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How to make a cone-

bottomed processor
Spanish version -- Versin en espaol

Spreadsheet for calculating cone-bottomed tank dimensions

Maybe the best thing (the only good thing?) about fossil-fuel
petroleum is that it comes in 55-gallon oil drums, which duly
become empty, and magically transform themselves into the
worldwide mainstay of appropriate technology and do-it-
yourself tinkering. And of backyard biodiesel-making -- the Mike Pelly's cone-bottomed
perfect mixing vessel. 55-gal drum reactor

Well, almost perfect. They need a bottom drain, and for perfection the drain should be at
the end of a cone, replacing the flat bottom of the drum.

Here's how to make a cone bottom for your 55-gal oil drum biodiesel mixer.

You need cutting gear to cut out the drum bottom and cut the cone to shape from a piece
of flat steel sheeting, and welding equipment to join up the cone and weld it to the bottom
edge of the drum.

The problems tend to arise when drawing out the shape of the cone-to-be on flat steel.
Trial-and-error doesn't work very well, usually leading to a lot of annoying grinding to
make it fit, or a botched job, wasted steel and wasted time and effort. This is how to get it
right.

You'll also need a calculator and a big compass.

If you don't have a compass big enough to draw the circle you'll need, you can improvise
one from a steel nail, a felt-tip marker pen and some cord that won't stretch, or better, thin
wire. Coil the wire tightly round the nail at one end and round the pen at the other, close
to the point in both cases, with the length of wire between them equal to the radius of the
circle you're going to draw. Take some trouble trying to get it precisely the right length --
holding it all in place then turning the pen so that you coil a little more or a little less wire
round it works well. Make a little dent with a centre-punch in the centre of the steel
sheeting for the point of the nail, then carefully draw your circle, holding both pen and
nail firmly vertical.

Use 16- or 18-gauge flat steel for the cone. A 3/4", 7/8" or 1" valve will be fine.
(Drawing not to scale.)

You can adapt this method to any size of drum just by changing the measurements and
calculating accordingly.

The outer-edge diameter of a standard 55-gallon drum is 22-3/4 inches -- check it, this is
the critical measurement.

How deep do you want your cone? The deeper the better, because the deeper it is the
steeper will be the sides, and the better it will drain. If it's 12" deep, the sides of the cone
will have a slope of just over 45 degrees, not very steep. At 15" deep the slope is about 52
degrees, steeper. But deeper and steeper also means the whole contraption will be higher.
The drum is nearly 3ft high, plus 15" for the cone, plus another couple of inches for the
valve, a couple more for a hose connection, and you need enough space to put a bucket
underneath -- another 12" at least... that's 65" already, up to your chin if you're a six-
footer.

So we've taken a 12"-deep cone as an example. That's the second critical measurement.
In the diagram, "r" is the radius of the oil drum bottom, measured to the outer edge --
that's half the diameter, 22.75 2 = 11.375".

h = 12" -- "h" is the height (depth) of the cone.

sh = 16.535" -- "sh" is the "slant height" of the cone, the length of the sloping side.

You calculate this by Pythagoras's theorem, which states that the square on the
hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two
sides.

If you're among the math-challenged, relax, it's easy -- your calculator will do the work
for you.

The red triangle in the diagram is a right-angled triangle -- the angle between the two
sides "r" and "h" is a right-angle, 90 degrees. The side opposite the right angle is "sh", the
slant height of the cone, and that's the hypotenuse. To calculate its length, square the
other two sides. That means multiply 12 x 12 = 144; multiply 11.375 x 11.375 =
129.390625. Add the two answers together: 144 + 129.390625 = 273.390625. That's the
"sum of the squares on the other two sides", which equals the square on the hypotenuse.
So the square root -- on the calculator -- of 273.390625 is the length of the hypotenuse:
273.390625 = 16.53452827. Shorten it to three decimal places (add one if the fourth
figure is 5 or more) = 16.535". That's the slant height of your 12" deep cone -- the third
critical measurement.

To make a cone all you have to do is draw a circle on something flat, cut a pie-slice out of
it and join up the two straight edges. But if you want the bottom of the cone to fit
something specific, and for it to be a particular height, you have to know how big to draw
the circle, and how big to make the pie-slice.

