Hydrogen, when mixed with air, forms an explosive mixture - the so-called detonating gas. The combustion temperature of hydrogen is 2800 degrees. Celsius. It is on these facts that this gas welding is based. The basis of welding is an electrolyzer, which is filled with an alkali solution in water, i.e. ordinary soda (sodium bicarbonate) and generates an Oxygen and Hydrogen mixture that burns perfectly. This is what the finished unit might look like:
So, let's start with assembling the electrolyzer itself.
We will need:
- 1. Sheet stainless steel (stainless steel).
- 2. Rubber or plastic.
- 3. Plexiglas or as it is also called fiberglass.
- 4. Bolts and nuts.
- 5. Sealant.
- 6. Connecting fittings and pipes.
Making a gas welding machine with your own hands
Let's begin. First, let's cut the stainless steel plates.
It didn’t turn out very elegantly, but the main thing is that it works.
All that remains is to cut out the side bases from plexiglass and you can begin assembly. To ensure that the holes for the bolts match, I recommend placing glass on top of each other, carefully drilling two holes diagonally and securing it with screws, so the glass will not move out when drilling.
Now you can start assembling.
We start by smearing sealant on the plexiglass and laying plastic on plastic, laying down stainless steel and so on, coating everything with sealant, and in the end we get these compartments for the solution.
The outermost plates must be retracted so that the contacts can be secured.
Due to, to put it mildly, errors in the calculations, two bolts were not included.
Before closing the upper compartment in the glass, it is necessary to make two holes at the top for gas outlet and at the bottom to maintain the solution level.
The lower pipe must be connected to the bottle into which the solution will be poured and, according to the principle of communicating vessels, the solution will flow into the compartments.
Then you need to make a water seal. Since explosive gas comes out of the electrolyzer, a flame can easily travel through the tube and explode, this happens in just a split second. I lost three 0.5 bottles this way. And so two holes are made in the plug, the electrolyzer tube goes into one and is immersed in water. The burner tube is inserted into the second hole.
A regular syringe, namely a needle, is used as a burner.
A very powerful direct current source is used for power supply, the voltage calculated is 2 volts per stainless steel plate, the current is at least 7 A. The current is supplied to the outer plates.
Now all that remains is to prepare the solution.Ordinary soda is added to the water; ideally, it is better to take NaOH (caustic soda, caustic soda), but it is not so easy to find, the concentration of soda is calculated by amperage, the current should be in the range from 4 to 6 amperes (for ordinary soda).
Before assembling the installation, remember that hydrogen is extremely explosive; all it takes is a small spark to cause an explosion. The combustion temperature of hydrogen is high and, therefore, the non-flammable gases included in the air expand greatly and a very strong bang occurs; for this reason, I was muffled twice in both ears and the bottom of three bottles was ripped out.
That's all you can use.
This is what happened to an ordinary capacitor. It is better to extinguish the burner by lowering it into water, rather than turning off the power; in this case, an explosion occurs.
I repeat that the combustion temperature of hydrogen is about 2800 degrees Celsius, therefore it is possible to melt all metals whose melting point is lower, namely:
- Lithium
- Potassium
- Sodium
- Calcium
- Magnesium
- Cesium
- Aluminum
- Barium
- Zinc
- Chromium
- Manganese
- Tin
- Iron
- Cadmium
- Nickel
- Copper
- Bismuth
- Silver
- Lead
- Tungsten
- Gold
- Platinum
- Osmium
