My first WMO collection experience, or better, Newbie makes a mess, parts 1, 2, and 3

[8ball]

So, I make my first trip to collect some waste oil for my WMO setup. My best friend has a tire and lube shop, so I have about 100 gallons a week available if I ever needed that much. I was very much unprepared for the experience. Things I learned:

1. SBC pumps that have been converted into transfer pumps weep a bit of oil from the shaft. I'll have to bring a little tray or bin to put under it to catch the drips.
2. ABS plastic hose used as a transfer hose has quite a bit of "spring" to it. Especially when trying to yank it out of the collection barrel.
3. Don't yank the ABS transfer hose out of the collection barrel.
4. Oil still in the ABS transfer hose slings everywhere when yanked out of the collection barrel.
5. Dirty oil doesn't taste very good.
6. It takes about 3 "lather-rinse-repeat" cycles to get oil out of your hair.
7. Oil slung out of a transfer hose will reach up to 15' up the side of a shop building.
8. When you drop the transfer hose because of the oil in your mouth, nose, eyes, and hair, it makes a big puddle on the ground really quickly.
9. Oil dry works wonders at hiding oil spills.
10. Always bring a bucket to put the hose into after collecting oil.
11. Failure to bring a bucket along means that residual oil in the hoses will leak ALL over the bed of your truck.
12. Dirty oil leaked all over the bed of your truck doesn't smell very good.
13. When you get home and begin to transfer your oil into your storage barrel, Always pay attention to the barrel.
14. Always open the vent on your upflow barrel when filling it the first time.
15. An unvented upflow barrel will only hold about 25 gallons of oil before the unvented air pressure causes the oil to overflow.
16. Always watch the barrel you are transferring into in case it overflows.
17. Oil overflowing from a storage barrel makes quite a mess.
18. See #9
19. When you think things just can't get any worse, it will start to rain.

So, perhaps you can read these hard-won nuggets of information and learn from my experience. If not, at least post them here so we can all enjoy.

 

[idiabuse]

So, I make my first trip to collect some waste oil for my WMO setup. My best friend has a tire and lube shop, so I have about 100 gallons a week available if I ever needed that much. I was very much unprepared for the experience. Things I learned:

1. SBC pumps that have been converted into transfer pumps weep a bit of oil from the shaft. I'll have to bring a little tray or bin to put under it to catch the drips.
2. ABS plastic hose used as a transfer hose has quite a bit of "spring" to it. Especially when trying to yank it out of the collection barrel.
3. Don't yank the ABS transfer hose out of the collection barrel.
4. Oil still in the ABS transfer hose slings everywhere when yanked out of the collection barrel.
5. Dirty oil doesn't taste very good.
6. It takes about 3 "lather-rinse-repeat" cycles to get oil out of your hair.
7. Oil slung out of a transfer hose will reach up to 15' up the side of a shop building.
8. When you drop the transfer hose because of the oil in your mouth, nose, eyes, and hair, it makes a big puddle on the ground really quickly.
9. Oil dry works wonders at hiding oil spills.
10. Always bring a bucket to put the hose into after collecting oil.
11. Failure to bring a bucket along means that residual oil in the hoses will leak ALL over the bed of your truck.
12. Dirty oil leaked all over the bed of your truck doesn't smell very good.
13. When you get home and begin to transfer your oil into your storage barrel, Always pay attention to the barrel.
14. Always open the vent on your upflow barrel when filling it the first time.
15. An unvented upflow barrel will only hold about 25 gallons of oil before the unvented air pressure causes the oil to overflow.
16. Always watch the barrel you are transferring into in case it overflows.
17. Oil overflowing from a storage barrel makes quite a mess.
18. See #9
19. When you think things just can't get any worse, it will start to rain.

So, perhaps you can read these hard-won nuggets of information and learn from my experience. If not, at least post them here so we can all enjoy.

I use bags of sawdust to control disasters, it's FREE


Javier

 

[wdkingery]

Hahahaha 8ball I have been there! Great post! I just love when you sling a still-full transfer tube and make a royal mess with it.. It's my favorite part of collections!

 

[wmoguy]

sounds eventful

Build a super sucker. clean collection and fast. no more messes. I've grabbed oil in a suit before w/o worry

 

[wdkingery]

I attempted to build a super sucker out if a 60 gallon hot water heater, but found capturing the vacuum in the tank difficult.

 

[diezelcrazee]

I have a 150 gallon super sucker and I won't use anything else. It works so well that I use it to transfer between my storage totes and my upflow. Vacuum from the truck vac pump works great, will pull 20" vac in 30 minutes on the 150 gallon tank.

