Building a Vortex Tube

Hey, how about them vortex tubes, eh?
CAD (STEP & IGES): drive.google.com/file/d/0BziG...

[@TheRalliowiec]

Abom79 forgot to turn on his lathe, AvE got his thing stuck in his vice, and Clickspring doesn't know what time it is....brilliant!

[@garywheeler7039]

You sir are a stoot!

[@jurikristjouw]

the bejeezles thing werkz!

[@scottycrippin2126]

Forgive me, but I must have missed something..how are you getting the names of these people? Did I miss something in the video or did you just make them up lol

[@louisturner8842]

Taylor King Been a long time follower.

[@ericgulseth74]

@@scottycrippin2126 The calls during the video were from other KZbinrs. Abom76, AvE, and Clickspring respectively. You should check them out if you like This Old Tony.

[@mskellyrlv]

I built one of these for my instrumentation lab course at Purdue, back in 1977. The hand drawings and plots that you cite as being from "the Navy" were actually from a book of collected columns out of Scientific American, "The Amateur Scientist" column written by CL Stong. One of the most important things in Ranque-Hilsch tube design (French engineer Ranque invented it in 1931, and it was rediscovered by Paul Dirac and improved upon by Rudolph Hilsch) is the use of a supersonic nozzle to feed the air in to the swirl chamber. It works by having the high velocity (hence high stagnation enthalpy) air hug the hot tube wall by centrifugal force. Low velocity air goes to the center of the vortex, and is driven out through the cold tube entrance by pressure. Using big galvanized plumbing pipe (1.5 inch, IIRC), and a swirl injector that I made into a two-dimensional De Laval nozzle by filing a plate of aluminum with a fine set of semi-round files, I was able to cobble together a working Hilsch tube and reproduce the temperature plots from the Scientific American article pretty well. Now, I had a whopping big air compressor at my disposal in the ME Building at Purdue. I believe it was a 20 HP compressor, and it heated the air in the room I was using (a big room) up to over 100 F during each run. But I was able to get the cold side down to -50 C without any problem. Much later, when I had my own company, I managed to snag a bunch of commercial Hilsch tubes that were used for the purpose of spot cooling metal parts being drilled, milled, or machined on a lathe. They could get down almost to dry ice temperatures. I wish I still had them.

[@lastnamefirstname6700]

I like your funny words, magic man

[@sgtbrown4273]

Very fascinating! I worked for Ingersoll Rand for over 20 years, and you explained the operation textbook. The old guys who taught me made me construct one of these to learn from. They truly are fantastic little devices. Years later, I fell back on this knowledge at a steel mill in Alabama we're I designed an air conditioning unit with a vertex cooler and a 50 horse power screw compressor on top of a pilot crane. It served as cold air but also allowed the purification of the air due to carbon monoxide put off by the molten iron crucible. The operators were falling ill due to the heat and fumes. It was all mounted on the overhead crane alongside the pilot house. The operators stated that was the first time since they started in the 70s they'd had air conditioning there. Standard refrigeration units would not work because the ambient temp above the melting steel was over 130 degrees Fahrenheit. So these things are wasteful but definitely have their place. They are also used in cooling electrical cabinets running off nitrogen this cools and protects from explosive vapor build-up. I would love to sit down and ask 1000 questions from you. Cheers 🍻

[@Tasarran]

That's exactly what I thought as Tony was explaining how it worked... I realized when he's talking about when the vortex turns back, the inner vortex is smaller in the middle, but the faster, hotter molecules will tend to be flung/move to the outer edge, where the slower, colder molecules will be carried along in the center into the small tube. Almost like a vortex filter... Awesome to hear you explain that my intuition was correct!

[@nichtwichtig9242]

@@sgtbrown4273 You just do not understand: The tube is very loud yes? And this special sound attracts and binds a demon who s forced to sort the hot and cold molecules to the correspondending outlets. Why? Because it is a hot/cold sorting kind of demon, silly! Thats it for Americans, heretics in other parts of the world may meditate on the powers of Thermoakustik the fallacy to try to explain those also only by pressure differences and on Schauberger building flying saucers for the US military.

[@1islam1]

@@lastnamefirstname6700 ⚠️ God has said in the Quran: 🔵 { O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous - ( 2:21 ) 🔴 [He] who made for you the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceiling and sent down from the sky, rain and brought forth thereby fruits as provision for you. So do not attribute to Allah equals while you know [that there is nothing similar to Him]. ( 2:22 ) 🔵 And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our Servant [Muhammad], then produce a surah the like thereof and call upon your witnesses other than Allah, if you should be truthful. ( 2:23 ) 🔴 But if you do not - and you will never be able to - then fear the Fire, whose fuel is men and stones, prepared for the disbelievers.( 2:24 ) 🔵 And give good tidings to those who believe and do righteous deeds that they will have gardens [in Paradise] beneath which rivers flow. Whenever they are provided with a provision of fruit therefrom, they will say, "This is what we were provided with before." And it is given to them in likeness. And they will have therein purified spouses, and they will abide therein eternally. ( 2:25 ) ⚠️ Quran

[@michaelwitt188]

"Don't answer that, because I wouldn't be able to hear you" Subscribed and notified.

