My CF Setup PICS!!!

[YoungMT Hick]

Ok well ~2 steps from being done. Have lots of pictures.

I made the gravity barrel stand using 4x4's and 2x4's, and 3" wood screws. This was based off of the bottom of the barrel, when side ways, being 5ft form the bottom of my shed. So this will all go in my shed where I have a pre-filter barrel, with a hand pump. For the Pre-filter barrel I have a 400 micron 5 gallon bucket strainer, that I will probably toss out. I cut a hole in a peice of plywood to hold a 7" filter bad. The filter bags are from McMaster Carr. 100 micron.

This hand pump will pump the oil to the gravity feed (GF) barrel which is atop the stand I built. It has a 1 1/4" ID hose inlet from the hand pump. The GF barrel has a 3/8" vent hose that will vent back to the pre filter barrel. This GF barrel has a 1/2" outlet cut in the bottom. From here it flows to the inline sump heater.

The heater is made out of 2" Steel pipe. The steel is coated in POR-15. The HWH element is a LWD 4500 W heater from Home Depot. This will be controlled trough the temperature controller and ran off 120v. The oil will flow in from the bottom and out the top. In the "T" at the top of the heater there is a temperature well. This well has the temperature bulb in it that is connected to the temperature controller. I will change the temperature controller setting based on temperature and flow rate. From the outlet of the heater is my isolation valve. This is what I will use to controll flow rate.

Past there, on to the CF Lid. This lid is made out of a similar plexi glass material, alot thinner than what I think plexi glass is. There is two peices. One being the outer lid that covers the pot. The other being the inner lid which is JB welded to the outer and has sealant around the outer lip to make a sealing surface. The lid has a 1/2" barb to 1/2" FIP. Which is connected to a 3/8" barb to 1/2" MIP. The 3/8" was put through the lid and sealed with JB Weld. From there I cut a peice of 1/4" brake line and shoved it inside the 3/8" barbed fitting, tight seal, shouldn't leak.

The brake line enters the CF bowl (from WVO Designs) and sits just about where the oil wall will be and at about 1/8"-1/4" off the bottom. Clean oil that exits the bowl will then come to the bottom of the pot and exit through a 1/2" Male to Male connector that I cut and sealed in the pots bottom. From there it will go the holding tote. In the top of the tote I have a 1 Micron bag that is suspended. The clean oil must pass through the Last filter bag before settling in the tank.

I will use the HF pump with graden hose to get it into my tank.

Things I have not done.

-Tubing is not ran.
-Pot will have to be cut down approx. 10cm (aid in gravity)
-Lid re-fitted
-Place set-up in shed.

~I have NOT used an inner bowl.~ I plugged the CF drain holes with RTV. I plan to only be running 55 Gallons at a time. After each run I will remove the lid, Turkey baster the dirty oil out. Wipe the inside and keep going. I will eventually go the the inner bowl idea, but for now this gets me running.

All the tools I used to build this



20QT pot that is mounted to the Electric Motor supplied from WVO Designs



Inside of the pot with CF bowl mounted



Pot is way to tall


Looking down into the CF with the lid on. Showing the hose connection and the feed line. I tried to super glue the lid peices together but that didnt work, so I had to JB Weld it.



Well besides the dog. This is the brake line that connects to the hose connection and feeds the CF.


This is the pot before it has been cut. Notice where the oil inlet for the pot is and where the bottom of the GF barrel is. Vertical lines used I used to measure the depth. From there I took a horizontal peice and that will be my cut line tomorrow morning.



This is the heater mounted to the side of the the stand. I used 2" conduit mounting straps and secured it to the side frame. The top you can see is the temperature controller. It has a dial to set the desired temperature. Will do some test to see how it works.


This is the top of the barrel. Grey connection is to the 1 1/4" hose from the hand pump. and the rear connection is the vent which will be routed back to the pre-filter barrel.


1/2" outlet from the GF barrel to the heater.


The pot in realtion to where it is now and where it is going to be. After i cut it there will be an easier path for flow because the barrel outlet will be above the inlet to the lid.


4x4 blocks or something will have to be inplace to prevent rolling of the barrel.


supports added to the back of the shelf holding the CF. Most of the stand has triangulation and some what gussets.


All together




pre-filter barrel


transfer pump. 1" suction to a 3/4" discharge to a 5/8" garden hose

[Dasaliac03]

im jealous!

[ridiculously_necessary]

very, very nice! how much did that inline heater build run you if i may ask?

[Fanderson]

Great looking setup. I'm very interested to see how it works out for you because I'm about to do something very similar. Trying to decide on the centrifuge bowl and motor to use. What kind of temperature controller are you using? Where did you find it and how much? I think I'm going to have an old HWH as my "feed barrel". That way I can fill it, heat it, and then gravity feed.

Keep us updated!

[Clay Henry]

the inlet to heat pipe needs to be lower than the barrel but the outlet needs to be higher than the CF.

[YoungMT Hick]

ok well I will get prices for you soon. Going to figure out exactly how much the kit and the filtration cost me and then how long it would take to re-coup thats cost lol.

Well everything worked fine the other night. I had the heater on and the CF running and I ran 55 gallons through the CF and back to the Pre-filter barrel. Well it did great. removed some junk and flow was perfect.

Well last night i got some longer 1/2" tubing and ran it accross to the tote. Well there is a 4" differenece from the CF outlet to the top of the tote. This was a major factor in why this morning I had oil all over the shed. There was not enough difference in height from the CF to the Tote. well i cleaned up the oil and in cleaning it up my feed line that goes through the lid, well the jb weld broke and i am waiting on that to reset. Oil is all cleaned i took some extra plywood and put it on the cf pot to get the CF up higher. This should hopefully help flow. I added a peice on the opposite side of the pot outlet so that the oil should flow towards the outlet and not build up in the pot.

What caused the oil to over flow was that the clean oil getting thrown out was falling to the bottom of the pot. This oil was having trouble flowing from the CF to the tote. The oil in the bottom of the pot was builind up and every now and then it would touch the CF bowl bottom and the bowl would spray the oil everywhere in the pot, resulting in oil coming past the lid.

So biggest problem.

Oil building up in the bottom of the CF
Oil is not draining to the tote.
feed line has to be reconnected to the lid

more updates to come

[tubular031]

That garden hose is not going to last for long.

[YoungMT Hick]

Originally Posted by tubular031

That garden hose is not going to last for long.

why do u say that

[tubular031]

Over time the oil will break down the rubber.