Crazy idea for filtering used oil.

[Stretch44875]

Friend and I were talking when the subject came up of filtering oil. Told him I would like to use a centrifuge, but they are expensive. Joking, he said "what about a washing machine?". I am thinking na, won't work, and then I start thinking why not?

So if I would seal the top of a washing machine(toploader), and fill it full of oil, bypass the timer, and spin it for a hour or day, what would happen? Crud, and metal would go to the outside, maybe pump from the center while spinning? Would I be able to stop the machine without remixing the oil? When the clean oil is out, can I just use the washer to pump the crap out, maybe mixing in a solvent? Maybe disconnect the pump and put a seperate motor on it. Also install magnets on the basket to catch metal. Would the washer spin fast enough? If not, maybe change pulleys around to get more speed. Sounds like fun to me!

So thought ya all would have some ideas on this. Already have acess to an older maytag washer.

This is for mixing oil in the Deuce's tank.

Dennis

 

[builder77]

I smell a Darwin award in the making

If I am not mistaken washers are just made to remove water from the laundry, not seperate dirty water from clean water. I guess you might be able to spin it up then then after a while open up the drain line till the oil looks cleaner. I really don't see the point in this though as you can just use a series of filters to progressivly get finer gunk out of the oil.

 

[WillWagner]

Ya know, there is a spinner bypass filter called "The Spinner". Works off of the oil pressure fed into it by the engine that wants/needs the filtered oil, gravity feed back to the crankcase or resivoir. Filters onto these neet little replacable paper strips. I'll see if i can find a website.

 

[WillWagner]

Check it out. All you would need to do is put your waste oil in a tank of some sort, use an electric motor to provide a feed to the filter, and drain the oil back into the tank. Let it run for a while, and there ya go, clean..er oil! I think I would probably push the oil thru a normal oil filter first, then the spinner.

http://www.spinnerii.com/

 

[Mathias]

I also smell a Darwin in the making

Are you looking to separate used motor oil or veggie oil? The washing machine will probably not spin fast enough to separate any heavy metals or other small particulate from the oil. The centrifuged oil would need to be removed while it was still spinning. If you have add some more power to compensate for the heavier load and more speed you could run into some serious safety concerns by the time you are able to separate the particulate. If the oil is thin enough, you might get the crud out, but would still want to run it through a filter before using it.

A filter screen and cartridge filter would probably do a more effective job for less cost and effort when all is said and done.

 

[G744]

I've just drained it and dumped in in the fuel tank for years. Never had any problems. ATF too.

dg

 

[Polverone]

I seem to recall a mention of using a cream seperator for this purpose.

 

[Jones]

Film at 11:00...

 

[Stretch44875]

Come on guys, what's with all the negative stuff? Figured this group of guys would appreciate the fun of trying something different.

Biggest problem I see is will it spin fast enough. If not, can't spin the washer too fast, might cause a nice bang. Should'nt take any horsepower to spin, after all you just are free spinning a drum.

Cost would be zero, I have all the stuff laying around. Filters and such I have found cost some, and would have to replace filter elements. Not worried about wieght, oil weighs less than water. I could make a film, be pretty boring watching a washing machine spin.

Okay, I may or may not try this idea, been really busy lately.

The somewhat normal route I have in mind is to use sock filters, down to at least 10 micron. Canisters for these are pricey, and I would want to power filter, rather than just drain thru a sock.

Thanks!
Dennis

 

[Zinlu]

Maybe lining the inside of the inside drum with filter material? Aside from the fact that you're trying to avoid buying filter media. That would put the clean oil in the outside drum, and able to be pumped out like the water is normally. Spin it up, dump in the oil and voila! Although it probably would be easier (but not as neat) to just use a pump/filter/hose arrangement. Dunno if the impeller/motor would be up to the higher viscosity of the oil as opposed to water though. Sounds like fun!

I would have to agree with Mathias on the drum-in-a-drum centrifuge idea. Rotational speed and trying to pump the clean oil out might be boogers to overcome.

 

[ken]

My centrafuge's top speed is 12,000 RPM's. I usally run it at 10,000Rpm's. It sounds like it's gonna blow at 12K. It takes about 5 min to clean the oil at 10K.
How fast does a washer spin? I never thought about it. Mabye i'll put a contact tach on wifey's this weekend.

 

[NEIOWA]

And then if you install some electric toaster elements and add the correct ingredients you have a jumbo homemade bread maker (see Red Green show).

