My Spiral Generator

[Carolinablue]

Here are a few pic of what I'm working on. I have a lot of 3/32 SS welding wire. I have been using it for electric fencing. I took a 3/4" OD steal rod and wrapped 30 rounds on it. Clamped and heated it so it would hold size. Then I took a 1 1/4 inch pipe and wrapped 18 rounds on it. For the insulator, I used the core out of a water filter that I cut off. The 3/4 screwed right in the inside and the 1 1/4 fit just right on the outside. Using SS bolts for terminals. After running for 4 hours it was pulling only 9 amps. Don't really know how much hho it puts out, but with a 3/8 tube it was getting a good bubble every second.
I gonna mount this in a 3" pvc housing for my first generator.


http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/4549/dscf0001001uk3.th.jpg
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8443/dscf0002001ss8.th.jpg
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/2791/dscf0003001gi8.th.jpg

[justaguy]

A bubble per second is pretty low. You need something like at least 5 or 6 bubbles per second.

[Carolinablue]

A bubble per second is pretty low. You need something like at least 5 or 6 bubbles per second.

Even taking in consideration of a 3/8 line? If it were 1/4 there would be more bubbles and even at that what I was using was something I just threw together. I kept getting some leaks around the top, bubble some soap. Not really sure if I even had a good enough electrolyte, just playing around with it to see if it would work.

[countryboy18]

your on the right track. if you are able to get wire easy then have fun with wire but plates just have so much area so they need less space to produce as much as wire. i am working on a spiral cell also with ss wire and copper wire. i havent found any koh or naoh in my area so i dont know what that will do to copper but as long as the copper is - then there is very little corrision. have fun.

[h2ocommuter]

I like the expierments you are doing

I like my coils too and have tried many configurations like you are starting..

the one I like the best is
I wind the 1/8 wire touching ;two at a time on a little jig I put together on a 5/8 steel steering rod and wheel attached after some more tries I used a larger dia. sleve on that bar to bring the diameter of the coils to about 2 " then when the coils were finished
I cut them in half so I could make two to go in the size jars I was using. 1 pint each and 2 1/2 dia. "Pepper jar", because they were touching I needed an insulator so I went to the local silkscreening shop to get some screen . What I walked away with was a conveyor belt with about 3'16 squares and about 3/64 thick. The strainge thing here is the bubbles that would be so small you could not see them because they become a white fog in the jar now after hitting the screen while leaving the wire get caught up on the mesh and combine untill they cannot stay any longet and they rise strait to the top!
It was tricky to figure out how to seperate them but when I found the right combonation it produces 1/32 size bubbles that float to the top readily.

If you do the math about square inches on your wire you will find you can get more sq. in. in the same space, verses plates but the spacing is critical. so you have to get the engeeniring right.

That being said using strait distilled h2o Absolitly no electrolite of any kind after about a week I am running about 2.5 amps jar. Where I start clean with under 1 amp per jar.

[countryboy18]

so are you doing a coil inside a coil. i am doing a double helix with the two wires side by side in a spiral. have you had any sucess with that style?

[Carolinablue]

Mine is producing hho, I just have to do some playing around with some different electrolytes. Just used baking soda first, want to try lye or koh and see what it does for me.

[justaguy]

Even taking in consideration of a 3/8 line? If it were 1/4 there would be more bubbles and even at that what I was using was something I just threw together. I kept getting some leaks around the top, bubble some soap. Not really sure if I even had a good enough electrolyte, just playing around with it to see if it would work.

Your on the right track, I wasn't knocking your cell or production, just saying one bubble is not hardly enough. However, now that you mentioned you have leaks , that will make a big difference in the bubbles in you bubbler. My nephew build one that was producing pretty good and he wasn't getting any bubbles at all in the bubbler. He had a leak around his hose, fixed that it did ok.
Another thing, keep in mind that you can add more electrolyte and increase the production a lot, just add more a little at a time and keep check on the amps making sure they don,t get too high. 20 amps is pretty comfortable.

KOH is the best to use, takes very little and usually runs cleaner. The closer your spacing the less electrolyte it will take also. One reminder though, the baking soda will produce a brown goo that will give problems with close spacing almost shorting it out. Good luck and keep us informed.