The radius of the cone circle you have to draw is the same as the slant height of the cone
-- sh, 16.535".

So now you know the size of the piece of flat steel sheeting you'll need: 16.535 x 2 =
33.07" square. So make it 3ft square.

Take a long rule, or anything with a straight edge that's long enough, and draw a line
across the plate from one corner to the opposite corner, and a second line joining the
other two corners. Where they cross is the centre of the plate. Draw your circle from that
point, radius 16.535". Okay, so you can't measure .535" on your ruler. It comes to 17/32",
but 9/16" will do; 5/8" will also do, or make it 16-11/16", which will give you a small
margin of error.
Parts of a circle

Now you need to know how big to make the pie-slice cut-out.

The edge of the cone must fit the drum. So the cone circle minus the pie-slice must match
the circumference of the outer edge of the bottom of the drum. Circumference = diameter
x pie -- that's on your calculator, or just multiply by 22 and divide the answer by 7.

The diameter of the drum is 22.75", circumference is 22.75 x = 71.5".

The diameter of the cone circle is 16.535 x 2 = 33.07, circumference is 33.07 x =


103.934".

The arc (a section of the circumference) of the cut-out pie-slice sector is 103.934 - 71.5 =
32.434".

Now you need to know the angle of the cut-out sector so you can measure it off with a
protractor. Divide the arc by the circumference and multiply by 360: 32.434 103.934 x
360 = 112.34 degrees. Make it 112-1/3 degrees.

Now you can draw in your pie-slice that you're going to cut out. Here's a protractor you
can print out if you don't have one.

Useful to know: the volume of a cone is 1/3 r2h. For a 12" cone on a 55-gal drum, that's
7 gallons (US).

Two more things to consider: first, you might want to leave a tab for some overlap when
welding the two edges of the cone together, as marked by the dotted line on one edge of
the pie-slice in the diagram.

Second, you might want to pre-cut a hole for the valve, as in the diagram. Or just saw off
the point of the cone at the right height after it's assembled. Depending on what kind of
valve you get, you'll either weld the valve on direct, or it will screw onto a short length of
steel pipe, and you'll weld the steel pipe on. Whichever, stand the valve or pipe on top of
the cone, straight up, and draw a line under it around the top of the cone where you'll
make the cut. Make sure the hole is narrower than the outside diameter of the pipe/valve
so you'll have something to weld it onto.

If you'd rather pre-cut the hole, measure the ID (inside diameter) of the pipe or valve, add
half the thickness of the pipe or valve wall. Say the answer is 7/8". All the angles are the
same as for calculating the cone, so you can do it proportionately: 7/8" is the diameter of
the hole, divide by 2 for the radius: 7/16 = 0.4375. It's the slant height you want: 16.535 x
0.4375 11.375 = 0.636", which is slightly more than 5/8", so make it 5/8". Draw the
circle for the pre-cut hole for the valve with a radius of 5/8".

Before you start cutting and welding, double-check all your calculations and
measurements. When you're satisfied, make your cuts, then weld it all up and you're
done. You'll find it a lot easier to bend the cone evenly to shape if you use a roller of
some kind. This is actually a good reason for pre-cutting the valve hole because the roller
can fit through the hole while you're rolling it. Try a piece of 7/8" steel waterpipe about
two feet long or more.

You'll also need a stand for it. Steel piping or angle iron will do, four legs, firmly welded
to the sides of the oil drum and joined by cross-struts just above the level of the valve.
Make it strong -- a full processor will weigh more than 400 lbs.

A useful refinement is a sight-tube, leading from near the bottom of the cone vertically up
the side to near the top of the drum. Use translucent PEX tubing (crosslinked
polyethylene) or high-density polyethylene (HDPE), thin-walled for better visibility, both
of which are heat- and chemical-resistant; 1/2" or more ID, preferably more. Get right-
angled plumbing fittings, drill holes for them and weld them in. Use strong stainless-steel
gem clips to connect the hose to the fittings, a good idea to use two clips at each end,
with heat- and chemical-proof silicon sealer as a gasket compound.

