?'s to those making they're own diesel.

[mudduck]

how difficult is it and how much did it cost you to get started ? is it worth all the trouble of researching and settin up shop ? what is it costing you per gallon to make? do your vehicles run better/worse on it ? im lookin into maybe making my own and would like some input from those who are makin they're own . me and my dad have a lot of diesel vehicles and machinery and it just makes sense to do this with the rising fuel prices. any input is appreciated, thanks

 

[gatorman21218]

Are you looking to make biodiesel or just run filtered Waste Motor Oil (WMO)

 

[mudduck]

bio diesel

 

[yARIC008]

If you have a good source of at least semi decent oil to start with you should def make your own fuel, once you get setup you can make it for around 60cents to a dollar a gallon. For me, making the fuel was the easy part. Finding oil to make it out of was the hard part. Everyone wants money for it now or is locked up in some contract with someone else already and you basically have to break the law to make the fuel. For me eventually, with my new job, and GF sucking up all my time it just wasn't worth it. I would spend ALL my free time just collecting used oil and making fuel...

Also, once fuel prices went back down it was like.. crap, doing all this work to hardly save any money. And also my work was paying for a company car and all the fuel so I was basically just making fuel for my dad who would drive his truck just to burn more of it, lol.

So if you have a good source that doesn't require all your time, do it. It's easy and I can give you advice all day on how to make it and fix your problems and exactly what not to do. Made biodiesel for at least two-three years straight and went to workshops and helped other people make it too. My senior design project for college was based on a biodiesel reactor.

If I didn't have a girl friend or if there were about 6 more hours in the day I would work on biodiesel right now. Van is still all setup to collect 250 gallons of WVO in about 5 minutes :O

 

[itsacrazyasian]

i did it for a while and like Eric said, just too little time in my life to do it.

I burn straight ATF now that i have tons of it stockpiled.

 

[gatorman21218]

Talk to Diesel JD. He makes his own biodiesel.

 

[Silver Burner]

If you have a good source of at least semi decent oil to start with you should def make your own fuel, once you get setup you can make it for around 60cents to a dollar a gallon. For me, making the fuel was the easy part. Finding oil to make it out of was the hard part. Everyone wants money for it now or is locked up in some contract with someone else already and you basically have to break the law to make the fuel. For me eventually, with my new job, and GF sucking up all my time it just wasn't worth it. I would spend ALL my free time just collecting used oil and making fuel...

Also, once fuel prices went back down it was like.. crap, doing all this work to hardly save any money. And also my work was paying for a company car and all the fuel so I was basically just making fuel for my dad who would drive his truck just to burn more of it, lol.

So if you have a good source that doesn't require all your time, do it. It's easy and I can give you advice all day on how to make it and fix your problems and exactly what not to do. Made biodiesel for at least two-three years straight and went to workshops and helped other people make it too. My senior design project for college was based on a biodiesel reactor.

If I didn't have a girl friend or if there were about 6 more hours in the day I would work on biodiesel right now. Van is still all setup to collect 250 gallons of WVO in about 5 minutes :O

Is that your girlfriend in your avatar there? I can see why she'd take up so much of your time!!

 

[94turboidi]

Is that your girlfriend in your avatar there? I can see why she'd take up so much of your time!!

haha

 

[mudduck]

any help would be appreciated , i got plenty of time on my hands cuz work is slow through the winter up till late april . any help with the do's and don'ts would be great .

 

[Cheaper Jeeper]

The two best pieces of advice I can give you are
1) Get yourself set up with a reliable source of oil first. Even if you have to pay a little for it. I get around 55 gallons per month from my main source - and pay 20 cents a gallon for it - but it is worth it to keep my supplier loyal.
2) Get yourself a partner. Even if you each have your own independant oil supplies, splitting the cost of setup and supplies, and the time and effort of production, makes it much more manageable...

 

[Diesel JD]

I should chime in. For me the biggest issue is the waste glycerol product. I recover the methanol to make it non hazardous and more efficient but I still have a ton of that crap laying around. It IS messy and time consuming. As said, make sure you can find waste cooking oil to use before you start in on building a reactor etc. I agree that it's good to find a local group of one or two people you can be loosely or closely associated with that also make fuel. It makes a lot of sense if you have lots of diesel equipment. I also have another idea since you are apparently in Iowa in farm country....how about growing your own energy crop....? Too late for this year but a possible option for down the road maybe. My favorite biodiesel feedstock is canola oil. I feel good with rapeseed based biodiesel down into the upper 20s or lower. You also should consider local and state laws about fuel tax and such. So I say good luck and go for it if you can, but make sure you have a sufficient oil supply and know what you are going to do with the waste products before you get going.

 

[DeepRoots]

My friend derrick and I made 250gallons a week for 2-3 years. I also burned WVO at this time.
advice:

1. get source of oil that is regular. There is no such thing as too much oil
2. get a cheap reliable source of Methanol. We bought ours in the 55gal drum for about $3 a gallon from a race fuel supplier. Also make sure you have the ability to handle 55gallon drums, we had a forklift and a lil attachment to grab a barrel.
3. get about 10 55gallon drums (empty) you'll need them.
4. Get a large tank for finished product. Even the best biodiesel maker sometimes gets some extra junk falling out of the fuel, best not to store the fuel on the vehicle.
5. Get yourself a spare set of injectors and Injector pump, keep these on the truck. You might not need them, but the learning curve is higher for some.

conclusion on my experiences:
-It ate up alot of free time.... which for us was cool, we were bored and used it as an excuse to drink beer all sunday while "making fuel."
-At the time fuel was around $4 a gallon, we could make the stuff for $.75ish
I rented a lot for a mobile home on my farm.... that guy owned a hamburger joint and was good for 30 gallons a week.
-We had 2 duramax, 3 IDI's, a forklift, 2 tractors, a sawmill etc etc they ran great on BD.
-I was self employed during an economic slowdown.... I had more time than money.
-once I went offshore I ceased BD production, being gone a month at a time made me clean injectors too often.
-My neighbor and I had large farms with large well stocked shops. Welding machines etc etc, I would NOT try this in town.... plus we blew some **** up once and woulda been arrested if we weren't in the middle of nowhere.

Drew

 

[mudduck]

ill have to cover all my bases and make sure i can establish a good source of wvo , i have two people that im sure would be willing to go in on this with me that have plenty of knowledge with diesels and would surely be a plus to have them onboard with this idea. my dad and i have a 10,000 sq ft shop with two forklifts to handle big drums and access to plenty of 55 gall. drums .

even though were in iowa were located more intown and don't have much for farmland around us but my dads side of the family does own two farms in geneseo il, i might be able to talk my uncle into helpin grow some crop. so far the odds are lookin good for me makin this.