Simple Centrifuge
Clean waste vegetable oil (WVO), bio diesel, lube oils, and even hydraulic oil in your garage
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Photo Gallery - This gallery represents the work over several years. Some designs have been replaced and/or updated as time progressed. Most images contain a date stamp visable on the large version. Please note the date when viewing. We are always experimenting with new concepts and designs. If you have any questions about any photo please contact us.
Total photos in gallery 1296 - Latest photo update 2021/12/10 18:48:01
Asterisk(*) indicates new photos in the past 30 days
Adapter 56C to 56J ( 15 )
Algae Recovery ( 42 )
Bacterial fermentation ( 1 )
Balancer Mandrels ( 8 )
Bearing replacement ( 25 )
Botry Culture ( 2 )
Building a gantry ( 16 )
Chestnut Extract ( 9 )
CNC Coolant ( 6 )
Coconut Oil ( 8 )
Construction ( 43 )
Contaminated diesel ( 2 )
Craig's Machine ( 31 )
Cross Drill End Bell ( 10 )
Crude oil ( 5 )
Custom motor shaft ( 23 )
Experimental Motor ( 19 )
Explosion proof motor ( 3 )
Feed Cone ( 29 )
Feed Cone with Fins ( 8 )
Feed Tube ( 3 )
Filter Paper ( 7 )
Ford on WMO ( 2 )
Foundry ( 5 )
Foundry 2 ( 18 )
Gear pump ( 2 )
Grinding fluid ( 19 )
Grinding fluid 2 ( 14 )
Heaters ( 9 )
History ( 11 )
Homemade Diesel ( 7 )
Homemade diesel 2 ( 41 )
Homemade Diesel 3 ( 15 )
Homemade Diesel 4 ( 12 )
How it works ( 3 )
Hydraulic Oil ( 3 )
Keyless Bushing ( 11 )
Lab Centrifuge ( 16 )
Lab Centrifuge 2 ( 18 )
Lapidary Cutting Oil ( 2 )
Lock motor shaft ( 6 )
Magnesol removal ( 6 )
Microwave heater ( 7 )
Misc. Mods ( 4 )
Mitsubishi 4x4 on WMO ( 10 )
New Feed Cone ( 16 )
New Feed Tube ( 7 )
New Rotor 2013 ( 24 )
New rotor design ( 16 )
Oil and Contaminants ( 47 )
Oil Skimmer ( 8 )
Our Shop ( 37 )
Peristaltic Pump ( 32 )
Powder Coating ( 10 )
Renderings ( 8 )
Retrofit rotor for WVOD ( 17 )
Rework Mount ( 10 )
Rotor fins ( 34 )
Rotor Fins One Piece ( 6 )
Seal ( 6 )
Sea Weed ( 4 )
Sediment removal ( 16 )
See thru lid - Building ( 16 )
See thru lid - Testing ( 28 )
Sight Glass ( 6 )
Skim Tube ( 56 )
Skim Tube for VCO ( 8 )
Small Settling Tank ( 14 )
Tanks ( 9 )
Tanks - Complete System ( 13 )
Tap drain ( 10 )
Testing Seal Screws ( 6 )
Tests by fuelfarmer ( 22 )
Turn key machine ( 38 )
Two part rotor ( 30 )
Ultrasonic filter cleaning ( 8 )
Updates ( 26 )
Users Machines ( 34 )
Vacuum pickup ( 3 )
VW on WMO ( 7 )
Water-Oil Seperator ( 7 )
Water trap ( 5 )
Wine Clarification ( 4 )
WVO Heat Tests ( 7 )
WVO Pump ( 6 )
WVO Tests ( 14 )
 Peristaltic Pump
At the suggestion of Gwyn, a customer in Belize, it was decided to test some metering pumps. After comparing several designs, bellows, diaphragm and peristaltic, it was decided to try a peristaltic pump. With no valves to clog and better heat tolerance looked ideal. Turns out, a few years ago, Vinny sent me some pictures of a peristaltic pump metering pump he was using with his WVO setup with good results. Why dial the speed down? Not all materials separate quickly. At 1 gallon per hour we can subject the oil to 2.5 million g seconds. The oil for this test was selected because of it's high amount of contamination. It was run cold at ambient temperature which today is about 58F.
UPDATE: After 3 or 4 days of running the pump the hose split overnight and pumped oil all over. I cannot recommend this type of pump except for short run testing.
This is the pump we decided to try. It's variable speed and can have a range of 28 to 800 ml/m with the 0.25 inch tube. 65 ml/m is about 1 gph. Ran some initial pumping tests. It can pump some very viscous and dirty material. This looks very promising. The flow appears to be about a gallon or a little more per hour. It's been running for about 45 minutes. The stream appears very smooth.
This is the pump we decided to try. It's variable speed and can have a range of 28 to 800 ml/m with the 0.25 inch tube. 65 ml/m is about 1 gph. Ran some initial pumping tests. It can pump some very viscous and dirty material. This looks very promising. The flow appears to be about a gallon or a little more per hour. It's been running for about 45 minutes. The stream appears very smooth.
This photo should give you an idea of the particulate that this oil contains. After two hours the pump moved about 2.5 gallons of some very nasty oil through the centrifuge. I normally wash my buckets with a little diesel fuel. Here you can see how it thinned out the junk in the bottom of the bucket.
This photo should give you an idea of the particulate that this oil contains. After two hours the pump moved about 2.5 gallons of some very nasty oil through the centrifuge. I normally wash my buckets with a little diesel fuel. Here you can see how it thinned out the junk in the bottom of the bucket.
