Burn your used motor oil

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I mechanic down the road from me has a big long box stove from 1970 it uses fuel oil to get going then you can put in a entire 5ft log ! One 50 gallon drum lasts him a year. I am not saying its safe but they do exist, you wouldn't catch me dead because of those oil starters. its down right scary!

Pete
 
True story-a friend of mine had one in his shop, started a fire and set the drip, building warmed up and oil started to flow faster, by a stroke of luck he caught it in time but the stove was cherry red, he took it out shortly after that.
 
My dad works in a big rig garage that has a homade woodstove/waste oil stove. They have been running it there for over 15 years. They burn 5' junks of wood in it & there is a old oil burner on the front door with a drilled out nozzle in it.
 
That is crazy. I can not imagine endangering my family just because I did not want to put some fire-starters in or get my hands dirty with paper...
 
People do lots of very dangerous things in spite of having a family. Our last house had the whole kitchen's 120v circuits run off of a 40 amp feed meant for an oven with no lower amperage fuses in between.
 
Crazy,,,,,,, not really ! A NG furnace with an unlimited supply is far more dangerous if a house were to catch fire.
I'd want a couple valves on there instead of one. Wood I rig one up in my house like this ? NO
FLAME ON !
 
The real question is what happens inside the firebox. Surely the copper line doesn't just end there or the oil would just run down the back wall and into the ash. People have been doing this for a long long time. Haven't you folks ever heard of a waste oil burner?

Not in the living room for me, but out in the shop/garage where even a woodburner is illegal you tend to consider trying things.
 
Highbeam said:
The real question is what happens inside the firebox. Surely the copper line doesn't just end there or the oil would just run down the back wall and into the ash. People have been doing this for a long long time. Haven't you folks ever heard of a waste oil burner?

Not in the living room for me, but out in the shop/garage where even a woodburner is illegal you tend to consider trying things.

Prolly modified with a piece of angle to drip down.
 
Dry wood?? Wazzat?
 
The way I read this post was used motor oil. I know that some older cars/trucks gas can get in to the oil and that would not be good.
 
oldspark said:
True story-a friend of mine had one in his shop, started a fire and set the drip, building warmed up and oil started to flow faster, by a stroke of luck he caught it in time but the stove was cherry red, he took it out shortly after that.

I've heard this same exact story a dozen times from people around here. Usually a home-made /barrel stove.
 
Amazing what people do and come up with for solutions . . . when just seasoning the wood and using some decent kindling or fire starters would do the trick a lot safer, cleaner and easier . . . and cheaper.
 
I think the whole "firewood starter" angle was just marketing. He could have just as easily pumped up the green heat, or waste disposal angles.
 
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