Does anybody have one of these, or access to one so they can read the labels ?
If so, would you mind looking at the Ratings and see how much power the Heater uses, and what the max temperature is ?
Thanks in advance.
[Edited on 31-5-2014 by aga]arkoma - 1-6-2014 at 13:29
are you talking about a catalyst tube? Vogels describes one under "methyl benzyl ketone"aga - 1-6-2014 at 13:44
I have no idea.
All i know is that a quartz tube and a furnace are required for high temperature experiments and that they cost $1000s.
What i would like to know is what temperatures they need to get to, and what the Wattage power consumption is likely to be.
With that information the idea is to build one for $100 including a PID temperature controller to get accurate-as-possible temperature control.
Currently i'm thinking about 2kW and up to 1200C, however nobody who has access to a 'real' one has read the label and replied yet,Mailinmypocket - 1-6-2014 at 13:55
The manufacturer makes "real" furnaces and would likely have the details you are looking for on their site or by asking them for a data sheet arkoma - 1-6-2014 at 14:05
Vogels third, page 338. Available in the sciencemadness library for downloadaga - 1-6-2014 at 14:50
@Mailinmypocket:
That link has Exactly what i'm looking for.
$2395 - $2995 (depending on voltage/tube size)
1000C
1"-2" quartz tube size
20C/minute (=50 mins until max operational temperature !)
PID control
@arkoma:
I don't appear to have access to the library yet, probably because i'm too much the noob.
I'll ask for access.
Anyhow, time to start bulding a $100 version with slightly better specs.
[Edited on 2-6-2014 by Magpie]aga - 1-6-2014 at 22:50
@gdflp: Thanks !
@arkoma: Looks like i'll be reading Vogel's tome for quite some time !
Nichrome wire around a steel tube. Neat.
@Magpie: My bad. Yes, a furnace into which a tube can be placed.
i did read garage chemist's work, and it is very ingenious.
What i would like to make is something similar, with some enhancements that can be re-used elsewhere.
These all exist, and can be bought, but there's no fun in that.jock88 - 3-6-2014 at 02:51
You can obtain fuzed quartz tubes from the dumpster. They are contained in some domestic radiant heaters. The tubes are narrow at about 8mm internal
dia. They are translucent, not transparent.aga - 3-6-2014 at 13:00
brilliant.
i just looked up Halogen bulb data, and the tungsten filament can be at 2000C +
The glass must be excellent, and free !IrC - 3-6-2014 at 14:24
Just build it aga but forget about Halogen lamps. Too small in diameter to be very useful. Far to small to be worth all the effort and other
materials. You can easily find quartz tube sleeves around 3.8 CM OD a meter or greater long at reasonably low cost. The secret to cheap hardware
hacking is figuring out who made such items and what they were used for. In this case sleeves for uV lamps 4 feet long used in water conditioning.
Meaning they were made in quantity, meaning cheap surplus abounds. A tube this size is far better for whatever reactions/experiments you may decide to
do in the future. Also therefore better to invest in the effort of building a furnace around one. Get a diamond Dremel wheel and cut to desired
length. At high RPM (say 10k) the quartz tube cuts fast, no cracks. In effect it cuts perfectly, so easy it's like slicing butter. You can wind the
Kanthal around a metal sleeve the quartz tube slides into, or drill your kiln bricks so the quartz tube fits in the furnace. You can make one furnace
using say 3 or 4 sections of quartz sleeve to up production rate. I did this for my glow powder experiments, making 4 one foot tubes out of a 4 foot
sleeve. The brick is cheap enough.
This length is for 220 volts at 1kw. You could tap it, do the math and have a pair of 120 volt lengths. In any case I am not sure where you are or
what your electric grid provides but these links are just to give you ideas.
You can find useful components for building your own tube furnace from places which supply kiln repair parts. If you shop around no doubt you can find
better prices. I think euclids.com has the lowest brick prices, plus many other useful parts at low cost.
Hopefully you can explain this statement. Otherwise it provides little useful information. I have built several kilns and quartz has worked great in
every tube furnace thus far.
[Edited on 6-3-2014 by IrC]Burner - 3-6-2014 at 14:46
And here are a few other people selling quartz tubes:
It isn't letting me post here, except a subject. Perhaps it's a glitch?
Zyklon-A - 3-6-2014 at 19:34
[Edited on 4-6-2014 by Zyklonb]aga - 4-6-2014 at 11:31
Wonderful information IrC and Burner.
Seems the Heater part has all been done before, and very well.
No worries.
Would a really cheap PID temperature controller with a profile-over-time option be worth doing, or are they cheap enough to buy too ?Burner - 4-6-2014 at 11:47
New PID controllers are so inexpensive that it does not pay to design it yourself (except as a good learning exercise). The problem is a good TC for
1300C. They ARE expensive! aga - 4-6-2014 at 12:56
Unfortunately the highest temperature sensor i can find Cheap is up to 1250 C.
If it cost $20 would that be better/worth doing a design for ?
It would be pointless to design/develop one if nobody would build one.
Morgan - 19-12-2015 at 07:15
I was purchasing some quartz sleeves to fiddle with and happened across this video when trying to get an idea for the brand and what size the tubes
are. As pointed out in the clip, they often don't say and you can muddle through a pdf in a Google search of the brand and schematic which is
sometimes a dead end. Or watch enthralling how-to change the sleeve and unboxing videos on youtube to get a glance. And on ebay, so many listings
don't say the dimensions either, so you have to ask a lot of questions if you want to find what you want or what you may like.
As mentioned in the above posts, it's a good materials science source for fused quartz. It's nice to heat something carefree and not have to worry as
often about thermal expansion letting you down. Thin sheets of fused quartz can be heated to a red heat and dipped in cold water without cracking. I
like that property.
UV quartz sleeve / test tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddqYSZd29a4
In the past I had bought tall form quartz crucibles and quartz tubing but the quartz sleeves on ebay are a good price if you shop around. Here's an
initial test/humble application I got around to trying the other day without knowing for certain what would happen. The aluminum cap has no play in
it as it sleeves over the quartz perfectly with foil, but I still had to hold it down and then contend with it getting too hot. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUgGpxZ-4uYJJay - 19-12-2015 at 09:20
I have been thinking about building one of these too. So far I haven't needed one, but I keep running into situations where a tube furnace would be
useful.Sulaiman - 20-12-2015 at 04:03
