Excellent build! We definitely need more oxygen concentrators instead of cylinders. There's one REALLY important thing to mention - you *must* use pressure-rated PVC pipe if you're going down that route. NOT drain or other unrated pipe! The difference between the two is a very violent explosion that sends large shards a few inches deep inside you. Also, a simple hack to increase your oxygen purity and performance - run the concentrator at max throughput for the desired pressure/purity, then use an overpressure valve(of the not-safety variety) to backfeed the waste oxygen into the inlet when you close the valve on the torch. It helps increase purity when you're not using the concentrator at its limit, which for most small glassblowing will be almost never, unless you use extra torches/burners. It also helps unload the sieves, and since it's already been through the system, extends the life of the air dryer.
Even the pressure rated pvc is only rated for use with noncompressible fluids, which release minimal energy when decompressed. Metal would be much safer.
I hadn’t known about pressure-rated as distinct from schedule 40/80; he said he used sched 40. (Or were you just referring to one of those two, as opposed to PVC drain pipe?)
@@DaveEtchells Yes, sched 80 should be used. The other commenter is also correct, neither is rated for compressible fluids, so I would use something like HDPE/PET pipe instead, but it might be a bit too expensive.
Schedule 40 and 80 is enough for 40 to 60psi easily. If you have ever seen a potato cannon built from Schedule 40, you know the psi that it handles far exceeds 40 to 60psi. Not saying it was meant for that application but the low pressure he is using of 40psi is reasonably safe for the pipe he is using. I don't think it will fail any time soon aside from hitting it with a hammer and cracking it, it should easily handle that pressure. Just going off real world testing and experience. Nothing scientific about it, but it has been tested and 40psi is acceptable for these pipes. If you find one that fails at 40psi I would love to see it. The water rating for schedule 40 on 3.5in is about 240 or 260psi. So it's a decent margin.
I think something to have in mind is the pressure swings can induce significant material fatigue so i think the tanks should have a large safety margin on their pressure rating to compensate for the cycling stress.
I usually don't interact much on youtube but wanted to leave a comment because your channel is criminally underrated. Great production value and extremely interesting projects, keep it up!
Oh that's cool! Yeah, I looked around at the websites for some of the companies that design PSA plants for manufacturing environments and they get pretty serious!
So nitrogen infused beer is what you serve up? I'm just guessing but it has been a trend in the past decade or so. I know other beverages use nitrogen as well now. So does the nitrogen work the same way except you use the exhaust instead of the oxygen ports?
@@newmonengineeringThe Nitrogen is probably for flushing the storage tanks, you dont want beer to come in contact with air since it can effect the taste. So you need to flush out all the air with some other gas.
I never heard of the Oxikit, think I will build one but just use my shop compressor. Never fails my oxygen tank is empty when i need it. You did a really good explanation of how it works ! You can clean out and use a condensor from a car air conditioner, got mine from junk yard. Far more efficient than the copper pipe. We get a lot of high humidity days so water in the compressor tank was always an issue for me. I run the output of the condensor into 2" black iron pipe that is jacketed with 4" PVC pipe using rubber couplers. It's filled with coolant that circulates when compressor kicks on. It's rare I ever have water in my main air tank since making that. I have a 60 gallon compressor so you may be able to scale down the size of the pipe and still catch a lot of the condensation.
Keep in mind needs to be oiless compressor you will distroy the zeolite within hours of use. I built mine for no more than 400 I’m using the same compressor only mine is 1hp I bought rebuilt off eBay from California tools I got 2 compressor and 1 yr warranty out the door for 115$ Through trial and era I’m actually doing to 2 unit on the same cart which I convert a old dewalt 2hal hotdog coprocessor frame just kept the frame and tank. I’m learning to blow glass some no such thing as to much oxygen lol best of luck let me know if I can answer any questions
When I clicked on this video I wasnt sure what to expect. It sure wasnt Bad Ass Applied Technologies, but here we are and I must say, you do a great job explaining things.
I really love that this is built on a typical hand cart! EDIT: I'd love to see if the atmosphere input would benefit from a heat pump drying pack as is found in a system like the GE ventless Washer/dryer combo.... EDIT 2: You've got me so hooked in with this vid that I keep thinking of things to say... For the sensor hookups that you've yet to use... I bet that data could be integrated as feedback into a controller that gives a more steady/efficient output!!! I'd LOVE to see a video about that!
What a wholesome build, and great quality of the project and everything. This channel deserves 10x or 100x the audience and I am so glad the algorithm sent me here!
As always, a great video and an impressive build! I also wanted to build a concentrator, but considering the fact that you can get used medical devices for very little money, it wasn't worth it for me. However, if you need a very large or modular concentrator, a DIY build is certainly the better option. Regarding the oil-filled pressure gauges. I thought the oil doesn't come into contact with the gas (if the pressure gauge is intact). Or am I mistaken? Of course, it's still better to completely avoid (regular) oil in a system with oxygen. Anyway, great video!
Thank you! It has become more difficult to buy a used oxygen concentrator in the USA because medical oxygen is controlled by our FDA as a prescription therapy, and they began strictly enforcing this during COVID for fear that people would use unprescribed oxygen unnecessarily and injur themselves. It used to be very easy, with listings for used concentrators often showing up on eBay and Facebook marketplace. I don't mind breaking the law, and I would happily buy someone's used machine, it's just that they get delisted from marketplaces now. This is why whenever I talk about this project online, there is an army of people who tell me, "Just buy a used medical unit 5head" Regarding oil-filled gauges, you're correct that the oil should never normally come into contact with the process gas. I think I had a take where I said that, and it got lost in editing. As you mentioned, though, it's best to avoid any scenario where oil and oxygen could mix under pressure. Ideally, all of the cheap pneumatic fittings would be washed in degreaser to remove any oil, but I didn't go that far. I appreciate the comment, and I'm glad you enjoyed the project. Your videos are always a treat!
Well I love people doing project by they hands " not copy/paste stupidity as we see everyday" . As advice , you can adjust you flow from compressor input ( if you have that possibility) . You gain two advantages. 1 : You can save considerable energy. Compressor will run in transparency mode , like low input air = low consumption = low load . 2: Can extend the zeolite time considerable because probably you rarely need 100% air flow. Literally you zeolite will be equal with you need not with the time of compressor work. Thanks for video ❤
In the 1980’s I worked as a consultant for Kaldair, a venture subsidiary of BP. It sold refinery flares and PSA nitrogen systems for inerting. Both product lines evolved from BP’s oil producing needs. The adsorbent was a type of pelletized coal from Germany. The idea of using product gas to purge the exhausted bed was discovered by an intern by accident. The small amount of sacrificial purge gas raised product purity about 5% to 95% at virtually no cost.
That's a damn nice project - should get you going with those oxy-propane burners for sure! I really like the pneumatic and automation design, and placing it all on a dolly is very practical too. Take it right where you need it :).
I'm always surprised on how precise you choose topics that have my main interest. That's something awesome with you. You disappear and when you come back it's with something really big. Really thank you. It reminds me by the way of the glass lathe project. Are you still on it?
As a former audio video technician...we did this all the time. Also using second audio channel, connected to some other mic wasnt a bad idea. Saved our asses few times.
Some applications may want the low oxygen (N2) output discharge. I have an amazon plasma torch for cutting steel/aluminium/stainless. I am a NOOB with this type of tool. It would be interesting to see if the low O2 air would work well for that application. I noticed when cutting SS that there was a lot of oxidation in the cut. Who knows....?
Good video. I enjoyed it and all that you went through. For many of us we may not need as much O2 and therefore may be able to use a used oxygen concentrator. The thing is that your video highlights the internal workings of these concentrators. They use the same mechanisms. Your video should be helpful as well to anyone that is using an old medical O2 concentrator for soldering or brazing.
