TSilly
03-29-2014, 10:04 PM
Hello,
Last year I did a barrel stove evaporator and had lots of fun boiling off for the first time ever! This year I decided to increase the size of my evaporator because most often I only have time after work and last year that meant boiling until 2am or later. I decided I needed a better tool. After looking around, seeing lots of options, then fine tuning the design planning with these forums I've built my new oil tank evaporator. I 'finished' it today (though it's raining cats-n-dogs outside so I can't test it!) and will hopefully fire it up soon!
Things I thought about:
Maximizing surface area -- I had hope to have 6 full pans on top for a full 10 sq ft of evaporation space but because of shape of the tank and pans there were some limitations so I went with 4 x 4" water steam pans and one large pan in the front that I found at a used kitchen supply locally. Each of the 4 pans is about 12" x 20" = 240 sq in or 960 sq in. The front pan is 15" x 25" = 375 sq in. Together this is right around 9 sq ft which as the rough rule-of-thumb is about 9 gallons/hr.
I built the fire box to work with a rocket stove but wanted to be able to have it be a "normal" firebox as well. My first phase is starting with the rocket stove but eventually will use a combination of perlite/chimney cement to create a high temperature insulation for the firebox, add a grate, and try out burning full logs. If you aren't familiar with rocket stoves all you need is a few minutes on YouTube to help get an idea of what they are about.
Trying to use as much "gathered" items as possible. I also really aimed to maximize using as much of a given object, especially the oil tank so I didn't need to seek additional materials
So far materials worked out like this:
- Used (surplus at local metal shop, Craigslist, Local hardware store): 1/4" 8 in square tubing for rocket stove, perlite/refractory cement, millions of cutting wheels, spool of flux core wire, chimney pipe
- Free (Freecycle, friends, family, Facebook) - oil tank, angle iron, bed frames (more angle iron), steel pipe, borrowed welder
Here are the pictures:
Back view 9501 -- Stack with bucket for preheating in the space before stack
Front view 9502 -- 4 Steam table water pans (slight larger than a full size), one oversize pan (15" x 25")
Front view, pans removed 9503
Video walk through
http://youtu.be/pdzP255fDno
Enjoy!
Cheers - Tom in Leeds, MA
Last year I did a barrel stove evaporator and had lots of fun boiling off for the first time ever! This year I decided to increase the size of my evaporator because most often I only have time after work and last year that meant boiling until 2am or later. I decided I needed a better tool. After looking around, seeing lots of options, then fine tuning the design planning with these forums I've built my new oil tank evaporator. I 'finished' it today (though it's raining cats-n-dogs outside so I can't test it!) and will hopefully fire it up soon!
Things I thought about:
Maximizing surface area -- I had hope to have 6 full pans on top for a full 10 sq ft of evaporation space but because of shape of the tank and pans there were some limitations so I went with 4 x 4" water steam pans and one large pan in the front that I found at a used kitchen supply locally. Each of the 4 pans is about 12" x 20" = 240 sq in or 960 sq in. The front pan is 15" x 25" = 375 sq in. Together this is right around 9 sq ft which as the rough rule-of-thumb is about 9 gallons/hr.
I built the fire box to work with a rocket stove but wanted to be able to have it be a "normal" firebox as well. My first phase is starting with the rocket stove but eventually will use a combination of perlite/chimney cement to create a high temperature insulation for the firebox, add a grate, and try out burning full logs. If you aren't familiar with rocket stoves all you need is a few minutes on YouTube to help get an idea of what they are about.
Trying to use as much "gathered" items as possible. I also really aimed to maximize using as much of a given object, especially the oil tank so I didn't need to seek additional materials
So far materials worked out like this:
- Used (surplus at local metal shop, Craigslist, Local hardware store): 1/4" 8 in square tubing for rocket stove, perlite/refractory cement, millions of cutting wheels, spool of flux core wire, chimney pipe
- Free (Freecycle, friends, family, Facebook) - oil tank, angle iron, bed frames (more angle iron), steel pipe, borrowed welder
Here are the pictures:
Back view 9501 -- Stack with bucket for preheating in the space before stack
Front view 9502 -- 4 Steam table water pans (slight larger than a full size), one oversize pan (15" x 25")
Front view, pans removed 9503
Video walk through
http://youtu.be/pdzP255fDno
Enjoy!
Cheers - Tom in Leeds, MA