New Atomizer Prototype

[roadkilldeluxe]

Originally Posted by Bandit

How do you get airflow with the bulb end being sealed?

I would think that this would be very fragile. Not only because of the glass, but the filament inside... if jarred enough it will fail. This is why you don't go shaking a light bulb before you put it in a lamp.

Air flows around the sides of the bulb (which is contained in the atty housing). The diameter of the bulb is about half that of the 510. It will probably be centered in the housing somehow, poking into the cartridge material upon the cartridge's insertion.

The glass itself is not very fragile; for example, it would take an extremely hard pinch to break it. And it's not really a filament, just the same Nichrome coil as inside normal attys. I know that these bulbs (before I take them apart) are tough... Christmas lights are tossed around, taken out and repackaged every year, and can handle sub-zero temperatures outside for weeks.

[Carlos49]

The only problem I have had trying this system is that the glass gets so hot that it will shatter with contact to the juice.
Carlos

[roadkilldeluxe]

Originally Posted by Carlos49

The only problem I have had trying this system is that the glass gets so hot that it will shatter with contact to the juice.
Carlos

This worries me as well, but I think the only way to know for sure is to test it out. So far, though, I have not broken any glass. This includes when I was heating a coil wrapped around a bulb with PG in it, running till it dried out, and dripping more onto it (all while power is being applied).

However, it will be important for the glass to not get scratched. Heat makes scratches in glass grow/spread (but i'm not sure if our attys reach that temp).

[Carlos49]

you might have some thing there ... keep testing

[jacko]

What if the coil could be wrapped around a ceramic, or a glass rod within the bulb to add stability?

[roadkilldeluxe]

Originally Posted by jacko

What if the coil could be wrapped around a ceramic, or a glass rod within the bulb to add stability?

The coil should be pretty stable. I made a coil a few days ago and it's still sitting on my desk in the same shape. If it needs something though, I can definitely try that out. Although I don't know where to get ceramic or glass rods... I guess that's why my technique is kind of ghetto in the first place

Mostly playing around with glass tonight, trying to figure out how to get nice, clean cuts on the bulbs. Still need to find/buy a digital multimeter (and now more light bulbs to practice on).

[Vaporer]

Good thinking out of the box road.
I've actually considered using a Krypton bulb from a Mag Lite. I doubted to would get hot enough even if over driven on voltage.
Pyrex glass will take fast temp changes and smaller wire is actually the opposite way to go. IMHO 36ga NiCr is around 20 ohms per foot. 40ga jumps to whoppin 70ohms per foot.
The idea isnt nonfeasible. It will require more power and the loss mentioned of wasted juice will be minimal since no air is being drawn.
I'd looks for the coil to touch the glass surface inside keeping heat tranference as low as possible. Personally, I'd try with the sand out as this increases the mass requiring heat. If a longer warm up and cool down time was acceptable sand/cermaic would be fine.
In the instance of a PV you want it up to temp and back down as fast as possible with minimum power required. There are other mitigating factors and limits you will run into as your experiment proceeds.

Keep at it!

[Jason365]

Here is an idea..
Looking at cartomiser disection pics and such, I think You could wrap the bulb in Silica tape or put it in a silica sleeve. To help keep it in the center of the tube and it would help keep the liquid near the heat source. Basically making it a cartomiser. I may be going in a different direction than the OP, but it could work. I really hope this thing pans out.

Jason

[Bubo]

Wow - definitely 'outside of the box'!

You have stated all of the cons that I can think about;
My #1 concern would be the epoxy fumes... Perhaps a drop of molten glass on the end to seal it instead?

Thermal conductivity of air would take an extra second or two, I would think... but is it negligible? Smaller Christmas light.. Cut it closer to the top as time goes on and practice would make closer tolerances... Perhaps an On/Off switch to turn on a preheater? (This may be a bit dangerous, unless there is a timer in there)

Glass breakage.. not a biggie to me, just a pain in the tuckus....

Hey - wait a minute - what if we just dip the Nichrome coil in Pyrex glass?
That takes the air out of the picture, thermal transference is dropped, glass breakage is minimized, preheating is dropped, nickle foam around the heater is gone, bridge is gone, epoxy is gone... Electroplate the Nichrome leads with copper (in a thread somewhere) and the solder is gone too.

Make the glass/nichrome long enough to stick in the cartridge wadding and the only thing left is to figure out how to connect it to a battery.....

Okay... what am I missing - that's too simple....
(Oh yeah - how do you melt Pyrex....)

[jacko]

Hey - wait a minute - what if we just dip the Nichrome coil in Pyrex glass?
That takes the air out of the picture, thermal transference is dropped, glass breakage is minimized, preheating is dropped, nickle foam around the heater is gone, bridge is gone, epoxy is gone... Electroplate the Nichrome leads with copper (in a thread somewhere) and the solder is gone too.

Interesting idea... can you explain your thoughts? I am thinking that you are wanting to encase the coil in Pyrex. do you mean to have an enclosed coil where it is somewhat fused to the glass?