Recent Posts

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: Waste oil boiler flame head build

Last post by Xeonpony - Today at 01:03:24 PM

Intake screen fabricated

Nozzle may plug once or twice on next batch of testing as any larger fillings may shed off despite best effort to clean but after that no more of that, ideally every thing should settle out long before hitting the screen in real world usage, but that added protection will make life easier down the road, as easier to drain the pot and hit it with a blast of cleaner and back up and running Vs dismantling the head assembly to remove the nozzle!

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: Waste oil boiler flame head build

Last post by Xeonpony - August 20, 2026, 08:48:26 PM

Getting the electronics wired up

System powers up, oil pre-heater starts, upon reaching 80c switch closed with then closes the limit lock out loop enabling the controller

Call for heat comes in:

Blower motor and compressor come on at same time, this is during the pre purge and allows pressure to build in the line. Blower running closes the draft proving switch enabling air solenoid.

Fuel valve called to open, this opens air solenoid allowing pressure to the nozzle, and triggers the air proofing switch.

Air proofing switch on detecting set pressure then allows current to flow to the oil solenoid allowing oil to flow to the oil heater.

things to do is fabricate a nozzle intake screen, fabricate a cover for oil pre heater, and mount the burner mounting flange, install oil pre heater switch

this way should compressor fail there is no oil allowed to flow as a fail save.

Human Power / Re: Bicycle generator to charge your phone

Last post by SparWeb - August 17, 2026, 10:19:42 PM

Watching with interest.
I remember having a wheel-rim dynamo for my bike when I was a kid. It kept a headlight lit, barely, and only while moving forward.

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: Waste oil boiler flame head build

Last post by Xeonpony - August 17, 2026, 08:33:17 PM

Well finally got to the point of a basic functional test, 2h of rechecking adjusting, to figure out the only thing left was the nozzle its self, a .5mm, so removed it, put in a 0.8mm and bang, first cycle caught perfectly.

So need to see if I can salvage the nozzle as this whole system as designed around a .5mm nozzle, other than that every thing worked as intended. so need to do another cold dead start now the nozzle isn't a curve ball.

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: Waste oil boiler flame head build

Last post by Xeonpony - August 17, 2026, 05:19:57 AM

Well got the last few things done, I decided to dismantle and insulate the oil line in the nozzle no pictures of that but just wrapped some fiber glass insulation then used masking tape to make a cover, it tends to hold up well in that application, but should I ever have to take it apart it is a consumable now.

Air adjuster made out of metal from a scrounged shelf, it was perfect gauge and had a nice pattern on it, sloppy cuts I know but function is the name of the game for this.

the oil feed line insulated

Air inlet and proofing switch.

At this point is just the electrical box, getting the wires all hooked up, safeties figured out how to route them as there is 2 independent systems, the oil heater system, that has its on safeties and proofs, then the gun system that will have it's own proofs and safeties. And both need to interact with the controller

the gun assembly needs to be inhibited till the oil is at its operating temp, then I want to lock out air pressure till the blower fan is proven, this will need to be done out side of the controllers logic. This is to ensure we're not spraying oil into the boiler with no combustion air, or spraying oil that can not be ignited. The air proofing switch is a compressor failure monitor, should compressed air fail, it will keep the oil solenoid locked out since no oil being used no reason to allow oil to the pot, it is a fail safe

Over temp, high / low oil level needs to be inside the controllers logic to sound alarm and lock out as fault

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: Waste oil boiler flame head build

Last post by Xeonpony - August 16, 2026, 08:23:12 AM

Well figured out how I will mount the assembly and stared

Ruffing out, think it is looking good.

Seems this is the way to go but how to mount it hard style?

Metal bracket steel rivets, yup I am liking this! Oil tube hooked up.

Now what remains? Combustion air adjuster, this will be very simple to make, just 2 disks with slots cut so they can be finely opened and closed.

The harder thing is the lid for the pot, and then the final compressed air hook up.
Once I figure out how to seal the oil pot up I can insulate it all. as the whole thing needs to hold at 80C apxly as this is the ideal temp for the oil mix I will be burning, if it where straight motor oil I could use a 70c set point

The electronics will be the easier thing, I need to do some test fires and carefully time how long it takes to draw up the oil and establish the flame to program the various delays and safeties into the controller.

