Help with making arch out of fuel tank

[huntingken111]

What is the best and safest way to cut a fuel tank to make an arch not sure how long it has been empty?

[buxtonboiler]

I used a sawzall on mine. Worked good. keep a fire extinguisher nearby, just in case.

[psparr]

It probably won't catch fire. Very hard to ignite fuel oil.

[marktripp]

I used a cut wheel on a grinder, no problem with fire. When I started welding, that was a different story. Do yourself a favor and pressure wash it once you cut it open.

[Spartazoo]

sawzall worked great for me.

[huntingken111]

Thanks how high do you cut off the ground or do you cut it half whatever i cut off I want to make it longer and do you also need insulation and fire bricks and do you line bottom with fire bricks under the grate sorry just would like to do it right. one more dumb question if you had to do over would you make any changes

[garyp]

You don't have to add fire bricks or insulation but 1 it gets very hot on the outside of the tank and you will go through a lot more wood with out it ,I don't have any in mine but next year I will
Changes on my oil tank I would make is leaving a foot (12'')behind my pan for a preheater pan

[eustis22]

I would line with both firebrick AND ceramic blanket.....you want the heat to stay INSIDE, not bleed thru the walls...I know I can touch the walls of mine with barehand and not get burned. if you can't get ceramic blanket, use archboard. Refractory cement to fix your bricks...line bottom and walls with the brick, walls with archboard/blanket then brick.

6933

[marktripp]

Thanks how high do you cut off the ground or do you cut it half whatever i cut off I want to make it longer and do you also need insulation and fire bricks and do you line bottom with fire bricks under the grate sorry just would like to do it right. one more dumb question if you had to do over would you make any changes

I'm not done and haven't fired mine so changes I'm not sure but this is my plan. 6931
6932
I have a 36"x27"x18.5" fire box. Once it's lined it will be 34"x23"x16". I'm putting 1" fire board on the walls then 1.25 fire brick, on my grate I'm going to put rows of full thickness fire brick leaving spaces for air to come up and ashes go down. As of right now I'm trying to determine the best height to have the rear of the unit(above the firebox) I'm thinking around 2 inches I can always add more brick to make it less if its better. I'm going to put a pre-pre heating pan on the back on the round part in front of the stove pipe. Hope that helps I've been soliciting help from all I can as well! Good sources here! Good luck!

[huntingken111]

ok on ebay they have 1/2 thick and one inch thick, and some rated to 2300 degrees what do I get

[marktripp]

ok on ebay they have 1/2 thick and one inch thick, and some rated to 2300 degrees what do I get

I don't know the answer, I'm buying mine locally and there was no option other than 1/2 or whole and the board was only one option.

[Twindadx2]

Hey there,

I just cut my oil tanl last week. I leveled it and used a laser level to get straight lines around the oil tank. Then traced over the laser level lines with a black marker and long board. I used a sawzall and bought the milwaukee torch blades that were on sale at Canadian tire. I was surprised how easy and fast it was. I had the whole thing cut out in under 20 minutes and the blade looked like brand new still when I was done! I did fill the tank with inert gas (exhaust from atv) just to be on the safe side. When I was done I wiped out as much fuel oil that was left and loaded it with some firewood to burn all the residual oil out of it. I left it for the afternoon to burn off, now I am ready to weld it up.

Hope this helps a bit! Lots of different ideas out here.

[Johnny Yooper]

huntingken,

Like most have mentioned, I too, used a reciprocating saw to cut my oil tank, made a 2 by 4 foot opening, there was about a cup or so of sludge inside and wiped that out best I could, then moved it outside, set it on the snowy ground and applied gasoline to the interior surfaces and lit 'er up to burn out any remaining fuel oil and such, interior was pretty clean after that. A couple years ago, I made my first evaporator out of a very old water tank, heavy wall thickness so holds up well, fitted a 16"x24" pan on top and made 16+ quarts on it that season; it was not insulated and very inefficient but on the plus side it kept the shack warm. Looking to increase efficiency, I went with insulating my oil tank version .....placed some sheet steel inside angling outwards toward the opening at the top to serve as backing surface for 1" archboard, then stacked firebrick against the archboard; with the outward angle I don't need to mortar the bricks in place; hope to fire it up within a week or so to see how she does. Hope this gives you some ideas, keep reading on this site, there are a lot of great plans and ideas people are willing to share. Good Luck this season.

[huntingken111]

I bought my tank for $50 off craigslist and got it cut an butned out last night. I was going to use some old bed frame angle iron I bought fo $10 ( 2 twin size) My problem is my 2 x 4 measures 24 inches wide and inside opening of tank is 27 inches I'm thinking of welding two pieces of angle iron togather so I have about one inch of pan supported per side was wondering what some of you opthers did to make a 24 inch pan work

[huntingken111]

Also thanks for all the advice and there is awsome advice on here one other question is do you guys clean your pan everyday when done and if so how. I will post pics soon Yesterday went to menards and they had chimney things on sale I bought a 55 gallon drum kit to make a stove with chimney and door on it and it works awsome curve on chimney start had curve same as top as tank.

[Spartazoo]

Fresh off bricking mine... I can tell you that you will need about 70 half bricks.

[huntingken111]

That sounds expensive. I have read on here to use fire board all over or fiber insulation and then just need to brick where fire pot is any thoughts on that

[Spartazoo]

Bought mine at Consumers concrete in Kalamazoo. Funny story... When I was loading them in my truck, the yard guy asked me what the hell was going on because I was the fourth guy there that day buying firebricks. LOL

[huntingken111]

Thanks not far from middleville how much a brick are they?

[Spartazoo]

Thanks not far from middleville how much a brick are they?

Half Bricks were like $1.52 each.