Very very interesting! I was a little lost on your diagrams of the machine, i didn’t get time to find the bits you were talking about, if you highlight your mouse you could use it as a pointer to point to the bit your talking about, which would help the older folk like me :) this was an awesome project. Very very well done bravo!
I appreciate that, thank you! I'll try to keep this in mind for future videos. In the meantime, you might enjoy looking at the diagrams and illustration in my blog posts on the project. There's a link in the video description.
love this i have a thing from a nitrogen generator its a tube with a sensor that is suppose to tell you what gassed in ppm are in the flow, its yours if you want it
Another thing to note because I didn't hear you say it in your warning about breathing this air: make sure you are using a specific breathing air air compressor. Most air compressors, even oil free ones, are not meant to make breathing air and can be dangerous to breathe from. There are specific kinds of air compressors for these applications you should look for
Absolutely correct. But unless you're part of a national emergency like COVID was, I would simply not use DIY to make O2 for ANY use that involves HUMANS (or pets) breathing the output. There are simply too many potential health threats that could emerge.
Honestly if anyone is looking for one for medical uses they would be far better off finding a used medical unit, it's not very hard to find units for $100 or less in most populated areas. The best way is to set up search alerts on craigslist and facebook marketplace, in my area (near Detroit) functional units under $100 pop up about once a month.
Your actually about 20% correct many OxyCon company use the exact same compressor they just use 3 different filters before you breathe it but if ya paid attention this is for industrial use and not medical… copy ??? Have a nice day
Pro tip- fill the copper pipe with sand....if requiring to create nice round, tight bends or loops. Shape the pipe with the sand filled within it. This will almost completely remove the chance the pipe will crimp down on tighter bends.... you will have nice and smooth and round piping...remove sand when finished.
I used to work on these systems for industry for both O2 & N2 for diving or laser cutters. I would add a bigger buffer tank as piston compressors are designed with 50% duty cycle so 50% working then cool down to get expected life span of 3 years which is not important if you treat the compressor as a consumables!
Hey, I appreciate this. I had the same concern when I was initially evaluating the Oxikit project. The manufacturer recommended continuous runtime on the SP-9421 is actually 30-60 minutes with a 70/30 duty cycle. Considering I'll rarely run the torch for an hour straight and the compressor isn't exactly getting a hot supper here (max system pressure 30psi), I'm not too worried about it. I do have forced air colling on the radiator fins for the compressor heads, though. A larger buffer tank would be nice but it would have to be _much_ larger at only 30psi to supply 15lpm+ for a 30% off cycle.
This video gives me an idea that might put me on a watch list. Say you have a large amount of uranium hexafluoride gas and you wanted to purify it to get some U-235, could you not pressurize the gas through zeolite of a certain pore size to trap just the U-235? Sort of like how a centrifuge works, just line up loads of these connected in line and just keep running them in a cycle until all that's left is U-235. Btw, I love your tats!
Yeah, I'm not sure if there's a zeolite that has the selectivity you're looking for, but there are processes that do the same thing with ion-exchange resins. Molecular Sieves _can_ be used to separate U from other stuff, but it would have to be pretty exotic to affect isotope separation, I think. Either way, I hope you use your danger rocks to make clean energy instead of **checks notes** murdering thousands of people.
15:40 It's been so long since i've since someone reference steve1989 ! Love what you made, this is a really cool apparatus and professional-grade ! I woukld have added put the safety valve right side up because i don't think having water standing in it is very good for it. I'm curious about the performance of it ! Also, even pressure-rated PVC will have fatigue stress, i've seen a video of a guy doing his DIY water/air separator/dryer combo system entirely out of pressure rated PVC and it had a rapid unscheduled disassembly after a few thousand pressure cycles. At 30 psi it may take a very long time and it will not be extremely violent but still, you need to be careful of it when it happens. Maybe wrap a couple turns of tape aroud the tubes to be extra safe.
Steve is the man! Both "nice hiss" and "let's get that on to a tray" come up surprisingly often in my day to day life. You make a good point about the safety valve, I didn't think about that, it's easy enough to take a wrench and turn that upright. As for the PVC fatigue failure, that's interesting, I didn't consider the effect of pressure cycling. I'm not convinced that 30 psi hits the threshold for that type of fatigue to set in, but maybe with oxygen embrittlement(?) I could see it. Yeah, maybe I'll wrap a few turns of tape around them or put a big piece of techflex over each one to contain them when they do fail. It seems safer to do that than to try to wrap them in composite or something to try to prevent them from failing. Cheers
@@SignalDitch From what i could read, PVC is quite resistant to oxygen, embrittlement is mostly a problem with flexible PVC by degradation of the plasticizers. Also at 30 psi, you're at 15% of the rated (static) pressure of a 3" schedule 40 so you might be good, but my motto is better safe than sorry. Especially with oxygen, where a leak when you have a flame nearby is going to have far worse consequences. Always great to see creators taking feedback from the community ! Stay safe out there.
Fantastic build mate, practical if a little complex, solution for a real cost. What is the rough hours of use to pay back the system I wonder? Also just a thought if that condenser safety valve would be better upright to reduce risk of it freezing shut?
Thanks! That's a good question, I don't think I can know that until I find it what the maintenance cost will be e.g. replacing zeolite. As for the safety valve, I think you're probably right. Someone else has brought that up as well.
Very fascinating. By the way, you remind me of a college friend of mine who was interested in technology, math, and AI. He passed away in his mid forties, unfortunately. You could have been colleagues.
Great video! Thanks very much for sharing and especially for the wonderful, high-quality video and narration! Liked & Subscribed! AND thanks very much for the added information in the video description text which fleshes out the narration and clarifies some key points.
Super cool build my friend!! I sourced a used oxygen concentrator and I have been doing research to see if I could substitute larger size zeolite beds. You did such a fantastic job making this video and I am so glad to see you back to making content. I was also able to find a nitrogen "generator" like the one Grant used in the king of random build . I have been busy with other stuff but you have been a n inspiration!!! Thank you so much. Are you in New Jersey? I am in Pennsylvania....My grandfather was friends with an incredible man named Don Smith. Don developed some incredible inventions that revolutionized the way we generate or "energize" power. When Don and my Grandfather were alive I was going to pharmacy school but then became disillusioned with the way medicine is going so I decided to go for my Biochemistry degree. After that I got my Master's and PhD in Chemical engineering. I have recently gotten back into the conversion of atmospheric static electricity into usable dynamic electricity. If you are anywhere near me (outside of Philadelphia) and are interested in what I have accomplished we should get together. We have many of the same interests..lol
Hey John I was really interested in your text about mentioning Don Smith. Very much interested in some of his technology I see that your grandfather was good friends with him. There's so much conflicting information out on the internet at some of it has been disinformation. I've been trying to follow some of his techniques and ideas. I have some books as well. Have you done any exploration in Don Smith technology?? I really would like to get to the bottom of the truth. Could you help out??
@@sirblingjax Absolutely my friend! here is a working device. I have pictures and schematics for a bunch of running devices.........th-cam.com/video/FBhXEm24vP8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=y_p1X2ZheoJYqBL0
Since you seem to care about safety: the blue to pink desiccant starts out a real nice cobalt blue color, because it has cobalt in it. Keep track of which plate you use when drying it in the microwave 😅 (I don't know if this is universal, but the legal-in-Europe versions without toxic heavy metals are different colors. And aren't as gorgeous when dry as a result.)
