Burning waste cooking oil

[Lloyd Danforth]

Well, in your airtight, it might not stink, too bad

Wood is pretty cheap, although, high oil prices will probably drive up the cost of a cord this year.  Old furniture can be found at the curb and sometimes pallets.   I'm sure it is less common in NH, but, around here they often put the wood from a cut down tree at the curb.

[Russell Kanning]

I have been experimenting with burning the used vegetable oil that PatMc dropped off at our house. (thanks patmc)
Kira and I have made some silly homemade lamps for light and heat. They work pretty well. Our 6 wick jobber worked a little too well. If we do it right they are odorless ... if not it smells like someone burnt stirfry.  Kat just thinks we are pyros.

The oil is too heavy to wick up a couple of inches in a normal parrifin lamp. It works fine if the oil is right below the flame. So either the wick has to be floating or I can use a whale oil type lamp that I have to refill more often. I found some good ideas here:
http://www.wickstore.com/floatingcandle.html
http://www.wickstore.com/Idea_Floating_%20Candle.html
http://www.wickstore.com/BioFuel_Wick.html
I will probably order the floating ones tomorrow and discuss what they are working on with the biofuel wick.

[mvpel]

Speaking of fuels, does anyone know where one goes to buy kerosene?  I plan to soak it into a StumpOut-prepped stump once it stops raining for a day or two.

[Kat Kanning]

Well, if you want to really soak it, order it from a home heating fuel company.  If you want a little bit, you can buy a bottle at Walmart.

[KBCraig]

Home Depot, etc., sell K2 in 5 gallon cans for kerosene heaters. Or just use diesel -- they're close enough to be interchangeable for most purposes.

The original way of using diesel to remove stumps involves mixing it with ammonium nitrate -- but that's been frowned on since 4/19/95.

Kevin

[Russell Kanning]

Speaking of fuels, does anyone know where one goes to buy kerosene? I plan to soak it into a StumpOut-prepped stump once it stops raining for a day or two.

Hey that is a perfect candidate for some of Pats used oil .... it will even smell like food for a couple of minutes there.

[Russell Kanning]

I received some good info from Don at wickstore.com .... they are still experimenting with wicks for bio fuel and is sending sample along with my order. The heavy oil doesn't want to wick up too far, so I have to have the flame close to the fuel. I will keep in touch with him on the results with used veg oil. He has many farmers asking for bio wicks.

[president]

Speaking of fuels, does anyone know where one goes to buy kerosene?

They sell it out of the pump at many gas station in my hood. The pump with kerosene usualy has a hand written sign, and is next to the diesel pump.

[Kat Kanning]

Is that for people with RVs or something?

[president]

I guess contry folk use more kerosene than city slickers. I think it is mostly used for kerosene heaters.

[Michael Fisher]

There was a short segment on the news last night (why did I watch TV? ???) about lobster farming.? They showed footage of how the lobster babies are grown and they even had vats for growing algae.

As algae is the most efficient source of veggie oil, I think it would be very valuable to learn how to grow it in large vats.? You could create your own endless source of veggie oil for fuel.? ?

[Michael Fisher]

As long as we don't use the karenia brevis species.   

[Michael Fisher]

It can't be too difficult to grow algae in your basement:

http://www.floridaaquaculture.com/publications/aquaed/algae%20culture.jpg

[Michael Fisher]

You can use mirrors and a large magnifying glass to bring in focused sunlight during the summer.

[president]

You can use mirrors and a large magnifying glass to bring in focused sunlight during the summer.

Why wouldn't you just grow it outside during the summer?