quote:

Originally posted by HarryN:
running the oil through the pump might have the unwanted effect of mixing up the particles, water, and oil really well.

This is what my testing several years ago with a spinner II indicated. But initial testing by Joat and SunWizard has indicated that even emulsions are capable of being dewatered by the flash evaporative function of this unit with high pressure and temperature added. This preliminary testing has also seemd to indicate that while an initial pass through the unit may not capture all the paticulates initially by using multiple passes a lower and lower level of particulate contamination is noted.

Thre have been several attempts to produce a small true centrifuge as you describe. The resulting prototypes have all indicated that they would be MUCH more expensive than this simpler rig may be.

Hey Fellas, here's a link to a diagram for the Spinner II oil centrifuge.

http://www.dieselproducts.com/spinner/sp_works.html

Looks like it is very similar in design/ contruction/operation to the Dieselcraft centrifuge. Has anyone here tested the Spinner II other than Dana Linscott?

So who else have a Dieselcraft running other than SunWizard and Joat? Does Tom Maring have one?

I did a search on spinner II before I got the dieselcraft and found this thread that says this:

quote:

Originally posted by Nuculer:
I got a spinner II on ebay for $180. It works great.

And this from Fattywagonman:
I've been using spinner II's for years... on tugs cranes trucks... I've bought a bunch and they work great... they're just a little pricey IMO for what you're gettting...
Fat John

And $495 was the price I saw quoted for them.

Dana did say he tested the Spinner II and found that it emulsified water rather than separated it out. What's different between the Dieselcraft and the Spinner II?

They look very similar to me, but there could be differences since I never held one in my hands. One difference is the center part appears to be perforated, on the Dieselcraft it is not, it has 4 holes partway up, which could help.

I asked a similar question of Dana on page 3 of this thread and he said he didn't heat the VO as hot as me, but didn't specify temps.

I find this removes emulsions starting at about 120F. Running VO with water through any pump will create an emulsion too.

Thanks. What method of filtering (before the Dieselcraft) did you use and how long did your onboard filters last? Could you run a batch of your regularly filtered oil through the Dieselcraft and shoot some pics of the rotor? Are you currently running filtered grease from the Dieselcraft in your truck?

No filter before the rig, just a 100 micron screen on the sucker tube out of the dumpster. I don't have any conventional filtered oil left, I have about 100 gallons ran through this rig. Yes VO from this is what all I have been burning since I got it. It rendered my old 10 micron (nominal) Goldenrod quickly obsolete.

It would be interesting to filter a batch of conventional and run it through the Dieselcraft. How about Joat? Do you have any conventionally filtered oil floating around?

I bet it will catch a lot since this is capable of 100x finer filtration depending on # of passes, 0.1 micron vs. 10 micron (nominal).

I think a lab test on some of the same VO run through a 10 micron side by side with this rig would be great to see. Better than 10 micron and then this rig.

I will have some detailed lab tests on this rig soon, which I outlined on page 11 I think.

This may make changing your on board VO filter obsolete.

Sunwizard -Could you post the details aout you mist washing setup and photos . - Thanks

quote:

And yes I know about washing I have been reading your posts about it here for a while. Already have my misting head setup for this same open top barrel.

I use this drum lid $7.28 from grainger.

Then I drilled a hole in the top center and stuck this 4759T23 4gph mist head in it $22.14 from here at mcmaster

Just add fittings to connect to a garden hose.

Someone asked about the Spinner II ...
I've used these on my tug boats with really great results... The Spinner operates the same as the dieselcraft except there is a float in the bottom connected to an air valve which is used to fill the cavity with air which forces out the oil. If oil builds up in the cavity the centrifuge doesn't spin. Because of this the Spinner has a much smaller return. Personally I like the dieselcraft design since it is much simpler and costs less... I'll be purchasing a pair of them soon to be installed on our newest Tug.

quote:

Originally posted by Fattywagonman:
... The Spinner operates the same as the dieselcraft except there is a float in the bottom connected to an air valve which is used to fill the cavity with air which forces out the oil. ....

Thanks for this description Fatty.

This feature of air pressure being introduced into the oil, may be why it is said to have the potential to emulsify some oil with water. Could it also be that the air introduced might contain moisture which would be a second potential source for an oil water emulsion to form

Coach, I am not an expert in fluid dynamics, but my best guess would be that adding air would increase turbulence, which would increase mixing and increase the likelihood of forming an emulsion. Under normal conditions, very little moisture would be added to the oil from the air entering the centrifuge. With a centrifuge, we need to have low turbulence to improve the speed of migration of denser-than-oil particles outward against the rotor. Hence a need to better balance the unit and decrease vibration for these dieselcrafts to operate better than they already are.