That must be why they taste so good! lol you'd have to ingest a LOT of silica gel to get poisoned from the amount of cobalt chloride in there. That said, heavy metal exposure is usually cumulative so I'm not against being mindful of your exposure. I have a little 700W microwave in the lab with labels all over it that say "NOT FOR FOOD" and there's a little pyrex dish I use just for the task 👍
I want to make a really small one of these but in reverse, you can make a fairly inert nitrogen supply using the same hardware. It's total overkill but i want a nitrogen purge on my soldering iron. 😂
I've started to look into what it would take to collect the purge gas from this machine and dry it for similar purposes (filling my high vacuum equipment when I bring it up to atmosphere)
Sweet! I wonder if there's a cheap way to pre-desiccate your air so your dryer doesn't saturate as quickly, using crushed ice? Air that's flowed over crushed ice has very low absolute humidity (at least once the fog droplets have separated out). Maybe a cooler full of crushed ice, with a perforated false bottom to create an air plenum? Honestly not sure whether this is actually more convenient than just regenerating the desiccant though, that sounds pretty easy and ice is a consumable one would need to go get.
I think you could use a few tanks of desicant. Once one tank of desicant is too full of water, maybe it cycles with reasonable warming coils to purge the water out.
Thank you for the video. My interest is for nitrogen and wondered if the exhaust output is sufficiently pure nitrogen for oxygen shielding in welding application, or is there a more economical alternative method for removing oxygen?
Would a version 2.0 include an air conditioner in the path of the air you are ingesting help? I know a/c is great for dehumidifying , and my brain is trying to fit one in after your dessicant issues in the SE USA was noted. They make portable A/c units that you could pipe the output directly into your intake potentially. Likely overcomplicating your design, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Great video regardless.
Man I would really like to see you test your purity, flow, and pressure with a meter. Purity meters would be insanely easy for someone like you to build. There are even some cheap kits. I ended up going the investment rout. It cost me a bit, but it has been instrumental in me maintaining and diagnosing issues with my oxygen setup.
He uses the coalescing filter after compressing and cooling the air to raise the dew point to get 'free' water removal before consuming space in the desiccant. Chilling the compressed air a much as possible enhances the water separation. Some dental compressors (these would be a great source of dry clean oil free air but are way more expensive than commodity compressors) use a membrane separator that I expect will be more effective than the sintered metal or packed fibre trap in the coalescing unit.
This is awesome. Inspirational stuff, thank you. But I wonder, for US$1500 in parts and materials plus the amount of hours I would have to put into this to get my 20 litres per minute of oxygen… say it took me 80 hours to complete. In my experience, things take way longer. For example, I study the plans and endeavour to understand the science, do drawings, and spend time thinking and visualising, I search online for the parts, usually from China so they are affordable, but also I need to wait a month sometimes for delivery, then I do the fabricating, testing, changes, upgrades, maintenance, etc. But lets still just say it took only 80 hours, Multiplied by a low hourly rate of 30 bucks per hour, Equals $2400 plus parts $1500, Totals $4k ! Then I look around online and discover I could buy 2 or 3 of the commercially available 9 litre per minute O2 Accumulator Machines, that are quite small and cost US$250 each, that I could plumb together and mount them to the same trolley you have to give me 27 litres per hour. For a third of the money and all that time saved that I could actually spend on practising my glass blowing skills and buying borosilicate tube. I made this very mistake when I made 3 or 4 versions of a large HHO generator cell for welding gas, spending hundreds of hours and eventually succeeding but not with a super reliable machine, and its currently broken! I found a company in Russia that makes pretty much the same thing for the same money I spent on materials. Which will be under warranty for 2 years and reliable. And the manufacture answers my questions. As a bonus I achieve actual results! So, although making stuff provides invaluable knowledge of materials and fabricating, inventing etc, which I am personally wired for and love to spend time with such, doing a feasibility study prior to commencing a project such as this, and being brutally honest with yourself, is very important.
This is a great lesson for somebody who makes things to learn. That being said: 1) Assume you have another goal, which is to grow your TH-cam channel and consider which solution is more interesting to watch. 2) "...then I look around online and discover I could buy 2 or 3 of the commercially available 9 litre per hour [sic] O2 Accumulator Machines, that are quite small and cost US$250 each," Did you try to buy them? Or did you just see them for sale? Because those are different things as I discovered last year. 3) I enjoyed doing it. I could also just, you know, buy vacuum tubes. It's pragmatic to do a feasibility study if you're concerned about "productivity" or "efficiency" but this is literally just the stuff I do in my free time to keep me sane.
@@SignalDitchThanks for your reply SignalDitch, re your 3rd point, there is probably is no better reason for the makings, I am there with that but I have time constraints and budget to consider. Re your 2nd point, I fixed my [sic] but maybe this wasn't far from the truth, and no, I've not seen one or used one. Are they terrible? Your honest opinion of them would be great to hear. I met a glass blower close to me (South Island, New Zealand) and she has a small medical O2 Accumulator filling a huge mofo storage tank probably 3 feet across and 3 high that she pumps 24-7 into (didn't get into the details of modifications, pressure shutoff, flashback, etc). And although she might only do a couple of hours of Lampwork per day, it suffices. And to your 1st point, I totally dig it. Its just that people watching may not consider this. I was sharing my views from the point of view of a full time artist/designer/inventor trying to make his way in this bizarre ol world, efficiently. Speaking primarily to other makers that don't have so much skin in the game and meaning no ill toward you all. Its actually awesome and unexpected to get some solid responses from a content creator.
I think PVC pipe can hold 80 psi safely, but it would be easy to test a piece to bursting, Your build looks nice. I would liked more details on psi or perhaps showing how big a torch you can run with the system. Also how much sound the system generates at high load. I always wanted to make one, but i also want an oxygen compressor to fill a tank (so i don't have to listen to the compressor running forever).
I'm working on a torch manifold that probably isn't worth a whole video, so when I film that, I'll try to address some questions about this project. What is it you want to know about psi? I'll do some tests about flow in the meantime.
DIY CO2 is often from fermentation as there is hardly any in air, people use it to feed aquatic and other plant nurseries. I think removing moisture would be a thing to solve. This type of adsorption system is generally used for O2 or N2 concentration because they are 78+20=98% (+-) of the atmosphere.
@@SignalDitch to use this for nitrogen concentrating, look at using carbon molecular beds. It’s also possible to concentrate nitrogen using membrane concentrators. These hollow fiber membranes are pricey but sometimes available used on eBay. They’re currently used a lot for automotive tire filling stations.
@@SignalDitch running it thought in my head, just a 555 and a pot to dial in the cycle time. Probably going to order stuff this weekend and see what foolishness I can deliver.
So with very little modification, couldn't you extract the nitrogen exhaust and pump it into an air compressor and have NEA. Maybe have another stage of zeolite to get closer to N2 in your air compressor. 2 bangs 1 buck. N2 and O2 in separate containers.
Cool project well explained, nicly put together in a compact package. Do you think that would have enough flow for cutting? I suppose with a larger filter and acumulator it could up flow rate. In the UK we would call your trolly "sack trucks" (point of interest, not a criticism of some bullshit UK terminlogy vs North Ameriacan termnology). P.S.Love the tats on your fingers. I always fancied e^i pi as in a preveosue life I was a mathermetician for a few years post uni. P.P.S. Excuse the spelling Spell check has stopped working on youtube comments for me!
Not a stupid question at all, someone else pointed that out as well. Theoretically, not a problem. It just sprays water on overpressure, it's made out of brass so it won't rust shut. Practically? I don't know what the spring is made of, so it could kill it over time but at least it would fail open. The verdict? I'll just give that tee a half turn so the valve is pointing up, lol
If you got a good deal on it and it's been working for you then you probably did well. Part of the audio I lost in the microphone issue was me explaining why I decided to build instead of buy and I still recommend buying if you can and if you know how or are willing to learn how to service the commercial one.