[@williampelizzari4054]

same

[@PandorasFolly]

Absokfuckinglutly

[@petedelano4881]

When I saw the Solidworks CFD you jumped the shark for me. There is no way you a a hobby machinist. I am now convinced you are a college professor with a slave labor force (graduate students). Seriously very impressive. I consider myself a respectable engineer and your videos continue to humble me. Thanks.

[@PracticalEngineeringChannel]

This is an awesome project. I had never heard of this before. Well done.

[@ThisOldTony]

Thanks Grady!

[@linuxguy1199]

Can you do a video on these?

[@ekbergiw]

Yeah, that would be awesome to see

[@bobmcboberson816]

stop trying to promo your channel in Tony's comments

[@DRSDavidSoft]

PA Can you do a video on the subject?

[@Abom79]

First I get phone calls during SNS, then I call you while your building that air cannon! What luck!

[@miuzik8op908]

Abom79 - LOVE your show Adam!!!

[@rogermarshall8991]

😂😂😂😂 It always goes that way. !!!!

[@matthewmaca6675]

I was about to comment that shout to u Also love your content with a passion

[@sup2069]

Abom! o7

[@haydenh2256]

You and AVE made me fall in love with machining, before i loved turning spanners now i want to make my own spanners

[@pewpew4545]

Not me trying to figure out how you were making Spanners on a lathe

[@quartfeira]

Who is AVE?

[@williammoriarity7411]

@@quartfeira I don't mean to be rude, but the search bar is right up there ⬆️

[@quartfeira]

@@williammoriarity7411 i was having some trouble to find his channel, maybe due to my KZbin setting (geographically i mean). Found it, anyway.

[@dansw0rkshop]

@@quartfeira Arduino Versus Evil. He's that foul-mouthed Canadian youtuber.

[@soop597]

“He’s got his what in a vice” Nice reference

[@Homehous]

What was it doing out in the shop!! 😂

[@bslturtle]

That was AvE

[@AppliedScience]

Great stuff! I've been a fan for a while, and this is one of my favorites.

[@ThisOldTony]

Thanks Ben! (If I may call you Ben), love your stuff.

[@bradleybeer]

Applied Science

[@MrMalarix]

This old Tony and Applied Science; these guys should start like a ' youtube rocket war' or something like that

[@TioDave]

I was thinking about your kzbin.info/www/bejne/opfQo6mud5Zoatk video. I was surprised when I scrolled down and saw your post.

[@ShubhamBhushanCC]

Fan for a while. Nice pun

[@PeterWMeek]

With a Vortex Tube, you actually ARE trying to "split airs".

[@ExtantFrodo2]

Peter, that comment really should have garnered top votes.

[@Jako1987]

So it is like milk separator. Denser air is in the middle (cold)

[@ahaveland]

What I would like to know is how the composition of the air changes - one of the ends should be more oxygen enriched.

[@aheckers]

Funnier than the Old guy... Isn't that, like, trooling? DJT

[@davidmartin2631]

...ahem

[@whtwolf100]

oh. so it's the opposite of the turbine engine. instead of putting thermal energy in and getting air pressure out, you put air pressure in and get thermal energy out?

[@thomasmahoney9748]

It is the same as high bypassed turbines on airlines that have a jet fuel compressor in the tail that drives the jets that use the vortex to produce the heat to drive the engines.

[@MrFlashpoint1978]

@@thomasmahoney9748 "She's the girl who makes the thing that holds the oil that oils the ring that holds the shank that works the crank, tgat works the thingummybob"

[@dennisk5818]

I remember learning of vortex tubes in the 90's. The design I remember, had the shape of a venturi in which two tapered sections met at their smaller diameters. This was also the area in which the high pressure air was injected to start the vortex. The cool side was shorter than the hot end. Their use was typically in machining, where cooling a part during milling or lathe work. Not sure, but I'd suspect that Bernulli's principle is at work here, given the velocity and pressure components.

[@Schnot]

AvE sent me here and I've been stuck for hours now.

[@ijustcantnotonebit5237]

Schnot what video of AVE was it please would like to watch it

[@edwardhugus2772]

i just cant not one bit It was a $500.00 German angle grinder vejayo, This one was one of AvE ' s intermissions. Sorry, I have forgotten the German company name.

