blower in my case). The oil will vaporize in the combustion chamber and ignite generating enough heat to melt aluminum, brass, iron, and potentially hot enough to fuse low-temp ceramics. The beauty of this machine is it’s almost as cheap to build as it is to run. I was able to construct mine out of some scrap metal and about 30 dollars worth of hardware supplies, no welding required! Additionally this forge should be able to accept a wide range of fuels, I primarily ran mine off of used fryer oil I collected from the bins behind restaurants, but I’ve found that this thing will readily burn; used motor oil, hydraulic oil, melted candle wax, even warm bacon grease. While some fuels work a little better than others, as long as it’s a liquid hydrocarbon this forge will eat it and give you tons of heat.

 WARNING: This beast is dangerous! Your dealing with hot oil and temperatures exceeding 2700 degrees Fahrenheit, so, do it outdoors away from structures and anything flammable. Never leave this thing running unattended even for a minute, don’t even turn your back on it. Keep in mind, WATER MAKES OIL FIRES WORSE! Way worse, so have a fire extinguisher ready. Wear dense clothing you can take off quickly.  And lastly, keep your distance when your not working with it, of course you’ll have to mess with it some while its running, but limit your time around it and you’ll limit your chances of getting a burn. 

Step 1 Necessary Parts

First off I don’t expect you to be able to find the exact same parts as I did to create this forge, as long as you have the same essential parts and you have modeled the right shape for the combustion chamber it’ll work, there are a dozen different ways to build this. Ill tell you what I used to give you an idea:

-A Steel container: for the body of the forge, I used a scrap L-joint from a metal fireplace duct. The inside must have a diameter of about 1 foot doesnt even need to be cylindrical as long as it houses the combustion chamber with plenty of room for insulation

-A Blower: I used an cheesy electric leaf blower bought from ebay for like 3$ no good for yard work but perfect for this project

-Threaded metal pipe 1-1.5 in dia (it must fit the blower’s exit-tube diameter) must be at least 2 feet long.

-Another threaded pipe same diameter between 3 and 5 in long

-A two-ended threaded female connector to fit the pipes

-Materials for paper mache (newspaper, glue, cardboard, etc.)

-An Atomizer: something to create a constant spray and will accept oil, I used a generic garden sprayer, an airbrush tip gravity fed from a raised tank would work fine.

-Heat gun

-Refractory: at least 2-4 square ft. depending on the size and shape of your forge. this is the heat proof material that is poured and sets like concrete, there are several options for getting refractory, the easiest and more expensive option is to simply buy a refractory mix, either from a fireplace supply store or an online supply. It needs to be rated to withstand temperatures of at least 3100 degrees Fahrenheit. You can also make your own refractory, there are several DIY pages that can walk you through this step.

-Funnel and cheese cloth: you use this to filter the waste oil before it goes into the sprayer (fryer oil tends to have "chunks") the debris will quickly clot spray nozzle otherwise
 

Comments

[jdaley99702]

Wow I suppose I may have a use for the 55 gallon drum of used race car oil now! Thanks

[the doctor who]

i like your oil forg