Mother's Waste Oil Heater

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[4] There's such a lively market for recycled barrels these days that the drums now some. times cost as much as $7.00 each. Discarded water heaters, however, can be picked up for free by anyone who'll haul 'em away. And when you can get a better product for less money . . . well, why not?

PICK AND CHOOSE AND PLAN AHEAD

Almost any electric water heater tank with a capacity of 30 to 50 gallons should work just fine when converted into a waste oil-burning space heater. Our personal favorite, though, is a 40gallon unit (measuring 20 inches in diameter and 32 inches high): It's easy to handle, makes a goodlooking stove or furnace, and generally comes housed in a square sheet metal cabinet which can be cannibalized quite deftly for some of the oil burner's internal parts.

Needless to say, any junked water heater that you're thinking of recycling should be stripped (of its sheet metal covering and insulation) "in the field" and its tank checked for excessive corrosion or leaks (look for splotches or streaks of rust, usually running from a seam or weld). There's no use hauling a defective container home . . . and then right back to the dump again.

OK. Got a good, sound tank that you like? Fine. Set it up on end and—while referring to the drawings and photos with this article—picture in your mind's eye what it'll look like after it's converted into a furnace. Remember that you'll want the finished product's access door opposite (or as nearly opposite as possible) the tank's seam and all unsightly fittings and element holes.

Bear in mind, too, that there are a great many differences in junked water heater tanks. Some just naturally seem to have all their fittings in the right places ... and others don't. Which may mean that you'll have to wander a little from the design shown here to make any particular recycled container do the job. (This "wandering", of course, can work to your advantage. For Instance: Thanks to an "odd" pipe fitting already on the tank that you see in the accompanying photos when we found it, the only way we could mount a round six-inch-diameter flue stack on our finished furnace was by squeezing the vent pipe until it had a 5 X 7-inch oval cross section. Sure, that was a little more work ... but It certainly gave our stove a custombuilt, "store-bought" look!)

MOTHER MAKES IT EASY!

MOTHER'S research team has purposely designed this waste oil heater as a simple, bolt-together unit that anyone even reasonably familiar with hand (or power) tools should be able to assemble. TIP: If you have-or have access to-a cutting torch and know how to use it, you'll probably find that "burning 'em out" Is the fastest and easiest way to make the metal cuts this project calls for. Otherwise, an electric saber saw—preferably an industrial-duty model—is a mighty handy tool to have (even if you have to rent one a few hours for the going rate of $12 a day).

Start your stove's construction by chalking out all the holes that the accompanying three-view drawings show you'll have to cut in the walls of your salvaged water heater tank, lay the container on its side, and torch or saw out the access door. Then stand the tank upright and cut the holes for the intake and chimney stacks.

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