Hello Oscar,

The following is the next step:

Cut a piece of 1/4 – 20 non-stainless all-thread to a length of 8 3/8”.  On a welding table, stand your 1” pipe up with the open end of the pipe facing the table surface and the end with the plate welded to it facing up.  Now drop the all-thread through the 1/4" hole in the circular welded plate.  Now place the 4” bolt from earlier on the all-thread.  The all-thread is just helping you align the bolt’s hole with the circular plate’s hole until you tack weld two adjacent sides of the bolt to the circular plate.

Once the bolt is tack welded, remove the all-thread, unscrewing it if it is bound in the hole.  If it is bound, just screw two 1/4 – 20 hex nuts onto the end of the all-thread and lock them against each other.  Then unscrew them from the hole counter clockwise.

Now make two more tack welds.  You should end up with tack welds at 12:00, 6:00, 3:00 and 9:00.  Or 0 degrees, 180 degrees, 90 degrees and 270 degrees.  Now completely weld the bolt head to the circular plate welding a bead all the way around the rounded bolt head. 

Now take your glass vessel and make a 7/8” hole in the center of the bottom of it.  (This is easier said than done, as I found out the hard way.  DO NOT USE A DRILL BIT TO MAKE THIS HOLE!!!)  I have no way of making this hole so I will be outsourcing this part.

Have fun with this part Oscar,

Chess Knight   

Chessnyt,

This is going to take a while to complete. I have to find some way to make the hole in the glass too. 

Oscar

Hello Oscar,

I don’t want to skip over important steps and confuse those who might be building along side of us so I am going to post a bunch of general tips to those who might already have a built cell that doesn’t work.

GENERAL JOE CELL TIPS:

1.  Your charging vat cell can have 5 or 4 plates but your vehicle cell must only have 4 plates.  5”, 4”, 3” and 2” 316L stainless steel pipes.  Seamless is recommended but welded ones are ok as long as magnetism is removed.

2.  In the vehicle cell, only insulators made of virgin Teflon are acceptable as insulators that will be submerged in water.  This material is not only an excellent electrical insulator but it can also withstand temperatures up to 500 degrees F without melting.  It will not contaminate your water like most plastics.  Ebonite rod is NOT a suitable substitute.  Nylon is not a suitable insulator either (most kitchen cutting boards are made of this stuff).  McMaster Carr sells this type of Teflon, just in case you can not find it elsewhere.

3.  On both cells (charging vat and vehicle cell) you need a plate welded to the bottom of the center pipe and the outer pipe.  If you have a kit where your outside pipe is formed at the bottom without a plate welded on, you can use this pipe.  If you have a kit where your negative inner pipe has a press fit bolt or platform, you CAN NOT use this pipe unless you can remove the press fit bolt or platform and MIG or TIG weld a solid 1/8” round plate to the bottom.

4.  If the water in your charging vat’s center pipe can not circulate (and you will notice when you apply electricity to the cell) it will NOT work and it will NOT properly charge your water.

5.  If the water in your vehicle cell’s center pipe can not circulate (and you will notice when you apply electricity to the cell) it will NOT work and it will NOT properly charge your water.  You must have at least 3 holes in the bottom plate of 1/4" in diameter to allow proper water circulation in your vehicle cell.  The plate welded to the bottom of this center pipe MUST be equal in size to the OUTSIDE DIAMETER of the pipe.  NOT the inside diameter.

6.  Do NOT use the cones that are seen on the net affixed to the top of the vehicle cells.  Use a flanged flat lid with a rubber gasket for the top lid to your vehicle cell.  The rubber gasket material is said to be ok to use because it is NOT submerged in the water and it is NOT insulating the cell electrically because bolts pass through the flange and conduct electricity.  It is only being used as a seal.

7.  The vehicle cell’s mounting bracket in the engine compartment must use wood insulators at least 3/4" in thickness.  The bracket can be metal but there must be 3/4" of wood insulation in between the bracket and the outside cell container (which is positive).

