How to build an oil filter cutter

[wally6934]

From time to time i see people asking about oil filter cutters. Here is one i made for about $20. The cutting blade was the biggest one farm and fleet had. They have 3 sizes to choose from. The bearings i think came from a roller skate. The vice was from harbor freight.

The cutter wheel hole was not big enough for a shoulder bolt so i used a bridge design to hold the cutter in place.

I had to extend one of the jaws with a piece of wood so the oil filters had someplace to sit. This design will cut two different size oil filters, The smaller type for smaller car engines and lawn tractors and the next size up for bigger engines.

The important thing is to have both sizes of oil filter on hand so you can check spacings and adjust the height of the cutter and bearings as you are building it.

Adjust the height of bearings were they track the best.

If you have a drill press this will be very easy to build, the holes will all be square and easy to drill. The vice is cast iron and drills and taps very easily.

This is a very forgiving design and can incorporate a lot of whatever you can scrounge up.


As built.

Cutter blade dia. .8"

Center of cutter blade to vise surface .4” MIN height.

Spacing of bearings 3.125”

Bearing dia approx .8”. I had bearings from American Science and Surplus that were inch size. The center hole was ¼ inch. The closest common bearing is a 8mmx22mmx7mm roller skate bearing.

Wood extension of jaw 1 1/8"

4 inch drill press vice Harbor Freight, looks like prices went up a little. I paid $12 now it is $17.

 

[Burt]

patent it.

 

[DuckRyder]

Nice job, very resourceful...

You photos do illustrate one thing I like about smaller lighter cutters, you can cinch the filter in a vice; tapping plate up and cut - quite a bit less messy...

 

[Sayjac]

That's hardcore man! Biggest problem with the cutter from Summit racing is the guide wheels don't hit 3" or less diameter filters, and they aren't adjustable. Not sure if that is the case with your design, or if just bigger wheels could be used?

About the P1 shown, while the seam area is wavy, as far as you can tell are the pleat ends intact at the two endcaps in that area?

Thanks for sharing the results of your efforts.

 

[Donald]

Nice job.

 

[wally6934]

You zeroed in on it’s achilles heel. I have wondered if it should be mounted to something upside down. I would try it, but i have no place to easily mount it. But for the few filters i do the newspaper works ok. Then i let it drip dry in a oil pan.

 

[wally6934]

Originally Posted By: sayjac
That's hardcore man! Biggest problem with the cutter from Summit racing is the guide wheels don't hit 3" or less diameter filters, and they aren't adjustable. Not sure if that is the case with your design, or if just bigger wheels could be used?

About the P1 shown, while the seam area is wavy, as far as you can tell are the pleat ends intact at the two endcaps in that area?

Thanks for sharing the results of your efforts.


It does the 3” and 4” filters.

There was no damage to the filter media. It was intact to the two end caps it was glued to.

 

[Sayjac]

^^^Excellent, looks like the biggest issue then is the mess created.

I was given the Summit cutter as a gift, but ended up getting the HF exhaust cutter for ~$12 while on sale and with 20% coopin(R.White). The exhaust cutter requires some finesse, but it get's the job done.

Looks like the P1 held up fine then.

 

[Falken]

Wow excellent I see a perfect design.

What I like most about it is it leaves absolutely no metal flakes anywhere, so you can visually see if your engine is shedding wear metals.

A lot of people hack them up then say, "not sure if those metal flakes are from butchering the can apart".

So it makes it extra useful as a diagnostic tool.

Good work!

 

[Umibozu]

This is awesome and all for around $20!

 

[05LGTLtd]

If the wood soaks up too much oil you can replace it with stacked white cutting board plastic. Put a strip on the opposite side as well so the filter is supported the same. Nice job, btw.

 

[Hosteen]

Very nice design which will outlast Wally. Regards

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Burt
patent it.


No kidding. You certainly are bitten by the bitog bug.
Engineering an oil filter cutter to inspect media can only come from sleepless nights,reading bitog threads and just as the sun comes up the "aha" moment.

Nice work.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: wally6934
Originally Posted By: sayjac
That's hardcore man! Biggest problem with the cutter from Summit racing is the guide wheels don't hit 3" or less diameter filters, and they aren't adjustable. Not sure if that is the case with your design, or if just bigger wheels could be used?


It does the 3” and 4” filters.


Yeah, I hate that about my Summit filter cutter too ... it doesn't like smaller filters.

If you wanted it to do even smaller, you could drill & tap another set of holes for the two bearing rollers that are farther inward from where they are now. You would just have to move the rollers to the inner holes and it could probably cut filters down to 2" in diameter. Nice job on a home make cutter

 

[wally6934]

I tried sawing the oil filters apart with a sawzall mounted in a vice and a very fine blade. It was a disaster. The filter media was so contaminated with metal debris i had no idea what was going on.

 

[wally6934]

Originally Posted By: 05LGTLtd
If the wood soaks up too much oil you can replace it with stacked white cutting board plastic. Put a strip on the opposite side as well so the filter is supported the same. Nice job, btw.



Don’t forget, telephone poles are soaked in oil to preserve them.

Also the oil filter is sitting much farther on the back jaw then the front jaw, so it did not need the wood extension. But if you really wanted to balance it out, then the front wood extension should be about 3/8” shorter and a 3/8;" piece of wood should be added to the back jaw.

 

[wally6934]

Originally Posted By: Clevy
Originally Posted By: Burt
patent it.


No kidding. You certainly are bitten by the bitog bug.
Engineering an oil filter cutter to inspect media can only come from sleepless nights,reading bitog threads and just as the sun comes up the "aha" moment.

Nice work.


You hit it square on Clevy. It took many days to finally come up with a design simple enough so it could be made with everyday tools. There were many ways to make this using a milling machine and a lathe. But not too many ways with simple shop tools.

And yes after reading many posts on BITOG i wanted to get in on the oil filter fun to. Plus i had a new to me an 18 year old van and i wanted to know what condition it was in.

 

[ZeeOSix]

Originally Posted By: sayjac
I was given the Summit cutter as a gift, but ended up getting the HF exhaust cutter for ~$12 while on sale and with 20% coopin(R.White). The exhaust cutter requires some finesse, but it get's the job done.


I've got the same HF exhaust cutter (bought one after sayjac brought it up as an optional cutter) and it does need some finesse. I've found that the key is to start it off with really light cutting pressure, and ensure all the wheels are tracking in the same groove, then slowly increase the cutting pressure and take it slow. If you try to go to fast the wheels don't like to stay on track.

 

[Kruse]

Nice. I'm sure it works better than a lot of commercial cutters.
One thought though....did you ever consider mounting it on the bottom side of a work bench so that all the oil stays away from the cutting wheel and keeps it clean?

 

[Falken]

Kruse, I like your idea about mounting it upside down to something.

That would be so clean, even if the ADBV is still holding back a half cup of dirty oil.

Mount under a cabinet like an electric can opener?