changing from wood to oil

[morningstarfarm]

just got a smoking deal on a new evap...its alot bigger than planned, but the deal was too good to walk awa from...

SO here is the big question...

the new evap is a 5x12 grimm raised flu...wood...thinking of changing from wood to oil on it..
aside from making a new front...what is involved?
do I need a single gun or should i use two?
how big?

thanks all for your input...

[lew]

Chris, You can use either one or two guns. 2 guns makes it easier to spread the heat width wise. I only use one, but I have only a 5x10 flue pan on that rig. You will have to redesign the fire box. there are specific volumes for an oil fire chamber to make the oil burn efficiently. So you will have to decide how much oil you are going to fire with and design the chamber accordingly. If you can get a hold of an old maple producers manual put by the USDA, they give the dimensions on how to build one. They also show where the gun needs to be located, that is how far off the floor of the arch, how far from the bottom of the pan, how high the back wall needs to be ,ets. A great resource. The information is old, and I am sure there are changes that have been made over the years to POSSIBLY make the fire chambers better, but it is a start.

[802maple]

Besides doing alot of changing from oil to wood and the reverse of that, I happened to have a 5x12 Grimm oilfired, once upon a time, that I made a lot of syrup on. You can go with one oil burner, but the best option is two. Put them 30 inches apart on center and they should be 16 inches on center from the pans down. Insulate the fire box with 2 layers of 8lb 2300 blanket and then put one more additional layer of 8lb 2600 degree blanket on the inside cover the 2300 and you shouldn't be too far off. Carlin 701 burners are what I recommend, but if you can come up with just about any used or new oil burner that will fire up to 10 gallons an hour. You will most likely be the happiest with a total of 16 to 17 gallons an hour of oil usage from both burners, but could go either way from there.

[morningstarfarm]

thanks for the info...

this rig came with a 2' smokestack..do you use the same size stack when going to oil?
thanks, chris

[802maple]

That stack is fine, all you have to do is clear your roof for length. I would get a barometric damper for it or at the very least, put in a butterfly damper.