I enjoyed reading about your set up Norm. Especially the fire shield/
wall.
You may laugh at how innocently I went about this. I had no real
experience with
cabin heaters and imagined them to be intensely hot things like many
wood burners
in a house. I read the installation instructions and then the Coast
Guard Regs and
promptly, avidly, began violating the prime rule of any shipboard
installation. Overthinking it.
Talk about overkill.
I went to a fabrication shop and had a 3 x2 foot sheet of strong
unpolished stainless steel
wrapped and hemmed in copper that sandwiched asbestos style (kao
wool) blast furnace
insulation between them. I then fastened to my port salon bulhead a
3x2 piece of 1/4 inch concrete
style heat board (that rock material available at Home Depot.) _Then_
I fastened the copper/kaowool/ stainless "shield"
to the 'sheet rock' with 1/2 inch diameter copper pipe spacers that
were cut about an inch long so as to span the two shields
and create a 1 inch air gap between them.
Still concerned, I drilled 1/4 inch air venting holes through each of
these 10 copper pipe pieces to cool the air
I imagined could be trapped and superheated via the fastener. I
attached the Dickenson Newport Diesel to the
copper amalgamated super shield and was done. (or so I naively
thought at the time. I had yet to experience
the simpler matter of connecting a gravity feed...)
The result? A total waste of time and money. There's hardly any heat
to speak of at the back of a pot burner stove.
It all radiates upwards.
I am in a lucky position tho as it turns out. If a nuclear weapon
should explode astern- the captain can deploy into the portside head
behind my Maginot Line and feel impervious to gamma radiation, or
really anything at all, as the ship retreats down range.
Caleb
On Oct 19, 2007, at 1:31 PM, Norm of Bandersnatch wrote:
I had a similar setup many years ago.
I had a drip feed diesel cabin heater in my living quarters. The
heater was mounted on a piece of 3/4" plywood with a sheet metal
baffle with air spaces to stop radiated heat to the plywood.
The fuel supply consisted of two former lube oil containers on the
same bulkhead which I filled with diesel oil with an electric pump
to fill the reservoirs from the main fuel tanks. The containers
were about a liter and a half and situated on the plywood a couple
of inches above the needle valve on each side of the exhaust stack
with sheet metal baffles between the stack and the reservoirs.
The metering valve consisted of a needle valve and sight glass to
view the dripping fuel oil. One would adjust the drip with the
needle valve to adjust the fire.
The first problem was that the valve was sandwiched between the
fire box and the outer shield or cabinet. The heat of the fire
warmed the valve and fuel inside it thinning the fuel so it dripped
faster as the heater got hotter. China Syndrome resulted. When
the burning chamber began glowing bright red I shut it down and
moved the valve to about an inch or so outside the cabinet.
This helped a lot but it still had a tendency to avalanche hotter.
I thought perhaps heat was rising up the 1/4" copper tube between
the valve/sight glass so I put an "S" curve in that pipe.
This worked well and my wife used the heater successfully for one
cold winter in Charleston SC when I was at sea. We only used it
that year because we moved south to Florida shortly thereafter.
In your case I suggest you look into a float valve system. When I
lived in a mobile home the heater was a pot type oil heater. The
oil was stored in a tank outside up on a stand and gravity fed a
float valve chamber much like in a car's carburetor. The float
valve system insured a constant, steady, flow to the fire chamber.
Accidental overflow went out an overflow pipe to outside. There
was a control to increase or decrease flow to the fire chamber
under thermostat control. There was a thermo switch on the fire
chamber that would shut off all oil flow if the chamber
overheated. You might be able to get these parts at a mobile home
supply company.
On your setup you could use your jerry cans to fill a "day tank"
via siphon or pouring into a funnel. The day tank would have a
feed line (with valve and filter) from it's bottom to the float
chamber.
If you have any more questions feel free to ask.
Norm
S/V Bandersnatch
Lying Washington DC
----- Original Message -----
From: caleb crosby
To: [email protected]
Sent: 10/18/2007 1:53:37 PM
Subject: [Liveaboard] gravity feed from a jerry can
Hello,
Cold's coming. I'm wintering aboard my 27 Bristol
in Belfast Maine this year. Last year I installed a
Dickinson heater and used a Nauta flexible tank in the
chain locker/forepeak. It worked, but I was glad to tear it out and
say good bye.
I'm trying to make a 5 gallon jerry can gravity feed the stove with
a primer bulb
but it won't maintain a steady flow rate no matter how I tweak the
vent cap.
I'd like to make the jerry can work because I'll be hauling my diesel
and with two cans I can just switch them out and keep things
simple. Also the jerry can on the roof
near the stove pipe may keep the fuel warmer. last year in Portland
on the coldest nights
the diesel flowed poorly and when you most needed the heat - you
got the least. 50% whack with kero
helped but not enough.
Brrr.
I saw one link on a military jerry can with a spout that _might_ work.
http://www.davidsonproducts.com/gastransit.htm
Anyone have any suggestions for a getting gravity flow out of a
jerry can?
Or can anyone suggest a DIY approach to making a tank affordably.
Many thanks-
caleb crosby
B27
Belfast Hbr.
Maine
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caleb crosby, soc
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calebcrosby.com
207 577 3750
new website coming- Mar 07
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