the incredibly simple, cheap, sturdy friction heater.

[resonanceman]

instead of steel pots, i'm going to use thin steel sheeting.


the steel sheeting isn't as humorously simple as steel cooking pots.
but it is lighter, cheaper, easier to make into the desired shape and size, and much more likely to give me a 100% + efficiency.

nitinnun

I hope you have some  tools and experience working with sheet metal
I am pretty good at making  things   and I don't think  I could   do what you are planning  without a bunch of   specialized equipment .

What  you have designed  is in effect   a disk  rotor  friction heater turned 90 degrees .

Using  disks    there is much less to worry about .



If   you arn't  able to make the   sheet metal "pots "  run true   you  will end  up  with a  high efficency  oil splasher  rather than a  heater .


gary   

[nitinnun]

your belief in my project fills me with motivation.
and no, heating isn't as cheap as you seem to think it is.



i'm a natural builder of stuff in general.
its like i'm a less scientific, more intuitive grand-nephew of macgyver.


i never had trouble assembling things as a child. even when i was 6 years old, i was assembling 600 piece lego sets designed for 12 year olds.

i can built very small and intricate things.
or effective results, from odd/inferior materials.

steel sheeting is my kind of material.
the biggest problem might be getting that much metal hot enough to solder, even with a powerful soldering gun.


but if need be, i have access to a welding lab.
with very familiar mig welders, that can be turned down very low.

[Thaelin]

   When I lived on the lean in Houston, all I did is fill 2 55gal drums painted black with
water in the morning and by evening, hot water. And I mean hot too. Some days I had
to do without but that's just part of it.
    Believe it or not, an electric on demand system doesn't cost that much to run. Just
have to be frugal with the time it is on.

thaelin

[Foggy-Notion]

The Friction Heater I mention in so many other posts, yep.
From what I understand this has to be almost exactly 1/8 inch space between pans,
the kind of thing you may need a machine shop to help with.
I have never been able to find pans that fit into each other with that space,
not even from different manufacturerers.  It's as if they were all ordered not
to do so, by the big daddy corporate oink himself, for just this reason.

Also this thing will produce 250 degrees if done right, which could do damage
to plastic fan parts/motor above it, so you really want to do it the way it is shown in
the Eugene Perkins Friction Heater Patent., including a safe stand etc..

[ATT]

You know, I could use a fuel-saving heater.

@nitinum: For soldering sheet metal, you can get propane soldering irons (coppers) that get hot enough to do the job. Rivet your parts for a good mechanical connection first, then swab muriatic acid on the the parts with an acid brush. Tin your copper first with a sal ammoniac block & solder, heat up the joint and flow the solder. 50/50 solder is what to use (get triangular sticks for sheet metal, not plumber's rolls).

You can also silfloss, but that might distort your metal since it needs higher heat (at least a turbo-torch if not oxy-acet). I don't know about using mig,  pots are pretty thin, you need to keep your pots from distorting (or blowing-through) or you'll run into problems when you spin them up, ballance will be an issue.


foggy gave the link to Rex Research that lists the Perkins patents.

Infinite Energy Magazine did a 9-day test on three different Frenette/Perkins heaters.

Check it out:

Rex Research - Frenette, Perkins, Pope:
Excerpts from Farm Magazine and Infinite Energy Magazine, 1978:
http://www.rexresearch.com/frenette/frenette.htm

Infinite Energy Magazine, issue 23, pp 23, 1999, index-only:
http://www.infinite-energy.com/iemagazine/issue23/index.html