Mark,
Yup, the old and practically free oil pump out of virtually any motor should
do a good job.
Mine is of unknown origin found in the corner of my friends scrap heap. When
opened, the rotors showed plenty of wear. However, for the purposes of pumping
random amounts of waste oil it seems to do the trick.
I had to put a series resistance on the little 12 volt driving motor - some
WWII surplus item acquired at a ham radio swap meet. The initial head was a bit
too much and had to be reduced to manageable levels, hence the series rheostat.
Problem with a rheostat is that being a big resistor it gets quite warm. A
better trick I might try is building a little pulse width modulator to control
the motor speed - most likely overkill.
The pump is mounted to a flange that is brazed to the end of a piece of 1/2
water pipe that is 3ft.long. The drive shaft is a piece of threaded stock that
(as you already knew!) is ground to a hexagon to fit in the pump. The other end
connects to the motor with a stout piece of rubber tube to couple the shaft to
the motor. Two hose clamps secure the rubber hose coupler.
The motor is mounted at the top end of the shaft. Fiddly bits of scrap were
used to cobble up a mount for the motor leaving a space so that the coupler can
be serviced.
The output if the pump is coupled to another cobbled up manifold that bolts
to the pump but then converts to hose and then to a piece of copper water pipe
strapped to the drive line pipe.
I have not tried this with real nasty oil that has real big particulate in
it. One thing I did notice is that as the screen on the bottom of the pickup
gets clogged, the current the unit draws goes down - the pump is working less
so less current. Normal current is about 8 amps. But of course the sound of
the pump and the sheer fact that it is not putting much out is a pretty sure
indicator that something is amiss.
Yours,
Mark
I think I'll keep the screen
l_mark_fire [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Pumping coldish WVo with a dc pump is one of the most complicated
things I've found about this process. I just gave up and I use
something plastic as a pitcher to scoop the stuff. more recently I've
taken to using a 4 gallon bucket to do it (and have a bigger bucket
to then put the dirty bucket into so as not to get oil all over my
vehicle).
here's what doens't work too well:
the 12V pumps that SVOers commonly use are the 12V, $70 transfer
pumps from Northern Tool (also sold by Greasel and greasecar and
others I believe). These things come with a fuse- so you'd think,
why, I can't burn up this pump, the fuse will blow. But I know many,
many people (oh, about 5) who have cooked the wiring of these things
while the fuse sits there and does nothing (other than letting loads
of electricity flow right on through where it makes a smoky mess of
the other wiring). Northern can't even tell you much about these-
they're made in China somewhere and northern.. well, never mind. Just
don't try and get customer service from places like that.
anyway if you are using really nice oil that's liquid they're
probably OK-ish, but I don't recommend them. (and in Arizona you
won't have too much trouble with the liquid part like 70% of the year
due to the temperatures)
I have heard but did not experience myself that the cheap Simer Blue
12V utility pumps (thats the Pudl-Scooper deal from some Ace Hardware
stores) can work OK but knowing Simer's reputation I wonder about
this- they're cheap, and they're lightweight-looking.
I'm experimenting with a 12V macerator toilet pump from a boat marine
toilet, but it's not continuous-duty rated and I'm still
experimenting... and some expensive bilge pumps would probably work
too but I haven't tried it yet.
anyway, that brings me to
AC!
There's much more of a choice in AC pumps- the motors are much
heavier-duty, plus you have more of a choice in what's available.
I use a Grainger (Teel brand actually) 'fryer filter' pump (a gear
pump with an huge heavy 8-amp motor) that's been pretty bulletproof
(we used it at the biodiesel coop for a year and it hasn't broken yet
despite serious abuse). it's pricey- $220, and it's heavy, but it's
designed for moving hot WVO around. If you can get an arrangement
with the restaurant to let you run an extension cord to the oil
dumpster, an ac pump is the way to go. If you want to use an inverter
I've found that many pumps are a pretty big draw...
Remember that all pumps push better than they 'suck'- so use a short
hose on the intake end and a long one on the outgoing end.
A foot valve is a good addition to a cheap non-self-priming pump. It
is a check valve with a strainer.
But scooping the stuff works OK if you're not a completely messy
person.
Also drill-driven pumps are sometimes suggested. I';ve found them
useful for biodiesel moving, but I've