This is the bucket after draining off the mix. Notice how a lot of the particulate dropped out readily. This doesn't look good. I suspect the tubes are blocked. This is why the new design moved away from the tubes. This is the top half of the rotor. Note the water dripping off.
This is the bucket after draining off the mix. Notice how a lot of the particulate dropped out readily. This doesn't look good. I suspect the tubes are blocked. This is why the new design moved away from the tubes. This is the top half of the rotor. Note the water dripping off.
This is the bottom half of the rotor. This is after only 2.5 gallons of super nasty oil. This is some thick cake. Note how the cake is thicker at the tubes.
This is the bottom half of the rotor. This is after only 2.5 gallons of super nasty oil. This is some thick cake. Note how the cake is thicker at the tubes.
See how dry the cake is. The tubes were definitely plugged. The feed cone shouldn't have been full of oil. I scraped all the cake out of the rotor and weighed it, 254 grams or about 9 ounces, better than a half pound.
See how dry the cake is. The tubes were definitely plugged. The feed cone shouldn't have been full of oil. I scraped all the cake out of the rotor and weighed it, 254 grams or about 9 ounces, better than a half pound.
This is the cake. I tried to not get too much liquid oil. This is the contents drained from the rotor on shutdown. Note how much water was captured by the centrifuge. I'm estimating about 500 ml between the two bottles. This is after the second pass. Notice that the feed cone is clean, no back feeding this time.
This is the cake. I tried to not get too much liquid oil. This is the contents drained from the rotor on shutdown. Note how much water was captured by the centrifuge. I'm estimating about 500 ml between the two bottles. This is after the second pass. Notice that the feed cone is clean, no back feeding this time.
The material on the outer wall is very soft, almost like grease or thick gear oil. Removing some of the soft material reveals a very thin particulate layer. This is likely due to the plug feed tubes on the last run. This is the top from the second run.
The material on the outer wall is very soft, almost like grease or thick gear oil. Removing some of the soft material reveals a very thin particulate layer. This is likely due to the plug feed tubes on the last run. This is the top from the second run.
Scraped out the waste from the rotor wall. Very soupy this time. This is the waste collected on the second run. This is 158 grams. Because this time the sample is so wet, it may not be a good comparison with the first pass. On the third pass I didn't take the machine apart to weigh the waste. It did form a thin layer of heavier grease but I don't see any particulate layer. This is likely what the second layer would have looked like had the feed tubes not plugged.
Scraped out the waste from the rotor wall. Very soupy this time. This is the waste collected on the second run. This is 158 grams. Because this time the sample is so wet, it may not be a good comparison with the first pass. On the third pass I didn't take the machine apart to weigh the waste. It did form a thin layer of heavier grease but I don't see any particulate layer. This is likely what the second layer would have looked like had the feed tubes not plugged.
After running all the tests with the oil I decided to mix the wash diesel with the drained oil and see how it pumped. You can see it was fairly chunky. Pumped fine. No problems. This is the bottom half of the rotor. The diesel slop mix didn't dissolve the grease layer but it certainly piled up the gunk. This is the final result after running the diesel wash mix. The grease layer remained and the particulate was built up behind.
After running all the tests with the oil I decided to mix the wash diesel with the drained oil and see how it pumped. You can see it was fairly chunky. Pumped fine. No problems. This is the bottom half of the rotor. The diesel slop mix didn't dissolve the grease layer but it certainly piled up the gunk. This is the final result after running the diesel wash mix. The grease layer remained and the particulate was built up behind.
Came in the morning to find the pump was leaking oil all over the floor. This is how the hose split. This happened after about 4 days of running. Tygon® F-4040-A Lubricant & Fuel Tubing Specifically designed to handle most fuels and industrial lubricants, Tygon F-4040-A lubricant and fuel tubing resists the swelling and hardening caused by hydrocarbon-based fluids. This significantly reduces the risk of failure due to cracking and leakage. Its minimum extractability safeguards the liquid or vapor being transferred against adulteration. Tygon F-4040-A is translucent yellow for positive identification and to allow easy flow monitoring and is routinely used to handle gasoline, kerosene, heating oils, cutting compounds and glycol-based coolants.
Came in the morning to find the pump was leaking oil all over the floor. This is how the hose split. This happened after about 4 days of running. Tygon® F-4040-A Lubricant & Fuel Tubing Specifically designed to handle most fuels and industrial lubricants, Tygon F-4040-A lubricant and fuel tubing resists the swelling and hardening caused by hydrocarbon-based fluids. This significantly reduces the risk of failure due to cracking and leakage. Its minimum extractability safeguards the liquid or vapor being transferred against adulteration. Tygon F-4040-A is translucent yellow for positive identification and to allow easy flow monitoring and is routinely used to handle gasoline, kerosene, heating oils, cutting compounds and glycol-based coolants.
About 10 years ago I started experimenting with the use of a peristaltic pump. It worked really well but after a tube failure, and the subsequent spill, I gave up. Recently, I started using Tygon® F-4040-A tubing. So far it is working great. Note the containment, just in case. Today when swapping drums I couldn't get the pump to prime. It turns out my pump is designed for 3/32nd wall thickness tubing and the Tygon tubing is 1/16th. I was able to get it working by shimming the tube with some card stock.  
About 10 years ago I started experimenting with the use of a peristaltic pump. It worked really well but after a tube failure, and the subsequent spill, I gave up. Recently, I started using Tygon® F-4040-A tubing. So far it is working great. Note the containment, just in case. Today when swapping drums I couldn't get the pump to prime. It turns out my pump is designed for 3/32nd wall thickness tubing and the Tygon tubing is 1/16th. I was able to get it working by shimming the tube with some card stock.  
Numeric Control, LLC
PO Box 916
Morton, WA 98356