I don't know how many folks are using centrifuges to clean/dewater their oil, but I just got mine up and running finally this weekend. It cost a few bucks but I couldn't be happier with the results. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, centrifuges clean oil by forcing it under pressure (about 90 psi) through a rotor spinning at about 7000 rpm. The junk in the oil sticks to the sides of the rotor and the clean stuff comes out of the bottom. The system also dewaters through a combination of heat (the oil has to be heated to between 140/160 degrees in order to move through the centrifuge) and a venturi effect created by the oil being sprayed at high pressure through the nozzles inside the rotor. This is not a new idea, I just copied it from another guy on the infopop forums. You can read more about his setup here:
Here are some pictures:

This is the whole setup, which fits on a 5' x 2' platform made from scrap wood I had laying around in my garage. Pretty soon I'm going to add some heavy duty casters that I picked up from a junked stick welder so I can move it around easily. The drum was obtained from a local shop (used to contain motor oil), and the heating chamber was made from 1 1/4" black pipe with fittings to accommodate the inlets, outlets, and water heater elements. The oil enters at the bottom of the pipe and passes over the first element, then up the pipe, and over the second element before hitting the centrifuge. Both elements are 5500 watts each (on 208 volts) so on household voltage (115) they're putting out around 1375 watts each.
Pictured here is the top of the heater and the centrifuge itself. I used pressure washer hose rated to 300 psi @ 70 degrees F. So far its holding up well, but I might get a new hose rated for a higher temperature even though I'm working at less than half the rated pressure. The oil travels into the centrifuge through the fitting with the pressure gauge on it (included with the centrifuge) but there is a ball valve plumbed inline. When starting the motor the ball valve is left open and the oil simply recirculates into the drum. Once the system is up to operating temperature you slowly close the valve until the pressure gauge reads 90 psi. The centrifuge will spin up and clean oil will begin to flow out of the bottom. The capacity of the centrifuge is about .9 GPM @ 90 psi. My pump puts about just a hair more (about 1.1 GPM @ 90 psi), so I still have a fair amount of oil bypassing, but that just means it will take a little longer to filter it all. The junk that is spun out of the oil sticks to the side of the rotor and the centrifuge is cleaned by taking the rotor out and scraping the gunk off the sides. The water flashes off as vapor through the combination of heat and the quick transition from high pressure to low pressure when exiting the nozzle inside the rotor.

This is the pump/motor itself. The pump, fittings, tubing, and coupling (Lovejoy flexible "spider" coupling) were all purchased new. The motor is a 1/2 HP 1725 RPM I had laying around. The pump is a gear type with 1/4" ports. It's a Dayton (Grainger's house brand), part number 6NY91. You can read more about it here:
Closeup of the pump:

The pump is set up so that I have two 3/4" ball valves on the outlet. To run the CF, one is closed and one is open to allow oil to recirculate through the system. When the oil is finished processing, the valves are switched, and the pump can then be used to fill the truck. I plan on adding a 10 micron Goldenrod on the outlet just to filter out any junk (dust, bugs, etc...) that could get into the open topped barrel prior to filling the tank.
Again, this is not my original idea and SunWizard over on the infopop forums is the guru. Check his posts out as they are much more detailed than mine and any information you could possibly need will be there.
Here are some pictures:

This is the whole setup, which fits on a 5' x 2' platform made from scrap wood I had laying around in my garage. Pretty soon I'm going to add some heavy duty casters that I picked up from a junked stick welder so I can move it around easily. The drum was obtained from a local shop (used to contain motor oil), and the heating chamber was made from 1 1/4" black pipe with fittings to accommodate the inlets, outlets, and water heater elements. The oil enters at the bottom of the pipe and passes over the first element, then up the pipe, and over the second element before hitting the centrifuge. Both elements are 5500 watts each (on 208 volts) so on household voltage (115) they're putting out around 1375 watts each.

Pictured here is the top of the heater and the centrifuge itself. I used pressure washer hose rated to 300 psi @ 70 degrees F. So far its holding up well, but I might get a new hose rated for a higher temperature even though I'm working at less than half the rated pressure. The oil travels into the centrifuge through the fitting with the pressure gauge on it (included with the centrifuge) but there is a ball valve plumbed inline. When starting the motor the ball valve is left open and the oil simply recirculates into the drum. Once the system is up to operating temperature you slowly close the valve until the pressure gauge reads 90 psi. The centrifuge will spin up and clean oil will begin to flow out of the bottom. The capacity of the centrifuge is about .9 GPM @ 90 psi. My pump puts about just a hair more (about 1.1 GPM @ 90 psi), so I still have a fair amount of oil bypassing, but that just means it will take a little longer to filter it all. The junk that is spun out of the oil sticks to the side of the rotor and the centrifuge is cleaned by taking the rotor out and scraping the gunk off the sides. The water flashes off as vapor through the combination of heat and the quick transition from high pressure to low pressure when exiting the nozzle inside the rotor.

This is the pump/motor itself. The pump, fittings, tubing, and coupling (Lovejoy flexible "spider" coupling) were all purchased new. The motor is a 1/2 HP 1725 RPM I had laying around. The pump is a gear type with 1/4" ports. It's a Dayton (Grainger's house brand), part number 6NY91. You can read more about it here:
Closeup of the pump:

The pump is set up so that I have two 3/4" ball valves on the outlet. To run the CF, one is closed and one is open to allow oil to recirculate through the system. When the oil is finished processing, the valves are switched, and the pump can then be used to fill the truck. I plan on adding a 10 micron Goldenrod on the outlet just to filter out any junk (dust, bugs, etc...) that could get into the open topped barrel prior to filling the tank.
Again, this is not my original idea and SunWizard over on the infopop forums is the guru. Check his posts out as they are much more detailed than mine and any information you could possibly need will be there.
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