Bunch of questions...

[kushy04]

I'm a novice to the entire electrolysis of water and I'm having a couple difficulties...

1) My wiring is heating upto the point of MELTATION (I know it's not a real word). What constitutes to the heat? is it excess voltage or too many amperes going through the wires? And which ever it is, how can I controll it? Will a train set speed controller work?

2) How does one actually wire the plates or tubes? I have both setups and I wire them like this:
Positive -- Negative  --  Positive -- Negative  --  Positive
All plates are hooked up directly off of the same lead that comes from the battery terminals and how do I wire them to run as a series and will wiring them as a series lower the voltage applied or the amperage?. Once I have the correct voltage, how do I controll the amperage going through the wires/plates?

3) Where can I purchase Lye (Sodium Hydroxide) or Potassium Hydroxide? I checked plumbing stores, hardware stores, craft stores, but to no avail...

I've been making cells and hooking them up to batteries of all types using all different types of electrolyte. My friend works at a hospital and gets me all the tubing and different electrolytes that are intended for consuption  but I still think Baking soda works best at least untill I try NaOH or KOH

Thanks in advance...

Kushy04

[HeairBear]

Kushy, I'm gonna take a guess at your first question. A picture or two and a detailed description would help tremendously. Your wire may be too small if it is heating up.

Your second question, what ever works best for you. You basically have three choices. Series, parallel, and series-parallel. My builds have always worked best in parallel.

Last, you may want to look locally for leather tanners or people whom work with leather hides. Baking soda works just as well and is a lot cheaper and easier to buy. One small 50 cent box will last what seems like forever.  Pickle juice works really good too!

Cheers!

[kushy04]

First and foremost, thank you for your help. I was initially using speaker wire to wire my cells. But I beleive I have solved the overheated wires problem. I am now running a a combination of both series and paralell circuit.

Actually, all of my questions have been solved. I just wish I could figure out a good sturdy airtight container to use. I bought a $5 bucket from the Home Depot and the lid has a rubber seal on it which keeps it airtight, I am almost done installing the cells in the bucket, I will post pictures once it is done.

I am going to change the name of this thread to a different topic...