Compressed Hydrogen

cannon freak · Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:05 pm

The power source may be a problem because depending on the electrode surface area and conductivity of the water you may deplete the battery in a short time.

Other than that it would work just fine.

Cannon freak.

zeigs spud · Thu Oct 12, 2006 7:15 pm

hmm well useing salt water solves conductivity. mabey having the copper poles flattened out halfway along the rod would increase the surface area and that is easly acomplished by just getting a hammer and a small anvill (16-25$). after you pound it out make sure you get son sandpaper and get the rust off the copper rod becuase that will partialy inulate it and you don't want that. for the battery? idk just have liek 2-4 onhand fully charged. barrow a friends to do it and charge them completely the night before.

L.J.R · Sat Oct 14, 2006 7:59 am

Any DC power source will work, A car battery charger would be a good thing to use, something with high amps and low voltage.

You have to be carefull though I have seen oxygen and hydrogen created at the same electrode I thik using sodium hydroxide"lye" instead of salt fixs this problem.

Recruit · Sat Oct 14, 2006 9:33 am

you can easily make lye. I have made some but check google cause I sometimes forget something important

zeigs spud · Sat Oct 14, 2006 5:22 pm

L.J.R wrote:Any DC power source will work, A car battery charger would be a good thing to use, something with high amps and low voltage.

You have to be carefull though I have seen oxygen and hydrogen created at the same electrode I thik using sodium hydroxide"lye" instead of salt fixs this problem.

from the same electrode? then how would you only get hydrogen contained in one sontainer and let the oxygen out?

L.J.R · Sat Oct 14, 2006 8:49 pm

Idunno, but in my science class we split water and the 2 tubes that were supposed to fill up with oxygen and hydrogen were levelling out the same as each other my science teacher said under certain conditions oxygen and hydrogen can come from the same electrode. He fixed the problem by instead of using salt he used sulphuric acid as the conductor he said a solution of sodium hydroxide would have also fixed this.

frankrede · Sat Oct 14, 2006 10:11 pm

hydrogen=gay.
Helium=cheap, easy to get, can be alot of fun;)lets just say that me and my friends like helium alot.

cannon freak · Sun Oct 15, 2006 12:55 pm

I don't know about you but helium is really expensive and hard to get where I live, and once you actually to build the hydrogen machine there is very little maintenance, and depending on the efficiency of your machine the hydrogen generated will be very very cheap.

Cannon Freak.

sergeantspud2 · Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:40 pm

I just finished my power source last night and tesed it out in a bucket of water. It took me maybe 2 hours to fill up a 1/4" of the bottom of a water bottle. I probably could have figured out a way to place them closer together but it was just a test anyways. Oh and also it was tap water with no conductor in it. No sure what to use yet, Im probably leaning towards salt becuase Im not sure where to get some lye. Or what is sulferic acid?

zeigs spud · Tue Oct 17, 2006 5:54 pm

okay heres a fix from my first pic (on front page..or 2nd i forget) but the point is i now know how to keep it canestered for use when u wana move it lol.

after you have compressed it by pumping air into the right tube just turn the ballvalve and unscrew it. then make a connon such as the one i drew out adaptable to the canester (but the canester must easly fill the cannon so it must be small) and if your not at the psi you want get another prefilled canester or just say "ohh wtf?" and pump in some regualar old air.
NOTE~i forgot to put a lil psi meter on the left tube/canester

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sergeantspud2 · Mon Oct 30, 2006 11:45 pm

Alright I hope this isnt too old of a topic to post in... if it is sorry.

Anyways Ive run 3 tests for the best electrodes that I could get my hands on: copper, steel, carbon.

Copper: WOW Do not use this becuase it the corrosion is out of control. I left it overnight to test how it would uphold and the oxygen electrode ate it self into two peices! And I got a lot of hydrogen but no oxygen. Probably becuase the oxygen was reacting with the copper and corroding it. (i forgot what copper rust is called)

Steel: Pretty much the same story as copper, but this time instead of rusting itself to two pieces it cloged up my bucket where the water was. I only left it going for a few hours so probably overnight it would have eaten itself into two pieces. As with copper there was little oxygen.

Carbon: By far the best! Doesnt leave a residue in the water, no corrosion, and wow there is actually oxygen comming off of it! I got the carbon from a lantern battery that I took apart and got 4 sticks of carbon from one battery.

I guess if I would have used some common sence about chemistry I could have foreseen that. Now I know one of you guys suggested Stainless steel. Well I would have used that but I cant find any around where I live.

Yeah and I just for fun I made a lil rig with 4 electrodes in it for maximum surface area and then placed it in a 1 1/2" pvc pipe with an endcap on the end and a small hole in the endcap to let the a small stream of oxygen and hydrogen out. (keep in mind this was all done underwater so when the oxygen and hydrogen were released they immediately rose to the top) I was tring for a constant flame but unfortunately my power source broke from pulling to much power most likely. Kinda sucks but ohwell I bought a 500watt power supply for it now!