DIY Drill Centrifuge

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sjlammer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 10, 2007
Messages
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Location
Albany, NY
So i was reading this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/hand-held-centrifuge-build-171045/

and I thought "Hummm, I can build a centrifuge"

Parts List:
Rigid Hole saw Arbor - free (i had this)
4" PVC Vent Cap - HD
Special faucet adapter for the arbor threads

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First I drilled the holes to match the arbor with a step bit

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Then I inserted the arbor and tighted the faucet nut:

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Then I measured and cut slots to accept the White Labs vials ( i have these laying around. note that the throat of the hole is narrower than the hole so the vials snap in. I first drilled the appropriate sized hole to accept the neck of the vial, then used the dremel to cut a slighly narrower throat.

CIMG1096.JPG
 
I tried it in my drill (there are two vials), with a chair between the centrifuge and my 'nis

CIMG1096.JPG


The results were varied with 5 minutes of hand drill centrifuging

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the yeast on the left is london ale yeast, and on the right is english ale yeast... you can see that one is definitely more flocculant than the other

Then i tried it in my drill press, with the RPM set for 600.

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I left it spinning for a half hour

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Works pretty good.
 
Isn't there a risk when you over-do the centrerfuging of killing the yeast?

@600rpm the g-forces (x g as commonly referred to in my field) are super minimal, it has to do with the radius of the tube relative to the center of the 'rotor', but 600rpm is very very slow, I routinely spin yeast at 10,000rpm and they are fine.

You may want to put some sort of safety on the 'rotor' though, I'd imaging if one of those tubes slipped or cracked, you could get hurt pretty bad. But nice home-made centrifuge for sure!
 
Secure is a term i would use loosely. The vial snaps into the vent cap and the flange on the vial keeps it from flying out.

the picture i didn't show you was me behind an old door turning the drill press on the first time. :)
 
Lol (hiding be hind the door sooo something I'd be doing ahhhhhh flip switch) + 1 dude love the proof of concept. I am thing about making the one I made Into a drill one. I was thinking a flat peace of metal about one or two inches long drill a hole in the middle put a screw threw it then put that in the drill. And tie the tubes to each in with some cord. Kind of like my original post.
Good job cheers. :mug:
 
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