Plate Preparation

[xxsimon]

 
Hi
I’ve read a lot the pasted week and someone said they rough the sides of the plates up to increase the active surface area of the plates for better conductivity of the water but I thought why not sandblast the SS plates I have sandblasted steel car wheels and they really look good all pitted before priming.

Hope this helps

[Bob]

Sand blasting for the plates in a Hydroxy generator has been done but with vering results as the sand has a tennancy to stick in the grains of the metal some what, or so I've been told !
Personally I don't see how it could be any worse than sandpaper but some have said it is and that getting the cell to run cleanly after sand blasting is much harder.
so if you try it you might just do a few plates test and see if they  make allot of green goo or not
... it would be very hard to get all the poors clean after sand blasting but with a good pressure washing it should be as good as a sanded surface at least !
...
I have a sand blaster as well and I am planning on useing it in the future on cell plates just to get them very clean and to the real metal and not the crusty stuff on the surface... and then wash them real good ! 
 I'm sure a Muratic Acid bath afterword would get rid of all the impurities stuck in the metal
...personally I can't think of a better way to prepair the surface myself, should save many hours of break in time trying to get the cells to run clean !
....
Bob........

[hydrotinkerer]

Sandblast then a muriatic acid bath and the most important, Don't touch them with your bare hands.

[scratch1676]

I havent seen much difference in the plates performance.  I spent hours on prep on one cell and just dumped the other plates for the other cell in some electrolyte solution and then pulled out and wiped clean and the output was no different.  I have not had any problem with goo from KOH.  I have had goo from sodium hydroxide, it was not green, it was just a slimy muddy water type stuff.  Bottom line if you run some Koh in the water and you get some impurities just have to change it out like a oil change on the car and the next batch will have less and so on until it stays clean.  Thats been my experience.

[hydrotinkerer]

The last one I put together I used latex gloves and it made a big difference on how many times I flushed the system out from foam. I figured it was the dirt and/or oil on my hands.