Manufacture of Hydrated Alumina video.

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edisonphonoworks
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Manufacture of Hydrated Alumina video.

Post by edisonphonoworks »

This is a pretty in depth video on the manufacture of hydrated alumina, or hydrated aluminum. It is a saponifier, the sodium hydroxide portion, while the aluminum reduces crystalline structure in the wax. I have used amounts as low as .22% to as high as .60% in experiments. https://youtu.be/CXYDwtdbATM

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Re: Manufacture of Hydrated Alumina video.

Post by martinola »

The addition of the aluminum "won tons" to the solution made for some scary pre-Halloween viewing! Thanks for sharing this with us, Shawn! (If you had been my chemistry teacher, perhaps I would have learned more. :mrgreen: )

Martin

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Re: Manufacture of Hydrated Alumina video.

Post by edisonphonoworks »

Thanks :). Also like a bit of magic, as you see the aluminum an then you don't after two minutes it disappears. Can you imagine seeing this reaction on this big of a scal! This is from the Ediphone formula from a 1943 interior Thomas A Edison Inc. Ediphone Division OMS sheet.That was used to make "Ediphone Master Wax".
7,000 grams of NaOH and 10 gallons of water. When the reaction has subsided, 92 lbs of anhydrous sodium carbonate are added and finally 50 gallons of water. Note: The aluminum scrap is usually obtained from the Storage Battery Division in the form of punched strips. It is important that the size and thickness of this material be such as to insure a fairly rapid rate of solution. All of this reaction takes place under a hood. An alternative method consists of dissolving 8,900 grams of sodium aluminate in about 10 gallons of water and adding 5,000 grams of NaOH pellets. When complete solution has taken place, 92 lbs of anhydrous sodium carbonate are added and the necessary amount of water to bring the bulk up to 60 gallons.In both cases solution is affected by means of pressure steam in the jacketed portion of the kettle. When the solution is substantially clear it is slowly added, a pail at a time (3 gallons) by means of a 2 quart dipper.

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Re: Manufacture of Hydrated Alumina video.

Post by Chuck »

Hi Shawn,

It's a good thing that you are showing some of the
details of making the hydrated aluminum solution.

Having that solution properly made is one of the
key things to making decent brown wax. Every batch
of brown wax made must have the correct amount
of saponification. It must also have the correct
amount of aluminum, and the correct amount of
remaining free stearic acid. Then, after the
saponification is completed, the wax must have the
proper amount of tempering added. This is usually
ceresin wax, but lately Shawn has done some very
cool experiments using a bit of beeswax!

But, one thing is for sure: In order to make
proper brown wax; proper hydrated aluminum solution
is a must.

I have found that by carefully adjusting the
proportions of lye, water, and aluminum, that the
resulting solution pretty much determines the
qualities that the wax will have when finished.

Once the correct proportions are found, then the
very fine adjustments can be made to the wax by
slightly altering the total amount of hydrated aluminum
that gets added to the stearic acid to saponify it.

I have found that changing the total amount of
added hydrated aluminum by as little as ¼ US fl oz
can make a noticeable difference in the final outcome.

That is a variation of ¼ US fl oz in 11 US fl oz.

That amounts to a change of only 2.27% in the total
amount of added hydrated aluminum.

Small changes can produce large swings in the final
outcome. This whole process tends to be very
non-linear at several places along the line.

But yeah, as everyone can see from Shawn's video
here, making the hydrated aluminum is somewhat
of a "black art", and that carries over to the whole
brown wax making process in general.
"Sustained success depends on searching
for, and gaining, fundamental understanding"

-Bell System Credo

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