The amount of details was very well done and extensive I’m not an expert in fluid or gaseous systems but could it possible to keep/save/store the Nitrogen output and to use it in other projects were you need it for is inert properties?
Theoretically, yeah you could! I've been looking into whether it's practical in my shop because I could use dry nitrogen for when I have to leak up my high vacuum equipment.
Cool, I was thinking about inert gas for lasers cutting / CNC I’m wondering if the risk associated to fire hazard by a system failure pushing oxygen instead of Nitrogen is too high
That's a good thought. I suppose you could put an in-line oxygen concentration sensor behind a buffer tank so if it detects more than a few percent of O2 it can trigger some valves to shut off the shielding gas line, dump the buffer tank, and e-stop the cutter? Not sure if it's worth it, but might be fun anyway
hi thank you so for the amazing video and all the info can you pls let me know if i can use 6 mm od copper tube instead of 3/4 9.5mm like is mentioned in oxikit website i live in a city Humidity: 69% according to google im just rebuilding a Concentrator that i found in flea market im using it to get the parts i need because everything its expensive if i want to by all new part thank you so much
@@SignalDitch Gotcha. Once I get setup again, I have a Delta elite, so definitely need more than that. Still, might be possible to hook this to a tank for a home fill setup. Though at that point it's probably worth just buying an oxygen frog. Still super awesome that this is now an accessible open source project!
At 6:50 you state that both valves are closed. But the bottom valve is a two position valve that is either pressurizing or venting on the Oxikit design.
Theoretically, yes. Propane actually requires more oxygen for complete combustion than Acetylene. There are some videos that another commenter alerted me to of a guy cutting steel with an oxy-propane torch and oxygen that he compressed from a refurbished medical concentrator. He was having issues (I think due to the condition of his concentrator) with the cut quality.
A minor correction on your explanation of how the zeolite works to separate air: the Li or Na-X zeolite you are using does not separate O2 and N2 by molecular size, it separates by the N2 sticking to the Li or Na ions in the zeolite more strongly than do the O2 molecules. It is an "equilibrium" separation, not a size-based or kinetic separation.
That's fascinating. I knew that Li/LiAgX zeolites outperformed NaX in O2-N2 selectivity because of electrostatic and ion-exchange interactions, but I thought that was just enhancing a mechanical adsorption effect. I see now that ion exchange is actually the whole mechanism. I'll read up on this because it has interesting consequences for the questions people are asking about, for example, Ar-O2 selectivity. I'll address this in the follow up video, thanks!
It's funny that you said that you normally don't pressurize PVC with air usually you pressurize it with water understood yet when I have seen several people use PVC half inch PVC for their compressor for their entire shop and if you read on the PVC it says 600 PSI so that's well over $150 and that's all air compressors ever go up to is 150 I had one air compressor that did 300 but it did 300 on the compressor itself supplying an entire shop with a three tank unit 2 pressure cylinders each with its own compressor unit and a main supply tank that stated a constant 150 psi. And it didn't matter how many tools we were using in that shop we had four bays one air compressor
Hey man, small suggestion and i don't know if i just missed it. But it looks like you're going to have live mains on the screw terminals on your rail there. Might be an idea to cover those, i know right now you'll be careful around it but in a years time if someone brushes against it they could have a bad day.
Those screw terminals are pretty well recessed. You'd have to really jam your digits in there. But your point is well taken, I'll probably print some nice covers for the wiring before the next time this thing appears on video 👍
For somewhere between 100-200USD you can get a "cheap" version of the little machine that's used to test medical concentrators. Electrochemical and ultrasonic sensors can both be used to determine oxygen concentration in air. If you're clever with chemistry, you could probably come up with a bench test that has to do with bubbling a known volume of gas through a solution and then weighing the solution, or a precipitate therein. For my purposes, it's good enough that it can completely combust the torch fuel, but I may do some testing with a flow meter and a purity meter when I can afford it. For reference, Oxikit claims to have tested the design that this is built from to 20 LPM@94%
do the little portable oxygen generators some people use work on the same concept? On my submarine the air dryer for our HP air works on almost the exact same system but is using desiccant instead of sieves and in manually changed over every couple of hours.
I'm fairly certain this is the principle behind most if not all medical oxygen concentrators, even those little purse-sized battery-powered ones. Interesting to hear about your air-drying system. Yeah, PSA is used for a handful of things besides oxygen separation depending on the media in the sieve beds!
Excellent build! We definitely need more oxygen concentrators instead of cylinders.
There's one REALLY important thing to mention - you *must* use pressure-rated PVC pipe if you're going down that route. NOT drain or other unrated pipe! The difference between the two is a very violent explosion that sends large shards a few inches deep inside you.
Also, a simple hack to increase your oxygen purity and performance - run the concentrator at max throughput for the desired pressure/purity, then use an overpressure valve(of the not-safety variety) to backfeed the waste oxygen into the inlet when you close the valve on the torch. It helps increase purity when you're not using the concentrator at its limit, which for most small glassblowing will be almost never, unless you use extra torches/burners. It also helps unload the sieves, and since it's already been through the system, extends the life of the air dryer.
Even the pressure rated pvc is only rated for use with noncompressible fluids, which release minimal energy when decompressed. Metal would be much safer.
I hadn’t known about pressure-rated as distinct from schedule 40/80; he said he used sched 40. (Or were you just referring to one of those two, as opposed to PVC drain pipe?)
@@DaveEtchells Yes, sched 80 should be used. The other commenter is also correct, neither is rated for compressible fluids, so I would use something like HDPE/PET pipe instead, but it might be a bit too expensive.
Schedule 40 and 80 is enough for 40 to 60psi easily. If you have ever seen a potato cannon built from Schedule 40, you know the psi that it handles far exceeds 40 to 60psi. Not saying it was meant for that application but the low pressure he is using of 40psi is reasonably safe for the pipe he is using. I don't think it will fail any time soon aside from hitting it with a hammer and cracking it, it should easily handle that pressure. Just going off real world testing and experience. Nothing scientific about it, but it has been tested and 40psi is acceptable for these pipes. If you find one that fails at 40psi I would love to see it. The water rating for schedule 40 on 3.5in is about 240 or 260psi. So it's a decent margin.
I think something to have in mind is the pressure swings can induce significant material fatigue so i think the tanks should have a large safety margin on their pressure rating to compensate for the cycling stress.
I usually don't interact much on youtube but wanted to leave a comment because your channel is criminally underrated. Great production value and extremely interesting projects, keep it up!
I'm new to the channel and 30 seconds in after seeing the thumbnail.
I think I'm going to agree with ya
At the beverage company I work for we’re installing a large one of these to create a pure nitrogen gas flow to replace Co2 in some of our processes.
Oh that's cool! Yeah, I looked around at the websites for some of the companies that design PSA plants for manufacturing environments and they get pretty serious!
So nitrogen infused beer is what you serve up? I'm just guessing but it has been a trend in the past decade or so. I know other beverages use nitrogen as well now. So does the nitrogen work the same way except you use the exhaust instead of the oxygen ports?
Don't drink nitrogen infused beer. It will contain nitric acid which can dissolve 10 meter of concrete when placed in Wyoming!!!!
@@newmonengineeringSame way, you need to use a different Zeolith that traps Oxygen
@@newmonengineeringThe Nitrogen is probably for flushing the storage tanks, you dont want beer to come in contact with air since it can effect the taste. So you need to flush out all the air with some other gas.
