Filtering used oil with a rope.

[GreeCguy]

I have read several places that you can filter used oil with a rope. The way it's suppose to work is that you place a container with used oil at one level, then an empty container below that one. Then, you take a natural fiber rope, place it into the used oil, make a loop and place the other end of the rope in the empty container. The old oil will wick through the rope and drip into the empty container and will be clean when it enters the clean empty container.

I am aware that not only dirt will be left behind, but also all additives so that bacially you have "pure" oil.

I have tried this a number of times but have never been able to get it to work. Oil will wick to top of rope but will not make the loop.

Has anyone else tried this with success?

 

[surfstar]

You have to suck out the air to start the siphon effect

No, but seriously, what and why? You have succeeded in creating an oily rope that now should not be thrown into a landfill.

 

[gathermewool]

I'm with surfstar - I don't understand the purpose, either. IMO, an oil is either past its useful life or it's not. Rope wicking can't make old oil new again.

 

[GreeCguy]

The what and why have several answers: I have an abundance of used motor oil. I have 7 old Case tractors, all of which use oil bath air cleaners. I use the used oil in the oil bath air cleaners. I'm just funky enough that I would like to clean the used oil to put in my oil bath cleaners as it would look cleaner. I'd like to make it work just for the heck of it. I've read this is an old trick used years ago that worked and for some reason I can't make it work. Since the rope is made from natural fibers, I'm going to cut it up and mix it with my salad at our next cook out.

 

[bepperb]

I'm with GreeCguy, we really need to get this working in the name of science. Have you had the buckets at different levels? What timeframe are you giving this process (overnight or a few weeks or ???).

 

[jrustles]

There's a guy in Ontario that has his own oil well that he uses for lube and fuel. I wonder if he uses the ol' rope method?

But seriously, this is handy to know for y'know, the post apocalyptic world.

 

[GreeCguy]

I've tried it several times. I had the jugs at different levels, (some one jug's height above the other, some, the full jug on my work bench and the other on the floor - 36 inches). According to the articles I read, it should take about a month. The last time I did it, (last summer thinking the summer heat would help), I let it sit for four months. Oil will go to top of loop and just sit there. I even tried soaking the rope with clean oil and then putting it in the jug thinking that would get it going - the oil in the rope over the loop all drained into the clean jug but did not pull any of the oil out of the dirty jug.

 

[TallPaul]

You can save it in a 50 gallon drum and ought to be able to get some pocket change for it from an oil recycler company.

But it has to take a long long time for the oil to all go through the rope.

I wonder if this is anything like the canned heat trick where folks (back in Prohibition days I guess) would get Sterno and a loaf of French bread, cut the ends off the French bread and then pour the Sterno into one end, holding the bread vertically over a cup to collect the alcohol that passes through the bread for consumption.

For real. I read about this in a book on the old bluesmen and the wild parties associated with it, and apparently the 60s band, Canned Heat, was named for it.

Say, maybe it would work better to pass the motor oil though French bread?

 

[javacontour]

What is the value of the oil vs the value of the rope? Is this even a good value proposition?

 

[GreeCguy]

Okay, let's not focus on the wrong part of the story. As a sciene project, money is not the object here. Like going to the moon and discovering it was not made of cheese, the point here is how to do it and can it be done in the modern world by people not driving Model T Fords. Apparently, the old timers figured this one out and I'm guessing they were smarter than me because I can't make it work.

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
the oil in the rope over the loop all drained into the clean jug but did not pull any of the oil out of the dirty jug.
Problem is raising the oil over the edge of the can. Get a funnel and jam one end of the rope into the funnel neck, then pour the oil into the funnel. It will have no place to go but down the rope.

 

[GreeCguy]

Oh, and by the way, I've not only heard of the canned heat method, I've seen it done. But I was a little too wary of consuming anything that came out of the process as the fellows who did were a little on the different side.

 

[GreeCguy]

Tried the funnel method - does not work. Used a transmission fluid funnel and did the very thing you're saying. It plugs up and nothing comes out. Let it hang in my shed for months and nary a drop of oil came through. My conclusion on that method is that it was so tight in the funnel, it "choked" off the fiber 'tubes" and would not allow oil to flow through.

 

[GreeCguy]

The idea behind the old wick method is that the oil is suppose to "wick up the rope" in the same manner as an old oil lamp or kerosene lamp. Have tried different weights of oil, (from a heavy 50 weight to a light 5W20), nothing so far.

 

[63Marauder]

what do you mean it isn't made of cheese?!

 

[GreeCguy]

(Sorry 63 - hope your day isn't ruined)

 

[scurvy]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Okay, let's not focus on the wrong part of the story. As a sciene project, money is not the object here.


Yes, let's look at this from a scientific perspective.

Scientifically, how does the oil work its way up the rope and back down again in sufficient quantity to filter it in less than a geologic timeframe?

What material properties of the rope allow it to act as a filter any better than a purpose-made oil filter?

From a scientician's viewpoint, what do you do with an oil-soaked rope?

This science project sounds like a good way to have a bucket of easy-to-spill oil laying around, collecting dust, killing flies and generating skeins of oily rope.

 

[hisilver]

Try legit lantern wick?
Try no loop just to see, maybe an incline and then into the clean bucket?

 

[TallPaul]

Originally Posted By: GreeCguy
Tried the funnel method - does not work. Used a transmission fluid funnel and did the very thing you're saying. It plugs up and nothing comes out. Let it hang in my shed for months and nary a drop of oil came through. My conclusion on that method is that it was so tight in the funnel, it "choked" off the fiber 'tubes" and would not allow oil to flow through.
Maybe need the oil to be very hot?

 

[GreeCguy]

Well, we're not talking about a lot of rope - like maybe five or six feet. I would imagine an oil filter from a V-8 Chevy containes more oil than a six foot fiber rope.

Secondly, gravity is the key here in filtering the oil. While the oil in your engine is under pressure, the oil in the "dirty oil jug" is just sitting there, (drawing flies which will not make it through the rope). The heavier particles are not able to climb the rope but the oil, (according to what I've read) is able to climb the rope, (I must have lazy oil as it only makes it half way there and stops for a vacation).

I've tried this process for several years now using both quarts and gallons, (I even tried it one time with two starbucks bottles - 9 ozs each), and so far haven't spilled a drop, (even with the rope as I put it in a coffee can).

The question here is not the why but the how. Why do people beat little white balls around park-like settings while wearning goofy hats and spiked shoes spending tons of money in the process? I'm only guessing but I think they get a kick out of it. Ditto with me and this oil thing - I'd like to make it work simply to see if I can do it and what the results will be.