The oil supply ended up longer than I'd have liked and I may need to add cartridge heaters to the nozzle assembly. This needs to work reliably at -40c, at current temps the oil will be warm enough, but once cold air starts blowing through the blast tube!!!! and the oil flow is tiny, ideally the combustion heat will keep it going but don't think I can count on it, but then again the combustion air will be from the same room as the boiler so this may just be a cold start issue.

So a few concerns and possible bugs I'll come across yet but this is going well so far. For the cartridge heaters thanks to 3d printing 25w 24v tiny units are widely available, I can run these from the zone control transformer

Human Power / Re: Bicycle generator to charge your phone

Last post by MagnetJuice - August 15, 2026, 08:30:44 PM

I was able to do more work on the generator today.
Here are pictures of the coil spools and the rotor and magnets.

Here is the generator, I assemble it to test the fitting of the parts.

I also got the coil winder ready to go.

Now all I need is find the time to wind the coils and build the stator.

Ed

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: Waste oil boiler flame head build

Last post by Xeonpony - August 14, 2026, 09:01:50 AM

the blast tube ruff out

Once done I will test fire the factory head and try and adjust mine to be as same as possible

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Waste oil boiler flame head build

Last post by Xeonpony - August 14, 2026, 08:57:53 AM

Now that a test rig was built and ran as predicted Now it is time to make the full on unit!

The air mixing plate I welded shims on and trimmed at an angle to hope fulling give the side discharge air some swirl to it and this all so centered the head.

I have to weld on yet a custom electrode support that is lower profile and more range of adjustment

The Nozzle assembly is made much heavier this needs to be insulated yet and a small cartridge heater may be added.

this is just the blast tube, next will be the mounting flange, then blower.

Oil and air feed will be taken of the rear of the blast tube assmbly

Human Power / Bicycle generator to charge your phone

Last post by MagnetJuice - August 13, 2026, 09:58:15 AM

I talk to a lot of people about designing and building generators. One of the first things they usually ask is; “can you build one to charge my phone with a bicycle?”. It seems like a lot of people are interested in that.

So, I decided to build one and post it here so people that are interested can build one themselves.

I am building this little bicycle generator to test it in many ways and collect data. This will be a prototype.

Ultimately, what I want to do is design and build a generator that is optimized specifically to be powered by a regular average bicycle without making any modifications the bicycle. After all, not many people would like to have a bicycle just to run the generator, they would want to be able to ride the bike too.

After I run the tests and collect data, my plan is to design a generator that could be used in an emergency during a power failure. I want this bicycle generator to be able to charge phones quickly, and also to have enough power to run many low power devices that run on 12 volts.

Here are some of the parts that I will be using for this prototype.

I’ll try to get more done this weekend.

Ed

Communications & Internet / Ham radio...

Last post by MaryB - August 07, 2026, 03:45:18 AM

Ham Radio is the ultimate way to stay connected to the world... shortwave gets you state/nation/world wide comms, VHF+ for short haul with average gear, up to 350 miles with more expensive setups and using directional antennas makes it harder to eavesdrop with cheap consumer gear(SSB will not be picked up on an FM scanner!).

Downside is initial expense, a decent shortwave transceiver is $1,100 antennas are simple coax fed wires so not super expensive. Add in a couple $30 2 meter/70cm Baofeng walkie talkies from Amazon for short range(up to 5 miles depending on terrain comms around your area. Or a 2 meter/70cm mobile transceiver($350ish) for the house with a 17' tall base antenna($109ish) for longer range(on flat terrain 60 miles max). Can use the same transceiver in cars for better range when out and about.

Shortwave option https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ft-710-field

Walkie talkies https://www.amazon.com/Baofeng-UV-5R-136-174-400-480Mhz-1800mAh/dp/B074XPB313?crid=3UWAOFFUQQGC3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ZsPGNXvLF_Ez2Fc1Sv3tqxfYwLhm3SIxtfa5Z-TroYQs2XSJ4GhgRV0QHGBH6QDclrVSRa1-JrlPepvQqiC6s64LoLxFWwE8zpxNycqLlGqymz50OAv9z7c-ZdnWSuaFN0z1eYxRb61FQ2m7POacHNqOTdmgj89mnmvbI_akbbouxEUI3sFcJTZhyUx7T_b45kp-5l04BJ4w4bt11P9mw8jxKrybfmznPyr4LzobyDs.CGo4jyzue6A0SaZD5kIKeATY4r9xdkuC5uKCYLJi8iU&dib_tag=se&keywords=Baofeng&qid=1786099175&sprefix=baofeng%2Caps%2C264&sr=8-4

Mobile for cars/house for longer range https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ftm-150r

2m/70cm base antenna https://www.dxengineering.com/parts/ysu-ftm-150r

the above are just examples that are affordable, you can spend a LOT more LOL

my station...

