Going to snow tonight. Want to heat the lab and work on windmill, not curl up next to fireplace and watch tv. Quite possibly mad. Problem: have something called "Reynauds syndrome" and my fingers get all blue and wrinkly, So, heat is required.


 Built this:

 An oil burning stove that'll burn wax,fat,veggie oil among nastier things.

 Actually just a bunch of parts that I reconfigure as I need.

Uses charcoal as wick in a metal screen bowl, cookie tin lid as fuel holder,shallow plate as overflow and splatter catch, clay pot is sitting on 3 aluminium ingots from earlier casting experiments. Burns for about 7-10 (edit: actually measured it and  4-6 hours on soybean oil is realistic)hours on cup of oil, I think it is the functional equivalent of a 300-500 watt heater.

other configs:

boiler

 

evaporator

 I know it seems very crude, but the ability to generate consistent amounts of heat (if not variable) for a period of time opens up all sorts of things.