I'm not sure why YT graced me with this video, but I'm glad they did! Great project, great video format, and that got you a new sub. 👍
I never heard of the Oxikit, think I will build one but just use my shop compressor. Never fails my oxygen tank is empty when i need it. You did a really good explanation of how it works !
You can clean out and use a condensor from a car air conditioner, got mine from junk yard. Far more efficient than the copper pipe. We get a lot of high humidity days so water in the compressor tank was always an issue for me. I run the output of the condensor into 2" black iron pipe that is jacketed with 4" PVC pipe using rubber couplers. It's filled with coolant that circulates when compressor kicks on. It's rare I ever have water in my main air tank since making that. I have a 60 gallon compressor so you may be able to scale down the size of the pipe and still catch a lot of the condensation.
Keep in mind needs to be oiless compressor you will distroy the zeolite within hours of use. I built mine for no more than 400 I’m using the same compressor only mine is 1hp I bought rebuilt off eBay from California tools I got 2 compressor and 1 yr warranty out the door for 115$
Through trial and era I’m actually doing to 2 unit on the same cart which I convert a old dewalt 2hal hotdog coprocessor frame just kept the frame and tank. I’m learning to blow glass some no such thing as to much oxygen lol best of luck let me know if I can answer any questions
1st place Award goes to, most ingenious use of a Dolly!!😁
For something that got randomly recommended to me on TH-cam this is great stuff! Love the content!
Never thought anything good would have come out of Covid. Nice video.
When I clicked on this video I wasnt sure what to expect.
It sure wasnt Bad Ass Applied Technologies, but here we are and I must say, you do a great job explaining things.
I really love that this is built on a typical hand cart!
EDIT: I'd love to see if the atmosphere input would benefit from a heat pump drying pack as is found in a system like the GE ventless Washer/dryer combo....
EDIT 2: You've got me so hooked in with this vid that I keep thinking of things to say...
For the sensor hookups that you've yet to use... I bet that data could be integrated as feedback into a controller that gives a more steady/efficient output!!! I'd LOVE to see a video about that!
What a wholesome build, and great quality of the project and everything. This channel deserves 10x or 100x the audience and I am so glad the algorithm sent me here!
Really interesting project. I've saved it in my playlist, passed it on to a couple of mates to watch and subbed.
I appreciate it, glad you enjoyed!
As always, a great video and an impressive build! I also wanted to build a concentrator, but considering the fact that you can get used medical devices for very little money, it wasn't worth it for me. However, if you need a very large or modular concentrator, a DIY build is certainly the better option.
Regarding the oil-filled pressure gauges. I thought the oil doesn't come into contact with the gas (if the pressure gauge is intact). Or am I mistaken? Of course, it's still better to completely avoid (regular) oil in a system with oxygen.
Anyway, great video!
Thank you!
It has become more difficult to buy a used oxygen concentrator in the USA because medical oxygen is controlled by our FDA as a prescription therapy, and they began strictly enforcing this during COVID for fear that people would use unprescribed oxygen unnecessarily and injur themselves. It used to be very easy, with listings for used concentrators often showing up on eBay and Facebook marketplace. I don't mind breaking the law, and I would happily buy someone's used machine, it's just that they get delisted from marketplaces now. This is why whenever I talk about this project online, there is an army of people who tell me, "Just buy a used medical unit 5head"
Regarding oil-filled gauges, you're correct that the oil should never normally come into contact with the process gas. I think I had a take where I said that, and it got lost in editing. As you mentioned, though, it's best to avoid any scenario where oil and oxygen could mix under pressure. Ideally, all of the cheap pneumatic fittings would be washed in degreaser to remove any oil, but I didn't go that far.
I appreciate the comment, and I'm glad you enjoyed the project. Your videos are always a treat!
Well I love people doing project by they hands " not copy/paste stupidity as we see everyday" . As advice , you can adjust you flow from compressor input ( if you have that possibility) . You gain two advantages. 1 : You can save considerable energy. Compressor will run in transparency mode , like low input air = low consumption = low load . 2: Can extend the zeolite time considerable because probably you rarely need 100% air flow. Literally you zeolite will be equal with you need not with the time of compressor work. Thanks for video ❤
Awesome video. May the algorithm favor you.
In the 1980’s I worked as a consultant for Kaldair, a venture subsidiary of BP. It sold refinery flares and PSA nitrogen systems for inerting. Both product lines evolved from BP’s oil producing needs. The adsorbent was a type of pelletized coal from Germany. The idea of using product gas to purge the exhausted bed was discovered by an intern by accident. The small amount of sacrificial purge gas raised product purity about 5% to 95% at virtually no cost.
What was the name of the intern?
@
No way could I remember that. It was in Houston though.
That's a damn nice project - should get you going with those oxy-propane burners for sure! I really like the pneumatic and automation design, and placing it all on a dolly is very practical too. Take it right where you need it :).
Err, that's a hand truck, not a dolly.
I'm always surprised on how precise you choose topics that have my main interest. That's something awesome with you. You disappear and when you come back it's with something really big. Really thank you.
It reminds me by the way of the glass lathe project. Are you still on it?
Subbed. Love it when I find gem channels like this.
lesson learned, always throw in an extra audio recorder as a backup
As a former audio video technician...we did this all the time. Also using second audio channel, connected to some other mic wasnt a bad idea. Saved our asses few times.
Some applications may want the low oxygen (N2) output discharge. I have an amazon plasma torch for cutting steel/aluminium/stainless. I am a NOOB with this type of tool. It would be interesting to see if the low O2 air would work well for that application. I noticed when cutting SS that there was a lot of oxidation in the cut. Who knows....?
Amazing! Missed your content!
Good video. I enjoyed it and all that you went through. For many of us we may not need as much O2 and therefore may be able to use a used oxygen concentrator. The thing is that your video highlights the internal workings of these concentrators. They use the same mechanisms. Your video should be helpful as well to anyone that is using an old medical O2 concentrator for soldering or brazing.
Thanks, yeah, that's my hope! It made sense in my circumstance, but it's definitely not practical or cost effective for everyone.
Just discovered your channel and been binge watching your builds. Great stuff, I love the attention to detail and look forward to the next release.
Glad to see you :)
Very very interesting! I was a little lost on your diagrams of the machine, i didn’t get time to find the bits you were talking about, if you highlight your mouse you could use it as a pointer to point to the bit your talking about, which would help the older folk like me :) this was an awesome project. Very very well done bravo!
I appreciate that, thank you!
I'll try to keep this in mind for future videos. In the meantime, you might enjoy looking at the diagrams and illustration in my blog posts on the project. There's a link in the video description.
love this i have a thing from a nitrogen generator its a tube with a sensor that is suppose to tell you what gassed in ppm are in the flow, its yours if you want it
Another thing to note because I didn't hear you say it in your warning about breathing this air: make sure you are using a specific breathing air air compressor. Most air compressors, even oil free ones, are not meant to make breathing air and can be dangerous to breathe from. There are specific kinds of air compressors for these applications you should look for
Absolutely correct. But unless you're part of a national emergency like COVID was, I would simply not use DIY to make O2 for ANY use that involves HUMANS (or pets) breathing the output. There are simply too many potential health threats that could emerge.
Honestly if anyone is looking for one for medical uses they would be far better off finding a used medical unit, it's not very hard to find units for $100 or less in most populated areas. The best way is to set up search alerts on craigslist and facebook marketplace, in my area (near Detroit) functional units under $100 pop up about once a month.
Your actually about 20% correct many OxyCon company use the exact same compressor they just use 3 different filters before you breathe it but if ya paid attention this is for industrial use and not medical… copy ???
