any ideas on building a cooling tube for making your own NH3. there are no good directions about this anywhere, not Mr. Cleans.

tryp, thanxs for the drying agent tip. damn swirl already had that chosen as the drying agent of choice. swirl's humbled, to only be able to have as much chem knowledge as tryp. should'nt have slept as much in chem classes. LOL

tryp got any suggestions? also pikk?

Thanxs

LATER !!!! !!!!!!

A downwards spiral out of stainless steel plastic or some other inert material inside a vessel that can withstand the extreme cold. To make the most of a small amount of dry ice the coil should be only a few inches in diameter with some space between each loop for maximum cooling.

tryp, sorry bout topic title, swirl meant to ask about the drying tower swiT mentioned in pikk's topic bout makin NH3. the one where lime could be used as a drying agent, which is what swirl uses.

Swirl's tower is a 5 gal bucket w/ lid (sealed) filled with 1.5 - 2 gal of lime. line from pre-cooler goes in one 1/4 (id) ss tube 1/5" long (sealed on top of lid), this line is 3' long and curls in bucket with lime on top of it. end of line has thin towel wrapped on end. In center of lid there is a male ss air hose plug screwed into lid, sealed on top of lid. open end of plug serves as escape of gas to line connected to top. Line then runs to catcher thru qc at cooler #2 then 12' of line coiled round a "new" 10" tall by 4" round ss cansiter that has a opening of 1 1/2' at top.

Tower is mounted on petsal 3' above pre-cooler and 6' above intake of condenser.

Any thoughts to the abilities of this or any suggestions!

Thanxs

Later !!!! !!!!!!

[This message has been edited by 46method (edited 08-11-2003).]

Does the gas pass through the lime? It has to pass through a bed of lime to get dry, otherwise it sounds fine.

It seems that on a setup like this a line should come from the first generator with the ammonia nitrate and go to the bottom of the lime container. Then the gas from the first reaction area would have to rise through the lime to be dried. If to much lime or to dense then it may make a clog, maybe a series of screens from the bottom up with this layers of lime on them to allow easier passing of the gas to the next condensation chamber. Just thinking out loud-or on keyboard. Have you used you method with success, if so then work it......

Does the drying tube make a noticable difference in quality? ive never tried a drier, the precooler seems to catch enough water for me.

your setup sounds nice but how neccessary is the drier?

Well... there are a couple of things that motivate swim to dry it... One it can cause the nh3 to fail in the disolving of the lithium, (Something that can be VERY disconcerting considering how long it can take to get the nh3 to accumulate) the other is the possibility of an explosion from the lithium... However, if your dreams are going off without a hitch, then I probably wouldn't mess with it.

tryp, thanks for the reply . sorry its be awile but been in hospital.

to answer, yes the gas passes (sounds funny) through the bed of lime and then exits thru the top of the bucket. swirl thought that a 5 gal bucket would be better to let the gas expand before exit and so far this is working. have bothends of the hose wraped with a towel to keep gumming down in the hoses.

yes flare (swirl will mail u) in the neck of the woods swirl lives huminity is a problem and the drying seems to speed the process as u have said.

"new" ss container is right at 3/4 gal liq. and it is working great. 25-30# nh4 and 6 cans of rd and about 6hr and its time to birch.

Damn, 10 days in the hospital make swirl antisy!!!

Later !!!! !!!!!!