Heating your shop

[averagef250]

For the amount of work involved I've been horridly disapointed in drip oil burners. I've built a few and they never did that great, maybe I did something wrong. Required constant fiddling too and smoked a lot.

The Beckett route takes no time at all to have a burner that kicks some heat and is very safe. Becketts are usually around $50, a whole furnace isn't much more if someone wants it gone.

BTW, I have a 1500 SQ FT shop that is fully insulated and in 20 degree weather it takes quite a bit of heat to heat the whole thing to 65. Wood always did best since I could stuff the big stove in the morning to get it warm then turn it down to maintain. The oil does a good job, but burns about 2.5 gal/hr to put out the same heat the wood stove would cranked up. When the oil cycles on and off it drops down to very little, probably burns about .8/hr when it's cold out and maintaining temp.

[FreakysFords]

For the amount of work involved I've been horridly disapointed in drip oil burners. I've built a few and they never did that great, maybe I did something wrong. Required constant fiddling too and smoked a lot.

The Beckett route takes no time at all to have a burner that kicks some heat and is very safe. Becketts are usually around $50, a whole furnace isn't much more if someone wants it gone.

BTW, I have a 1500 SQ FT shop that is fully insulated and in 20 degree weather it takes quite a bit of heat to heat the whole thing to 65. Wood always did best since I could stuff the big stove in the morning to get it warm then turn it down to maintain. The oil does a good job, but burns about 2.5 gal/hr to put out the same heat the wood stove would cranked up. When the oil cycles on and off it drops down to very little, probably burns about .8/hr when it's cold out and maintaining temp.

You gotta treat it like a carburetor and adjust it pretty much the same. The main thing is to think of it like a air pump (former crew chief, so I think of it like a jet engine). Once you've got your air flow optimized, then get your burner plate right. THEN work on getting flow right. Start rich on fire-up and adjust down to so lean that the fire goes out between each drop and relights the next. Keeps both heaters glowing red and puts out tons of heat.
BUT that is the catch, it takes some work to get it right. Quite a bit admittedly, but I never really minded.

I use a piece of galvanized pipe between the gate valve adjuster and the shut off, so that when you turn on the sys, it dumps the right amount for a start. I've also taken to force feeding them AFTER I get them dialed in.

Having typed all that, if I were in an area where oil furnaces were available, I'd think that'd be a much easier route, but having never messed with one, ....... ah well.

[thebannister8]

a little space heater...it's california

[warponyxlt]

a giant wood stove in a one truck garage works for me it has a air chuck setup to get er going also there is a hole on the side of the fire box that lets air in from the blower so it is really super charged. I burn wood,oil cans and most of the burnable house hold waste and junk from the yard all it takes is about 5 to 7 3ft logs to fill it up for about 3 hours to get it at least 50 degrees. But this is NORTHERN NORTH DAKOTA where wind chills can get to 50 below then it is useless to make a fire. I burn wood in the house to its the main heat source just gotta go cut it and drag it home its hard earned free heat and it does a bushman good

[Supermike]

I wish I could put a wood stove in my garage... unfortunately, mine is attached like Merlin's. May not be the safest, and with all the wagons and bikes and bigwheels and crap, there's not enough space. I am hoping to buy one of these in the future... just remember to keep the garage door cracked slightly to let out the gases!

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Heater-Kerosen ... pd_sbs_k_2

[scott123]

Im a tree hugger.

I hug the cut up pieces of trees to load them into my truck so I can split it and throw it in the pot bellied stove.

I love animals too, I believe there is room for all of gods creatures on this earth..............

right next to the mash taters!

[Merlin68F100]

I use a kerosen heater now. I did put a carbon monoxide detector in the garage. That is a poison that you can accumulate over time so it's worth a couple bucks to have.

[Ranchero50]

After spending a couple months with by new to me hot air furnace I love it and would recommend it over just about anything. Only downside is getting 10gal of oil every other month and I've mixed the waste oil a bit thick twice, 20% is just too thick to ignite cold. Even now that it's warming up some I still go in a flick the thermostat up to 75 and the garage is T shirt warm in five minutes. Highly recommended.

My wood stove / oil burner got out of control and almost burnt down the garage... Very bad... I'll never mess with another because it was just too much of a pain to keep the fuel flow right and the needle valve would gum up all the time.

Jamie

[averagef250]

You don't have to live in an area with oil furnaces to get a becket head. They are used in tons of stuff from steam cleaners to agricultural equipment.

I bought a few of them for $100 at first to play with then I ended up finding out how common they are and fell into them by the dozen for free. I have so many I'm considering scrapping some of the older ones that I'm not going to use for anything.

There's nothing really to the things, you could build one from scratch if you had a nozzle, but buying one is much easier and the whole shebang is a pretty nice little package with the ignitor and safety flameout timer built in.

My waste oil cracking tower runs off a beckett converted to cartidge heated siphon feed. I have around $500 total into that burner but it will burn anything, you could burn road tar in it, no joke. I have no idea the actual BTU's it's capable of, but I'd say it puts out 4-5 times the capacity of a typical furnace beckett at 20 PSI. I heat 50 GPH cold oil to 700 degrees with it at 5 PSI air pressure which a pressure fed one will not do.

[warponyxlt]

my boss got a new lanair waste oil heater it costed about 3300 bucks but it holds 400 gallons of oil and will heat the shop to hot in about half an hour this is a shop that can fit three semi trucks in it to it works good its about 12 feet high and uses compressed air to atomize the oil its just about right for the application no more wood and propane heat there used oil is pretty much free and a great way to dispose of it too

[chiggerranch69]

I got a used electric forced air central heat unit from a friend. Just gut it except for the heat strip, housing, and blower motor, build a housing on top with a couple of vents, and mount the base on casters. Call a HVAC contractor and you could probably get a used one for under $100. You need a pretty heavy duty extension cord, most units are 220V. It also works good in the summer with the heat strip off; kinda localized air though.

Chiggerranch69
1969 F100 LWB Stepside

[SteveC]

i got 2 1000 watt space heaters that i move around the shop as needed ... a little 24x24 foot garage those suckers heat it up pretty good for what i like... anything above 55 and im good to go.

[fordman]

i have a heavy winter coat. nothing else.

[robroy]

Are you guys ever concerned about spraying solvents in your shop with a heat source like that around? Or do you strictly avoid such things when the heat's going?

Robroy

[eggman918]

Are you guys ever concerned about spraying solvents in your shop with a heat source like that around? Or do you strictly avoid such things when the heat's going?

Robroy

I use wood stove. In opposite corner of shop i have exhaust fan any flammables ONLY in that section with fan on,not perfect but so far so good It helps save brain cells to