[@alexxd_1252]

Metabo maybe

[@bbarnaville]

Fe i n

[@Buddy-po4hv]

The reference to AvE at 15:00 👍

[@drportland8823]

I immediately noticed that, per the diagram, your rough-cut parts were the wrong color. It might work better if you fixed that.

[@ThisOldTony]

I get so carried away at times I completely miss the obvious. Thanks Dr!

[@ahmdabdallah5811]

no GOD BUT GOD....What Is Islam? Islam is not just another religion. It is the same message preached by Moses, Jesus and Abraham. Islam literally means ‘submission to God’ and it teaches us to have a direct relationship with God. It reminds us that since God created us, no one should be worshipped except God alone. It also teaches that God is nothing like a human being or like anything that we can imagine. The concept of God is summarized in the Quran as: { “Say, He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing like Him.”} (Quran 112:1-4) Becoming a Muslim is not turning your back to Jesus. Rather it’s going back to the original teachings of Jesus and obeying him

[@mina47879]

@@ahmdabdallah5811 umm how is this at all related to this comment or video?

[@McDonnerbogen]

@WalterRamjet HeroOfOurNation this is literally some spam bot i suppose

[@SodAlmighty]

You know, I was going to thumb up this comment until about halfway through; when it became kinda obvious that you were exactly the same as the other guy except of a different faction. Let me be very clear: ALL your religions are nonsense. The Egyptian Book of the Dead described many core aspects of the christian myth (the three wise men, for example; and the fable of Lazerus) thousands of years before your imaginary prophet was invented. You talk about theft and making shit up? How ironic. When are you credulous imbeciles going to take your heads out of your arses, stop pleading with thunderstorms and take your place in the modern scientific age?

[@TheEzReiter]

Love the "Interociter" reference.

[@nick4819]

We used these vortex tubes in our sandblasting suits. We sandblasted outside in the middle of summer at 105F with heat index's of 115F...me in my sandblasting suit...and I never started sweating. I could be out there all day long no problem. These tubes are black magic. We just had it attached to a plate which was held onto us by the belt we use to keep the suit tight on you. The plate was roughly shaped to a human back and it fit comfortably and kept the extremely hot tube from melting the suit or burning bare skin if the suit moved.

[@billiondollardan]

wwjd 40 is the funniest thing I've seen all week

[@johnlarryedward]

Wrong... ...try WD-43

[@Guffy1990]

@@johnlarryedward Pure mental stimulation in a can? (kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJmrgWaehcRjhsk)

[@THESLlCK]

agreed

[@gilbertcabasse6168]

As a non native English speaker, I didn't got it first. So, for those like me, here his the meaning : What Would Jesus Do. And from now I won't be able to use WD40 without a big smile... And the best is that he must have spent hours to make his beautiful can, see 4:17. I can imagine him giggling internally during the whole process...

[@THESLlCK]

@@gilbertcabasse6168 Lol I didn't get it at first either, despite being a native english speaker. What's your first language?

[@Cancun771]

This is SO much more wondrous and interesting than the work I'm actually supposed to be doing right now

[@drummerboysmith968]

Great vids. Love your sense of humor. Back in the days of carburetors, mechanics used to use a small one of these devices for the purpose of cooling off the automatic choke spring so the choke could be adjusted even after the engine had been warmed up.

[@samykamkar]

You're hilarious.

[@Kawka1122]

You are breathtaking !

[@quek9848]

You are my hero

[@Kawka1122]

@@quek9848 I know. Thank you

[@quek9848]

@@Kawka1122 not u -_-

[@Kawka1122]

@@quek9848 oh, don't be shy. I know that you meant me 😏

[@WilliamTMusil]

The phone calls with AvE are hilarious. Interesting build. Smoke coming out of my ears considering practical applications.

[@KenColangelo]

WWJD-40 doesn't just displace water, it lets you walk on it!

[@Pocketraisins]

Only the Moses version (WWMD-40) does that.

[@jamesa7506]

Then turns it into wine

[@TheJJluv123]

Probably not still reading these but I never knew these existed. I've been a fan for a year or two and this is the first time I've seen this one. This is freaking amazing.

[@eamonia]

Laughing and learning again. I always love a quick swing by your shop, Tony. Thanks again for all your hard work, bud.

[@Kettletrigger]

Phone calls 1 & 2 were easy to identify...#3 took some spring-clicking before I clocked the answer.

[@taylandag2891]

But who were they??

[@PeckerBrown]

Abom79, AvE, and Clickspring.

