A Small wood heater for the Motorhome.

[Bob]

it seams that a Heater was needed to Keep the Kid warm in the Motorhome/converted bus
so I Made one out of an old air compressor tank that was laying out back.
I took off all the fittings I could get off but 2, 1/2"pipe plugs refused to come out
so I left them !...
I made a door much like the door in the woodgas burner but much shorter.
I liked the latch so much on the wood burner that I made one like that on the wood heater too... but for some reason the door doesn't want to close real tight... even though the latch is tight.... I think the door may well have bowed a bit sense I welded the metal square that I cut out from the tank to 1.25" wide bar stock as a door frame... sense I welded it on the inside it bowed inward... so I'll have to smack it with a big hammer and see what that does ! LOL
...
I put the air control on the door sense its such a small tank probably an 8 gal tank
or less... and its a slide with 5 holes drilled in it... the holes line up with holes in the door and with a little movement the slide closes off the holes...
... Only thing left is a damper for the stove pipe, which is 4" stove pipe...
and won't be that hard to make...
...
 I built a fire in it and burned off all the paint on the tank... glad I did because that sucker smoked up a storm !... HAHAHA
...
I remember modifying my wood heater one time and not removing the paint on one of the plates I used... put it in the house and man what a disaster that was... it ran us out in the cold... had the windows and doors all open and every fan in the house on trying to get the smell/smoke out.... that took almost an hour !
... so I learned the hard way ! HAHAHAHAHAHHA.
so who says "ya Kaint teach old dogs new tricks ?" LOL
...
..
So that's what I did for the last 3 days !  <GRIN>
I hope it works ! hehehehehehe
...
Bob......

[Tink]

Bob or anyone who knows anything about grease....

First I wish you all the luck with that heater Bob.

Now, I just tore apart my Kitchen Aid small 4.5 qt. electric mixer that servered me well over the past 20 years but I finally busted a gear in it. I use it for kneeding bread dough and all kinds of heavy duty stuff since I'm an amatur baker. I ordered the part I need but the grease they call for is $17 for a bucket that would last me the next 2 lifetimes. What can I substuite for Benalene 930-2 greese or Shell Durina #2? I've got some Mobil 1 Synthetic Grease that has a 'National Lubercating Institute' rating of NLGI. Do you see any problem with using that instead?
Any advise will be greatly appriciated.
Tink

[randy]

Worked for a place that repaired household appliances, used to melt white vaseline and parifin wax, mixture was 100 parts vaseline to 10 parts wax by weight, melt together mix and cool, worked great, melted in a water bath but I'm sure you could microwave it much quicker.

[Bob]

LOL ! Tink  Just use what ha have on hand... its bound to be better than the junk they put in them at the factory...after all... good grease costs more than the dregs off of bulk oil cans...  and in many cases that's what they call grease !... I'd use a good waterproof grease if it was me, the type ya use in boat trailer wheel bearings... I've used it in drills and grinders and never had a complaint yet....
I used to use the white Lithium grease but I found the waterproof grease works better, its stickier!
...
to each their own.... when in doubt WD-40 it ! LOL
...
Bob....

[Bob]

Tink.... thinking about your Baking  if ya need to mix a big batch of doe try a cement mixer or perhaps a 20hp outboard motor and a 55gal drum with the top cut out....
now you might get Randy to haul a barrel of doe and mix up to where he goes Elk huntin' at , that's sure to mix it up good.... but best to leave out the liquids till ya get it back.... ya wouldn't want it rising on him 1/2 way up the mountain and filling his truck ! LOL
... Just trying to help ya out Tink <GRIN> !
...
hehehehehe
Bob....

[abe]

Your heater reminds me of my neighbor still. He saves oil every time changes his motor oil in his truck.He keeps it in a overhead tank.It pipes down to his boiler.A ball valve on the line controls the fire.A couple of S bends in the exhaust warms the room.A cheep fuel.I asked if he was worried about the EPA catching him. He laughed and said no, but he was worried a little about the sheriff.

[Bob]

