How to make a compact heater from an old oil filter

When camping or fishing, a safe source of fire is essential, especially in the fall or winter. At night, you can use it to maintain an acceptable temperature in a tent, warm your cold hands near the water, etc.

Will need

To make a heater we will need the simplest materials and accessories:

• used oil filter;
  
• six round head screws;
  
• a can of heat-resistant paint;
  
• thread locker;
  
• coin or steel circle;
  
• source of fire (candle, dry alcohol, etc.).

When working on the heater we will use: open flame, grinder, drill, tap with wrench, sandpaper, polishing wheel, remote temperature indicator, etc.

Heater body manufacturing process

We calcinate the oil filter over a fire or in an oven to burn out any remaining oil and factory paint from it. After it has cooled, use a grinder to cut off the steel sealing ring.

From the inside, we remove the charred filter element with a mesh-shaped core, safety valve, leaf spring, etc.

We leave for further work the outer casing, a strong steel base (bottom) and one of the metal end caps of the filter element.

We punch and drill through holes using a drill in the upper part of the housing on each of the faces intended for tightening the filter by hand or with a special tool.

We remove the metal ring from the steel bottom by drilling out the spot welding spots with a drill, after which it simply falls off.
We cut a metric thread in the six outer holes of the bottom using a tap and a wrench suitable for the diameter.

We screw three round-head screws into them through one another and after tightening them, cut off the screw rods on the opposite side.

We cover the bottom with screws and the end cover of the filter element with heat-resistant paint from an aerosol can.

We screw three more screws into the remaining three threaded holes in the base of the filter, having previously lubricated the ends with thread locker.

We press the cover of the filter element into the base, and into its central hole - a coin or steel disk of suitable size.



We grind and polish the oil filter housing, respectively, with sandpaper and a felt disk mounted on the mechanical emery shaft.

We install the base of the heater on three screws and put on the polished oil filter housing on top, which is centered on the filter element cover and rests on the heads of the three bolts previously screwed into the base.


You can use tea candles as a fire source:



Or dry alcohol:


However, a remote temperature meter indicates that the dry alcohol is producing too high a temperature. It is safer to use a paraffin candle.

Watch the video