Vtsteam,
Have you seen this burner?
Comments.
Hi unc1esteve,
1.) I believe what he melted was pot metal, which you can do over even a wood fire -- considerably lower melting point than even aluminum. The door handles he melted were, I believe brass plated over the pot metal. They are cheap and widely available.
2.) oil is overkill for that purpose -- though it can be done. But charcoal briquets would have worked as well and been less dangerous than his particular setup.
3.) The oil delivery pipe was huge, and plastic, and the gate valve oversized and difficult to control. 1/4" copper pipe with a needle valve would have been more appropriate.
4.) No shutoff valve at the oil reservoir. His control valve is his shutoff valve. A fire in this area would prevent interrupting the flow, which is gravity feed instead of siphon.
5.) Oil reservoir located too close to burner.
6.) Furnace looks to be cement -- inadequate for brass melting temps. Okay maybe for pot metal.
7.) water and waste motor oil have very different viscosity, so something that atomizes water may not do well with that kind of oil -- also dependent on temperature. Diesel fuel is more like water in viscosity, if a burner does not work well for waste oil.
The style of burner is standard blown oil pipe. Ironman was one of the earliest users I'm aware of to develop this for small furnaces like ours. Lionel of backyard metalcasting /alloyavenue was a much later popularizer. WC Amen in his book shows earlier incarnations. Steve Chastain gives good engineering info on flares for oil burning, etc, but I think Ironman's is by far the simplest and best developed of these. His pressurizes the oil line, I believe.
The type of burner I use (Kwiky) is also requires a source of pressure, not just a blower. The difference is that the oil is atomized by a air jet -- like a spray gun -- before being mixed with the blower air. I have never tried any other burner so I can't fairly compare mine with any other. It does work, though, and melts iron.
I would like to see the above list of problems corrected by anyone contemplating an oil burner. I don't think it is hard to accomplish a safer system than the one shown, at minimal expense. The most expensive part for doing brass work will probably be the furnace itself, not the burner. Inexpensive hi temp refractories are a challenge to find nowadays. I happened to have firebrick on hand, but also needed fireclay, and good refractory sand. A lot of our local sand has shale and other sedimentary rock in it so isn't very refractory.