[@Kettletrigger]

To answer that, as Tom Waits would say, we have to go all the way back to the Civil War. If you haven't already noticed, Tony occasionally references other popular KZbin machinists in his videos (usually Stefan Gotteswinter, which I find hilarious). This time around, he receives phone calls from three other machinists. By doing this, Tony is providing a vehicle for those of us "in the know" to feel special...like we're part of an exclusive club. Granted, it's the kind of club whose members spend way too much time watching KZbin machining videos, but I'll take my exclusivity where I can get it. AKA, "the inside joke". The downside to this kind of exclusivity is the necessity for a portion of the viewership, like yourself, to have no idea what's going on. It's a crummy position to be in, but you can take solace in the fact that your ignorance provides the rest of us with a fair helping of smug satisfaction. You sir, are the foil. Your kind has a tragic nobility that causes the rest of us to feel the slightest bit of envy behind our giggles. But mostly smug satisfaction. Quiz on Tuesday.

[@PeckerBrown]

Nice. This humble foil always appreciates a well crafted insult, no matter how encrusted with Cheetle the author may be.

[@Kettletrigger]

Mr. Brown, Whilst your given name suggests a long-standing relationship with the burden of being a foil, in this particular case you knew the answer to the question asked. Am I to assume that you are so accustomed to being on the wrong side of a joke that you were flummoxed by the surprise of finding yourself on the right? Or, out of habit, were you simply reaching out and claiming the title? Whatever the case may be, I have every confidence that you will clear this up in a manner befitting a man of your obvious refinement and poise. My cheetle may be deep and wide, but it's no match for the particularly persuasive piercing point of truth. Yrs, K. Trigger

[@gregorka9]

Abom, ave, and clickspring all referenced in one video with heavy sorcery involved. I thought these couldn't get any better

[@snipehunter795]

Never before have i been so entertained while getting so much information. All of your videos are great.

[@imstubby6844]

Totally inspirational! i'm with Tikki on this. Have worked with wood and metal all my life in a "low fi" way but when i watch a video of yours i just start twitching to go and build a monster, i need a machine shop! You have a rare gift for teaching & long may you carry on! Thanks so much Stubby (UK)

[@trickyname]

I'm not a machinist, not really interested in machining, have no desire to start machining, but man I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS. Thanks for sharing and making me laugh my arse off.

[@ThisOldTony]

ha! thanks tricky, glad to have you watching.

[@njsurf1973]

Even with all of those tools... I would just stare at them. But I love watching

[@elrayox8932]

Mostly I come here for the comments and music, but today I noticed all that machiney stuff going on in the background. Really nice!

[@michaelzlprime]

it's so expensive because each one of these tubes houses a Maxwell's demon!

[@phuturephunk]

I love the surprise callers. Especially the what time is it call. Priceless.

[@jimnnobody]

Glad to see that you were able to help out Abom. There's no helping AvE. He's in a permanent state.

[@ThisOldTony]

ha!

[@stevenw8103]

This Old Tony I would like/how could I send you a commercially bought vortex tube for a comparison video.? ...???

[@dominicdelprincipe2583]

Your sound edits are hilarious. Comic timing is awesome, in the way you cut off your funny lines as if some editor is going "CUT!" and then resuming the 'scheduled program'. I love it! It's inspired.

[@markm0000]

12 37 is the funniest with those first results. His editing style is so funny.

[@learnmyname123]

"Outside the scope of this video" never gets old.

[@jjackle6431]

I work in the natural gas industry. We actually use a device that uses a vortex tube to heat the supply gas for regulator pilots to keep them from freezing up under heavy load. They use the same gas going through the pipeline, and have the benefit of zero emissions because all of the gas used to operate the heater goes downstream to customers. They pretty much never break either because there are no moving parts to wear or catalyst beds to burn up.

[@duobob]

Loved the Django. I was able to play with a prototype Hilsch tube about 35 years ago. It was small, it was dirt simple, we had essentially unlimited air st 175 psi, it worked very well, with exhaust temperatures cold and hot enough to be dangerous to the operator. Oh, and it was LOUD! The friend who had it, Dieter Lezius, was a German physicist who did research for Lockheed. He told me it worked like a tornado, the vortex becoming very small and fast rotating where the flow split into two streams due to compression and the cold side by expansion, and the law of conservation of energy making the thing produce equal total energy gain and loss at the opposite ends at equilibrium. To me it was a fascinating toy, and this is my memory of what I remember my sailplane buddy/mad physicist telling me way back then... Just looked him up, he was still at it in 1994: www.isope.org/publications/proceedings/ISOPE/ISOPE%201994/Abstract%20Pages/I94v3p447.pdf

[@ThisOldTony]

Interesting, thanks Bob!