hehe !
 Many years ago.... after using a steam/pressure washer at work and being amazed at its power to clean the grime off the Forklifts I had to work on, I decided to see if I could make my own
...I took a coil of copper tubing and hooked it to a water hose through a  nozzle I modified for the task...  but lacking a burner of enough heat capacity (a camp stove don't make it!)
I used the bar-b-q.... sense the garden hose was connected directly to one end of the coil, I just pushed on a vinal tube for a hose on the other end...
there I was standing with my back to the bar-b-q squirting down a bicycle with the hose and man it was working good, and you guessed it the vinal hose popped off and shot me in the butt with scalding Hot water and steam..... needless to say I moved rather fast without having to even think about it.... my feet said run.... and I was along for the ride ! HAHAHA!
that experiment was over...  so I decided to bar-b-q some hamburgers instead !...
I didn't get burned but it wern't fer trying ! LOL
and sense then I've been going to make me a steam cleaner...one with a Propaine burner and  proper high temp outlet hose.... just havn't got around to it yet !.... but I have to admit it would be nice to have to clean off the tractor or any of the stuff around here...Humm.
 ....
Abe .. I made a Oil Reclamer back in the 1980's from plans in MEN.... it was a PVC pipe tube arangement that had a light bulb under it for heat... and a needle valve to restrict the flow out.... and about 4 rolls of torlet paper down the pvc pipe....
... at the time I used allot of bulk oil in 2 gal tin cans, and after filtering it through that filter it was as good as the oil I was buying... at least ! it filtered out ALL the black
and made it see through to a certain extent once again... I used that oil in my ford Pinto  for about 3 years... same oil, just added a quart now and then to keep the level up....
by the end of that time the oil was getting fairly thick and even changing the filter paper didn't fix it.... so I went looking for oil for the car... I looked at 30wt Pennzoil and it looked like water it was so thin.... looked at Valvoline and it was better, but still fairly thin.... bulk oil was becoming very thick at that time and even though it said 30wt I'm sure it was closer to 80wt!...... so I bought 40 wt Valvoline and I gave the oil filter to a friend of mine when I moved....been using 40wt Valvoline every sense... because I got talking to the guy stocking the shelves on the oil racks and come to find out he was purity much an expert on oil.... he used 30wt Valvoline, and I asked about the thinness of the oil and he said well the engine needs thin oil to lubricate all those small parts... and I laughed , I said you must have a newer car Uh ? he said well yah , why do you ask? I said because my cars have 300thousand miles PLUS on them and I need thicker oil just to keep them from flying apart ! and he laughed and said well yah...maybe you should try this and he handed me a bottle of 90wt gear oil ! .... I said laugh if you want but I've been running thicker oil than 30 wt for years and my engines are still running... before I started doing that the best I could get was 150,000 miles... and the engine was totally toast!
he said well sure, you should change the grade of oil as the gar gets broke in, and then at 100K miles and then at every 50k above that... he said that's why most reputable Autoparts stores carry oil up to 60wt ....
 well, I let that sink in and thought about it for a few months and in my 300k miles car that would put me at 50~60wt...(the only oil I can find with those qualities is Valvoline 50~60wt Racing oil...at near $3.00 a quart....and I dislike multi-grade OIL immensely !)
 back in those days changing oil was a science... not a just put in 4 quarts of 5~30wt Quaker state oil, and call it done.
  So I am guessing that the LIFE SPAN of an engine is some time after the 300,000 mile mark
but my experience with Diesels puts that statement down fast where 500,000miles is about average, and a Million miles between overhauls on big rigs are not that unheard of....
so what oil do they run ... well it ain't 30wt at last check <GRIN>
my Step Dad had can after Can of 40wt oil around here for years, and he drove for Puritan Bennett, hauling Nitrous Oxide all over the U.S.A. he put well over 1 million miles Just with them... so I got the idea of using 40wt in everything !...even the lawn mowers ! and Motorcycles ! .... so far so good... been doing that for the last 20 years now ! LOL and I ain't had a sized engine yet...
LOL
...I say sure break in the car using the recomended oil, don't void the warentee...but soon as its out of warentee and broke in switch to 40wt......I did that with our 85'Toyota Tercell
and I parked it when the rods started knocking on startup... at 350,000miles.
I think that's puirty good for a toyota !
 now we have 2 other cars , both toyotas, a Cilica and my Pickup...both have 300k miles on them.
  Both are running 40wt... and I have been trying to get the 50~60wt racing oil for the cilica
sense it has the most miles on it...but I wound up with another case of plane o'l 40wt... so I use that !
LOL
....
hehehe sorry guys , just rambling on again...didn't mean to write a book here ! LOL
...
Bob.......


 

[Manta]

Years back I worked in the middle east. The only oil we could get locally was straight 30 grade. Which was fine in summer.  But in winter we had great difficulty getting the cars to spin over fast enough to start.
The only way around this was to sneak in some multi-grade from across the border.

Manta

[abe]

Dad  told me when I was a kid. Thick oil lubricates the moving parts but slows down the engine.(Bad gas milage).Thin oil the engine runs faster(better gas millage).But more friction. Its (pay me now or pay me later).I've gone to synthetic oil like Royal Purple. Cost a little more but I think it help my gas mileage.  I do remember  one of my first cars a 57 Chevy convertable Belair.It smoked so bad I started buying used oil @ 25 cents a gallon,smoked like a bug sparyer.Gee I miss that car.   HaHaHa.   have a bless day.

[Tink]

Good god what are you guys talking about?

Manta,
That paraphine/vasoline sounds like the ticket but I think I'll use the Mobil 1 syntentic grease I have laying around for now.

Bob,
I've been using Valvoline Max Life 5w30 for years now in my Toy 4x4 with 395,000 miles on it. Anything else I put in it will burn a quart or 2 every 3,000 miles. I've got a donner  to contribute the materials for the outdoor wood fired brick oven so that is my next project when the weather turns warmer. Then I'll need something big enough to kneed enough dough for 12 to 14 loafs of sour dough bread. Talk about using what you have for mixing stuff up, for big gatherings of 200 or 300 people when I have had to make gallons of mashed potatoes I've used that big potato masher they use to mix concrete with I got at Ace hardware years ago.
Tink

[Bob]

WOW i am amazed Tink that the 5~30wt hasn't destroyied the engine !  you must keep it very, very clean!...
 ...
Manta I wish I had that o'l chevy now too !... those were good cars !...
I had a 53 ford pickup that had a 6cyl in it and a colum 4spd shifter... that was a good o'l truck for a ford... but I got it when it had 75k on a rebuilt engine and when I hit 110k to 115k the thing was smoking so bad it was un real I'ed use a quart of oil in and a quart of oil back to town.... I finally got enough funds to put rings in it and rod berrings  because when I tore it down I discovered the rods were gone too... (just under serviceable limits)
so I wound up doing everything but the head....boy did I regret that !within a month it was pumping out oil like a son of a gun.... ran great though but the valve seals were GONE!
.... I wound up selling it or trading it  for some thing... don't remember what!
I had a 53 chevy pickup that was really a workhorse.... I sold it to a guy that I worked on his motorcycle allot...he had to have it !  so what the heck I wasn't using it...
...
i think of all the cars I've had in the past and all the motorcycles... man if I had them now I'd really have a collection... (and a BILL from the DMV like you wouldn't believe ! LOL !)
....
 btw...MY Dad swears by the SYNTHETIC OIL....I haven't had the nerve to try it !
...
...
Bob.......