[Carolinablue]

Here are a few pic of what I'm working on. I have a lot of 3/32 SS welding wire. I have been using it for electric fencing. I took a 3/4" OD steal rod and wrapped 30 rounds on it. Clamped and heated it so it would hold size. Then I took a 1 1/4 inch pipe and wrapped 18 rounds on it. For the insulator, I used the core out of a water filter that I cut off. The 3/4 screwed right in the inside and the 1 1/4 fit just right on the outside. Using SS bolts for terminals. After running for 4 hours it was pulling only 9 amps. Don't really know how much hho it puts out, but with a 3/8 tube it was getting a good bubble every second.
I gonna mount this in a 3" pvc housing for my first generator.


http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/4549/dscf0001001uk3.th.jpg
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/8443/dscf0002001ss8.th.jpg
http://img356.imageshack.us/img356/2791/dscf0003001gi8.th.jpg

Well I've got it made up and it start producing hho immediately. I switched from baking soda to naho (lye). Bought a 2 lb bottle at Lowes for $7.50. This will last for years to come I think.
I used just 1/4 tsp. that's teaspoon in 1.7 liters of distilled water. Starting out it was pulling only about 8 amps and bubbling pretty good. After about 30 min. though it was up to 10 amps and my water temp jumped to 180 degs. which is just too high. I had the same results with a high temp using a full teaspoon, but was pulling 18 amps. Thought by cutting back on the amps by reducing electrolyte would cause it to run cooler, but that's not the case.
Any suggestion on this setup.
Thanks

[countryboy18]

can you post a pic of the bottle you got from lowes. i have looked and cound never find it. thanks.

[Carolinablue]

can you post a pic of the bottle you got from lowes. i have looked and cound never find it. thanks.

Yep I try to get one on later tonight. I found this in the plumbing section, not in were the cleaning supplies are, but where all the pipes fittings and pipe are.

[Carolinablue]

Well I just off my butt and went and took the pics. No point in wasting time, gas it going through the roof. If you can't read that brand name, it's Roebic. It's 100% sodium hydroxide. They had Draino in 16 oz cans for 5 buck and down below this they had this brand, 2 lbs for $7.50. Couldn't resist the better buy. Lowes Hardware store


http://img385.imageshack.us/img385/5442/dscf0007jn7.th.jpg
http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3118/dscf0008oh2.th.jpg

[countryboy18]

thanks for the pic realy helps.

[sp1r0]

I think sodium hydroxide is a better electrolyte than potassium hydroxide, just becauseof the fact sodium is a better conductor than potassium.

[Chris65]

For those of you that are having a hard time finding lye, check stores like Menards, Lowes, Home Depot, or any hardware store or plumbing store. Look in the area where they sell drain cleaners and find the 100% lye I have seen it in 4 or 5 stores here and I am in a very small town.

One other note, just because it says lye drain cleaner doesn't mean it is 100% lye. I saw one brand at Menards that said lyre drain cleaner, but it also contained sodium nitrate.

[Carolinablue]

Yep, like the pic in post #12 this brand is 100% sodium hydroxide. Says it on the bottle. Couldn't find that on the Draino cans. Like I said earlier, I got this at Lowes Hardware in the plumbing department.

[Carolinablue]

Would more round of wire in my spiral configuration cause more heat or would it help with my heat situation?

[countryboy18]

dont quote me her but i think it would reduce the heat it like adding a nother plate to a normal cell. more area for the current to flow throught. just my $.02

[countryboy18]

found the bottle of NaOH in the plumbing section not were all the other cleaning supplies are. i was real east to find know that i know what i was looking for. thanks. spiral gen are not as productive as plates.

[Carolinablue]

Well my spiral generator is not up to par. I reworked my coils, doubling the length and no. of rounds. I used 12' of the 3/32 ss wire in each the inner and outer coil. Using 1/4 teaspoon NaOH, I was using 9 to 10 amps and my temp after an hour was 143 deg. F. My hho production is very low, I increased the NaOH by another 1/8 tsp and my amps went to 10 and my temp was 150 deg. F after about 30 min. It took a long, long 4 min. just to displace 1/2 liter of water and I'm pretty darn sure there's no leaks. A far cry from the 1 lpm most are getting.
Guess I'll start looking about some plate configuration.

[Carolinablue]

Well I've given up on my spiral design, just to much heat and not near enough production. Used 12' each on inner and outer spiral. Have me some SS plates, 22ga. 304, 21/2 X 10". Don't have but 11 of them, that's all the scrap the guy had I got'em from. Think I use an 8 plate design +nnnnnn-, at 14.3 volts that an alternator puts out, I figure that should give close to a 2 volt count down to 0, if I've understood things right. Will let ya know how it turns out when I get it together. I'm slow, so don't hold your breath.:rolleyes: