My sample was only one fluid ounce, because the medicine container I used was that size. Since then, I visited my local Beauty Supply store, and picked up a half dozen graduated squeeze bottles with cone shaped dispensing nozzles, and little snap on caps to seal the nozzles. These bottles come with many brands of hair dye, for those of you who have a loved one who colors their hair.

These bottles are 8 fl oz capacity (240 ml), and are ideal for small batches of diesel. I picked up a few round metal 16 oz cans a while back, and use those for fuel storage, and trips to the field.

Also, I emptied two 7 oz cans of John Deere starting fluid into these bottles, and measured exactly 8 oz of clear fluid from each can. Then transfered them into one of the 16 oz metal cans for storage. Evidently, the JD cans are slightly over filled, to be sure customers are not shorted?

Something not so good happened when I sprayed JD Ether directly into the Castor oil in my last batch of fuel, and the mix foamed up violently causing some to spray out around the plastic tube I had run from the spray nozzle on the can, into the nozzle of the plastic bottle. Incorrectly, I assumed the lost Ether/oil was well mixed, and didn't find out until I finished the batch by adding Kerosene, and then tried to start my PAW 55 that something was wrong! The engine was very hard to start, and when I got it running it sounded over compressed. That's when I tried a can of commercial fuel (Aerodyne), and noticed a marked improvement in ease of starting. I was suddenly getting two or three flip starts, and much broader needle and compression settings!

So that's what prompted my first evaporation test, and showed that what ever was lost overnight, brought the volume down by approximately 25%. Judging by the way my engine ran, I suspect my measurement wasn't far from the mark.

My next test will be with a small batch of carefully measured fuel, blended after the JD propellant has gassed off. Samples will be evaporated as before, to see if reverse engineering works on diesel fuel.

Gassing the propellant off goes pretty fast, and is easy to observe by feeling the bottoms of the plastic bottles, as they bulge out a bit when the JD fluid is sprayed into the bottle. I stopped spraying each time I felt the bottom bulge had reached it's limit of elastivity, and waited until the bottom was completely relaxed again.

It only took a few minutes after the JD can was empty, for the pressure to stop building. The spray can nozzle was still connected to the bottle via the small plastic tube. The snap on cap was then installed on the bottle, and removed a few times over the next half hour or so, to be sure the pressure was no longer building (and it wasn't).

Caution! Keep the plastic bottle pointed safely away from your face, just in case it foams up faster than you expect, and wearing protective glasses is always a good idea when handling fuel.

Stay tuned for more of my inane blather.

Bill