[@martinfyhn1976]

@@ThisOldTony My intuition was that the most energetic (hotter) particles would be flung to the walls of the tube, whereas the less energetic (colder) particles would "fall" to the centre, where they would then be deflected out towards the cold end, when hitting the flat surface, of the nozzle at the hot end. If there's any truth to that, then it would likely make sense to move the nozzle to where the tube gets most hot, which was also where the vortex started losing momentum towards the hot nozzle. And if that also holds true, then the smaller the inner tapered diameter, the colder the air that is deflected, which would also decrease the flow that comes out of the cold end, but should make it colder. I didn't even consider thermal expansion, as mentioned in the above answer, but that takes away heat in the same way as the compressor in a refrigerator (as you probably know), which likely also cools the deflected air even more. I think that the choice in the tapered part, was a good one, because it's not as good a conductor of heat as aluminium is, which likely adds to efficiencies of the system, because you don't heat the deflected air as much, when it's deflected. I have nothing to base the above on, though - so pure speculation.

[@matthewmontgomery3693]

TOT: "I could be building an interocitor" Me: Google interocitor Me: LOL Me:

[@chrisduncan2626]

This made how the coolers and heaters on our fresh air welding hoods work make sense. Pretty neat!

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

I've stumbled upon this video by accident and was really surprised by how good and subtle the humor is. Keep it up.

[@princetikki]

I wish you were us, and had to wait for your next amazing video to come out... it's so difficult!

[@ThisOldTony]

ha! doin my best Tikki, thanks!

[@Robohac01]

I love the AeV reference at 15:08 :P

[@species5022]

And also dont forget the poke at Adam from Abom79 if im correct :P

[@Robohac01]

Well I didn't get that reference but the aev one was obvious :P

[@txm100]

WTF, its AVE!

[@iankrom510]

well with a brain the size of a planet its no surprise, even if you feel like no one appreciates you, I appreciate you keeping Zaphod at least sort of annoyed.

[@BPantherPink]

tm No... it's AvE 🤣

[@ronstar8857]

Look at what I learned today...and I thought that I knew everything. Excellent video and build! Congrats and thanks for sharing!

[@jtveg]

11:28 Actually the reflected air flow of the cold vortex is rotating in the *_opposite_* direction to the hot air vortex. This is actually what causes the initial cooling effect. The super cooling is caused by expansion in the outlet cone, which your project doesn't seem to have.

[@dansw0rkshop]

In his SolidWorks simulation it's rotating the same way. Maybe the simulation is false.

[@wolfbd5950]

2:27 that is a great deep-cut physics reference, and I very much enjoyed it.

[@Trent-tr2nx]

6:03 "not perfect, but close enough for -the girls I go out with- what I need"

[@jnbpisces]

Thank you for taking us on a journey to rediscover our inner childnerd. Subscribed!!!

[@GidCox]

This old Tony- inspiring- very interesting and superbly presented!

[@soldout1986]

Ave and tony should meet if they havent already(15:05)

[@timhall8137]

i thought the ave and abom calls were hilarious. Wasn't sure who else would catch it. who is Chris? is that that CNC guy ?

[@petek210]

Chris is Clickspring. He's a clock maker and his channel is right up there with the best

[@Deedeedee137]

Poncho likes bacon did he say Chris to nod of the fake phone calls?

[@poppypuppy5372]

It was only due to this video that I looked up Clickspring. I agree that he is among the best. A master craftsman.

[@tsilfidis1996]

Love ur vids !!! Showing how to make things + humor !!! keep up the good work! Im 20 years old, studying mechanical engineering and industrial designing and recently learned how to use a lathe so im whatching videos of people making stuff. And i believe i enjoy urs the most!

[@Artoconnell]

The heat is put into the air when it is compressed, as it loses pressure, it sheds its heat. the cooler air outlet is the product of heat evaporation out the expansion side. basic refrigeration circuit..sorta..

[@rabie4x4]

I've used these on sand blasting hoods during summer and they worked quite well.. Inside the hood was very cool temps as well as a watch to keep time and a pair of thermometers for inside and outside readings, usually about a 20 deg F difference. An AM/FM Vox two way belt clip radio rounded out the package. Industrial blasting still sucks and even tho it payed the bills back in those days, I'm glad I don't do that anymore.

[@baremetalHW]

Did the thing get a static electric charge building up with all the air going through?

[@sonnenklang6925]

For that effect try dry gypsum dust mixed in the airstream and shoot it through a plastic hose probably with a little centrifugal blower in a closedloop.. It charges up the hose and crackles like old tv screens :)

[@melgross]

I’ve wanted to get one of these for my mill for years. It works very well for carbide and fair mill speeds, as it keeps the work cool and clears chips at the same time, while keeping things clean. But as a practical matter, most of them require about 20 cfm, and some want more than 90 psi. That’s way too much for a non pro shop.

