Van's Air Force
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what to due with empty oil bottles.
- Thread starter turbo
- Start date
Bottle after bottle of drippings.
The Last Drop
A long-time friend passed away last year. Charles Kimball grew up in the Boston area during the 1930s. At that time the Army Air Corps was operating the Curtis O-46 aircraft, which needed fabric work from time to time. When Army had emptied the tins of butyrate dope, they would stack them outside the hangar. Charles would carefully drain the tins of dope down to the last drop. Then he put it in small bottles and sold it to his friends, who were building model airplanes. Then he used that money to learn to fly.
A long-time friend passed away last year. Charles Kimball grew up in the Boston area during the 1930s. At that time the Army Air Corps was operating the Curtis O-46 aircraft, which needed fabric work from time to time. When Army had emptied the tins of butyrate dope, they would stack them outside the hangar. Charles would carefully drain the tins of dope down to the last drop. Then he put it in small bottles and sold it to his friends, who were building model airplanes. Then he used that money to learn to fly.
Capflyer
Well Known Member
How many times have you gone into a restaurant and seen the glass Heinz ketchup bottle with a label not is pristine condition? They actually make devices to do what is called in the industry "marry the bottles" to extract the left over ketchup. Hopefully the restaurant then washes and sanitizes the empty bottles before pouring ketchup from the marrying, a pouch or can (which by the way is probably not Heinz) back into the bottles. Worse yet, they just marry one bottle to another. I now even see that some places have figured out how to marry the plastic bottles which is a real problem because the tops are sealed so the inside cannot be sanitized. Ok, so have I grossed everyone out enough?
Not to let this horrific experience go to waste I use a ketchup marry tool routinely to marry my spent oil bottles. From two cases of empties I ended up with 1.5qts. The tool is a simple double female plastic connector I found at one of the retail kitchen stores for about a buck.
Not to let this horrific experience go to waste I use a ketchup marry tool routinely to marry my spent oil bottles. From two cases of empties I ended up with 1.5qts. The tool is a simple double female plastic connector I found at one of the retail kitchen stores for about a buck.
PeteP
Well Known Member
Good to the last drop
When I was a young teenager growing up in rural Virginia tobacco country I worked out a deal with the local airport manager / crop duster / flight instructor to fuel aircraft and mix and load the chemicals for him to spray in return for flight time. We frequently has relatively small quanitites of checmical (concentrated) left over from spray jobs. Desperate for flying money I started saving the unwanted left overs and found that I could sell them to local small farmers who only needed small quamities. Long story short.... I converted the work, left overs and tips money from pumping gas into a private license on my sixteenth birthday. Not to be outdone I keep up the process until a I was able to buy my first airplane, a Taylorcraft BC12D, in need of a recover job, for $900 in 1964. Now almost 50 years later and retired from the USAF and TWA I still miss those days of 60 cent Avgas and $6 an hour wet for a J3.
When I was a young teenager growing up in rural Virginia tobacco country I worked out a deal with the local airport manager / crop duster / flight instructor to fuel aircraft and mix and load the chemicals for him to spray in return for flight time. We frequently has relatively small quanitites of checmical (concentrated) left over from spray jobs. Desperate for flying money I started saving the unwanted left overs and found that I could sell them to local small farmers who only needed small quamities. Long story short.... I converted the work, left overs and tips money from pumping gas into a private license on my sixteenth birthday. Not to be outdone I keep up the process until a I was able to buy my first airplane, a Taylorcraft BC12D, in need of a recover job, for $900 in 1964. Now almost 50 years later and retired from the USAF and TWA I still miss those days of 60 cent Avgas and $6 an hour wet for a J3.
Here is a really slick way to get that last drop out of your oil containers.
Bottom of the Bottle Oil Recovery System
Bottom of the Bottle Oil Recovery System
PerfTech
Well Known Member
....A couple of things that will drastically reduce the number of oil containers you need to deal with is to install an Anti-Splat-Aero Oil Separator on your airplane. They virtually eliminate the need to add oil between oil changes thus eliminating those extra bottles. We also buy our oil in one gallon containers. This also saves dealing with lots of oil containers by 75% reduction. Allan....
flytoday
Well Known Member
Capful remains
When I change oil (Exxon Elite) I hold the new plastic bottle to feed the funnel until the new bottle is only dripping about once every 2 - 3 seconds. Then I stand them upside down for a few weeks or so. I consistently find a capful of oil accumulated in that few weeks. Just to calibrate the thinking of how much each bottle might contribute to the scavenging process. Ambient temperature is 70 - 80 degrees F. Colder weather, i.e. more viscosity, I'd expect to capture more oil during the inverted scavenge time.
When I change oil (Exxon Elite) I hold the new plastic bottle to feed the funnel until the new bottle is only dripping about once every 2 - 3 seconds. Then I stand them upside down for a few weeks or so. I consistently find a capful of oil accumulated in that few weeks. Just to calibrate the thinking of how much each bottle might contribute to the scavenging process. Ambient temperature is 70 - 80 degrees F. Colder weather, i.e. more viscosity, I'd expect to capture more oil during the inverted scavenge time.
Dusty Hangar
My hangar is pretty dusty. Everything gets a coat of dust if it sits out in the open. I would be concerned about the dust getting into the oil over time.
Any solution(s) for dust?
this thing gets a lot of use. then once in a while you get rewarded with some 'free' oil. i love this device.
My hangar is pretty dusty. Everything gets a coat of dust if it sits out in the open. I would be concerned about the dust getting into the oil over time.
Any solution(s) for dust?
dust n dirt is not a problem. i left the rag out of the pic. it is usually draped over the top of the rig to solve that problem. drip on.
So what is the length of time to allow to drip to get every last drop? 24 hours per bottle? 3 days? A week? Time to next oil change?
Us non-drippers want to know how to get this free oil.
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last drop...
Just leave it there for a while; it'll be almost completely dry after a day or two. I set all of my 'empty' bottles on the edge next to the cap. That way the cap doesn't fill up, and the oil is already on one side of the bottle when I tip it into the funnel. Once they've been upside down in a funnel, they go straight into the recycle bin so as not to confuse the two.
When to change? I change it when I walk by the upside down bottle and realize it's been there a while. You can also use the leftover oil to fill a small oil can for bicycle/motorcycle chains or other small lubricating needs. If you save enough for a quart...use it vs a new one. If you keep the dust out, there's very little different between that oil and one from a sealed bottle. YMMV.
Just leave it there for a while; it'll be almost completely dry after a day or two. I set all of my 'empty' bottles on the edge next to the cap. That way the cap doesn't fill up, and the oil is already on one side of the bottle when I tip it into the funnel. Once they've been upside down in a funnel, they go straight into the recycle bin so as not to confuse the two.
When to change? I change it when I walk by the upside down bottle and realize it's been there a while. You can also use the leftover oil to fill a small oil can for bicycle/motorcycle chains or other small lubricating needs. If you save enough for a quart...use it vs a new one. If you keep the dust out, there's very little different between that oil and one from a sealed bottle. YMMV.
