my CF setup DIY

[xg1745]

Tried to post about my CF setup, nothing seems to happen. Is posting for new users even working??

[Pir8Darryl]

Looks like it works to me.

[xg1745]

Hmm, tried 5 times since... over 2 days it says post awaiting moderator approval- reloads and nothing is ever seen again. This post worked for some reason, anything with actual content fails.

[xg1745]

Posting this as a new thread or reply does not work. Editing seems to work, original post:

Looking at options for bowl centrifuges nothing is below $400 for a bowl only + shipping to Canada. Rather than buying filters I figured to give DIY a try:

Materials:

1. 3/8" alum scrap yard $10
2. cheap high speed fan $29
3. 5gal buckets $0
4. hoses + screws $5
5. ball valve $8
6. Soldering iron $10
7. Dead wifi antenna $0
8. Alum braze/chem weld sticks $4
Total: $66 CDN

Construction:

1. Cut out rings on my CNC machine
2. Being also DIY the CNC machine is not near square. I mounted the rings+ motor on the cnc to turn it down to exact round
3. Using the same method I added a groove filled 1/3 of the way with ball bearings. These spread out as it starts, self balancing it. The same way a DVD drive works.
4. The rings are just bolted together with gasket maker in between, I did not mean to drill screw holes all the way out the top (tapped) but this does not seem to affect it much.
5. Used the 5gal buckets for feed, stands and main body
6. Milled brackets and attached the soldering iron to heat part of the antenna serving as a trap leaving the feed bucket

Operation:

1. RPM of the motor was supposed to be 7k (from package), turns at 2.5k with or without the bowl.. still cheaper than a large one
2. Was concerned about heat, with no oil the soldering iron goes to 60C, with oil only about 40C. Shop temp was only 6C at the time. May get a larger one, however I noticed at this temp it takes out fats.
3. Flow rate is slow (so far) about 2-3hrs per bucket
4. Almost no running noise
5. Oil looks much better, starting out brownish/black finishes in 5th picture
6. Total power use is 354W

Could not resist plagiarizing the title. I hope this is somewhat interesting or useful to someone...

[newshop2]

pretty cool. how do you remove the rotor for cleaning? How did you seal the motor shaft through the bucket bottom? Do you really need the ball bearings? very inventive. I would like to see and hear more about this set up. Thanks Frank

[Pir8Darryl]

The only issue I'm seeing with it is your heat source. If your taking ~2 hours to do a 5 gallon bucket, and the soldering iron is heating the VO, then it had to travel thru 2 feet of 1/2 inch hose to make it to the CF, I'm guessing there's a 5 minute lag between heat and CF-ing.

Ever consider moving the iron onto the ball valve?

Other than that, it looks very cool. Probably be rather difficult for the average joe get ahold of a piece of [scrap] aluminum like that... Might have to shell out some $$$ to find one.

[xg1745]

The rotor is removed by a set screw on the motor shaft. The main bucket has a hole in the bottom with sides around the shaft. It is the size of the entire bowl with parts of another bucket holding the oil back.

Heat is definitely low. For now I just keep the low flow rate, on the plus side it removed rather than melts fats. The valve heat is a good idea but I am not sure how to attach it nicely as every surface of the valve is odd shaped. Probably will wait for some nichrome wire to do that.

The aluminum came out of the mud at a scrap yard (dirt is still there middle pic). Around here it would run about $100 new.

My original plan was to make the inner rings from delrin cutting boards saving aluminum for top and bottom. Unfortunately all the cutting boards were too thin and more $$ than all the aluminum.

The ball bearings are mainly there to avoid having to balance it. The cnc machine is not 100% there will be very small differences in the attachment bolts + gasket material + set screw. This makes it very quiet as well. The most noise it makes is from a small fan I have cooling the motor (just to be on the safe side since it was originally a fan motor)

[VinDiesel]

Welcome aboard.

Very interesting.

I might point out that the difficulty in posting is probably due to a delay that is part of the forums system for new members. It is intended to block those that would just join to introduce spam.

[Kroni]

Any new developments on your CF? I am thinking of building a Simple Centrifuge soon. I would be interested in hearing how yours is working out for you

[xg1745]

So far so good, I think it has done about 30 cubies since I built it. Sooner or later I want to get a bigger motor and mount the bowl to an independent shaft/belt setup for higher RPMs. My biggest problem now is getting more vehicles converted to burn the oil faster.

My benz did the same thing on VO my ford did on WMO: within a few months the transmission died. Maybe I just drive it harder when its free, should have the new one in shortly.