[@hoytdotblohm]

I had never thought that I would here about an interocitor on this island earth again. Thank you for your content, it is inspiring.

[@jimsimpson8663]

Well well well , a vortex tube ! I made one of those in the early '70s It worked well , someone borrowed it and I didn't get it back ! Amazing how the air spins one way in the hot tube creating heat , then curles back words and spins in the opposite direction in the middle of the hot tube , but goes very cold .

[@tristantownsend2580]

Hey tony, we use this in the factory I work at. I'm a industrial maintenance tech. If I happen to get ahold of one I'll send it to you, if that's what you would like

[@magnum0121984]

Tristan Towmsend what do you use it for?

[@jirkasvitil2762]

@@magnum0121984 probably black magic

[@taunokekkonen5733]

@@magnum0121984 could you do friction fitting? If you have 200 C air to heat the hole, and -50 C to cool the bit to be inserted in said hole. No need for a blowtorch?

[@tristantownsend2580]

@TheVryfst its signed out and permitted with items from scrap...

[@AustrianAnarchy]

Popular Science, IIRC, had plans for one in the 1960s. That set of Navy plans look just like what they published.

[@zardoz992]

I remember that.

[@millardiii]

Actually it was in the mid 1970's. I built one in brass when the article came out. I was only able to get a 10 degree (C) differential between the hot and the cold but it definitely worked. Here is a link to the article from Popular Science October 1976. books.google.com/books?id=HwEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA123&lpg=PA123&dq=popular+science+vortex+tube&source=bl&ots=SHpjJjHvdN&sig=W9W1PJRRhUJ0JOBrgWOFhhiM21o&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwisitPz3bnPAhWGmh4KHX-pBlgQ6AEIRjAA#v=onepage&q=popular%20science%20vortex%20tube&f=false

[@AustrianAnarchy]

Millard Mier Nice! But that is a newer and different article than the one I was remembering. The one I had in mind may have been in a different publication or a book on projects. The drawings were like the Navy plans he showed in the video, as in the same pictures (or dead on close), with a nautilus-shaped swirl chamber.

[@millardiii]

Since you peaked my interests I went searching in the Popular Science archives in Google. Jul 1969 www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=FyoDAAAAMBAJ&pg=61&query=vortex%20tube Nov 1947 www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=aCQDAAAAMBAJ&pg=190&query=hilsch May 1945 www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=KiYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=145&query=hilsch Apr 1950 www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=DC0DAAAAMBAJ&pg=134&query=hilsch I am guessing that the two articles from the 1940's are the ones you were looking at.

[@millardiii]

Looking more carefully, I am pretty sure that the plans I used (in about 1976), were from the Nov 1947 issue. I remember as a teen spending a lot of time in the local college library basement stacks looking at Popular Science and Popular Mechanics issues from the 30's 40's and 50's when home shops were all the rage. I learned a lot, but very little of it was useful :)

[@raymondmontecastro]

great stuff,,i have an idea now on what happen to our vortex cooling system,,,thank you @this old tony for this very informative video.

[@MaxBilimoria]

Dude!! brilliant videos don't stop making these videos....theyre truly awesome...keep em coming.

[@FredMiller]

Great video! LMAO on the phone calls... Took me a "second" to catch on to the Chris call. Great stuff!

[@SixTough]

haha I just got it after reading your comment

[@Harlequin314159]

Yeah I assume chris is either trying to set his new clock, or if he hadnt finished it when this was made, he just doesnt know what time it is since he doesnt have a clock!

[@glenralph5123]

Fred Miller - I'm new to this channel but thank you for clearing this part up for me. It finally 'clicked' after reading it.

[@joehumphries4187]

Did anyone catch the ave one? Your what in a vice lol

[@deeiks12]

I still dont get the Chris one. Care to explain? One was AvE, and one was Abom.

[@sohamray908]

KZbin Algo sent me here after the LTT vid on vortex cooling

[@kestrelsfury6002]

I love your videos and am impressed with your sense of humor.

[@JSW42]

About 20 years ago I bought a Snap On tool that does this. It was less than a foot long and produced freezing air and very hot air. Used it to check choke coil operation among other things. It might have been Blue Point I don't remember.Had no idea how it worked but it did. The out put tubes were about .5 and 1 inch in diameter. Mine was the only shop in town that had one.Thanks for showing me how it worked. Yours is too large so the air flow is more than your compressor could put out. Mine was almost too much for my compressor and it was a 5th the size of yours.

