Anyone considered centrifugal filtering?

With respect to the cream separator and oil filter, MFP said it best:

[quote=“MPFbrewer”]If 2 weeks is too long to clarify and rack…how much are you trying to speed the process up and how much sake are you trying to clarify?

I came across some information that said high rpm centrifuges can heat the liquid up and cause shearing. Like you said, to clarify down to < 1um will require very high rpm and therefore probably generate some heat and cause shearing. Both of those things might not be great for sake quality.

Personally, I feel like the more delicate filtration/pressing processes are better. Making excellent sake depends largely on the patience of the maker. Attempting to speed things up usually results in decreases in overall final quality.

From what I have read and heard, sake that is hung to drip produces the best quality. It’s a very delicate, and time consuming process; however, doing so apparently retains much of the “essence” of the sake.

A centrifuge that is going to function like some of the 20K ones for less than $200 seems like it will be very difficult to accomplish.

That being said…I look forward to seeing what comes of this discussion. I would totally be into trying out a home made centrifuge if it would still result in high quality sake.

平和,

-MPFbrewer[/quote]

[quote=“cronos1013”]I have considered it, but I can’t stomach paying more than a grand for a setup.

If I had the space, and the inclination, I’d pick up one of these

http://www.simplecentrifuge.com/ordering.html

It works using continuous flow, and with a small water pump they guys used them to clarify algae out of water, so removing yeast from beer/mead doesn’t seem a big stretch.

I was also thinking about picking up a Cream Spinner, as they’re pretty high RPM, and while it might take out only MOST of the sediment, it will make it so my Buon Vino MiniJet filters last for more than 5 gallons (I make 10 gallon batches most often).[/quote]

Ok now I have serious machine shop envy… Thanks cronos… I was almost over my drooling lust for a good cnc metal lathe and mill setup… It seems I will never get away from it!

Anyway… for now, I am redesigning the rotor for a fixed bucket arrangement, and reducing the radius due to the runout of the allthread I am using… very sloppy at 850rpm… My intent is to get up to 3450, but I have to have a very well balanced rotor for that to work.

Pics of the new rotor design… still need to make a shroud for it so I can eliminate wind friction, but this is progress so far… more mad science lab work to come this weekend!

Oh… also a pic of the new 1HP motor wired up to 240V!

No pics to update with this time… didn’t get as much done this past weekend as I had hoped for. It’s been miserably hot all week, so I haven’t spent much time in the garage working on it. So far, I have cut 5 gallon buckets to use the plastic to make funnels… quite the interesting endeavour figuring out how to make a funnel from a flat peice of poster board, then transfer it back onto a round 5 gal bucket… ended up being a lot of trial and error, but eventually came out. Each 5gal bucket ends up having enough material to make a little more than half of each funnel… but i am cutting them a bit longer than i need to make sure I have enough… I got my 5gal buckets for $1.50 each, so the material isn’t a significant cost.
I’ll be using the funnels upside down on the rotors to eliminate windage losses (keeping it from turning into a huge fan hah). Once I get the funnels cut and attached, I’ll be finishing the shroud with a top and bottom.

Other changes in the design include flipping the barrel upside down (I don’t have a lid for it), cutting a third access door, and installing three additional braces, so that I have a bearing and 2x4 brace between each rotor. This should help deal with the runout issues I was having with the threaded rod, and hopefully I will be able to raise RPM significantly higher.

That’s all for now… I see a lot of views on the thread, not too many comments. Let me know what you guys think! If you have any ideas that might be helpful please chime in… this is my first time building a centrifuge so it’s definitely a learning process.

Also, if I don’t get back on here before the weekend, Happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there! (I don’t have kids)

Edit:
I have all three rotors built and balanced to within 0.005oz! That should be much better than the 0.1oz I had with the swinging bucket rotor design.

Well, the rotor shrouds turned out to be an exercise in futility. I gained little to no benefit with respect to the windage losses I was attempting to minimize.
I have an idea for another rotor based off of the lab grade centrifuges I have seen pictures of… the gist of it is multiple layers of MDF, cut into circles, each 3/4" smaller than the last, with holes cut at 45 degree angles for the cylinders to rest in. The outside of the rotor will start out looking like a stepped pulley, but I have plans to router the steps off at 45 degrees to make it one smooth surface. I will be cutting doors into the side of the rotor to allow insertion and removal of the cylinders, this will eliminate the need for clearance on top and bottom of the rotor. This should also allow the cylinders to be completely encased in one smooth solid rotor mass. I know I can’t eliminate windage losses entirely, but if all exterior surfaces are rounded and smooth, it can at least be left to a bare minimum.

I have also decided to shift away from the plastic cylinders, to pint size small mouth mason jars. Not only are the leak tight, but I believe will stand up to the higher g-forces that I am hoping to impart on them at higher rpms. As an added bonus, they aren’t completely round more like square with rounded corners, which will make the construction of this new rotor much easier (since I will not have to bore at a 45 degree angle with a holesaw).
Here is the idea on paper, and also the natural settling of the sake as I have yet to come up with a viable option for a rotor at >800rpm.