http://www.mcmaster.com/

They have housings and inexpensive filter bags.

Chris

The least expensive McMaster-Carr bag housing is $125!!! Yikes!

I did my plastic weld experiment last night. I successfully joined a one gallon bucket to the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. My filterbag clamps on the outside of the one gallon bucket and sits on top of another five gallon bucket. I can fill the top bucket with oil and let it filter into the bottom bucket. This is actually a three bucket arrangement, the middle bucket just supports the top bucket and keeps the filter bag from hanging in the bottom bucket.

This arrangement is quite cheap and low-tech. I could filter lots of oil running two or three of these side by side.

The plastic welder blows very hot air. I don't recommend this approach to anyone who is accident prone or careless. If you try it, don't breath the fumes. I used strips of the buckets for filler ("welding rods"). I had plenty of plastic from cutting holes in the buckets. Test your welds for leaks with water before you filter oil. Experiment on plastic scraps before you try real welds. You need an air source like a compressor to use this welder. Harbor Freight sells "welding rods" for use with other plastics but cutting strips works fine if you have extra material.

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Originally posted by Kyoto Dragon:
Update on my clamp it on the outside technique ...
the bag has a tendency to slide off when the system is pressurized.
Good luck, Glenn

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My filter also slid off at the beginning of the second cubie. I knew I needed something under the filter to clamp it to but I got in a hurry, duh.

If you don't mind tending the filtering a little, just cut a hole in a lid that the filter will sit in, stack two buckets and cut holes so the filtered oil will drain in the bottom bucket.

I got two cubes filtered and in my tank. About 8 gals veg oil, 2 gals RUG, 8-10oz Diesel Kleen.

Filtering was a little slower and the temperature was a little lower. I am starting to see first-hand some of what I have been reading about here.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OilMotor617,

I am still thinking about the unattended pressure fed bag filter housing. Hope my tangental project did not detract too much from the goal here. Plastic welding works on PVC, ABS, PP, and HDPE plastics which are all common household products.

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am still thinking about the unattended pressure fed bag filter housing. Hope my tangental project did not detract too much from the goal here.

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Not at all!! However, It might be good to start a new thread with that specific info in the title and then add a link to this thread.

Filtering from outside in

On my onboard filtering system, I put oil in a 60L tall metal pail I picked up free from an auto shop. Put a drain valve on the bottom, a 6 inch tall baffle so the oil at the bottom doesn't get disturbed much while driving. I just pump the dirty oil in to the pail, drop a couple of large, tall filter bags one inside another, then into the pail, using a few clamps to secure it to the top edge of the pail. The oil will seep through the fabric layers, and get draw off by a 1/4 inch OD plastic hose. I see the advantage of this method is that you can drain away the sediment from the bottom of the pail, instead of allowing it to clog the bottom of the bag filters. So it's kind of settling and filtering at the same time. I've been filtering through about 200 Gallon's of relatively clean oil, the filter bag is still good as new. I also coiled some copper tube inside the pail, just to heat it up a bit.

Any new developments? I have been thinking about this again and want to build a first prototype soon.

As far as plastic welding of like materials . I bought one of these plastic welders at HF a while ago to fix a tear in plastic bumper cover - http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=41592
- . It worked well but suspect you you do it almost as well with a cheap soldering iron and buy their palstic welding rods for a few $ .

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Originally posted by OilMotor617:
Any new developments? I have been thinking about this again and want to build a first prototype soon.

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The filter housing project has been temporarily sidetracked while I repair and prep my new (at least they're new to me) 115gal storage tanks.

Go to http://www.mcmaster.com and search for slip-on filter bags.

Take a water jug 5gal? like sits on a water cooler. Jugs like this can be bought outright for about $5-$6, scavenged for less. http://www.ehydrated.com/bt50002_2.html

Invert jug cut off bottom so that it is like a large 5 gallon funnel.

Tie slip-on filter bag to bottom. http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/110/gfx/large/9830kp2l.gif

Filter 5 gals of oil at a time.

