Biopowered - vegetable oil and biodiesel forum
General => Chatter => Topic started by: Tony on August 13, 2012, 12:19:17 AM
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Used to be that making bio from oil was just about the most satisfying thing ever - now I find it a complete drag.
Very easy to get blasé about it - even though I still think it's a bit cool that homebrew runs the car, there seems to be little appeal to it anymore. Maybe anything that becomes a financial necessity will suck the fun out of doing it.
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Funny, I've been feeling the same way.
I think it's because the stream of new ideas and discussions surrounding them has rather dried up. I used to enjoy a sort of pioneering feeling but that no longer seems to be there.
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I hear what you're saying, the worst bits for me are the collections themselves and everything to do with fuel being covered in crap.
However, I'm sure if we tried a month on dino, the joy would return.
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Ive never particularly enjoyed the chemistry side,i much prefer playing about with the mechanical side so ive been pretty happy with it this summer,what with building a new set up.
I dont experiment much with methods and cant be bothered to try and save a few pence here and there,just things that make the process easier for me,i do a 2 stage, now non titration so im pretty up to date but i dont really experiment with lowering the amounts
The plus side is things very rarely go wrong batch wise
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The last time for me when the joy disappeared was when i was making smaller batches every week. It got to be a real chore. However, when the new plant came on line the joy returned.
I still get a kick at the moment. I need to get some more made this weekend so I've got plenty for when i return from the Run2France over the bank holiday weekend.
What are you guys looking for...another production method?
Nige
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i know what ya mean i myself have been there or here, the mundane routine that must be done as let it slide and it all backlogs and its does this quickly fo sho...
but only a down time and it does pass, and also noted that the making and inventing of things drys up it can bring this on also, as once perfected for individual needs it just become another job so to speak...
keep thinking and keep improving and inventing, its what the palce and us are all about...
;D
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Good to see you're still around, RM. Hope all is well with you.
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Being a newcomer to making bio the wonder is still with me turning crap old oil in to fuel
Enjoy collecting from the pubs having a chat and a pint
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I really enjoy the making it still, I just hate the collecting bit.
You are right though that the ideas and discussions have virtually dried up, VOD has been very quiet for the last couple of months.
I cant see that we are at the pinnacle of home brew biodiesel development yet, there must be other things to do
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Yeah I think you have it spot on. Best fun I had recently was testing Keith's drywash drum so it must be the tinkering :)
Annoyingly I don't seem to have anywhere near as much time as I once did for tinkering; I still haven't finished building my new processor and I'm looking forward to that. Trouble is the next free time will spent welding a patch on the Delica and sorting out ball joints and steering gators. Always seems to be a backlog of other jobs - and winter is encroaching.
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So it's not just me then, we're all flagging a bit.
I enjoyed building my new shed but ran out of steam and it's now where near finished.
I need to get shot of 400 ish liters of gly and 440L of solid crap (my failed batches) before I have enough room get it finished,
but other stuff always gets in the way.
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Well the missus is away for a week in Oct so I'm going to spend it annoying the neighbours with the angle grinder and welder - processor #4 must live!
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Don't forget the pics Tony ;)
I'm still trying to get a suitable vessel for my upgraid, but as yet no joy.
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I can relate to this as well, the homebrew bio-ennui.
Thing is, wvo filtering is waay more routine, lacking the alchemy aspect of bio.
Recently, at least 2 long standing members on VOD have (v. kindly) offered loads of their whites foc. Tempted to ask them why making bio does not appeal.
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I've noticed the FOC whites as well, if you went back a year I would have jumped at them.
Since then I've gained a couple of good collections, have a stockpile, and am not using my own whites either.
Although in hindsight, free whites converted to bio and fired in the kerosene tank is a 42 ppl saving, or £462 per tankful of kerosene.
Time for a rethink.
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Wouldn't you be better off using your whites for bio and selling your good oil for good money?
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I swap whites for bio with one guy and RM kindly gives me his,although i keep on at him to make bio so hes using everything,esp as sometimes he struggles for oil
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I get so much good oil that, at the moment, whites are just more hassle than needed. So I give them to whatarascal and everyone is happy.
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The bug bear for me is getting shot of the glyc, it's building and building. I phoned SEPA to ask their advice and they couldn't tell me >:( is there anyone up here in Inverness get rid of theirs? and where?
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I dont use the whites and sell the good stuff as only last November, I was down to my last 100 litres and had started looking into paying for palm oil :(
Knowing my luck, if I sold any, I'd lose a collection or 2 and have nothing. Or attract the attention of the tax man.
Plus I'm a bit of a hoarder.
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Same here, better to hoard and not use it than the other way around.
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yeah when I first started i found it amazing. i still remember the satisfaction as i drove past all those fuel stations running on veg.
nowadays its a chore to do but sometimes i still find it amazing, especailly when i look at my paperwork and realise the last time i put diesel in the car....
its times when i tug my twin axle caravan from scotland to cornwall and back again and it cost me £0. thats what puts the grin on my face!!!
