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Well, it's been kind of dead around the forum lately, so I thought I would share some resent upgrades I've done.
It all started with my cheap submersible pump that went out for the second time... they work OK for awhile, but failed (both times) right when I was going to do a job.
So... I picked up a nice Little Giant non-submersible pump off eBay for $80.
It's plumbed differently, so I had to re-do all that.
In addition I moved my entire system to a different part of my shop, built some nice benches, and built a new big combination heat exchanger/de-smut and degreasing station.
It is a welded aluminum tank, full of water and heated to 110F with a hot water tank element. It has places for a small tank of de-smut, and second small tank of SP degreaser. This all sits inside of a insulated plywood box. It maintains the heated liquids nicely.
In addition, the acid pump lines are routed through 3/4in PVC pipe, which is configured into a coil inside the heated water, and back into the acid tank.
The acid pump is controlled with a thermostat on the side of the acid tank. It maintains the temperature of the acid to within a couple of degrees of my target of 68F.
So now my de-smut, degreaser, and ano tank are temperature maintained.
So, about the Ti racks...
While the tank was down, I ordered some 1/8in Ti rod from McMaster Carr.
3ea. 6ft lengths of type 2 rod cost $82, plus shipping. Right after I ordered it, I found it locally at www.onlinemetals.com for half the price.
I was able to bend it into kind of a U shape to fit into the SS bus bars I use for racking. The bus bars have holes drilled every 2in. both vertically and horizontally so that they intersect. The horizontal hole is tapped, and a SS thumb screw is used to hold the racking wire.
The business ends of the Ti rods were bent into a modified U that acts as a inside clamp. I made them all the sizes that I need, along with some threaded ends. All for holding paintball gun parts. They work really nice.
OK, so now the title of the thread... a wierd unexpected observation:
My first run after assembling all this stuff, and making the new Ti racks was with a scrap. The process went perfectly, but I was surprised by the purple Ti rod (it came out anodized). Then I remembered that somebody said when you use Ti racks for the first time, you should pickle them by running them by themselves.
This made me think that If I did a large normal run, and used the one pickled Ti rack, along with the un-pickled ones, maybe it would affect the one part on the pickled one differently than the parts on the un-pickled ones.
So I ran all 18 feet of Ti racks all at once... by themselves at 6 amps CD.
I calculated the surface area of the parts that were submerged in the acid, and ran the calculated 1.5 amps for two hours. This is where it gets interesting: The volts curve acted like you would expect... quickly climbing to ~13v, except it didn't level off. The volts kept climbing until it maxed out my power supply at 31v., then switched from CC to CV and started dropping amps.
At the end of the two hours, the amps were at .1, and the volts were still at 31.
Lets see if I've interpreted this correctly:
The Ti racks have very little current loss into the acid, and therefore, need no special attention during normal ano runs. I don't need to add current to account for the different material... I just ignore the Ti.
Anybody back up those assumptions?
Sorry for taking you here the log way... It's been boring around here lately.
It all started with my cheap submersible pump that went out for the second time... they work OK for awhile, but failed (both times) right when I was going to do a job.
So... I picked up a nice Little Giant non-submersible pump off eBay for $80.
It's plumbed differently, so I had to re-do all that.
In addition I moved my entire system to a different part of my shop, built some nice benches, and built a new big combination heat exchanger/de-smut and degreasing station.
It is a welded aluminum tank, full of water and heated to 110F with a hot water tank element. It has places for a small tank of de-smut, and second small tank of SP degreaser. This all sits inside of a insulated plywood box. It maintains the heated liquids nicely.
In addition, the acid pump lines are routed through 3/4in PVC pipe, which is configured into a coil inside the heated water, and back into the acid tank.
The acid pump is controlled with a thermostat on the side of the acid tank. It maintains the temperature of the acid to within a couple of degrees of my target of 68F.
So now my de-smut, degreaser, and ano tank are temperature maintained.
So, about the Ti racks...
While the tank was down, I ordered some 1/8in Ti rod from McMaster Carr.
3ea. 6ft lengths of type 2 rod cost $82, plus shipping. Right after I ordered it, I found it locally at www.onlinemetals.com for half the price.
I was able to bend it into kind of a U shape to fit into the SS bus bars I use for racking. The bus bars have holes drilled every 2in. both vertically and horizontally so that they intersect. The horizontal hole is tapped, and a SS thumb screw is used to hold the racking wire.
The business ends of the Ti rods were bent into a modified U that acts as a inside clamp. I made them all the sizes that I need, along with some threaded ends. All for holding paintball gun parts. They work really nice.
OK, so now the title of the thread... a wierd unexpected observation:
My first run after assembling all this stuff, and making the new Ti racks was with a scrap. The process went perfectly, but I was surprised by the purple Ti rod (it came out anodized). Then I remembered that somebody said when you use Ti racks for the first time, you should pickle them by running them by themselves.
This made me think that If I did a large normal run, and used the one pickled Ti rack, along with the un-pickled ones, maybe it would affect the one part on the pickled one differently than the parts on the un-pickled ones.
So I ran all 18 feet of Ti racks all at once... by themselves at 6 amps CD.
I calculated the surface area of the parts that were submerged in the acid, and ran the calculated 1.5 amps for two hours. This is where it gets interesting: The volts curve acted like you would expect... quickly climbing to ~13v, except it didn't level off. The volts kept climbing until it maxed out my power supply at 31v., then switched from CC to CV and started dropping amps.
At the end of the two hours, the amps were at .1, and the volts were still at 31.
Lets see if I've interpreted this correctly:
The Ti racks have very little current loss into the acid, and therefore, need no special attention during normal ano runs. I don't need to add current to account for the different material... I just ignore the Ti.
Anybody back up those assumptions?
Sorry for taking you here the log way... It's been boring around here lately.
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