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater

Last post by Xeonpony - August 05, 2026, 07:05:29 PM

Well dug oit an oil level control where the mechanism was beyond repair and the floats where in good shape so there we go

needed some repair, now we need an adjustment screw!

there we go, lets see how it fits

It works,,,,,, but I think we can do better

There we go, much better, soldered the nut to the lever arm, much easier to adjust and gets the float higher up, got a nice burn on the finger on that last modification!

I'll trim the screw once level is set.

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater

Last post by Xeonpony - August 04, 2026, 07:55:02 PM

First float lever worked ok but was too sloppy and needed too much down weight to open the needle valve so remade that part and changed a few things in how it is mounting to allow better fine tuning.

Now it is much tighter with really smooth operation but with enough slop be a very unlikely event of it getting stuck, and the enhanced leverage makes it easy to activate a micro-switch for the low oil cut off

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater

Last post by Xeonpony - August 02, 2026, 01:48:11 PM

oh ya any thing safety wife money is no object.

30 dollar high quality switch is peanuts compared to the farm burning down!

and the system will be tested as well at start and mid season!

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater

Last post by MaryB - August 02, 2026, 06:47:11 AM

Stay away from eBay/chinese switches!!! Failure rate is very very high.

Heating, Cooling, Lighting / Re: My miniture waste oil heater

Last post by Xeonpony - August 01, 2026, 07:06:18 PM

Well after hunting and attempts to repair I have now started the oil prehetaer.

Objective 1 was a pot that was fairly solid with no potential leaks! Well scored!

Heater, ordered a 400 watt one from amazon at 120V.

Salvage the needle valve and modify it for higher flow and custom lever.

Now bowl and heater with 80C snap disk thermostat

Some fine tuning still to be done.

Need to find a float, drill tap and thread in an over flow, and then figure out fail safe system. Goals for that is to fully shut down burner system and pre heater, and sound a siren

Electrical is simple, just the trigger method is bit of heat scratcher, thinking a float / cam system in the receiver bucket for the over flow.

Growing Food & Cooking / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?

Last post by Bruce S - July 27, 2026, 07:46:49 AM

Quote from: dnix71 – on July 23, 2026, 04:40:31 PM

We make our own smoke in south Florida burning Everglades brush Mangoes and passion fruit are done. Ackee is not ripe (opened on its own) yet. Too hot for tomatoes. Avocados are a month away at least.

Stuffing peppers and Hungarian hot are coming in nicely now.
Cousin east of Ocala has tomatoes growing like crazy! Then again she had tomatoes and Jalapeno's growing up around Loveland, CO.

Cheers
Bruce S

Growing Food & Cooking / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?

Last post by dnix71 - July 23, 2026, 04:40:31 PM

We make our own smoke in south Florida burning Everglades brush

Mangoes and passion fruit are done. Ackee is not ripe (opened on its own) yet. Too hot for tomatoes. Avocados are a month away at least.

Growing Food & Cooking / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?

Last post by Bruce S - July 23, 2026, 05:39:44 AM

Peas here flopped. Cherry Tomatoes going crazy , heirlooms doing okay with shade installed.
Pickling cukes got too hot too fast and was only able to can 6 quarts and 6 fridge quarts.
Basil loves the shade of the cherry tom vines so it's doing great.
Squash blossom fed rabbits are in the freezer (after being tested by local Vet). Marsha (marsupial) is great at keeping the squirrels away so she gets house scraps.

Here's hoping everyone in smoke path is doing okay.

Cheers
Bruce S

Growing Food & Cooking / Re: 2026 garden season, what are you growing?

Last post by MaryB - July 22, 2026, 05:26:56 AM

No smoke in my end of MN... at least not from Canada... have some local fires in wildlife management areas, Dept of Natural Resources is burning off old brush to kill invasives. Grass fire stench a few days...

I am going to be overloaded with pickling cukes in 4-5 days! Going to have to get busy making fridge pickles!

Peas were a flop, go to hot to early. Had a half dozen pods I shelled into a salad. Lettuce is still okay if I pick the right plants, some is bitter after the heat. Tomatoes are struggling, everyone got hit by a blight...