The Foundry: First Success

2-20-13
Went garage sailing over the weekend and picked up a pressure tank and an air regulator.  Looks like there may be hope for the oil burner.

3-7-13

I tried it with the new tank and IT WORKED.  I AM SO HAPPY I CANNOT CONTAIN MY EXCITEMENT.  The problem with the old tank was it relied on gravity.  Why should I rely on gravity, it is what's preventing me from having my flying bicycle.  The force of the compressed air would stop the oil from coming out, but with this garden sprayer, that is not a problem anymore.

Also it makes the setup a whole lot easier, the only problem is it can only hold 1 gal, and at the rate I burned it today, that would last about 15 minutes.  This time it burned vegetable oil with a little bit of diesel with no problem, just had to get it going with a large wood fire.

Much more simple

Had to cut the hose because of air trap

Starting on wood

With oil

Behold, the bringer of light

With the lid almost on

With the lid on

When I put the lid on this time it stayed lit.  Flames were coming out of the side because there is a little gap between the top of the cement and the top of the furnace shell which I will cut off later.

I could've turned the air up to make the flame hotter and so it wouldn't be so huge, but when I did the flame would get erratic, I'm guessing because the air was coming out so fast it was cooling it down.  Perhaps a blower in addition to this would help.  What I want to do is make a burner that doesn't need a compressor.  

I thought this was funny, as I was pouring water on the hot coals, the heat melted a spout in the styrofoam cup.

CONTINUE TO PART 3 -- New Blower and Iron Melt attempt

BACK TO PART 1 -- Initial Progress and Uncertainty

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