4metals said:
Nice simple setup Kurt. Could you possibly post a few pictures of the liquid that wicks out? I am curious as to see its clarity.
Sorry 4metals but at this time I will be unable to provide pics of the filtered liquid - the copper cement I filtered (in the last pic) was the last filtering I had to do in my effort to clean up (& shut down) my refining operation in my preparation to sell the estate here & make my move back out to the pacific Northwest
I took these pics a couple weeks ago & was going to post them in the "Dealing with waste" thread where Thopher was posting his wick filter & just didn't get time but took the time when I saw GSP start this thread
Also - a couple years ago I quit adjusting pH & filtering out the hydroxides myself (due to working on a larger scale & therefore creating a larger volume of waste) so instead for the last couple years I have simply been adjusting pH to make my waste "non- corrosive" (which is a pH between 4 & 10) & then disposing of it through my chem supplier which cost me $150 per 55 gallon drum --- if the pH is less then 4 &/or more then 10 - then the waste is considered corrosive & therefore considered hazardous & the cost of handling goes up to $1,250 per drum
However - I can tell you that when I first came up with & started using this "
wick" filter system my filtered liquids were (with few exceptions) as clear as a glass of drinking water
Note; - (with few exceptions) the fact is - regardless of how you filter (vacuum, pressure, gravity, or wick) you will have "some" solutions where "some" solids pass the filter
I just wondering... is that container been rigged right ? Should that end where rag comes out be upper. This way there is no capillary action
I can see the plugged bung forcing the liquid through the fabric due to gravity, not true wicking.
Note; - that I underlined "
wick" filter system above - I can assure you this is a true "wick" system - without the wick - the filter would NOT work - if you don't install the wick & therefore depended on gravity alone to draw the liquid through the solids AND the blanket filter lining the filtering "will" in a very short time slow to a point of near shut down --- You will find yourself "days later" still waiting for the filter to de-water the solids AND the solids will "not" be near as de-watered as with the wick installed --- even if you drilled the bottom of the half drum full of holes (made it into a BIG colander) & relied on gravity alone to do the filtering it would take a couple days to de-water the solids & the de-watering would not be as complete
Wicking (capillary action) is definitely at work here - & - it is being "assisted" by gravity - the more the solids become de-watered - the more the wick (capillary action) works at drawing the water "down" through the solids & out through the wick
Before coming up with this system I tried it all - I cut a 20 gallon barrel in half (length ways) & drilled it full of holes (like a BIG colander) placed it over a 55 gallon drum (cut in half length ways) as a gravity filter - days later I was still waiting for the solids to de-water --- I tried both vacuum & pressure with a 15 gallon drum as my filter funnel - the vacuum &/or pressure would "soon" compact the solids causing the filtering to all but shut down --- I tried wicking up & over the top of a bucket & though that definitely worked it was slower then I hoped for & did not de-water to my satisfaction - so then I tried GSPs method posted here
:arrow: http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=67&t=11145&p=207332&hilit=wick#p207133
This worked well on a smaller scale - but when I tried to scale it up I had trouble getting a good seal & therefore had solids passing threw the filter --- That's when I came up with the idea of the half drum wherein you can provide enough of a plug (at the bunge hole) to prevent solids passing threw but still take advantage of the "power" of a wick
Two things to note - 1) you are best served if you pre-wet your wick (whether wicking over the top of a bucket or out the bottom of a barrel) --- 2) a wick will "eventually" pull very fine solids - this happens on the surface of the wick & it happens whether you are wicking up over the top of a bucket or out the bottom of a barrel (as Topher discovered in the "dealing with waste thread) he was getting solids because he was reusing the same wick & those solids were "climbing" the surface of the wick so when he went to re-use the wick he was starting with a wick that was already dirty on the surface - one - two at best filtering is all you will get out of a wick before "some" solids start to follow "on" the wick
Kurt