[@Kerndrup]

Anther super video!! Really cool project! :D And i liked det "Chris - Time - Joke"

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

I'm gonna build a big one that fits in my sunroof, you know, instead of fixing my ac

[@phantomwalker8251]

find my comment,.i dont know why this hasnt been commercially built. IF,we had tesla power,it could run for free & no a/c gas,,win win..oh,forgot,,we have to pay for everything we use..damn..its money,isnt it. this is why we have oil & batteries,for 130 plus yrs.no human advancement..ba ba dumb sheep have you any idea..watch sumerian tablet vids..your creators..

[@aidengray3998]

@@phantomwalker8251 You do realize that Teslas "free power" was just the radio right? The man was a genius and no sane person will disagree, but he was also bug fuck insane.

[@michaelglennwilliams6278]

Hey buddy, love your humor, and your geek-itudity. Bravo!

[@mavericks1460]

I have been looking everywhere for a video on this thank you for explaining it in terms I understand.

[@StefanGotteswinter]

Please. Turn of your phone while filming! All those youtubers are really annoying. Interesting build - I have seen those vortex tubes used with the cold-air side for machining plastics, but I doubt that they have a great effect on the proces. But if nothing else, they are a great noisemaker :D

[@pauldorman]

Stefan you should have asked him if it was a good time to call, though we all understand if it was a medical emergency in this case!

[@leighmoom5277]

When you need to turn on a lathe. And gets someone to tell you the time don't interrupt the video.BTW what did you get stuck in your vice? try turning the handle

[@Imaboss8ball]

+leigh Moom Ave is the vice reference

[@DevinRostron]

Not sure if troll or you really don't get the reference

[@urgamecshk]

Stefan Gotteswinter

[@traddy9355]

“This is what slots look like when you don’t give a shi” haha

[@SirKks1]

you're a very funny and competent man/mechanic/engineer I will never need a vortex tube or repack 2-stroke muffler but I subscribed

[@naknakacknak]

Been working 3D CAD and modeling since 1981 with mini-computers... ComputerVision, Calma, Intergraph IGDS and CADAM. it's wonderful you are breaking people into the world of CAD-CAM. 3D and Parametric Programming (Dimension Driven Design) along with BIM are the tools of the future.

[@NickMoore]

Did you only use genuine interociter parts?

[@ThisOldTony]

can't say for sure, they just started showing up in the mail.

[@josifulis]

It's the amazing Technicolor cheese wedge

[@hoytdotblohm]

Thankfully it's compatible with snapple.

[@DennisDavisEdu]

I've just been using mine to make hot chocolate!

[@donvanco3078]

Is this metal? I've got a bet with Joe.....

[@shodanxx]

I have access to a commercial one of these, I could have a peek side with the bore scope if you want. Also the cold side is the interesting bit here. Turning compressed air into heat isn't hard, it's called a muffler.

[@gregwarner3753]

Close enough for what I need. The key to getting a project done.

[@alwayschooseford]

AH! No CAD in the description!!! I remember this from my thermodynamics class, sounded so odd to me as well. It was always a theoretical possibility in our textbooks, had no idea that anyone actually made these devices. It always looked like a tube in the shape of a "y" in the textbooks.

[@ThisOldTony]

Its in there now. You might've been faster than I was. They don't call me Old Tony for nothin'.

[@TheNuubi]

This is definately somethin for the applied science chanel. Make it a contest who can create the bigger temperature difference ....

[@joeymoney2516]

We have those at my job and always wanted to know how they work. Interesting stuff. Thanks

[@cforn]

HAHAHA!!! Love the "interoceter" reference!!! I suspect we are similar in age and saw alot of the same movies. :)

[@azayles]

Very VERY funny, Tony! A fantastic mix of science, making shit, and humour :P I'm watching this a second time :D

[@ThisOldTony]

Thanks Azayles!

[@raging_rhino2582]

Third time for me, but I'm a little slow on the uptake

[@anothermoth]

The explanation i'm most comfortable with is: the tube generates cold by the adiabatic expansion of the air through the nozzle on its way into the swirl tube (Joule-Thompson may help a bit but it's not the main thing). Air leaves the nozzle cold and fast. Because it's swirling around it has too much angular momentum to go radially inwards to the cold exit, so it goes along the tube, slowly converting speed to heat by friction with the tube's wall. Some of the air goes all the way along the tube to the hot exit. The rest of the flow reaches a point where it's swirling too slowly to resist being sucked into the middle of the tube and back along the axis towards the cold exit. The main volume of the tube acts as counter-flow heat exchanger - the outer and inner flows exchange heat as they pass. The inner flow ends up as cold as the air from the nozzle, but moving much slower, and the outer flow gets heat from the inner flow in addition to the friction heat. Part of the magic of the tube is that it can exchange heat between air flows with vastly different speeds. One implication of this heat exchanger model is that cooling is limited by quality of the nozzle. It should maximise the output speed of the air and minimise heat leakage from the unexpanded air into the cold end of the device. I wonder if a de-Laval nozzle and supersonic flow would work. I think your 2-stage nozzle is probably pretty rubbish and explains your underwhelming cold end performance. Maybe try a design with a single nozzle feeding tangentially directly into the main tube.