Have a nice day
@@natemaddogtrikejones181 he specifically made a warning about breathing the air so I made a comment with an additional one
Pro tip- fill the copper pipe with sand....if requiring to create nice round, tight bends or loops. Shape the pipe with the sand filled within it. This will almost completely remove the chance the pipe will crimp down on tighter bends.... you will have nice and smooth and round piping...remove sand when finished.
Excellent. 👍
Hell of a project to pull off! Great video, great project, well executed and swiftly but accurately described. 100% subscribed!!
That was cool, exactly the right kind of needing out for me. Subbed!
I used to work on these systems for industry for both O2 & N2 for diving or laser cutters.
I would add a bigger buffer tank as piston compressors are designed with 50% duty cycle so 50% working then cool down to get expected life span of 3 years which is not important if you treat the compressor as a consumables!
Hey, I appreciate this. I had the same concern when I was initially evaluating the Oxikit project. The manufacturer recommended continuous runtime on the SP-9421 is actually 30-60 minutes with a 70/30 duty cycle. Considering I'll rarely run the torch for an hour straight and the compressor isn't exactly getting a hot supper here (max system pressure 30psi), I'm not too worried about it. I do have forced air colling on the radiator fins for the compressor heads, though.
A larger buffer tank would be nice but it would have to be _much_ larger at only 30psi to supply 15lpm+ for a 30% off cycle.
This video gives me an idea that might put me on a watch list.
Say you have a large amount of uranium hexafluoride gas and you wanted to purify it to get some U-235, could you not pressurize the gas through zeolite of a certain pore size to trap just the U-235? Sort of like how a centrifuge works, just line up loads of these connected in line and just keep running them in a cycle until all that's left is U-235.
Btw, I love your tats!
Yeah, I'm not sure if there's a zeolite that has the selectivity you're looking for, but there are processes that do the same thing with ion-exchange resins. Molecular Sieves _can_ be used to separate U from other stuff, but it would have to be pretty exotic to affect isotope separation, I think.
Either way, I hope you use your danger rocks to make clean energy instead of **checks notes** murdering thousands of people.
@SignalDitch all I want is the nuclear powered car that I was promised in the 60's, is that too much to ask? lol
You should soon hit a well deserved thousand likes with this video very interesting 👍
I'm glad you're back! 😁
15:40 It's been so long since i've since someone reference steve1989 ! Love what you made, this is a really cool apparatus and professional-grade ! I woukld have added put the safety valve right side up because i don't think having water standing in it is very good for it. I'm curious about the performance of it !
Also, even pressure-rated PVC will have fatigue stress, i've seen a video of a guy doing his DIY water/air separator/dryer combo system entirely out of pressure rated PVC and it had a rapid unscheduled disassembly after a few thousand pressure cycles. At 30 psi it may take a very long time and it will not be extremely violent but still, you need to be careful of it when it happens. Maybe wrap a couple turns of tape aroud the tubes to be extra safe.
Steve is the man! Both "nice hiss" and "let's get that on to a tray" come up surprisingly often in my day to day life.
You make a good point about the safety valve, I didn't think about that, it's easy enough to take a wrench and turn that upright. As for the PVC fatigue failure, that's interesting, I didn't consider the effect of pressure cycling. I'm not convinced that 30 psi hits the threshold for that type of fatigue to set in, but maybe with oxygen embrittlement(?) I could see it. Yeah, maybe I'll wrap a few turns of tape around them or put a big piece of techflex over each one to contain them when they do fail.
It seems safer to do that than to try to wrap them in composite or something to try to prevent them from failing.
Cheers
I was hoping someone would bring the steve1989 reference up
@@SignalDitch From what i could read, PVC is quite resistant to oxygen, embrittlement is mostly a problem with flexible PVC by degradation of the plasticizers. Also at 30 psi, you're at 15% of the rated (static) pressure of a 3" schedule 40 so you might be good, but my motto is better safe than sorry. Especially with oxygen, where a leak when you have a flame nearby is going to have far worse consequences.
Always great to see creators taking feedback from the community ! Stay safe out there.
Fantastic build mate, practical if a little complex, solution for a real cost. What is the rough hours of use to pay back the system I wonder? Also just a thought if that condenser safety valve would be better upright to reduce risk of it freezing shut?
Thanks!
That's a good question, I don't think I can know that until I find it what the maintenance cost will be e.g. replacing zeolite.
As for the safety valve, I think you're probably right. Someone else has brought that up as well.
Very fascinating. By the way, you remind me of a college friend of mine who was interested in technology, math, and AI.
He passed away in his mid forties, unfortunately. You could have been colleagues.
Great video! Thanks very much for sharing and especially for the wonderful, high-quality video and narration! Liked & Subscribed!
AND thanks very much for the added information in the video description text which fleshes out the narration and clarifies some key points.
Nice little project. Here in the UK, I'd call the trolley a Sack Cart.
or a sack barrow.
@@martinhow121 Ohhh not heard the barrow before. Mind you I'm up North, so maybe a regional thing?
Amazing video!
This is really cool thanks for sharing 😊
Super cool build my friend!! I sourced a used oxygen concentrator and I have been doing research to see if I could substitute larger size zeolite beds. You did such a fantastic job making this video and I am so glad to see you back to making content. I was also able to find a nitrogen "generator" like the one Grant used in the king of random build . I have been busy with other stuff but you have been a n inspiration!!! Thank you so much. Are you in New Jersey? I am in Pennsylvania....My grandfather was friends with an incredible man named Don Smith. Don developed some incredible inventions that revolutionized the way we generate or "energize" power. When Don and my Grandfather were alive I was going to pharmacy school but then became disillusioned with the way medicine is going so I decided to go for my Biochemistry degree. After that I got my Master's and PhD in Chemical engineering. I have recently gotten back into the conversion of atmospheric static electricity into usable dynamic electricity. If you are anywhere near me (outside of Philadelphia) and are interested in what I have accomplished we should get together. We have many of the same interests..lol
I'm actually all the way down in southern Virginia! I'm glad you liked the build!
Hey John I was really interested in your text about mentioning Don Smith. Very much interested in some of his technology I see that your grandfather was good friends with him. There's so much conflicting information out on the internet at some of it has been disinformation.
I've been trying to follow some of his techniques and ideas. I have some books as well.
Have you done any exploration in Don Smith technology??
I really would like to get to the bottom of the truth.
Could you help out??
@@sirblingjax Absolutely my friend! here is a working device. I have pictures and schematics for a bunch of running devices.........th-cam.com/video/FBhXEm24vP8/w-d-xo.htmlsi=y_p1X2ZheoJYqBL0
Very cool project! I’d known about oxygen concentrators using zeolite, but had no idea of the details!
Dalibor Farny built a larger version of this for his oxygen needs at his nixie factory; he has some videos of it on TH-cam.
His video was an excellent reference during this project!
Since you seem to care about safety: the blue to pink desiccant starts out a real nice cobalt blue color, because it has cobalt in it. Keep track of which plate you use when drying it in the microwave 😅 (I don't know if this is universal, but the legal-in-Europe versions without toxic heavy metals are different colors. And aren't as gorgeous when dry as a result.)
That must be why they taste so good!
lol you'd have to ingest a LOT of silica gel to get poisoned from the amount of cobalt chloride in there. That said, heavy metal exposure is usually cumulative so I'm not against being mindful of your exposure. I have a little 700W microwave in the lab with labels all over it that say "NOT FOR FOOD" and there's a little pyrex dish I use just for the task 👍
Interesting. I knew about molecular sieves but it was interesting to see a detailed breakdown of your build.
Yeah, they call the machine an oxygen concentrator but really it should be called a molecular sieve babysitter. The sieves do all the magic!
