Bedini Earth Light

[Allwest]

I noticed something on my cells. I have been testing the same formula (Mg, sand, carbon, alum) with different quantities of alum. More alum in seems better. Now, i also have been adding water with and without almun.

What is very interesting is that the cells that i add more water with alum, after the cell diminish substantially its output power, is that alum will block all the inner micro-tubes formed that conducts the water and crystilize from within and break the cell and destroy it.

The cell even grows in size to the point of cracking the surrouding shell.

The cell when first made goes through a formation of its internal water conducts that allows the water to be decomposed in its parts while generating energy. It is necessary to let the cell to dry in its first months while running a load. After that first dry you can only add clean water, otherwise the cell will die.

The cells with iron pyrite performs better too. Corrosion is there but it does not corrode all. It gets to a balance point where the Mg is gray (MgOx x = 2, 3 or more) and Mg.

Fausto.

plengo,

When the cell is going bad, do the volts go down first, and the amps stay up?

[Lidmotor]

Aluminum MIG wire

After a full 36 hours, the 6" cell is sitting on 70mA. This seems to confirm what I have read about this cell. Let's see if it will hold there or continue to drop. It has been under load the entire time with LaserSaber's Mini Joule Ringer circuit.
Could not resist the 6-pack, lol, so here you go. These cell are 3" and 6 in series gives 3.8Volts and 150mA. This is 7 10mm LEDS without any circuit.

Brad S

@IB - Shut it down for the night. I will be happy to start that test tomorrow.

Brad---
I found that Lincoln Electric 4043 Aluminum MIG wire at Lowes yesterday and bought some ($13 for 1lb. roll). I did some testing and it didn't work out that well so I looked into what it is made of. It is basically all Aluminum with trace amounts of other things. Chemalloy according to the patent looks like this for a 100 lb batch:

Zinc --82 lbs.

Aluminum --8 lbs.

Yellow brass --8 lbs.

Solder (tin/lead) --1.5 lbs.

Silver or Nickel --.1 lbs.


My test cell worked but the wire was quickly eaten up and broke up just like a regular Aluminum wire cell would. It isn't the Chemalloy aluminum welding rod that we are looking for. I will try to get down to Harbor Freight today and get some of their "AlumiWeld" rods which are the zinc based stuff.

My other cell using the ZA metal that I got on Ebay did work quite well but dropped off in power. I took it apart this morning and there was a black oxide forming on the surface of the ZA anode. The good news is that there was little or no pitting.

----And the quest goes on.

--Lidmotor

[b_rads]

Brad---
I found that Lincoln Electric 4043 Aluminum MIG wire at Lowes yesterday and bought some ($13 for 1lb. roll). I did some testing and it didn't work out that well so I looked into what it is made of. It is basically all Aluminum with trace amounts of other things. Chemalloy according to the patent looks like this for a 100 lb batch:

Zinc --82 lbs.

Aluminum --8 lbs.

Yellow brass --8 lbs.

Solder (tin/lead) --1.5 lbs.

Silver or Nickle --.1 lbs.


My test cell worked but the wire was quickly eaten up and broke up just like a regular Aluminum wire cell would. It isn't the Chemalloy aluminum welding rod that we are looking for. I will try to get down to Harbor Freight today and get some of their "AlumiWeld" rods which are the zinc based stuff.

My other cell using the ZA metal that I got on Ebay did work quite well but dropped off in power. I took it apart this morning and there was a black oxide forming on the surface of the ZA anode. The good news is that there was little or no pitting.

----And the quest goes on.

--Lidmotor

Great job on the research! Mine are still holding together and I have not taken any apart to check, I am certain I will come to the same conclusion as yours. Hard to see anything in the alloy mix you show that would create any magic. I have some 97% zinc rods that I would like to parallel with your test of the Harbor Freight Rods. If you can share the build and electrolyte mix, I will try to mirror your build for comparison. Even if this turns out as purely galvinic (which looks like it should) a long running cell with useable current is fine with me. I could not find anything on the Harbor Freight site that indicated what their rods were made of. Good investigative work

Brad S

[Sawt2]

Great job on the research! Mine are still holding together and I have not taken any apart to check, I am certain I will come to the same conclusion as yours. Hard to see anything in the alloy mix you show that would create any magic. I have some 97% zinc rods that I would like to parallel with your test of the Harbor Freight Rods. If you can share the build and electrolyte mix, I will try to mirror your build for comparison. Even if this turns out as purely galvinic (which looks like it should) a long running cell with useable current is fine with me. I could not find anything on the Harbor Freight site that indicated what their rods were made of. Good investigative work

Brad S

Brad
I believe the rods at Harbor Freight may be Alumiweld, you might check their website for composition.
Brian

[b_rads]

Alumiweld?

Brad
I believe the rods at Harbor Freight may be Alumiweld, you might check their website for composition.
Brian

Thank You very much. I checked the Alumiweld web site and they say this is a zinc alloy. There is a Harbor Freight Store that I pass on my way home. I am stopping by there today and will pick some up. I do plan to parallel this test with the 97% zinc rods that I have to see if there is any magic in this alloy. I hope to get the positive long term results you have reported. Can you post a picture of your cells, or report the size and how they are built? Again, thanks.

Brad S

[NickZ]

Some info from the Alumiweld's questions answered site:

AlumiWeld's Frequently Asked Questions

[Slider2732]

@Lidmotor - just to verify, did your cell get eaten up through the use of vinegar ?
It seems a very rapid process that you described. Certainly, the speed of ZA oxidation also caught me by surprise in your report.