Peter Scales sent us this Excel spreadsheet for calculating cone-bottomed tank
dimensions. Just enter the diameter of the tank base, the desired depth (height) of the
cone, and the O.D. of the bottom hole if required, and you're given all the measurements
you need to construct the cone.

Biodiesel processors
Introduction
Scaling up
Hazards
Test-batch mini-processor
Simple 5-gallon processor
Journey to Forever 90-litre processor
The 'Deepthort 100B' Batch Reactor
Ian's vacuum biodiesel processor
Chuck Ranum's biodiesel processor
Pelly "Model A" processor
"Foolproof" method processors
The touchless processor
Joe Street's processor
Continuous reactors
How to make a cone-bottomed processor
Biodiesel technology

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Biodiesel resources on the Web
Do diesels have a future?
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Straight vegetable oil as diesel fuel

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My biodiesel processor, out of the closet


(sort of).

The enclosure is made of scrap plywood and


lumber salvaged from a set of shelves that
the termites had found. If the resolution was
better, you could see termite damage on the
upper left corner. There is additional steel
bracing that isn't visible, so no great loss of
strength.
The dimensions were more determined by
my reluctance to cut the plywood than
anything else. By sticking with the original
plywood dimensions, I didn't have to cut
much of the framing, either. There are few
new parts or materials here.

Principal parts: Tank, vacuum/pressure


pump, and mixing pump. And lots of
valves. The vertical copper tube near the
center is a condenser.

The tank was rescued from the trash collector. I spotted it in my neighborhood, lying
next to the street. I had been looking for and electric water heater for some time,
something in the 30 to 40 gallon range. This one was 30 gallons. It doesn't look like a
water heater any more because I had to remove the outer shell and insulation to fix the
leak.

The silver object on the shelf to the right of the tank is the vacuum/pressure pump. It was
originally a part of an anesthesia unit; it has a sliding vane type pump on both ends of the
motor shaft. In the anesthesia unit, one pump was used to pump ether under pressure
while the other was used to supply vacuum for collecting, um, fluids.

Below the vacuum pump, the gray object is a 2hp centrifugal pump. I bought it from an
acquaintance who had been storing it in his garage until I needed it :o). This one is
probably overkill for the application, but all the pump parts are cast iron, so I'm really not
worried about crazing plastic impellers. It is mounted vertically and raised somewhat
from the level of the bottom of the tank to eliminate the chance that glycerin might
congeal in it. In practice, the pump only has liquid in it during the mixing. Everything is
sucked back into the tank immediately after mixing.

The tank is pink because of the insulation I used. I couldn't find anything brighter.

Close-up of the Vacuum


Pump

One especially nice feature is


the oil system. Each of the
two pumps (one at each end)
uses the glass bottle in the
foreground as an oil reservoir,
and an identical bottle (in the
background, with only the top
visible here) as an oil trap. If
the oil becomes contaminated,
changing it is easy.

The pump is capable of about


27" hg. The flow rate is
outstanding if the pumps are hooked in parallel or series. Only about 22"-25" is really
necessary for methanol recovery. The methanol will begin boiling at 22" and 140F, and
will be done at about 25".

The Mixing Pump

The pump is mounted vertically, as noted


above, to facilitate draining. The gray objects
connected to the pump are insulated hoses. The glass jar in the foreground is the liquid
trap I use when boiling water out of the oil. Also in the foreground is the lower part of
the condenser and, below that, my smoking pipe. The smoking pipe is not part of the
apparatus.

The Liquid Trap

This is a pressure pot used as part of a spray


painting system. The small pots aren't really
expensive when new, and are quite inexpensive
used. I have about four, somehow. This
collects the recovered methanol. It can hold 2
1/2 gallons, but larger ones are widely
available. They could also be hooked in series,
as necessary.

For a sketch of how this all fits together, go


here.
Filters

My oil isn't very clean when I


get it, so I filter it while
loading it into the processor.
These housings were made of
PVC plumbing pipe and
fittings. Inside each is a felt
bag. Spares are shown
draped over the strapping.
While in use, the filter has
one hose attached at the
bottom, thence to the
evacuated tank. Another hose
is connected to the top of the
filter, thence to the dirty oil.
Opening the valve on the tank
sucks the oil through the
filters.

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