Having said that, sometimes there are things happening at a micro level that seem to counter what we know about the macro level. Like I said, I am not an expert, so take what I say here as an educated guess.

Fatty, do I assume correctly that you are using the spinnerII for wvo processing on your tug boats and not for their intended manufactured purpose?

Here are some ideas I have to better test the ability to remove suspended water as a true centrifuge. This is what I did with my most recent tests. Run it with 2 barrels, so that you insure you have the entire batch of VO going through it each pass. Pan test the starting VO. Put a lid on the barrels so that there is no evaporative dewatering. One trick is being there when the 1st barrel runs out, so you can capture the output at shutdown, and so the pump doesn't run dry and get damaged. Open and empty the rotors liquid contents into the jar with the captured output. Pan test the processed VO, and the captured output.

This type of testing seems the way to see if one can make a "holy grail" mobile version without mistwash, and also let those who want no evaporative dewatering on a home rig know what to expect. Hopefully as more people get these we can get more posting this type of testing.

Then if we get good dewatering results with that type of testing, which would let us know how many passes its taking for a complete dewater, (for my recent test it was 1 pass) switch to the simpler method I had been doing, all in 1 barrel, for as many passes as you prefer. But still capture the output at shutdown, and do the same tests.

All-

Tom Maring and I are experimenting with a Dieselcraft c'fuge as he alluded to in a prior posting. (I tried to post pic's but even at 20Kb, I got an error that said the server space was exceeded or some such thing- can someone PM me about that?) We have a PS pump from a 199X Dodge Neon (obtained at the local salvage yard for $20) that is working very well. It comes with a nice metal V-pulley and is easy to mount. We coupled it to a 1/3HP electric motor that I had laying around and rigged up a barrel with heating equipment (I've GOT to show you these pictures!) similar to SunWizard's. So far, we have only run 8 gallons through it and have not done any testing on dewatering ability, but it will take us a long time to catch up to SunWizard's testing; thanks SunWizard!

One thing I need to note is I was surprised as to how quiet this thing is. Even by mounting it directly to the steel barrel, it makes very little noise; one can comfortably have a conversation while standing right next to it. We discovered small alignment marks on the two portions of the spinner that perhaps others aren't seeing? This seems to make a big difference on how noisy it is.

We are busy boys lately and don't spend much time on the 'net, so I apologize ahead of time for the delay in answering any questions that may arise!

Travis

-85 Mercedes 300SD "Schultz" Custom 2-tank SVO online 8-06

Hi, and welcome, good to have another tester here!

Do you have a pressure guage on it? The pressure you run at will affect the noise level greatly, and also the results since 90psi is best and fastest spinning.

Yes I always align the marks that is important for balance.

And did it remove lots of goop on that 8 gallons?

The pics feature on here is overfull and broken, so you need to post them to a site like www.photobucket.com and then hit the URL button and enter the full URL to the pics. I am sure plenty would like to see them, I get lots of requests even with all the pics I have posted here.

Gossmans - I (we) look forward to seeing your pictures. If you can't figure out how to get the
Photobucket hosted pictures in , please paste the URL links to the pictures into your text so that a reader could click on them . -Thanks

I get that the ones using this c-fuge have typically a power steering pump. I was asking eariler where to buy a newer pump (one that is going to last a lot longer). I like reusing, but I would rather have a brand new or rebuilt pump that is not going to give me problems down the road.

Plus, I don't have a 1/3hp electric motor or a ps pump lying around. I'd have to go to the junkyard, and the scum-bags down there would be trying to make me pay for one more than what it would cost brand new. Is there an integrated pump? One that will build up the pressure of a pump, and power the pump in one unit? So bascially, all I would have to do is plug in my pump, and it will power the oil into the c-fuge?

Dana, are you talking about bud's c-fuge, will that be costing more to build compared to the dieselcraft? This is looking like a great c-fuge for a decent price for getting quality filtered oil.

So no settling is even required then? I'm sure mistwashing is the first essential step then, to stabilize the pH in the oil, and get the bigger particles out? Were you guys saying (that have the dieselcraft) that you WERE or WERE NOT getting an emulision AFTER mistwashing and entering it into the centrifuge?