The finished product cost about $40, not including the argon cylinder and regulator. It works decently, and as you can see a freshly cut piece of
lithium metal takes 4x longer to tarnish than in air. Good progress, but not good enough I think.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve the design?
I tried another test with including a Hot Hands pack in the chamber, to absorb oxygen and moisture, but this didn't seem to help much. I only left it
in there for 30 minutes so maybe a longer time is needed. Others have suggested replacing the foam gasket with RTV silicone.
My first use of the glove box will be for my video on lithium, which is why I used that to gauge its effectiveness.Daffodile - 11-6-2016 at 20:19
Isn't a lot of the Lithium Tarnish just Lithium Nitride? My ol' chem book says that Lithium was used awhile ago when they wanted to isolate unreactive
gases (Argon, mainly), because it will react to form Lithium Hydroxide, Oxide, Nitride, etc. So it looks like until you can flush out ALL atmospheric
gases, you'll be out of luck on clean Lithium.
EDIT: If I had the resources, and I wanted to make the BEST glove box, I'd probably try to reinforce the box, cap the glove holes, and bring it to a
nice vacuum. Then flush with Argon, with the vacuum still on. I feel like it would be faster somehow. Waste of Argon though.
[Edited on 12-6-2016 by Daffodile]aga - 12-6-2016 at 00:52
Does anyone have any suggestions on how to improve the design?
Very neat idea and well executed !
The 'leaks' are most likely due to the pre-installed foam seal around the lid, as you suspect.
Perhaps adding more pressure on it would help, or maybe replace it by making one from silicone sealant.
Maybe better to replace the original lid with a thicker sheet of some polymer, which would also give a firmer base to work on.
I think you can get screw-on plastic end caps for those threaded parts, which would eliminate the cost of the ball valve and protect the metal if you
were to use the box for anything corrosive.
The gloves could be sealed on the tube outside the box which would get those two jubiliee clips outside too.
It might be good to reinforce the side with the glove holes by gluing on a sheet of plywood, just to stop the plastic cracking.
As the gas in/out pipes are screwed into the casing, there will always be 10~20mm of pipe sticking down into the box, so perhaps better to have the
outlet at the side, on the opposite corner to the inlet, also have the box slightly propped up at that corner, so the outlet is at the highest point.
Something like this :
DIY Airtight Glove Box w/ Airlock
Arg0nAddict - 23-6-2016 at 08:22
This is similar to what I've built and used in the past. I like the speed at which yours can be made and I'm sure it works great so Don't take offense
when I say: personally I prefer to build to the extreme just because I love to build from blue print to complete product. I usually don't let time
restrict my projects. Even at work I'm the slowest but easily one of the best when it comes to end product. (provable)
Once again love your box but please try mine out it cost around 150 if I remember right. I already had argon bottle since I'm a fabricator.
