Joe Cell
Marinus Berghuis ( renkahu@ihug.co.nz )
Thu, 24 Dec 1998 18:44:02 +1300
>Date: Thu, 24 Dec 1998 18:36:14 +1300
>To: Garry
>From: Marinus Berghuis <renkahu@ihug.co.nz>
>Subject: Joe Cell
>
>Dear Garry,
>I found some major hickups with the cell, because as stated by Joe, the
plates must be fitted very accurately. I got a local engineering firm to
make it at horrendous cost to find that they thought about 10 thou" was o.k.
>By the time you mess around with various rubbers to try and hold it them
in position, you always end up with them being out. So I purchased a very
stiff natural rubber and very accurately placed the plates in place and
ground them
>on a glass plate until I was sure that they were all o.k. The bottom end
was set accurately beforehand and each tube made dead square. There were
three people involved of whom one was a mechanic who owned the vehicle that
had not run for some 5 years and I was some 1200 km. from home relying on
the goodwill of the friends.We got the Rover running on petrol first and
then pulled the petrol supply out of the can and once the carburettor was
dry, it started to run rough. As Joe claims you have to adjust the timing
to suit each engine.So we loosened the distributor and retarded it
whereupon the engine idled perfect and once given the throttle it went up
to about 2500 revs after which it began to falter. So from the feel of it
we had 3/4 throttle suggesting that the unit was not large enough. Now Joe
claims that he did not have to rely on the battery after it had started so
I tried that and it died.
>We started it up again after 3 minutes as claimed and it ran again without
petrol this time. We had the unit sitting on the bumper with the leads and
a 3/4 aluminium pipe with the suggested 4 " rubber hose super glued to the
only possible place, The square box part of the inlet manifold with
sufficient room. To make it fit solidly without leakage was quite a
problem. However, the mechanic although he was present all the time and no
tricks were played still did not believe his eyes but thought the afternoon
well spent.
>I tried it on a Hillman Minx which has an aluminium manifold without
result which set me thinking because Joe claims any magnetic material stops
the action,well the sleeves of an engine are magnetic so where is then the
major cause of trouble. Normally carburettors are fitted with a 1/4 inch
gasket and steel bolts. Also some carburettors are made of magnesium alloy
and others of aluminium so obviously the modification required is an
aluminium inlet structure and doing away with steel bolts and possibly the
carburettor providing you can regulate the air supply.
>So until the New Year I won't be able to do anything more.
>Please keep in touch and one more thing, I first used an aluminium diving
bottle top for the dome part which did not work so we went to an engineers
shop and presse one out of stainless steel and welded the rest on with
standard stainless fittings. The dome was not perfect but as Joe claims
that the Alfa Laval Cream seperator cones will do the job I thought ours
might work and it did.
>I have been very busy with other concerns and had to set up a workshop to
make a proper go of it and in the New Year should be ready to really have a
go as I am also wanting to build the Testika machine and the Hyde rotary
static charge transformer.
>By the way do you know anybody experimenting with the Chancey Britten
patent ?
>I have bought the gear to set that up as well so have a full job trying
them out.
>I worked on the information published in the Nexus magazine and have
ordered the book hoping they still have a copy.
>Coeerio for now
>
>Ren Berghuis