8.  Use only rain water or mountain stream water in your cell(s).  Tap water has fluoride and chlorine added to the water which will mess up your cell.  Bottled water may contain many minerals which have been added for taste, which will also mess up your cell.

This information may help those who have NON-working cells to convert them into working cells.

Regards,

Chess Knight     
 

Hello Oscar,

I mistakenly typed the wrong thing on tip number 3.  It should be “On both cells (charging vat and vehicle cell) you need a plate welded to the bottom of the center pipe and the outer pipe of the vehicle cell.  The charging vat does not have a plate welded onto its 5” pipe bottom.”

I just screwed up.  Thank you very much for the correction.  In fact, if anybody can’t understand something or it appears to contradict other instructions, please let me know and I’ll fix it or clarify it.

There will be some instructions that on their own merit will not make sense.  For example, the negative connection on the cell.  Anyone who is familiar with automotive electrical knows that the negative lead of a vehicle’s battery is connected to the chassis creating a chassis ground.  Thus, any DC negative wire that is connected to the chassis is in effect connected to the battery’s negative terminal, but these instructions specifically forbid using the chassis for the grounding of the cell.   

Another example is the surface both the negative and positive wires are to connect to.  My own logic would lean towards connecting the negative wire to the bottom of the center (most inner pipe) inside pipe surface and the positive wire to the top outer surface of the outer pipe (the case) but a Joe Cell configured this way would never function correctly. 

There are many other instructions that appear to be illogical in nature which may explain why so few people have had success building this cell.  It’s difficult to determine how many people have deviated from good Joe Cell plans because their own judgment led them astray and how many people have simply been intentionally misled by outside interests to prevent them from succeeding.  In either case, there have been very few successes and even fewer documented working Joe Cells.  Hopefully, with these plans, we will be changing this.

As far as the engine goes, I am going to select a carbureted vehicle engine and run it from an engine stand.

I’ll leave you with eight more Joe Cell tips for now. 

GENERAL JOE CELL TIPS (CONT.):

 9.   Use only glass containers to collect and store your water in.  Also, do not store your water in direct sunlight.

10.  The 1/2” SS bolt in your vehicle cell must be step insulated with virgin Teflon from the hole in the bottom of the cell to the bottom of the circular SS round plate welded to the bottom of the 2” pipe.  This step insulator can not block the three 1/4" circulation holes.

11.  In both the charging vat and the vehicle cell, never ignite the bubbles coming out of the water.  This is mentioned not for the danger factor but for the contamination factor.

12.  Do NOT touch your charge water with your fingers.

13.  ALWAYS connect the negative wire FIRST with both the charging vat and the vehicle cell.

14.  ALWAYS remove the negative wire LAST with both the charging vat and the vehicle cell.

15.  The negative wire (#10 black fine stranded copper wire) connects directly to the negative post of the car battery and goes to the 1/2" bolt sticking out of the bottom of the cell.  Do NOT just chassis ground the cell.  Run the cell’s negative wire to the battery’s negative post only.

16.  The positive wire (#10 red fine stranded copper wire) has an inline 5AMP fuse and attaches to the cell in the middle of the cell flange under the rubber gasket.  A flange bolt holds the positive wire in place which has a terminal ring Stak-on connector crimped onto its end.  Later, this wire will be cut 2” away from the cell and the cut end going back to the battery will have an alligator clip connected to its end.  The 2” piece going to the cell will be stripped back 1/4" and the alligator clip will be attached to it for short periods of time and disconnected in order to “flash” key locations.

Don’t rush building this cell.  It’s quality we are after and not quantity.  You wouldn’t buy a brand new car engine and then connect it to a wooden transmission, would you?  Take your time.  You get to be your own boss here.  Nobody is pushing you.  It’s not getting things done quickly that count.  It’s getting them done right.

Regards,

Chess Knight