Entertaining story there 8ball We have all had mess experiences, anybody who messes with WMO is going to at some point in their journey.

 

[AcIdBuRn02ZTS]

I had a similar experience... however my SBC pump locked up about 40 gallons in... which nearly broke my wrist since I power mine with a 1/2" drill.... still haven't pulled the pump apart to see what happened.

Thinking about just building another one.

At least you were at a friends shop and not somewhere trying to setup a repeat pickup location. That would have sucked.

-Chris

 

[wdkingery]

I have a 150 gallon super sucker and I won't use anything else. It works so well that I use it to transfer between my storage totes and my upflow. Vacuum from the truck vac pump works great, will pull 20" vac in 30 minutes on the 150 gallon tank.

Can you tell me more about this? Clearly you aren't suckin down a tote.
How did you valve the thing? Pix?

 

[diezelcrazee]

Can you tell me more about this? Clearly you aren't suckin down a tote.
How did you valve the thing? Pix?

I guess I never did a writeup on my SS build on here... Did it on another site, here is the link.

http://www.thedieselstop.com/forums/f22/next-step-my-system-supersucker-build-306664/

A few things are different since I built it and posted that. I now use a 2" ball valve at the tank and also on the end of the 2" hose, that way I can control it from the hose end instead of having to run back to the tank.

Also I don't use the 120V vacuum pump anymore, the pump on my Ford IDI truck engine works much better. With 20" of vac in the tank it will pull about 100 gallons before it needs more vac. With the truck pump running though I can keep pulling. Also not pictured is a clearline from top to bottom on one side which shows me how much is in the tank.

To unload, just hook the shop air to the vacuum port on the SS tank and put about 15 psi in. It will push it out faster than you will want it to so you have to use the valve for control.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kalashnikov]

I never realized how quick the super sucker method was so I never bothered to look into it. Time to change! Wouldn't even need a pump with a super sucker, no more unloading and loading of the gas pump.

 

[diezelcrazee]

Not trying to hi-jack 8balls thread, but felt I needed to add this. The ONLY place I have found where it's reasonable to get those 2" ball valves is ebay. I got both of them for around $30 each. Anywhere else I looked was $60 + a piece

And Kalashnikov another great thing about the SS is when your done, you vacuum your hose empty so you don't have to fool with draggin a 2" hose full of oil around, and don't have the mess of it either.

 

[Brad S.]

Should find a small pic of a oil tanker "like" ship with a hole in the side and oil leaking out.
Then every time someone has a "spill" we can put it in our signature, for a certain time.

I think everyone that deals with wmo at one time has had spills or big mess to deal with.
Good experience, glad to see your getting your "hands dirty"
Maybe that would be a good emoticon to put in the collection.

 

[crazytwo]

So, I make my first trip to collect some waste oil for my WMO setup. My best friend has a tire and lube shop, so I have about 100 gallons a week available if I ever needed that much. I was very much unprepared for the experience. Things I learned:

1. SBC pumps that have been converted into transfer pumps weep a bit of oil from the shaft. I'll have to bring a little tray or bin to put under it to catch the drips.
2. ABS plastic hose used as a transfer hose has quite a bit of "spring" to it. Especially when trying to yank it out of the collection barrel.
3. Don't yank the ABS transfer hose out of the collection barrel.
4. Oil still in the ABS transfer hose slings everywhere when yanked out of the collection barrel.
5. Dirty oil doesn't taste very good.
6. It takes about 3 "lather-rinse-repeat" cycles to get oil out of your hair.
7. Oil slung out of a transfer hose will reach up to 15' up the side of a shop building.
8. When you drop the transfer hose because of the oil in your mouth, nose, eyes, and hair, it makes a big puddle on the ground really quickly.
9. Oil dry works wonders at hiding oil spills.
10. Always bring a bucket to put the hose into after collecting oil.
11. Failure to bring a bucket along means that residual oil in the hoses will leak ALL over the bed of your truck.
12. Dirty oil leaked all over the bed of your truck doesn't smell very good.
13. When you get home and begin to transfer your oil into your storage barrel, Always pay attention to the barrel.
14. Always open the vent on your upflow barrel when filling it the first time.
15. An unvented upflow barrel will only hold about 25 gallons of oil before the unvented air pressure causes the oil to overflow.
16. Always watch the barrel you are transferring into in case it overflows.
17. Oil overflowing from a storage barrel makes quite a mess.
18. See #9
19. When you think things just can't get any worse, it will start to rain.

So, perhaps you can read these hard-won nuggets of information and learn from my experience. If not, at least post them here so we can all enjoy.

This post requires a warning...in case the reader is drinking coffee.