Hey y'all. I haven't forgotten about this project, but I haven't had anything really to say until recently. I owe wadaltmon the credit for my most recent thoughts because of his video,
the solidification complex. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgI1-ZZ7rOQ
His video showed his processing on how to heat and remove the solvent from his web fluid formula which I can only assume is acetone or something similar to it, being that he was able to touch the heating coil.
Problem:
My formula is based in water soluble polyvinyl alcohol which means I need to boil water instead of acetone. This is problematic because the boiling point is higher. I need to heat my fluid to over 100 degrees celcius. That is alot of heat, so I've been curious as to how to heat the fluid for long enough if it's only going to be in the heated spinneret for a fraction of a second.
This is our current shooter layout:
Pressure vessel--> tubing+connectors--> valve--> heated spinneret.
Solution: As I've been talking to my protege' about it, he asked me why I couldn't heat the fluid for longer. He made a good point. I thought about it and I think I've come up with an easy solution that will allow heat resistant materials to touch the heated part s without damaging the other parts, while simultaneously allowing the fluid to heat up for longer.
Layout: pressure vessel-->solenoid valve--> connectors and SILICONE tubing-->a bunch of tightly coiled HEATED metal tubing--> heat resistant check valve with built in spinneret.
So how this works is that the fluid will try to escape through the pressure vessel but is blocked by the solenoid. When the solenoid unlocks, the fluid rushes through the tubing to a network of metal tubing that is arranged kind of like intestines (so that you can fit a lot of tubing in a small space). This allows the fluid to heat up for at least as many feet of tubing as it takes to get though the maze and to the valve. The fluid will then build up enough pressure to escape a heat resistant schrader valve with a filter in it so that it will split the fluid into strands. Now here is the real key. When you cut the solenoid valve, the fluid in the tubing and the "maze" will stay between the solenoid valve and the schrader valve. This will allow the solvent to boil until the next shot is fired. If too much water boils, it will be hot enough to liquefy the Polyvinyl alcohol (which I didn't think was possible until I saw maker bot do it.)
In short, you can charge a shot that's in the "chamber" until it's transitioned to liquid from solvent to liquid from heat.
This idea isn't perfect. The heat ratio needs to be perfected, and I'm not sure how steam will affect things as the water boils, but at least nothing will be destroyed and noone needs custom parts.
Tell me what you all think.
