Monday, July 31
Processor slowly coming along
I've taken several initial steps to further build my processor. Some of the holdup has been waiting on drums from the welder. A buddy of mine at work has graciously jumped in to help me out with some welding, and it took a bit for us to work out timing, transfer, and resources. I'm not complaining mind you, since he's working for cheap, it's just one of the necessary gaps in the process when I'm not willing to plunk down $1500 for commercial tanks.
In the interim, I'm fitting the water heater with some plumbing, and am working on setting up two 1/2 size pallets (2' x 4') with heavy-duty caster wheels, which should give me some mobility in my biodiesel rig. I want to find one more pallet, and that can let me have two oil tanks on a pallet, a processing tank + wash tank on another, and wash + settle tank on the third. At this point, that seems prudent, as I don't think that I can avoid having two oil tanks in the interim, and it seems appropriate to have as many of the drums on moveable pallets as possible. With 3 pallets strung end-to-end, it should fit in a 12' line going down the side of my house, and taking up 2' of space along the wall. Anyway, that's the theory. What is less obvious is how to plumb between each pallet with sufficient strength flexible pipe to resist crushing by suction, resist harsh chemicals, and with sufficient flexibility in design that I can move my rig around somewhat. I may have to be resigned to moderate flexibility with rigid pipe (moderate = semi-permanent!), but I have some fabrication challenges to iron out first.
When you look at the pictures of my drying drum, you'll notice the shiny black pipe. It's amazing how 1 week in the rain turned that a terrible rusty mess. Fortunately, I found a spray-can substance that (after rigorous steel brushing first) converts the rusty parts to paintable parts. Two quick coats of that + a coat of Rustoleum seems to have done the trick. From now on, I'm going to pre-paint my pipes with Rustoleum to avoid that issue.
In the interim, I'm fitting the water heater with some plumbing, and am working on setting up two 1/2 size pallets (2' x 4') with heavy-duty caster wheels, which should give me some mobility in my biodiesel rig. I want to find one more pallet, and that can let me have two oil tanks on a pallet, a processing tank + wash tank on another, and wash + settle tank on the third. At this point, that seems prudent, as I don't think that I can avoid having two oil tanks in the interim, and it seems appropriate to have as many of the drums on moveable pallets as possible. With 3 pallets strung end-to-end, it should fit in a 12' line going down the side of my house, and taking up 2' of space along the wall. Anyway, that's the theory. What is less obvious is how to plumb between each pallet with sufficient strength flexible pipe to resist crushing by suction, resist harsh chemicals, and with sufficient flexibility in design that I can move my rig around somewhat. I may have to be resigned to moderate flexibility with rigid pipe (moderate = semi-permanent!), but I have some fabrication challenges to iron out first.
When you look at the pictures of my drying drum, you'll notice the shiny black pipe. It's amazing how 1 week in the rain turned that a terrible rusty mess. Fortunately, I found a spray-can substance that (after rigorous steel brushing first) converts the rusty parts to paintable parts. Two quick coats of that + a coat of Rustoleum seems to have done the trick. From now on, I'm going to pre-paint my pipes with Rustoleum to avoid that issue.