I want to make a really small one of these but in reverse, you can make a fairly inert nitrogen supply using the same hardware. It's total overkill but i want a nitrogen purge on my soldering iron. 😂
I've started to look into what it would take to collect the purge gas from this machine and dry it for similar purposes (filling my high vacuum equipment when I bring it up to atmosphere)
@@SignalDitch How oxygen-free is the waste nitrogen stream? Good enough to use as an inert gas purge for food storage?
@@adamputnam341Also curious about this!
Sweet! I wonder if there's a cheap way to pre-desiccate your air so your dryer doesn't saturate as quickly, using crushed ice? Air that's flowed over crushed ice has very low absolute humidity (at least once the fog droplets have separated out). Maybe a cooler full of crushed ice, with a perforated false bottom to create an air plenum? Honestly not sure whether this is actually more convenient than just regenerating the desiccant though, that sounds pretty easy and ice is a consumable one would need to go get.
I think you could use a few tanks of desicant. Once one tank of desicant is too full of water, maybe it cycles with reasonable warming coils to purge the water out.
Thank you for the video. My interest is for nitrogen and wondered if the exhaust output is sufficiently pure nitrogen for oxygen shielding in welding application, or is there a more economical alternative method for removing oxygen?
Would a version 2.0 include an air conditioner in the path of the air you are ingesting help? I know a/c is great for dehumidifying , and my brain is trying to fit one in after your dessicant issues in the SE USA was noted. They make portable A/c units that you could pipe the output directly into your intake potentially. Likely overcomplicating your design, but I thought I'd ask anyway. Great video regardless.
Man I would really like to see you test your purity, flow, and pressure with a meter. Purity meters would be insanely easy for someone like you to build. There are even some cheap kits. I ended up going the investment rout. It cost me a bit, but it has been instrumental in me maintaining and diagnosing issues with my oxygen setup.
This is the first video of yours I've seen, and I'm only two minutes in, but I love it! Instant sub. Also you look futuristic as fuck, it's great
Very impressive and interesting project. Did I miss the part of the clip seing the system run and any words said about the amount of output?
Similar dessicant dryer on the air input line mau help.
He uses the coalescing filter after compressing and cooling the air to raise the dew point to get 'free' water removal before consuming space in the desiccant. Chilling the compressed air a much as possible enhances the water separation. Some dental compressors (these would be a great source of dry clean oil free air but are way more expensive than commodity compressors) use a membrane separator that I expect will be more effective than the sintered metal or packed fibre trap in the coalescing unit.
This is awesome. Inspirational stuff, thank you. But I wonder, for US$1500 in parts and materials plus the amount of hours I would have to put into this to get my 20 litres per minute of oxygen… say it took me 80 hours to complete. In my experience, things take way longer. For example, I study the plans and endeavour to understand the science, do drawings, and spend time thinking and visualising, I search online for the parts, usually from China so they are affordable, but also I need to wait a month sometimes for delivery, then I do the fabricating, testing, changes, upgrades, maintenance, etc. But lets still just say it took only 80 hours, Multiplied by a low hourly rate of 30 bucks per hour, Equals $2400 plus parts $1500, Totals $4k ! Then I look around online and discover I could buy 2 or 3 of the commercially available 9 litre per minute O2 Accumulator Machines, that are quite small and cost US$250 each, that I could plumb together and mount them to the same trolley you have to give me 27 litres per hour. For a third of the money and all that time saved that I could actually spend on practising my glass blowing skills and buying borosilicate tube.
I made this very mistake when I made 3 or 4 versions of a large HHO generator cell for welding gas, spending hundreds of hours and eventually succeeding but not with a super reliable machine, and its currently broken! I found a company in Russia that makes pretty much the same thing for the same money I spent on materials. Which will be under warranty for 2 years and reliable. And the manufacture answers my questions. As a bonus I achieve actual results!
So, although making stuff provides invaluable knowledge of materials and fabricating, inventing etc, which I am personally wired for and love to spend time with such, doing a feasibility study prior to commencing a project such as this, and being brutally honest with yourself, is very important.
This is a great lesson for somebody who makes things to learn. That being said:
1) Assume you have another goal, which is to grow your TH-cam channel and consider which solution is more interesting to watch.
2) "...then I look around online and discover I could buy 2 or 3 of the commercially available 9 litre per hour [sic] O2 Accumulator Machines, that are quite small and cost US$250 each,"
Did you try to buy them? Or did you just see them for sale? Because those are different things as I discovered last year.
3) I enjoyed doing it. I could also just, you know, buy vacuum tubes. It's pragmatic to do a feasibility study if you're concerned about "productivity" or "efficiency" but this is literally just the stuff I do in my free time to keep me sane.
@@SignalDitchThanks for your reply SignalDitch, re your 3rd point, there is probably is no better reason for the makings, I am there with that but I have time constraints and budget to consider.
Re your 2nd point, I fixed my [sic] but maybe this wasn't far from the truth, and no, I've not seen one or used one. Are they terrible? Your honest opinion of them would be great to hear. I met a glass blower close to me (South Island, New Zealand) and she has a small medical O2 Accumulator filling a huge mofo storage tank probably 3 feet across and 3 high that she pumps 24-7 into (didn't get into the details of modifications, pressure shutoff, flashback, etc). And although she might only do a couple of hours of Lampwork per day, it suffices.
And to your 1st point, I totally dig it. Its just that people watching may not consider this. I was sharing my views from the point of view of a full time artist/designer/inventor trying to make his way in this bizarre ol world, efficiently. Speaking primarily to other makers that don't have so much skin in the game and meaning no ill toward you all. Its actually awesome and unexpected to get some solid responses from a content creator.
Hey that's a Sack Barrow in NZ
Wow, it sounds like sack truck or sack barrow is the word in every other English speaking country just about
I need one of those for my shop!!!
I think PVC pipe can hold 80 psi safely, but it would be easy to test a piece to bursting, Your build looks nice. I would liked more details on psi or perhaps showing how big a torch you can run with the system. Also how much sound the system generates at high load. I always wanted to make one, but i also want an oxygen compressor to fill a tank (so i don't have to listen to the compressor running forever).
I'm working on a torch manifold that probably isn't worth a whole video, so when I film that, I'll try to address some questions about this project. What is it you want to know about psi? I'll do some tests about flow in the meantime.
Great project! Love you in Highlander ;)
Very interesting project.Would it be possible to use this system via combustion to produce purified Co2 for MIG welding?
DIY CO2 is often from fermentation as there is hardly any in air, people use it to feed aquatic and other plant nurseries. I think removing moisture would be a thing to solve. This type of adsorption system is generally used for O2 or N2 concentration because they are 78+20=98% (+-) of the atmosphere.
I'd like to see a follow on stage for concentrating the Nitrogen and Argon.
I would also like to use the nitrogen! Maybe I'll work on that
@@SignalDitch to use this for nitrogen concentrating, look at using carbon molecular beds. It’s also possible to concentrate nitrogen using membrane concentrators. These hollow fiber membranes are pricey but sometimes available used on eBay. They’re currently used a lot for automotive tire filling stations.
@@en2oh Thanks for the tip!
I think I have almost everything i need to make this except the zeolite. Don't see the need for the Arduino though, just some simple timers can do it
Yeah, timers would do the job fine
@@SignalDitch running it thought in my head, just a 555 and a pot to dial in the cycle time. Probably going to order stuff this weekend and see what foolishness I can deliver.
Very cool.
Thank you.
Lol the moment you started talking about Oxygen you choked your mic! 😂
So with very little modification, couldn't you extract the nitrogen exhaust and pump it into an air compressor and have NEA. Maybe have another stage of zeolite to get closer to N2 in your air compressor.
