Electrolysis Project Page 11

Tonight (11/6/2002) I decided to give my new electrolysis cell its first test run! I have to admit I was a bit aprehensive about pumping 120 volts from the wall into this baby. Lord knows what could happen?!? Anyway, here is a picture of my finished cell. I have 2 nipples coming off of the top. I went with 2 so that I could fill 1 while the air escaped out of the other. If I had just 1 hole, it would be a very bad "Katchup Bottle" scenerio. The water would gulp into the cell and out of it, rather than flow easily.

The 2 nipple idea proved to be perfect. By the way, the nipples are each made of the brass barbed nipple, a brass washer on the top, and then a brass threaded washer on the bottom. This worked perfectly with the 1/4 inch Plexi-Glass that I used.

I decided to start light with my electrolyte. I mixed 3 teaspoon fulls into 1 gallon of purified distilled water. Then the question of just how to add the water to the cell came into play here. I decided to syphon the water into the cell and that worked beautifully. It took exactly 1 gallon.

Here is a better top view. The wires are attached only to the end plates (with welds) and they are also #316 stainless. I used goop glue on the inside to seal the wires coming out of the lid. Putting that lid on by the way was definitely the hardest part. The super fast drying glue made things even more challenging. I would suggest getting a buddy to help you put your lid on.

Here we are syphoning into the left nipple. It drained the bottle in about 3 or 4 minutes. Not bad for a simple no mess solution!

Here you can just barely see the water line filling from left to right.

Now that the cell is full, I put a rubber stopper over the right nipple and then submerged the end of the fill hose in my 2 liter water bottle, so that I could monitor H2 & O2 production. hmmm maybe I should put some goggles on just in case.

I have wired the cell up to a full wave bridge rectifier to change the 120 AC wall current to 120 DC. I then went from the rectifier into a 60 watt lightbulb (in series with the cell) and finally into the cell. This way I would limit the total current to 60 watts ...well under 1 amp of current.