Thread: KOH Supplier
View Single Post
  #9  
Old 03-15-2006, 07:27 PM
Dave Barbieri's Avatar
Dave Barbieri
Dave Barbieri is offline
Senior User
Join Date: Oct 2004
Posts: 321
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by bassproguy07
Dave, where in east texas are ya North east south east?? Also If you could take some pictures of your process(making your processor) and post em up, i cant seem to find any good instructions online on how to make an apple seed processor. Also where did you get our fuel lines and how much did they cost you? I see that we basically have the same truck, so im assumng cost will be in the same area as well.
BPGuy - I work in Tyler and live about 30 miles east of there - a town called Overton. For my bioD project, I used the website that WBW pointed out. There are great pictures and suggestions, as well as line drawings and shopping lists. I simply printed out the entire section marked 'Appleseed Processor'. I've been preparing and shoppng over the past several weeks; here are some thoughts:

Convert Maria Alovert's shopping list/parts list to a straightforward parts list broken down by pipe sizes and pipe types. Easier to go down the aisle at Lowe's with this kind of list.

I purchased a 50 gallon water heater on sale at Home Depot. I had considered a used one, but after looking at the crap that builds up in one of those puppies, I just couldn't do it. I spent $200 and got a new heater. Both of the 240 volt elements were removed; the top hole was plugged with a PVC 1" pipe plug, and I installed a 1350 watt 120 volt element in the lower hole. The element cost me $7 at Lowe's.

Tractor Supply has the gray-pipe PVC barb fittings and the barrel bung adapter you'll need for the standpipe washtank project. TS is where you'll also find the bushings needed to adapt the pump's straight threads to pipe threads. PVC and less than a buck each.

I purchased two of the 'clear water pumps' called for in the plans. These came from Harbor Freight. They were NOT $24! The current catalog price is $29, not including shipping. You buy them off the shelf at the store, and the price is around $34 a pop. I also purchased the one year extended warranty that kicks in after the OEM warranty expires. ($5 each) Total cost was $93.

I found the 'cross fitting' at a plumbing supply house in Tyler. A little over $5.

I buy my methanol from David's Garage, a performance car place just north of Tyler on the way to I-20. He sells it by the 55 gallon barrel for $120. There's a $30 barrel deposit, so my first purchase set me back $150. I'll use new fryer oil from Sam's for my first batches of bioD. After I get the process down, I'll switch over to used oil.

The fuel lines on my truck came from an Performance Diesel Service - they're just the stock hoses and o-rings. Nuthin special. I'll change my primary filter (a Racor unit) and my secondary filter before running my first tank of bioD, and then again at my next oil change (5,000 miles).

My current plans are to brew 50 gallons of bio in two 25-gallon batches this weekend. I'll mix this with 50 gallons of #2 diesel, giving me 100 gallons of B50. It'll take me about a month to burn this. My next batch will be B75, and that's where I'll probably stay for awhile. Since I burn about 120 gallons/month, using B75 instead of B100 will save brewing two additional batches each month.