Poor Mans Fuel pump

[DieselPower]

There is more than one type of rubber used to make hose. You just need to be sure the "rubber" hose you use is rated for use with fuel.

 

[markct]

i dont think that some of you realize just how much force 10 psi excerts on a item as large as a barrel. a 55 gallon drum has roughly 450 square inches in surface area on the lid of the drum, at 10psi, which of course is pounds per square inch, that means that for every square inch of surface it is excerting 10 pounds of push, thats about 4,500 pounds of pressure trying to blow the lid off the top of the drum!! i sure dont wanna be anywheres near it if that lets go, at best it would probably put a heck of a dent in your ceiling and make it hard to hear for a bit. now i know thats just the lid, and theres plenty of other ways the barrel could spilit etc but im just using that as an example to point out that even tho 10 psi doesnt seem like much, you gota remember that its alot more stored energy than if it were in a small container. thats the same reason a bicycle tire takes more air pressure than most car tires, even tho its supporting a fraction of the weight, its cause there is less square inches of surface. myself i wouldnt be affraid to use air to push fuel out of a barrel, but with no wheres near 10 psi, more like 2 or 3 psi max

 

[Egon]

The stress on the circumference should be twice that on the longitudinal for a cylinder.

 

[MikeD74T]

Residential oil tanks are tested at 5-7psi. I'd use less than 10 psi because regulators can fail or drift & I wouldn't want oil spraying from any leak that could be caused by component failure. I do think using air is still a pretty good method. MikeD74T

Residential fuel oil tank, residential oil storage tank

 

[SPYDERLK]

The stress on the circumference should be twice that on the longitudinal for a cylinder.

True, but flat ends are a different issue. They try to go hemispherical, but the deformation required to get there causes severe stress/strain - and failure is consequently more likely.
Larry

 

[BTDT]

I remember some of the same concerns voiced by safety police with my post on "air powered sprayer". But, how many of you or your kids have played with those pump up water blaster water guns? Seems to me like the same thing..air pressure to move liquid (pump up and squirt up to 25' or more), but I haven't heard any reports of these chinese plastic pressure vessels blowing up and hurting anyone.

 

[Egon]

Just move over into an industrial environment and see what happens when if you try and use air to empty a barrel!

It's more fun to get someone to steam out a barrel, put the bungs back in and have him take it outside on a really cold -10F or so day!

 

[rutwad]

What about using an old water heater tank. Seems like it may be stronger

 

[Syncro]

Nothing erks me more than the 'Safety Police' invoking laws and regulations. I think we should all be responsible for our own actions.

That said, a local rancher down the road from us was killed when a harmless Sears air compresser, on its own, silently increased the pressure in a feed vessel he was standing on. He never noticed anything until the thing blew up. Thats the reason fire extingusers and hi pressure gas lines are tested with water and not air. Might give a prudent soul some cause to think twice.

 

[DieselPower]

Nothing erks me more than the 'Safety Police' invoking laws and regulations. I think we should all be responsible for our own actions.

That said, a local rancher down the road from us was killed when a harmless Sears air compresser, on its own, silently increased the pressure in a feed vessel he was standing on. He never noticed anything until the thing blew up. Thats the reason fire extingusers and hi pressure gas lines are tested with water and not air. Might give a prudent soul some cause to think twice.

So true. My brother and uncle worked for Fedders compressors in Frederick, MD years ago and they did "hydrostatic" testing of their compressor body's. They would simply fill the cylinder with water, submerge it in a tank of water and preasureize it. When it got to the failure preasure it would just crack. If they had filled them with air they would have been like a bomb going off.