For my little tests in tap water of the last few days -
The aluminium cells have both stopped running completely, which is very interesting. Did the simple act of cutting them from the heatsink pieces result in re-oxidation over the couple of days ?
Testing both cells with the DVM and oscillator loads connected, sees 0.442 on the burnt copper one and 0.446 on the unburnt copper one - which I expect to be 1mV less than the switch on point of the oscillators. Disconnect the loads and they climb up past 0.5V, toward 0.6V, but then drop immediately again on load connection.
The situation has occurred before, in outside yard tests with various metals. With no load there can be as much as say 0.780V or something, with copper and steel pieces in the ground, but connect a load and the dip is to 1mV less than the exact switch on voltage of the transistor. A puzzling situation, but common in such experiments.

The fence wire cell remains exactly the same The voltage output beats galvanized steel and the amperage is not fading at all
Looks good for long term and it's no way a rare material.

Had a comical thought about that and relates to Nick's observation build of multi-oscillators using the same copper piece -
Drive up to the Energizer battery offices at night after a heavy storm. Find one of their copper water pipes outside and connect a bunch of LED oscillators low down between the pipe and the fencing around their property.
Place a sign on the ground that says "Bugs Bunny woz 'ere"

[NickZ]

Aluminum can create a layer of clear almost invisible oxides in a matter of minutes, sometimes, and needs to be scrapped off for it to really conduct well. The Al tubes I use have a layer of clear type of galvanizing, or something similar, and don't oxidize on that surface unless I sand it off. My cells are still outputting up to 75 mAs, months later...
Bugs Bunny: Actually there were no oscillators connected or needed, on the copper pipe mentioned. And no one said "What's up Doc"? either.

[Lidmotor]

Got it !! ---- Eight sticks of Alumiweld

@All
I found the Alumiweld at Harbor Freight today. I only had a little time to test it when I got home but it looks good.


@Slider and Nick
That Bugs Bunny thing got me wondering about using this welding rod stuck in the ground next to a copper or graphite rod as an earth battery. That would be really cool if we could finally make a true "Bedini Earth Light". That was the original intent when this thread started long ago.

@Brad and Sawt2
I will try to get a cell going as soon as I can and report back. I'll use the saline electrolye with ammonia or vinegar to bump up the amps. The activated charcoal with a copper electrode will be the cathode. I have some solid graphite rods that I might try also.



Lidmotor

[ionfuture]

Considering Alumiweld has a low melting point that can be melted with a propane torch. I wonder if adding magnesium filings to the melted Alumiweld might increase its output!

May be worth experimenting with different mixes like 50/50 or 60/40 and so on.

Randy

[Freezer]

Don't know if this was posted already, but it's a pretty interesting battery..

Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy - YouTube

[Sawt2]

Thank You very much. I checked the Alumiweld web site and they say this is a zinc alloy. There is a Harbor Freight Store that I pass on my way home. I am stopping by there today and will pick some up. I do plan to parallel this test with the 97% zinc rods that I have to see if there is any magic in this alloy. I hope to get the positive long term results you have reported. Can you post a picture of your cells, or report the size and how they are built? Again, thanks.

Brad S

We used 1/2 inch copper water pipe 6" long.
The chemalloy came in 9" pieces so we just cut them in half Probably could cut in quarter and would work fine. We wrapped the chemalloy in cotton bed sheet material till it would stay put inside the copper.
Without looking at my notes I think the electrolyte was 36 grams salt in 1 gallon of water and 18 drops of ammonia. I think I will let it run like this for 180 days then check for deterioration then will reassemble and try more LEDs. By the way this runs without any circuit, it is a LED connected directly.
The 6 cells are wired 3 in series twice then wired paralel. It's about 4.3 volts no load. with the LED it hangs right around 2.45 very steadily. Each cell sits in a glass test tube, found them dirt cheap on net. (I thought the Bedini made a nice backdrop).

[b_rads]

Team Player

@Sawt2:That is a really nice setup and you have been very gracious to share your experience with us. You have set a high bench mark, hope we can achieve your success. I went to Harbor Freight yesterday and bought some of the AlumiWeld rods. Threw a quick 3-pack together this afternoon, don't know what happened to the other 3 .

This is a mini version of the cells, 2" tall. Used activated carbon, ground to a powder in an old coffee grinder. If more surface area of the carbon yeilds more current, then powdered carbon should give a lot of surface area. Initial readings. 3.22 Volts, current starts at 71mA and drops and holds at 45mA. With 2 LEDS the Voltage sits at 2.9 and the light is very good. I am sure the current will drop over time, hope it stays at a useable level and the voltage holds. I will watch these for a few days before attempting larger cells.

Thanks again Brian for your inspiration.

Brad S

[Lidmotor]

1st cell --running a small Slayer Exciter

@ All
I like what I am seeing with this zinc / aluminum alloy idea. I made a small cell today with the Alumiweld rod. Here it is running a small Slayer Exciter circuit.

Aluminum welding rod battery--1st try - YouTube

When I get a chance I'll build up a six pack and see what that does with an led wired straight to it.

Lidmotor

[Allwest]

Don't know if this was posted already, but it's a pretty interesting battery..

Donald Sadoway: The missing link to renewable energy - YouTube

Freezer,

Very nice find

Best of luck