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Hi all
I found after 4 years making bio at home that it was just a chore for monetary gain , then a got the factory and it was all fun again but after 3 years of trying to get everything to work well and pushing new chemistry , filter systems , dealing with crap supply's , getting new customers and whatever that takes up more hours than I care to try a count a bit of mundane straight forwardness seems a million miles away but would be really welcome.
Ps hi Mr motion good to see your still about (I still have your sink)
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It seems as though your joy will return Paul when you get rid of that bloody sink :D
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Yes Nigel get rid of the sink and collect my new (second hand maybe need repairing) big vacuume pump. I will be able to start on the new project then. here's to Crystal clear bio if it all goes to plan
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When i save up enough glyc for you to visit i could take the sink and pass it on?
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Hi all
I found after 4 years making bio at home that it was just a chore for monetary gain , then a got the factory and it was all fun again but after 3 years of trying to get everything to work well and pushing new chemistry , filter systems , dealing with crap supply's , getting new customers and whatever that takes up more hours than I care to try a count a bit of mundane straight forwardness seems a million miles away but would be really welcome.
Ps hi Mr motion good to see your still about (I still have your sink)
Err yes! Don't envy you that - at least for us homebrewers it's not the end of the world if it all goes wrong - takes proper commitment to go commercial and put yourself at the mercy of the government and their illogical policies.
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hi
kieth i got 20 ltr and 50 ltr in a 100 ltr blue drum, do you want it? total 70 ltrs
bring tuesday as dont think anyone at sandy lane monday
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hi
kieth i got 20 ltr and 50 ltr in a 100 ltr blue drum, do you want it? total 70 ltrs
bring tuesday as dont think anyone at sandy lane monday
Yep great,Fatboy didnt take the two 25,s!
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I dont use the whites and sell the good stuff as only last November, I was down to my last 100 litres and had started looking into paying for palm oil :(
Knowing my luck, if I sold any, I'd lose a collection or 2 and have nothing. Or attract the attention of the tax man.
Plus I'm a bit of a hoarder.
Not bad, just had a call, 7 days later, and I'm a collection down. Oil tritated at around 0.2 or 0.3, at the start it was 100 litres a week although it had went down a bit lately.
Appears they've been offered 40p a litre. Knowing the oil, I would probably have matched that.
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40ppl on a collection... wow. :o
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Not found out if it's a company or individual yet, or whether it's cash or money off new oil. Just going with what the chef's told me.
He's moving on soon and says he'll give me a shout if the new place needs their oil away. Heres hoping.
Still, I've enough to see me through a wee while yet, it'll give me the kick up the backside to get looking for new sources.
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anything can become a currency and a value, the way of the world in which we reside...
can be annoying on first touch, but look in the right place and all that can change, if only for an instant...
no-one carries the right to have, but can partake sometimes, value those times as the journey rides some sharp bends...
and above all fricken smile ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Text the chef tonight, it's a company thats took it over, paying £6 a cubie, and have left barrels to be filled.
I'm thinking of sending someone in and offering £7 a cubie with a container and card removal service thrown in on top.
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Text the chef tonight, it's a company thats took it over, paying £6 a cubie, and have left barrels to be filled.
I'm thinking of sending someone in and offering £7 a cubie with a container and card removal service thrown in on top.
crikey they want the old oil bad, i picked up nothing last week, i have lost pubs and what i have the amounts fell, this winter will be the worst ever, as people dont go out much and money grows everso much tighter in ones pocket...
im still looking into paying for 1000 ltrs ibc a time off the bay of E, if things hit rock bottom.
its pickup tonight see if theres nothing again...
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Going to have to get my arse in gear soon, I've got about 400lt of WVO and 100lt of palm, thing is the backs been playing up something chronic the last few months ended up in A&E once with the pain :(
Its taken me ALL my effort to get my new processor ready for fitting the 2x2 stage eductors, never mind about insulating and plumbing it all together.
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Sorry to hear about the back. A lot of lifting heavy things seems to be involved as a matter of course doing this fuel thing. I sometimes wonder what I'd do if I put my back out (especially since I did recently doing some work on the extension - but fortunately that got better on its own).
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Cheers Tony, I broke my back ( 2 vertebrae) in 1995 and had to have them fused but I've been left with a pinched spinal cord , BUT my consultant wont operate as he says he could do more harm than good..
Wish my back was my ONLY "issue" lol
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where has the joy gone? well i will ask "amelia lily" that one...
you bring me joy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvpeBPxyZAY
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 8)
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I'm more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKqV7DB8Iwg
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olHnyslc-OM 8)
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where has the joy gone? well i will ask "amelia lily" that one...
you bring me joy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvpeBPxyZAY
weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee 8)
driving on the wrond side of the road, and not wearing there seat belts. nice car.
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they were prolly on a trailer 8)