2 bangs 1 buck.
N2 and O2 in separate containers.
Yeah, in theory, you could certainly do that
Great video.
Cool project well explained, nicly put together in a compact package. Do you think that would have enough flow for cutting? I suppose with a larger filter and acumulator it could up flow rate.
In the UK we would call your trolly "sack trucks" (point of interest, not a criticism of some bullshit UK terminlogy vs North Ameriacan termnology).
P.S.Love the tats on your fingers. I always fancied e^i pi as in a preveosue life I was a mathermetician for a few years post uni.
P.P.S. Excuse the spelling Spell check has stopped working on youtube comments for me!
Well done, mille gracias. Subscribed, bell rang, commented, liked, upvoted, shared ... may the algorithm gods smile favorably upon your channel.
O2 PSA systems for home POC medical use typically have a max capacity of 5 LPM. Some go up to 10 LPM. Why don’t they require drainage of condensate?
maybe a stupid question: couldnt it cause problems for the over pessure valve to be flooded all the time ( the bottom one seen at 18:00)
Not a stupid question at all, someone else pointed that out as well. Theoretically, not a problem. It just sprays water on overpressure, it's made out of brass so it won't rust shut. Practically? I don't know what the spring is made of, so it could kill it over time but at least it would fail open. The verdict? I'll just give that tee a half turn so the valve is pointing up, lol
I bought a medical oxygen concentration system for my glass shop last year i wonder if this would have been more or less cost effective.
If you got a good deal on it and it's been working for you then you probably did well. Part of the audio I lost in the microphone issue was me explaining why I decided to build instead of buy and I still recommend buying if you can and if you know how or are willing to learn how to service the commercial one.
💡Watch offer-up and occasionally you'll find used medical oxygen concentrators for as low as $50 and sometimes even free.
The amount of details was very well done and extensive
I’m not an expert in fluid or gaseous systems but could it possible to keep/save/store the Nitrogen output and to use it in other projects were you need it for is inert properties?
Theoretically, yeah you could! I've been looking into whether it's practical in my shop because I could use dry nitrogen for when I have to leak up my high vacuum equipment.
Cool, I was thinking about inert gas for lasers cutting / CNC
I’m wondering if the risk associated to fire hazard by a system failure pushing oxygen instead of Nitrogen is too high
That's a good thought. I suppose you could put an in-line oxygen concentration sensor behind a buffer tank so if it detects more than a few percent of O2 it can trigger some valves to shut off the shielding gas line, dump the buffer tank, and e-stop the cutter? Not sure if it's worth it, but might be fun anyway
hi thank you so for the amazing video and all the info can you pls let me know if i can use 6 mm od copper tube instead of 3/4 9.5mm like is mentioned in oxikit website i live in a city Humidity: 69% according to google im just rebuilding a Concentrator that i found in flea market im using it to get the parts i need because everything its expensive if i want to by all new part thank you so much
Wouldent a one way valve be usefull right befure the buffer?
Maybe!
Any idea what the lpm of output is? I'm curious as to whether ones of these could run a glass torch. Super cool build!
Thanks! I'm still testing, but Oxikit claims it's around 20, so probably nothing _much_ bigger than, say, a Carlisle Wildcat.
@@SignalDitch Gotcha. Once I get setup again, I have a Delta elite, so definitely need more than that. Still, might be possible to hook this to a tank for a home fill setup. Though at that point it's probably worth just buying an oxygen frog. Still super awesome that this is now an accessible open source project!
At 6:50 you state that both valves are closed. But the bottom valve is a two position valve that is either pressurizing or venting on the Oxikit design.
Return of the king
Is the output sufficient to run the torch with Acetylene and cut steel with it?
Theoretically, yes. Propane actually requires more oxygen for complete combustion than Acetylene.
There are some videos that another commenter alerted me to of a guy cutting steel with an oxy-propane torch and oxygen that he compressed from a refurbished medical concentrator. He was having issues (I think due to the condition of his concentrator) with the cut quality.
A minor correction on your explanation of how the zeolite works to separate air: the Li or Na-X zeolite you are using does not separate O2 and N2 by molecular size, it separates by the N2 sticking to the Li or Na ions in the zeolite more strongly than do the O2 molecules. It is an "equilibrium" separation, not a size-based or kinetic separation.
That's fascinating. I knew that Li/LiAgX zeolites outperformed NaX in O2-N2 selectivity because of electrostatic and ion-exchange interactions, but I thought that was just enhancing a mechanical adsorption effect. I see now that ion exchange is actually the whole mechanism. I'll read up on this because it has interesting consequences for the questions people are asking about, for example, Ar-O2 selectivity. I'll address this in the follow up video, thanks!
It's funny that you said that you normally don't pressurize PVC with air usually you pressurize it with water understood yet when I have seen several people use PVC half inch PVC for their compressor for their entire shop and if you read on the PVC it says 600 PSI so that's well over $150 and that's all air compressors ever go up to is 150 I had one air compressor that did 300 but it did 300 on the compressor itself supplying an entire shop with a three tank unit 2 pressure cylinders each with its own compressor unit and a main supply tank that stated a constant 150 psi. And it didn't matter how many tools we were using in that shop we had four bays one air compressor
You make vacuum tubes?! Im sold! I wanna make them too!!!!!!!
Is there a way to adjust the cycle to output lower oxygen content at higher flow rate?
Theoretically, yes. Shorter cycles at higher flow should result in lower concentration.
@@SignalDitch that would be very useful for some applications!
Hey man, small suggestion and i don't know if i just missed it. But it looks like you're going to have live mains on the screw terminals on your rail there. Might be an idea to cover those, i know right now you'll be careful around it but in a years time if someone brushes against it they could have a bad day.
Those screw terminals are pretty well recessed. You'd have to really jam your digits in there. But your point is well taken, I'll probably print some nice covers for the wiring before the next time this thing appears on video 👍
Thats clearly the bomb from Rainbow Six Siege
I especially like the exposed parts of the live wires at the solid state relay.
I especially like the sarcastic comments
EXCELLENT
In the UK your 2 wheeled dolly is known as a sack truck . . . probably among other things.
I like that
17:51 You can see and feel the happiness, that he didn't forget the nut..
Hand truck = sack barrow 🏴🔧👍
Put the waste stream into a big gas centrifuge to get argon. Or would the argon pass through with the oxygen?
Is there a way to measure the oxygen percentage / purity?
For somewhere between 100-200USD you can get a "cheap" version of the little machine that's used to test medical concentrators. Electrochemical and ultrasonic sensors can both be used to determine oxygen concentration in air.
If you're clever with chemistry, you could probably come up with a bench test that has to do with bubbling a known volume of gas through a solution and then weighing the solution, or a precipitate therein.
For my purposes, it's good enough that it can completely combust the torch fuel, but I may do some testing with a flow meter and a purity meter when I can afford it.
For reference, Oxikit claims to have tested the design that this is built from to 20 LPM@94%
Awesome thanks!
Awesome
Subscribed and looking forward to more of your content. Great video!
do the little portable oxygen generators some people use work on the same concept? On my submarine the air dryer for our HP air works on almost the exact same system but is using desiccant instead of sieves and in manually changed over every couple of hours.
I'm fairly certain this is the principle behind most if not all medical oxygen concentrators, even those little purse-sized battery-powered ones. Interesting to hear about your air-drying system. Yeah, PSA is used for a handful of things besides oxygen separation depending on the media in the sieve beds!
soo... how long will the machine last before the sieves needs to be replaced? and why not use peltier modules on the copper to condense the water?
Shouldn’t 0.4-0.8 mm be nm being that it corresponds to pore size?
Very nice!