From: Jay Caplan
Hi Jay,
*
* If this thing is actually working at 60 - 100 C., then solder should
hold.
It is running much hotter than that. There is plenty of evidence that he
could be using high temperature ("hard" or silver) brazing. Wide lap joints
and the 'crud' on the outside could be his flux residue. This is the cheap
way to go, and if you are making 1000 reactors, as he claims - using copper
and common plumbing fixtures - instead of lab quality - has saved him over a
million at the start.
This would be another good reason why he has to control against runaway
heating - since those joints are no good above about 500 C even with the
best silver brazing. This technique does not work with stainless, which
reinforces my original conclusion that there is NO inner reactor. Another
red herring.
He is going cheap, cheap, and cheaper. And the copper residue on the nickel
is the lucky break that makes it all happen. (at least in today's version of
the ongoing saga).
----- Original Message -----
* It sure looks like a conventional band heater and totally outside of the
water piping.
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
This is another reason why there is probably NO water jacket, and
consequently there is no inner SS cylinder to hold the powder. That would
cost too much. What you see is what you got.
This is an el-cheapo copper or bronze reactor, fitted with heater bands on
the outside, and with an axial cooling pipe going through the center of the
reactor.
Stainless conducts heat so poorly that it would be a terrible choice for any
reactor which is completely controlled by temperature.
ERGO: When temperature control is the number one concern, and trying to heat
the powder *through the coolant* and then through a stainless inner reactor
is impossible, you find a simpler way to do it.
This design is beyond simple, almost high-schoolish, and Rossi must be a
proponent of KISS. You have to be, if you are making "1000" iterations, even
if the correct translation of "1000" is "several dozen."
In short, Rossi controls temperature by balancing a high-flow of coolant
through a central cooling pipe made of copper, which is the source of the
beneficial contamination on the nickel - and the heater bands are on the
outside of the copper (bronze) reactor. (at least in today's version of the
ongoing saga, which may change when someone has a better take on it).
Jones