Or clamp the filter to a plate or pipe and pump oil into the filter. Cheap auto parts stores sell a fuel pressure regulator that is used for carbureted engines and the price is about $20. It can be regulated down to 1 psi and used in conjuction with an electric fuel pump to feed oil into the filter. Don't know how well the regulator would hold-up used with oil.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OilMotor617,

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Originally posted by OilMotor617:

Take a water jug 5gal? like sits on a water cooler. ...Invert jug cut off bottom so that it is like a large 5 gallon funnel.

Tie slip-on filter bag to bottom (tie to mouth of home made funnel

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Great idea. Here is a possible expansion on the idea. How about taking the remaining portion of the jug and cut a hole in it and plumb in a drain in the bottom of it. Plumb this drain into your prefiltered oil storage container. Now sit the funnel and bag into the jug. This will support the funnel so you can poor into it easier. Also it will give the bag some support so it wont overstretch its fibers.

water_jug_funnel_filter.jpg (7 Kb, 202 downloads)

I have just obtained a "Cimbali" cappuchino machine. The boiler in it seems to have been made to take the bag filters. I plan to remove the boiler internals, close off redundant ports and see if I can modify it to take the standard 8" diam * 20" bag filters.
As I do not weld, there may be some delay in making it work, but I plan to photograph the process.

My hope is that this pressure chamber will allow a gear pump to be used to pressurise the filtering process. I will make a filter support mesh to withstand the pressure.

Any updates on the DIY pressurized bag filter
housing design ? - thanks

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Originally posted by R Leo:

quote:

Originally posted by OilMotor617:
Any new developments? I have been thinking about this again and want to build a first prototype soon.

The filter housing project has been temporarily sidetracked while I repair and prep my new (at least they're new to me) 115gal storage tanks.

In my searching around the web found one here too .

http://www.localb100.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=79

So far it looks discouraging for coming up with a DIY bag filter vessel which will come close a manufactured one .

I'm currently using a series of bag filters mounted to little shelves, one above the other. Funnels help direct the oil to the next filter but its not the best system by a long shot. I have to carefully monitor the flow rate so one of the bags doesn't overflow.

For a while, I've been playing with the idea of some sort of bag filter inside a PVC pipe. But, the cost of screw-together couplings puts that out of my budget.

A creative buddy and I were bouncing around some ideas yesterday that I'm going to try involving a series of hoops with filter material stretched over. Imagine a snare drum with fabric instead of a hard material.

I'll keep y'all posted.

Todd T

I've used old collanders to support filter material
larger ones fit nicely in a 5-gal pail

recycled window screen folded to match your bag would also be cheap support

Hi, all,

I am new to this, and have just started to make my own Bio, I have been reading your postes with interest, I think that a single or double layer of material will lead to clogging of the filter, why not try a one gal container or a standard bucket modified to allow the oil to outlet from the bottom and fill it to say, 75 percent with medium grade wire wool. This wire wool can easilly be cleaned as required and re used. What do you think.

I think PVC is great stuff, all it takes is a little imagination which seems to be in abundance here. I've even been ordering some transparent fixtures from MCmaster but they do run a bit more.

quote:

Originally posted by R Leo:
I've thought about that too and I'm just going to try it first without a bag support. There's a pressure differential across the filter media so the oil will have to flow despite the fact that the media is pressed against the wall of the housing.

If that doesn't appear to be working fast enough, it wouldn't be a big deal to make a bag support basket out of hardware cloth.

My goal is to be able to have the filtering process go unattended except for initally making sure that you have enough storage volume for the oil you intend to filter.

watch out for the bag being pushed through the housing, baskets are importent structural component. my suggestion is a basket with large openings

Bag Filter for Dry Wash/magnisol. I was thinking about a section of 8 inch PVC pipe with a cap glued to the bottom and loose on the top. Uning 3 sections of threaded rod to a top plate over the cap and through a bottom plate under the base/cap.

Cutting a scction out of a 4 inch slice of the 8" pipe to let it just fit within, gluing it in place and using 2 sections to build up the pipe for threding for PVC pipe nipples.

Sealing the cap with an 8 inch "O" ring.

Please add your thoughts, I can't justify the several hundred bucks for commercial housings