delicat wrote:Adam,
Don't you clean your strainer at all? I've been cleaning mine after each 55 gallons fill up. (just a quick rinse using a hose with hot water). I tried not cleaning it at first but it got really messy and slowed down the process but maybe if you don't clean it it slows it down a bit but might actually provide better filtering! Just curious, let me know...Thanks.
My cleaning is very minimal. After I pour a full 55 Gal drum worth of oil through the strainer I move it over to my other 55Gal drum and let it drip dry, after a day or more I take it over to my composter and empty out the bits and give it a couple of taps upside downto get all the fine pieces stuck in the mesh out. When I first got the strainer I did clean it out periodically with soap and water, but then I got paranoid about ripping it with so much handling. It's probably better to clean it out periodically, I'm sure some pieces slightly larger than 100u get pushed through with my method, but I don't have any issues with my oil going slow. Last time I used soap and water on it was 8 months ago and it still works the same. I did forget it upside down over top of my composter for a few day while it rained. That sure helped fet it clean
Hi !! I thought i would give an update. I ran my first batch last night with the centrifuge.It was very cool to hear that thing spooling up.
It sounds like a plane is flying around in the distant sky when i open my back door !! The garage is 30 ft from my back door. The pump and motor actually make the most noise.
It took 2 and a half hours to heat the oil up to 160 f.. At first the oil was very hot on top. and i thought i was good to turn on the centrifuge. But then i turned on the pump and all the oil on the bottom was freezing cold still. I left the pump running to circulate the oil .After an hour or so all the oil was a uniform temperature.
The dieselcraft did exactly what it was suppose to do. I stopped it after one hour and looked inside the bowl. Sure enough there was a nice thick layer of dark brown gunk. It was as think as clay !!! I will post pictures in the next day or so.
I can't see why i had such a hard time with the relief valve issue. In the end i went with a preset (75psi) relief valve i got for $10 from home depot. I plumbed it in with a "t" fitting. Works great. I have 80psi at the centrifuge with only a little dribble out of the relief valve.
My whole garage smells like tempura but i knew it would !! The price we pay.... hahahaha...
fishslapper wrote:Pump and motor.... $250 at princess auto . I don't know if that qualifies as affordable but it is half of what they wanted at dieselcraft !!
That sounds pretty affordable to me. Do you have the specs on what you bought?
my oc50 is powered by a 1/2 hp motor from princess auto ($85) and the hydro pump was $99 (i'll get the number tomorrow). I just used a 2:1 ratio for a belt drive system.
AndrewH wrote:my oc50 is powered by a 1/2 hp motor from princess auto ($85) and the hydro pump was $99 (i'll get the number tomorrow). I just used a 2:1 ratio for a belt drive system.
Andrew
im getting a 1/2hp 3600rpm baldor motor for the raw power centrifuge. its $100. from http://www.kamandirect.com/
Looks nice and simple but the real question is....does it work? What are you getting for results? Are you pan testing it after each run? How many cycles are you running? Are you mist washing to retrieve suspended particulates? Just curious as I am considering buying a centrifuge but am not totally convinced...
nice and simple. Pre-filter through 100- 400 micron mesh screen (whatever you can get) Heat the oil for 3- 4 hours (160-180 f) Spin for the right an=mount of time.
Mine does 50 gallons or so and hour. I do 30 gallons at a time so i run the centrifuge for 2 hours (Three and a half passes) And pressto !!! nice clean fresh oil ready to put in your vehicle. !
fishslapper wrote:... nice clean fresh oil ready to put in your vehicle. !
Pretty easy process fishslapper, totally sweet.... but how do you know that it's "clean" and ready to go through the IP? How "clean" is it? This is the question I am dying to know about centrifuge usage. Can't decide wether or not to build an FE or just use a centrifuge and settle process, or even use all three combined. I want to be damn sure that there is as little water as possible, in whatever form, headed towards my IP.
Well to say how clean it is I can only go off the website from dieselcraft and say that it filters down to less than 1 micron . Now I still need to see a lab test, but i have never read anything from anybody on the web saying that it does not do this. Passes the hot pan test and looks fine to me. the biggest problem comes from under-heating the oil for spinning through the centrifuge.It needs to be very thin to clean properly.I will say that most of my fittings started to leak when i ran the hot oil !! I had to tighten them while they were hot.
P.S. after oil ........The baldor motors are great industrial motors !! good pick !
