Marcia Selsor on mon 10 jul 06
Dennis Parks in Tuscarora, Nevada has been firing with vegetable oil
from fast food restaurants in Elko Nevada for years. He lives 50
miles north in tuscarora.
I think you should call him up and ask his advise. Do so in the
evening before 8. He is up at 4 am for walks.
Marcia Selsor
On Jul 10, 2006, at 6:47 PM, Murry Gans wrote:
> I have stumbled onto a source of free, used vegetable oil and have
> been looking into using it to fire my kiln. Can anyone tell me how
> much smoke and smell is going to be involved? Is this something I
> can do in my backyard in the suburbs?
>
> Thanks in advance for any information you can give me.
>
> Murry Gans
> Irving, Texas
Marcia Selsor
http://marciaselsor.com
pdp1@EARTHLINK.NET on mon 10 jul 06
Hi Murry,
There should be no smoke or smell...or, so long as
you are doing it right anyway.
I lost all my links on this topic, or I would
share them!
But others here, I hope will have some links as
well as having personal experience to share.
This is my intention also, for a Kiln, a shop
Heater, and ultimately a Stationary Engine for
powering various things.
Do some 'googles' too, and read up.
It is a great idea and method, and should be very
satisfying to do.
Phil
Las Vegas
----- Original Message -----
From: "Murry Gans"
I have stumbled onto a source of free, used
vegetable oil and have been looking into using it
to fire my kiln. Can anyone tell me how much
smoke and smell is going to be involved? Is this
something I can do in my backyard in the suburbs?
Thanks in advance for any information you can give
me.
Murry Gans
Irving, Texas
Joseph Herbert on mon 10 jul 06
Murry,
A fellow Irving-ite! (Irvingarian?) Soon to be the former home of the
North Central Texas Regional Football Cowboys. They haven't actually played
in Dallas since '68, ya know.
Guessing from the people who burn veg. oil in engines, you might have to go
to some trouble to avoid complaints from neighbors. If you just use a
drip-on-a-hot plate system, like that found in some revered kiln books
(which Mel trashed earlier in the day) you will probably get lots of smoke
(at least early) and a good deal of smell. If you go toward a powered oil
burner with a pressure atomization system, then serious filtering (pressure
filtering) of the oil will be required to keep from clogging the orifice of
the burner with the occasional lost shrimp tail. You will get much better
control of the combustion process and, consequently, less smoke. If you can
keep the smoke down, you could probably pass the smell off as aroma drift
from the Frito-Lay factory. But not if you live in Valley Ranch.
engine Oil recyclers pressure filter much nastier oil than what you are
faced with. You might be able to get some better information there. The
fuel may be free, but it will cost something to be able to use it
effectively. If it is a good long term fuel supply and the neighbors are
not too sensitive, the expense for the equipment should be easily recouped.
Good Luck,
Joseph Herbert
Murry Gans on mon 10 jul 06
I have stumbled onto a source of free, used vegetable oil and have been loo=
king into using it to fire my kiln. Can anyone tell me how much smoke and =
smell is going to be involved? Is this something I can do in my backyard i=
n the suburbs?
=20
Thanks in advance for any information you can give me.
=20
Murry Gans
Irving, Texas
_________________________________________________________________
Try Live.com: where your online world comes together - with news, sports, w=
eather, and much more.
http://www.live.com/getstarted=
Eric Suchman on tue 11 jul 06
Check this link out by John Britt..
> http://www.ceramicsmonthly.org/cmpc/richcontent/apr03_3941.pdf
On Jul 10, 2006, at 10:15 PM, Joseph Herbert wrote:
> Murry,
>
> A fellow Irving-ite! (Irvingarian?) Soon to be the former home of
> the
> North Central Texas Regional Football Cowboys. They haven't
> actually played
> in Dallas since '68, ya know.
>
> Guessing from the people who burn veg. oil in engines, you might
> have to go
> to some trouble to avoid complaints from neighbors. If you just use a
> drip-on-a-hot plate system, like that found in some revered kiln books
> (which Mel trashed earlier in the day) you will probably get lots
> of smoke
> (at least early) and a good deal of smell. If you go toward a
> powered oil
> burner with a pressure atomization system, then serious filtering
> (pressure
> filtering) of the oil will be required to keep from clogging the
> orifice of
> the burner with the occasional lost shrimp tail. You will get much
> better
> control of the combustion process and, consequently, less smoke.
> If you can
> keep the smoke down, you could probably pass the smell off as aroma
> drift
> from the Frito-Lay factory. But not if you live in Valley Ranch.
>
> engine Oil recyclers pressure filter much nastier oil than what you
> are
> faced with. You might be able to get some better information
> there. The
> fuel may be free, but it will cost something to be able to use it
> effectively. If it is a good long term fuel supply and the
> neighbors are
> not too sensitive, the expense for the equipment should be easily
> recouped.
>
> Good Luck,
>
> Joseph Herbert
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
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Ben Shelton on tue 11 jul 06
Please look at this sight by potter Paul Borian.
Nice guy and really smart too.
There is a lot involved but it is doable.
http://www.blanketcreekpottery.com/aboutthekiln.htm
Ben
Paul Borian on tue 11 jul 06
Veggie ... it's a gas
grab that grease with both hands
and make a stash
No smoke (unless the fuel/air ratio goes off too far) and no smell at all
unless you run it in a diesel, currently being done in at least 100,000
trucks and cars at the moment plus a growing number of tractor trailers and
other fleet trucks, which leads to my main point here: the grease left
behind by retaurants is gold and the days are quickly coming to an end
where most people do not know this. So take all you can get now while you
can, otherwise you can be that your neighbor's $50,000 powerstroke crew cab
truck will have a $6000, computer controlled frybrid kit in it next year
enabling him to run off with the grease you could be firing with.
