by fuelcrop » Fri Dec 29, 2006 3:43 am
Hey
I really cant thank you enough for all the help you have given me. my unit iss assembeled for the most part and it seems to be leak free so far. It was built to the specks you gave me with a few changes that might bite me in the ass later. I cut a 1 1/2 unch piece from the top of each spacer for the gas escape to allow for a bit more electrolyte level which means that the unit isnt sealed gas tight. My plan is is to encapsulate the entire unit in a acrylic box (how it is now but the remaining sides with 3/4 acrylic pieces) in theory this should work and still be pretty compact. I am not going to do that until I have it running for a while to work out any kinks that may arise. My metal end plates were a little thinner than I wanted, I thought I had 10 or 12 gauge but it turned out to be 14, pretty rigid but not enough for my preferance.
I am wondering if the acrylic I used (the clear kind) was a good choice. Will that type hold up????? I noticed in your pics that is was not clear. Also on my 2 positive ends, can I use a single threaded rod going through both conections or do I need to make them seperate for any reason?
I wasnt able to condition the plates before assembly, I tried but I had to handle them in the glueing process so much that it seemed a little pointless. I fired it up for about 10or 20 min today and it was a beautiful sight, at first it was real foamy but I rinsed it real good w RO water and then put in new electrilyte and it stoped foaming. I repeated this a few times to rinse the muck out and it seemed to work well. Some of the larger bubbles that form do seem to have a rainbow swirlyness to them. I am not sure if this is from the electrolyte or contaminants, any thoughts? At any rate I still need to soak the unit to get it nice a clean.
Also, one side of the unit seemed to make more gass than the other, only at start up though, I am not sure what is up with that.
One last question, when I put the whole thing togethor I was carful to make sure that the bottom holes were 1/8 and rotated left, right, however I think I got a little punchy in my hast to finish it and the very end plate is not alternated but instead the leveling hole is on the smae side as the previous plate. Do you think that is a big deal? If need be I could fill the hole in w weld or seal all. Perhaps that is why one side seems to creat slightly more gas than the other.
I will send you some pictures soon and you can (hopefully) take some pride in the work that I was only able to do w a great deal of help from you.
Sory for the long reply, if you could let me know about the acrylic and the rod vs. rods on the positive conection at your earliest conveniance I would appreciate it.
Check your email soon for some pics
Erik