• Steel Soldiers now has a few new forums, read more about it at: New Munitions Forums!

  • Microsoft MSN, Live, Hotmail, Outlook email users may not be receiving emails. We are working to resolve this issue. Please add support@steelsoldiers.com to your trusted contacts.

 

Stretch's used oil centrifuge

Stretch44875

Super Jr. Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,958
28
48
Location
Tiro, Ohio
This system is no more, went to a motor driven one.


My attempt at a better system of oil filtering. Thanks to Houdel for links to the Diescraft centrifuge.

The whole reason for this adventure is to use the oil as fuel in the Deuce. I was filtering oil with t-shirts and buckets. Would like to run up to 75 percent oil, right now using 50 percent.

Okay, bought a Dieselcraft centrifuge(245? with shipping). Centrifuge requires .9 GPM at 90 psi. Found a small pump that puts out 1.06 GPM at 1725 rpm, and had a 1/2 motor that's 1725 rpm. Actually running the pump at about 1800 rpm to get the 90 psi. Oil drains out the bottom of the centrifuge. Supposed to filter down to .01 micron. I prefilter the oil with a 50 micron filter bag.

The centrifuge is actually made to attach to a large diesel engine and run off the oil pressure. My problem was oil temp, I figured the oil would be too thick at the colder temps in ohio. The link Houdel posted had a guy using what I call a hot pipe, or pipe with a water heater element in it to warm the oil up.

So I took a 4500 watt water heater element, and screwed it into a 30 inch piece of 1" black pipe. Oil gets pumped in the bottom and out the top. Added a vavle at the top to bleed the system, and to pump oil into other containers.

Now for the fun part. Made up a box with two switches, on to turn on the element, and one to switch the element from 110 to 220, for a low and high heat. Figured if the pump quit with the element on, I could have a heck of a fire. So installed a pressure switch set at 40 psi, so until the pump reaches 40 psi, the element stays off, and if the pump quits, the element will shut off. Inline with the pressure switch is a water heater thermostat so if the oil gets over 150, the element will also shut off. Used a relay to turn on and off the element. Also installed a momentary switch that turns on the relay, so I can preheat the pipe without the pump running. At 220v, the element has no problem getting the oil hot in a hurry. At 110v, gets the oil about 110-120 degrees.

Added a pressure gage and temperature gage between the hot pipe and centrifuge.

Have no idea how well this will all work, just got it running today. Centrifuge is spinning good, and turning on the heat will boost the speed of the centrifuge in a hurry.

Excuse the huge mess, had to connect and disconnect lines a couple of times, and oil is everywhere(including on me). Set up to use 55 gallon drums, just testing with a 5 gallon bucket for now.

Edit 11/09/07

Tricky to get the temperture and oil flow in the right range. You need something like .9 GPM. When doing oil, mine likes to run about 125-150 degrees, and I am slightly oversized on the pump, so I have the pressure relief on the pump set about 100 psi, without the relief, it runs about 140 psi.

Things that can happen... don't use anything metal to tap the centrifuge apart, will dent the bushing, and the centrifuge won't spin. Prefilter at least 100 micron, or the jets will plug, and things won't spin. Don't exceed 100 psi or the can of the centrifuge will deform at the top, and things won't spin. Gee, how do I know these things?

The hotter the oil, the faster it spins. When I got mine, it had a noticeable out of balance vibration. Made an adapter so it could be balanced at the local machine shop for about 40 dollars. be sure to firmly mount everything.

BUT, once things are set up, it runs quite well. Get a dry, tar like substance filtered out. Some color change, but haven't had the oil turn clear.

After getting too much PSI and deforming the top of the rotor, had to add a washer and o-ring to keep everything together. Shouldn't have anymore problems, have the pump pressure turned down to 100psi.

The pump is a lubriquip model 111, driven by a 3/4hp motor. (the 1/2hp motor died of old age) Belt driven to get the right ratio and GPM out of the pump.

Other's are using power steering pumps.

Managed to break the centrifuge. Darn pressure relief on the pump was set too high, had a clog on the rotor of the centrifuge, and the rotor went bang. New rotor is on the way. Max pressure should be 90 psi on the system.

Okay, some may see this little invention of mine as a good idea. If I had to do it all over again, I would have built the motor driven centrifuge over the oil driven one. This darn thing is finicky, and has required all my patience to get the bugs out of it and running right.

So far I've lost 2 motors. Both were used, but its a pain. Had a hose blow. That was partly my fault, forgot I had the heat bypassed on, and turned the pump off. It got really hot and degraded the hose. Turns out the barrel I was using had some kind of plastic coating in it, that degraded and clogged the suction line. That little thing took a while to figure out. Then the mess I've managed to make is a pain. Lost the rotor to overpressure when it clogged with the plastic pieces in the drum.

If you do decide to use the dieselcraft or other fluid driven design, a couple of pointers. Biggest thing is make sure the oil you use has the big chunks filtered out so the centrifuge doesn't plug. It's not too bad, heck a 200 micron filter would be enough.

Be sure to install a pressure relief on the system. If the system plugs, and your typical pump is set at 1500 psi, things will break. The pressure relief on the pump doesn't work well at 100 psi, lowers the volume too much, so I installed a pressure relief on the pipe. I'm running the pump at more volume than the centrifuge can handle, with the relief set at 100 psi, it just takes the extra and dumps it back.

Update 11/06/09

I am abandoning this setup for a motor driven one. Have a rotor built and balanced, will be starting a new thread when I get the new setup built. May be a couple of months.
 

Attachments

Last edited by a moderator:

superburban

Member
484
5
18
Location
SL,UT
carguy455 said:
How does the cost of electricity and processing balance out against the savings ?
I dont know about Stretch's setup, but mine with 2 heating elements and 1 pump costs around 0.21$ / hour to run. I can clean and dry 50 gallons of WVO in about 4 hours.
The cost of electricity doesn't even come close to touching the savings!
 

OSO

New member
401
3
0
Location
Arlington,Wa
Back in Wisconsin at this this crane rental yard we were adding our old Diesel drain oil into our fuel tanks on our rigs. We had racor fuel filters/water separators on all our equipment even the Olds sedan, the Chevy pickup truck both of these rigs were the olds engine converted to Diesel. This goes back to 1981. That guy is still pouring Diesel drain oil into his rigs today, he's going on 82yrs old this year. I like the filter rigs Quite inventive. 2cents
 

Stretch44875

Super Jr. Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,958
28
48
Location
Tiro, Ohio
As for the cost of operating, I haven't run it enough to determine. Should be pretty cheap, I am using the low setting of the heater most of the time, and the pump motor is only 1/2 hp. Will try to get some pics of the sludge and oil after use.

Still working the bugs out, right now I am re balancing the rotor of the centrifuge. It was vibrating too much at pressures above 60psi.

Dennis
 
Last edited:

houdel

Active member
1,563
7
36
Location
Chase, MI
Dennis - How about "before" and "after" pics of your WEO? Also some details on your thermostat? I have not had any luck around here locating a remote electric thermostat, all the local yokels at Menard's, Lowes etc. give me a blank stare and tell me that the only electric thermostats they have are built into their hot water tanks and are not available separately.

Sounds like this would be a great setup for pretreating and filtering WVO for conversion to Biodiesel as well as filtering WEO.
 

Stretch44875

Super Jr. Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,958
28
48
Location
Tiro, Ohio
Well the oil starts out black, and gets to a brown when done. Not as clear as new motor oil.

The thermostat is a standard part, called a lower thermostat, and is for a 220 volt water heater. I used it to fire a a relay,but I believe it is designed to handle the full load of the heating element. Bought it at lowes, it is a replaceable part, was right next to the water heating elements.

Edit 11/09/07

Tricky to get the temperture and oil flow in the right range. You need something like .9 GPM. When doing oil, mine likes to run about 125-150 degrees, and I am slightly oversized on the pump, so I have the pressure relief on the pump set about 100 psi, without the relief, it runs about 140 psi.

Things that can happen... don't use anything metal to tap the centrifuge apart, will dent the bushing, and the centrifuge won't spin. Prefilter at least 100 micron, or the jets will plug, and things won't spin. Don't exceed 100 psi or the can of the centrifuge will deform at the top, and things won't spin. Gee, how do I know these things?

The hotter the oil, the faster it spins. When I got mine, it had a noticeable out of balance vibration. Made an adapter so it could be balanced at the local machine shop for about 40 dollars. be sure to firmly mount everything.

BUT, once things are set up, it runs quite well. Get a dry, tar like substance filtered out. Some color change, but haven't had the oil turn clear.

After getting too much PSI and deforming the top of the rotor, had to add a washer and o-ring to keep everything together. Shouldn't have anymore problems, have the pump pressure turned down to 100psi.

I've run about 200 gallons of oil thru the filter and deuce. Had to change the truck filters at the beginning due to a bad batch, filters are still good 160 gallons of oil later.

Too keep the mess down I put the whole setup in a large metal tray, so any oil gets spilled goes in the tray to be sucked out.


Dennis
 

Attachments

Last edited:

loosewrenchcowboy

New member
23
0
0
Location
farmington hills, mi
dang! just reading all the work that went into building that is giving me a headache.looks like you did a nice job tho stretch. i think i'll just keep buying at the pump. unless u plan on sellling 'em. lol. seriously tho, nice engineering job.
 

ygmir

New member
300
0
0
Location
northern CA
have you guys checked out the 'simple cenrifuge' page, and videos?
Pretty cool.
seems somewhat simpler, but, I don't know about cost comparisons.......

I love the stuff in the above photos, though. Speaks to the inventor (polite term for what I'm referred to as at times.....) in me.

I can envision Dish VanDyke making one of these to help fuel "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang"......
 

littlebob

New member
1,548
26
0
Location
Baton Rouge LA
You said you used a lower thermostat, An upper has the high limit built in that usually shut it down if temp goes ten degrees above max t-stat setting.
You would just wire the element as if it were the upper element.
littlebob
 

cranetruck

Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
10,350
74
48
Location
Meadows of Dan, Virginia
I for one, would still like to see an oil analysis report before and also after, just for peace of mind. How much of the trace elements are you actually getting rid of? They may not clog the filters, but do effect the combustion.
 

Stretch44875

Super Jr. Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,958
28
48
Location
Tiro, Ohio
The pump is a lubriquip model 111, driven by a 3/4hp motor. (the 1/2hp motor died of old age) Belt driven to get the right ratio and GPM out of the pump.

Other's are using power steering pumps.

Managed to break the centrifuge. Darn pressure relief on the pump was set too high, had a clog on the rotor of the centrifuge, and the rotor went bang. New rotor is on the way. Max pressure should be 90 psi on the system.

Okay, elements affecting combustion.... In what way? Clogged injectors, broken injector pump? That's the only thing I can think of to be affected. For one thing I'm too cheap to do an analysis. I figure I've already saved enough money to buy another injector pump and injectors. Been running used oil for 3 years now, filtered in various ways. Think I've changed the fuel filters on the truck 3 times in 4 years. Truck runs just the same as when I bought it.

So someday I may say "duh, used oil broke it." But at $4.00 plus a gallon, I'm willing to risk it. Did manage to pick up 100 gallons of used hydraulic oil. Yea, free fuel!

Next time I run a batch, I'll take some pics of the oil and crap that filters out.

Dennis
 

cranetruck

Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
10,350
74
48
Location
Meadows of Dan, Virginia
Stretch44875 said:
......For one thing I'm too cheap to do an analysis..
Dennis
If I PM you my address, will you send me a sample of the filtered oil? I'll scrape up enough money for an analysis, I think it would be most informative....
 

houdel

Active member
1,563
7
36
Location
Chase, MI
cranetruck said:
Stretch44875 said:
......For one thing I'm too cheap to do an analysis..
Dennis
If I PM you my address, will you send me a sample of the filtered oil? I'll scrape up enough money for an analysis, I think it would be most informative....
Hell, I'd split the cost of a "before" and "after" analysis with you Bjorn. That would be great info to have. Instead of having Dennis ship you the oil, why don't you just ship him two prepaid sample bottles with your return address on the labels and data sheet?

I'd expect the biggest reduction to be in the amount of soot in the centrifuged oil. It would be great if the heavy metals and silica centrifuge out, but between the tiny particulate size and limited time the oil spends in the centrifuge I don't think much of that stuff would fall out.
 

beaubeau

New member
622
2
0
Location
Salisbury,N.H. 03268
Ok if some one must filter Used motor oil, which I have never done in 20years, and I have had No proplems running used motor oil in any of my diesels. The old way of doing it is as simple as having 2 buckets, whether 5 gals, or 55 gals,. Put one container obove the other, use a piece of Manilla rope, stick it in the top bucket and the other end in the lower bucket. Create a Siphon so oil flows from top bucket to bottom bucket along the Rope.. Amazing how clean the oil will be in bottom bucket when done. I used to do this back in the 60s and reuse the oil in my car.Don't need a College" degreeser" for this!!?? Never lost an engine in my life!! Never had problems running used oil in my diesels! Just have to change fuel filters more often. Good Luck, no matter how U do it. Phil
 

Stretch44875

Super Jr. Moderator
Super Moderator
Steel Soldiers Supporter
2,958
28
48
Location
Tiro, Ohio
I'll let you know when I get another batch run. Be about a week, I'll set aside some samples for ya. I'm not sure what will get filtered out. I was just worried about particulate size, as in getting 5-10 micron filtration. Hate to see my hillbilly invention shoot down, but I'll play.

Dennis
 
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website like our supporting vendors. Their ads help keep Steel Soldiers going. Please consider disabling your ad blockers for the site. Thanks!

I've Disabled AdBlock
No Thanks