The companies that sell veg oil conversion kits for diesels have some of
the hottest items on the market and their phones ring continuously for 40
hours a week - that's how high the demand is for grease. It is not a very
hard choice: pay up to $4 gallon at the pump for diesel or drive behind a
restaurant and take a nice sip out of a 400 gallon container full of it...
The diesel/veggie thing is quickly becoming a rich man's game, due to the
high cost of modern diesels and the kits that convert them, plus the very
high resale value of anything with a diesel engine, whether it runs or not,
and of course the cost of maintaining them.
I am getting ready for firing #18 to cone 11 in my 70 cubic foot kiln
entirely with grease (plus a little motor oil, ATF or whatever else i get
my hands for free that burns) and by the end of this year i will have saved
at least $3500 on kiln fuel and road fuel for my diesel step van (which i
have not bought diesel for about 15,000 miles now at 10 mph fuel economy).
I invested about half of that in advertising for my wholesale business and
pretty much doubled my sales as a result while at the same time cut my
production expenses in half. The rest of the money i save goes into clay
and glazes and or course maintenace of the van and kiln.
My point here is certainly not to talk about how smart i am for doing this,
or to say that you should certainly do this. All i am saying is that i
realized one day that getting strangled by an oil shiekh was not part of my
agenda so i set out to do something about it. At a Dead show about 12 years
ago i heard of some folks running grease in VW busses but never followed up
on the idea until about 2 years ago when i realized the concept had gone
mainstream, then i realized it was "now or never" to do something before it
got too late. So i took action immediately, put a lot of time into
converting a van (plus learning to do all the other maintenance myself) and
then converting the kiln. You basically need a pair of home heating oil
burners, special nozzles, a special flame retention head (available from
Kagi Heating in Spokane) and a special stainless steel mesh, cleanable
hydraulic return line filter made by Lenz and sold also by Kagi; plus a
long list of pipe and fittings, some barrels, float switches, at least one
small pump and a few more off the shelf items from McMaster-Carr. It would
be hard to pull the whole thing off for less than a grand - but just one LP
forced air burner from Ward or Axner cost a lot more than that, plus a life
long gas habit to cultivate.
If you can get the grease, by all means, grab it and make a stash - in
barrels, jugs, or whatever (but NOT in your house or garage) and then
figure out how/what to do with it.
I could tell you everything you need to know to do it, but i don't have
time at the moment especially since i can not tell you whether or not you
should do it. But if you do decide to go for it, i can definitly save you A
LOT of time and probably some money too.
I would way rather see potters get their hands on what's left of the grease
than people with pickup trucks that belch more black smoke than semi's and
with stickers across the windshield that say "Stroke this Cummins"
especially since i rarely see pickup trucks around here with more than a
couple hundred pounds of cargo in the back anyway, and you don't need 400
HP for that kind of a load...
I'm in the high fidelity
first class travelling set
and i think i'll grease
my Lear jet....
-Paul
Frank Colson on wed 12 jul 06
A self igniting oil (any kind of oil) burner diagram is available "free", to
download on my site: www.R2D2u.com
Go to the bottom of the opening page to find the link!
Frank Colson
www.R2D2u.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ivor and Olive Lewis"
To:
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 11:17 PM
Subject: Re: Firing with Vegetable Oil
Why not get Dennis Parks' book from the library."A Potters Guide to Raw
Glazing and Oil Firing" ISBN 0-273-01498-6. 1980
Well written, well researched, well illustrated for its era and well
presented.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
South Australia.
______________________________________________________________________________
Send postings to clayart@lsv.ceramics.org
You may look at the archives for the list or change your subscription
settings from http://www.ceramics.org/clayart/
Moderator of the list is Mel Jacobson who may be reached at
melpots@pclink.com.
Ivor and Olive Lewis on wed 12 jul 06
Why not get Dennis Parks' book from the library."A Potters Guide to Raw =
Glazing and Oil Firing" ISBN 0-273-01498-6. 1980
Well written, well researched, well illustrated for its era and well =
presented.
Best regards,
Ivor Lewis.
Redhill,
South Australia.
Hank Murrow on wed 12 jul 06
On Jul 11, 2006, at 2:15 PM, Joseph Herbert wrote:
>
> Guessing from the people who burn veg. oil in engines, you might have
> to go
> to some trouble to avoid complaints from neighbors. If you just use a
> drip-on-a-hot plate system, like that found in some revered kiln books
> (which Mel trashed earlier in the day) you will probably get lots of
> smoke
> (at least early) and a good deal of smell.
Hank says:
Yes, it's true that a drip plate system the way the books show it, will
smoke, especially during the early stages of the fire. When completing
my MFA project in '67, I tried reducing the size of the opening that
the plate occupied, winding up with a pair of cast iron plates 4.5"
square and with only 0.5" of air space above them. A couple of oil
soaked pages from the newspaper burning in the chimney provided initial
draft, and the system did not smoke ever. 10 gallons of #2 stove oil
fired a 12 cu ft kiln to cone 10. Cost of the burner was $9 per cast
plate at our local foundry.
Cheers, Hank, just returned from a month in Japan.
www.murrow.biz/hank
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