Well, this is a Temperate Zone

Take a look outside. Do you see coconut trees? If not, you likely live in a temperate zone. You clearly get your coconuts via migratory swallow. Living in a temperate zone, you also likely have some kind of heating appliance in your home. A lot of the world's population lives in the temperate zone, and we have designed all manner of heating devices. I built one to run on waste veggie oil!

Heaters, across the centuries, have leveraged many types of fuel and heat exchange concepts. Many things burn. As we progress solidly through the petroleum age, the geopolitical and environmental impact of fuel and its procurement and use comprises a central theme of the planet's population. I have opted to try and offset my petroleum use directly. Plus, I throughly enjoy building stuff to do things. It's an addictive habit to get into.

We named this steampunkesque heater Bender, after an animated robot. First, I must thank the many Youtube WVO/WMO (motor oil) system engineers. In particular, Gerry's Waste Oil Burner and a most enjoyable Aussie who builds some high output burners. Mine is a forced air design, using the pipe in pipe idea to keep the fuel cool until it drips into the combustion chamber. Here is the finished product:

The (almost) finished heater.  Fully functional and heats the space nicely.

The original space had some kind of fireplace in the past. The outer metal flue was still in the roof, and It was really just a matter of coming up with a design. After some revisions, I decided on building a masonry fire chamber then stacking on two beer kegs.  The surround is cast concrete as well with bike parts embedded into them.  The bike theme adds a nice level of decoration.

Cast in the same way one makes concrete counter tops. After casting, the slab was wet ground.

The inner firebox is made from high temp firebrick with the bottom set on a (not picture) rammed Pearlite base. Normal portland cement will fail in a furnace application so I used a DIY cement mixture based on Sodium Silicate.

Inner half thickness firebrick with a face brick surround.  The air/fuel penetration (on the left)
was also made of perlite/sodium silicate rammed into a form to make a gasket of sorts. You can see the
white chalk line of where the keg will sit.

Detail of the bike themed door segment.  A simple swing latch is used though it's not really needed.
The inner box has a glass furnace gasket to help it seal.

Face brick is built up around the firebrick combustion. In between is a layer of rockwool insulation.  I decided to use old discarded beer kegs as the main body. The bottom keg is nearly full of dense, castable refractory to act as a thermal mass. The mix originated from Marvin Bartel's Soda Kiln project. My mix contained more portalnd as I do not expect to reach internal temps as high as required for a soda link. My mix was roughly as follows:

• Kayanite/Mullite        10 parts
• Portland                      3 parts
• Fire Clay                     2 parts
• Ball Clay                     2 parts

Pool noodles were used as forms for the gas channels. They were wrapped
in discarded window plastic and enabled the noodles to slide out easily.
This view is the bottom and will have direct flame from the combustion chamber.

The top keg is open with 5 stainless steel tubes running through that make up a forced air heat exchanger.  The top is a 6" steel pipe section placed on a reclaimed cast iron stove top that then accepts a single wall black steel flue pipe. I worked in a flue damper and added more bike parts to spice up the otherwise plain flue link. The black flue pipe is wrapped in rockwool for the area that penetrates the roof.  Combustion air is gathered from the space between the black flue and the 12" chimney pipe above the insulation.  As combustion air is sucked in it picks up some of the heat off of the outside of the 6" flue pipe.

All in all, it works.  The needle valve and oil feed have some air bubble issues that takes a bit of fiddling after refilling the tank but it's all part of the fun. Please take a peak at the video of the system running full out.