 

[wreckerman893]

Back when I was in my "survivalist" mode (you're not paranoid if they really are out to get you) I read a lot of survival rags and Mother Earth type magazines.
I saw a low tech oil filer design in one of these mags.
Basically you take a coffee type can and punch a buttload of holes in it. You then put rolls of toliet paper in it and let the dirty oil gravity feed down through the center of it. The clean oil comes out the holes into a catch basin and you put it in a clean container.
Never tried it but the truth is stranger than fiction.

 

[Stretch44875]

I've heard of 55 gallon drums full of sawdust, and or corn cobs also.

Found the avg speed of a washer is 1200 rpm. Figure drum size is around 24 in. Don't have a math book handy to figure out what kind of centrifugal force that is, but I know the greater the dia, the more force. Still don't think I'am going to get enough speed, not with factory centrifuge's running at 5-10,000 rpm.

Dennis

 

[WillWagner]

Luberfiner 750D filters...the BIG filter remote mounted on the frame are filled with shredded newspaper. They used to be filled with wood chips!

 

[houdel]

Yeah, all that stuff works, but with a bunch of effort. IMHO, the best bet is to make up a filter housing out of 6" PVC pipe with McMaster Carr filter bags to filter the crap out of your waste oil so you can burn the waste oil without crudding up your fuel filters and injection pump. Then add a $148 Amsoil bypass filter in your engine oil lube system to clean the soot and other crud out of your engine oil so the engine oil will last damn near forever without having to change it every 3000 miles or so (I have read a report of a Detroit Diesel with 500k miles total, 80K miles on the oil, and the oil still passed a certification test). A little bit of cost and effort to get everything in place, but big savings overall if you rack up any kind of mileage.

I'm picking up 200+ gallons of waste engine oil pretty soon, when I get my filtration system set up I'll post it on the alternative fuels forum.

 

[rdixiemiller]

I have 220 gallons waiting for filtration now. I use a 5 micron bag from McMaster carr. A centrifuge would work, if you had a continuous cycle machine. most of the ones I have used have had a 5 or 7 gallon bowl. The liquid is fed in through a spreader plate and spins out. As the bowl fills, the clean liquid starts to come out of the discharge chute.
Problems with these systems:
1) Cost- Used ones still bring 10K$ or so.
2) power requirements- 30A208 3ph.
3) Waste- You lose the 5 gallons in the bowl when you shut down.

Unless you are doing huge quantities, use bag filters. Put a 15 micron bag inside a 5 micron bag. That way the cheaper 15 will catch the big junk and you can get more life out of the 5.

 

[liljohn]

I like your crazy idea, Stretch!

But it's got me thinking... if a washer doesn't have the RPMs, how hard would it be to make something that did? I've never seen one of these centrifuges in action so I don't know how complicated they are.

Personally, though, from what I've heard... I'll probably just go the bag route myself.

 

[G744]

It still seems like a lot of unnecessary work.

As stated before, I just dump it in the fuel & go. It doesnt make a bit of difference mileagewise on fuel filters, when they plug up I change them. If I happen to have been running heavy on WEO, they will be blacker than usual, but are usually black just from pump Diesel.

I have never had to pull apart one of my own IP's either...just those from used engines that didn't run when I got them. (they have all been seized due to rust, BTW)

Percentagewise it is usually no more than 20% as there isn't much more oil from a couple changes around here. Maybe 10 to 14 gallons total in a 75 gallon tank. I get more from an ATF purge and it burns really nice as well.

So far I have driven over 300,000 miles in personal Diesel tacticals, and if it were to be deleterious to them I'd tell you.

Granted, I don't solicit oil from just anywhere rather that from my own uses. GIGO always will prevail, but my only fuel problems have been water from truckstops in Texas.

I'd love to make bioDiesel, but with WVO selling under contract everywhere out here, there is no cheap-let alone free-stuff to start with.

dg

 

[forrestkk]

New to the board, I'm in the USAF and own a business that converts diesels to veg oil (VO). Water is the biggest enemy in VO. It can become emulsified in the oil and water seperator filters won't stop it. This is normally from the bus boy just opening the drain on fryers and washing water straight into the collection vessel. To get rid of the water you can just settle the stuff. We have a veg fueling station here in ABQ and all you have to do is filter the oil to about 20 microns, heat it up, and then let is settle for a couple of days. Then pump it off (above the crap level) through a golden rod or a baldwin and you are in business. You can do a "crackle" test on the oil to see if it has water. We reccomend no more than 15% by volume of blending because if the oil gets to thick sometimes is can't get into the tight spaces in fuel lubed IPs and they give up on you. We of course specialize in running 100% VO, but that is a whole other story. This is a cool board. I would love to have a deuce running VO.