[@anothermoth]

Another explanation worth thinking about: If you think of the tube as a centrifuge, and then take centrifugal force as a stand-in for gravity you can mentally map it onto the troposphere of the atmosphere, with 'ground level' at the wall and the top of the troposphere on the axis. Gravity creates a pressure gradient between the top and bottom and as air masses move up or down they adiabatically expand or contract so cooling or heating as they go, and so creating the temperature gradient we observe. In the vortex tube any flow that moves radially will be moving across a pressure gradient generated by the centrifugal force. The pressure gradient will be strongest near the cold end where the centrifuge is spinning fastest. The radial motion may come from turbulence or from some systematic secondary flow, perhaps to do with momentum transferring inward. I think this explanation mostly fits into the heat exchanger explanation to add detail to how the heat exchanger works, but it also seems to allow for a little more cooling than is achieved by the initial nozzle.

[@gramursowanfaborden5820]

your first scenario would explain why the military design has corrugations on the inside of the tube. more friction; more heat.

[@godfreypoon5148]

No, no, there are invisible dancing pixies inside the tube.

[@cameronwebster6866]

My first hypothesis as to where the heat comes from was compression heating at the flow reversal point. The cold is obviously just the air getting colder as it expands.

[@edwardhugus2772]

Godfrey Poon Sorry, did I miss it? I didn't see the sticky out thing for the pixie receptacle or a portable pixie house in the vejayo.

[@hilslamer]

Absolute riot to watch. Brilliant stuff, keep it up.

[@aalbright0805]

Have a project making one of these right now. This video was incredibly helpful!

[@TheodenEdnewDoesDnD]

Haha! Lost it at the phone call.

[@consequences7228]

I wonder how many PSI you could put into a clear resin cast version of this. Then pipe in some really fine but non-abrasive chaff to see the air flow.

[@phantomwalker8251]

???.why,,??,,just build a big one & cool/heat your house..12v or lpg,cheap engine.

[@brandontarr5418]

This is seriously my new favorite channel.

[@rogerleete4635]

Units similar to this are used to weld plastic. We have them all over the shop to weld PVC and polypro. They are hand held, roughly 8" long, and about the same diameter as a soldering iron. They usually run them on roughly 90 p.s.i. They have a feed tube to push in welding rod of the same material as being welded. Just discovered HF sells one with a built-in air motor.

[@DrathVader]

"You've got your what in the vice?"

[@Ajicles]

15:07 love the AVE reference there ;)

[@chrissometimes7473]

The electronics factory I worked in used one of the little Exair units to get cooling air to use on electronic components instead of freeze mist when debugging and it worked well, but the guys found the cans more convenient - no air hose was one factor. Of course we had a large compressed air system with several (3?) large air compressors - they need a lot of air.

[@sykoteddy]

Besides you're awesome work and projects I love the oddball humour. Nice to hear an AvE problem on the phone :) Please add more of them to your newer videos!

[@luftwerks2853]

Tony, I just elevated you to "God" status for the WWJD-40 joke. Hilarious.

[@HotboiEngineering]

Was the background music an acoustic version of Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke?" The chromatics kinda sounded like it.

[@pinkponyofprey1965]

haha! I noticed that too!

[@samsutherland9745]

Ford use to have a tool back in the day,for setting up automatic chokes on carbs was 8" long with fitting 1/4 way,never knew how it worked..... was just FM.!!!! now I do ....thanx

[@pabblo6103]

Excellent job on the Solidworks simulation. And the total build.

[@undercrackers56]

I tried using WMD40 but found it too destructive.

[@keithklassen5320]

How did you find some? I heard you could find some in the Middle East but they've been missing for years...

[@Druls8]

Keep your stick in the vice ;)

[@myboxissharp]

watching linus tech tips video on vortex coolers and i wanted to find out how these puppies work, and of course tony has it covered. 6 years ago. thanks.

[@MJSfoto1956]

Yet another episode covering the ongoing AvE + Tony lovefest. Bravo!

[@jeronimomurruni]

In one of your last videos you traveled in time. Now you are creating a vortex. What comes next? A homemade black hole?

[@ThisOldTony]

If all goes well. * Sinister Laugh *