Let's start at the beginning. This is the G1 (generation one) of this "box" type waste oil burner. It's body is a simple folded sheetmetal box. A paper and wood fire is started in the burner's chamber and the oil drizzles in. The air blower blasts the oil into droplets that ignite off the wood fire. By the time the wood burns away the burner is hot enough to be self sustaining off the oil. A basic ball valve controls the oil rate and the oil just drizzles in front of the air blast out the end of the fuel line. It's dead simple and crude, but was "state-of-the-art" for me back in 2002.
Here is the sheetmetal shell for the G1 burner. This is a vintage photo from 2002 that I pulled from the vault. You can say that this is the great grandfather of the G5 design. To be politically correct you might instead call it the great grandmother if you choose. I have to admit that when I built this form I just knew that the burner would work. I mean how can't it, start a fire in a chamber feed it with flammable liquid and blow some fresh air into it to keep it burning and the flame blasting out the exit...
Here you can see that the refractory is simply rammed into the shell just like when making a furnace. The form used to create the chamber is 4" diameter.
Here is an old rough diagram I found of the G1 burner.
Here is the empty sheetmetal shell for the G2 burner. It's ready for refractory.
This is the G2's shell nearly filled with refractory. Notice a cardboard form is used to leave the central chamber hollow (like building a furnace). The ports have cardboard tubes as well. They of course burn out when the burner is first fired. I had rebuilt the G2 burner more than once so I could experiment with inner chambers of different shapes to compare combustion characteristics. If you look at the side of the shell you may be able to tell that it is painted black already (except for the new flame port). This photo is of one of the rebuilds.
Here is the primitive intake "manifold" system for the G2 burner. Nothing more than some fittings. The 90° reducing elbow was to provide a crude venturi effect for the oil to enter into. Needless to say the performance was lacking so with the G4 I began making custom built intake manifolds.
Here is the rear of the G2. The G2 made the G1 obsolete because it is slightly smaller and it has steel ports for the blower to attach and the oil to enter. The port at the bottom was used for ignition. I'd load wood and paper into the burner chamber from here and ignite it to get the burner hot. The wood fire would then ignite the oil. One bad thing is that the void created by the port disturbed the air flow inside the burner messing up the flame. And it got hot. On top of that a vertically standing burner like the G1 and this G2 has a worse flaw. The flame is created at the bottom of the burner chamber, then it has to rise up and exit the burner chamber perpendicularly. I considered this orientation a contradiction to simplicity...
...Thus I designed the G4 burner. It is basically a G2 burner on it's side. The flame blows straight out of the burner in a straight line. It doesn't need to turn any corners or angles thusly allowing the heat to easily enter the furnace rather than be absorbed by the burner's refractory. Additionally I further improved the oil and air mixing by producing a special "intake manifold" So the oil is broken up more finely. Notice I didn't mention the G3 burner. It was simply a G2 with an integrated refractory intake manifold. It was crap.
Here is a diagram illustrating the differences between the burner orientation of the G2 and the G4 burners. Notice how easily the flame can exit the burner and enter the furnace. The faster the flame exits the burner the more heat there will be to melt the metal. Rather than it being wasted by being absorbed by the burner. Go to the; Previous page -- Next page.