The 18 Volt Home-made arc cutter cuts an aluminum can!

[imran05021992]

gooood

[00011theman]

i just did this when he says wair eye protection he means it My eyes hurttt

[trailbusterbrute]

Cool. Thanks to you I have figured out how to cut a hole in that beer can I've been struggling with.

[workinmawayup]

@trailbusterbrute thank YOU. I got my dose of sarcasm for today :)

[trailbusterbrute]

@workinmawayup

Sorry, I couldn't resist.....

[workinmawayup]

@trailbusterbrute haha no prob, I made this video like 3 years ago, and really the concept is just simplistic anyways. I keep it up 'cuz it gets views.

[mdivinc]

deltaalpha21074 is an asshole,he knows nothing about electricity. The reason we use a/c is because it allowsyou to let go of a hot wire if accidentaly held. a/c electricity goes from pos to neg 60 cycles a second. dc electric is always positive,and does not let your muscles open to let go. THIS IS FACT.

[smokescreenninjato]

@mdivinc no, we use ac because if we used dc we would need realy thick wires and lose a lot of power. no one cares if you can let go of the wire

[mdivinc]

@smokescreenninjato you too are also an asshole

[00011theman]

I have a 12-24 volt old computer charger you can go from 12 to 24 volt im gonna try this :D

[shortyjk95]

cool

[almostaperson82]

what kind of wire?

[20RoyalSuperKing]

i used to use a pencil lead and an aa batt for emergency soldering, well handy when i was 12.

[fullrangechris]

To the person who said "DC will not kill you even at 1000A": You're absolutely right. Go try it! Idiot.

[steblizz]

don't burn graphite or carbon stuff so easily,it may cause cancer like asbest do ...go read something if you don't believe me

[TheLightningStalker]

There are whole librarires being checked out...

[Taino187]

AHHhhh!!... My Eyes!!.. My EYES!!.. *,*

[bodziobran]

this is nice arc lamp produced.the same Tesla did for his high frequency high potential current. he used a stick of carbon rod like that one from pencil (or even hard carbon button) in glass bulb sucked out the air . That is maybe the most efficient way to create high intensity light! Don't waste carbon , don't burn all coal on this planet - we need it for future!

[turkaljd]

seriously deltaalpha21074 you have a very limited knowledge of electricity, dont clutter up people's mind with thing they might try and kill themselves with, i seriously doubt you crossed poles on a 700amp car battery because they usually explode, and defibralators definitely use DC current and DC can definitely kill you if Amperage is high enough.

[joekuta]

u didn't cut sh!t

[RehdBlob]

LOL, I did something similar with an 18v battery but with two 0.5 mm pencil leads and I was scared to go much further once it caught fire...

[cheeseboat15]

Hate to tell yo this, but that is not a plasma cutter. It is simply a unrestricted arc.

Seriously, I do this shit for a living I know what I'm talking about. You have a plasma there, that does not make it a "plasma cutter".

What you did in essence was make an air carbon arc setup on a much smaller scale

[deltaalpha21074]

Sorry everybody I had to go off with all the Political crap on CNN and Hillary and Obama Mccain and Bush...Bottom line this kid is demonstrating a very Little ITSY BITSY TEENIE WEENEY stick welder...which works obviously... or suts cans..

[Crayfishy1993]

would u be able 2 sho me how 2 make it

[jellyfeech]

this is dumb i dont get it

[aampudia8]

if you dont get it then you should say "i am dumb, i dont get it", not what u said =)

[deltaalpha21074]

First of reason any cutter or welder uses massiv e current id FLAT out heat that is what melts the metals together...however one can either use DC or AC...I find it almost impossible to believe a defibrillator uses DC to shock you more like DC Batteries and invert to AC....Gee why do they use AC to ZAP the serial killers and murders who I believe should be tied to a tree with fews sticks of Dynamite and blown apart along with the Bastard Polittians who ruined this country.

[LongIslandEddie]

wtf?

What has this video got politics and serial killers? Isn't it about an 18 volt battery and an empty can? Did I miss something? I am always anti-impressed with videos which show you how to do whatever it is that you would never care to do anyway. Oh well, I guess that one mans meat is another man's poison.

Nice spark show though...

[endeffector]

men, i was a metalurgical tecnician and in my visit to a brasilian company COBRASMA in 1986, i see a pan-oven similar with a show in the movie total Recall,the used to melt gusa iron and the 3 graphite electrodes manufactured in USA, and over 50 000 volts, but i´m not imagine to transport this to my home,thank´s for idea,yo

[alex681219]

try to make hydrogen making the plasma arc under water!!! see the video response

[workinmawayup]

cool vid.

[1moreauand2]

i can do that with a litium cellphone battery...easy!!!

[deltaalpha21074]

I know nothing of defibrillators I assume they take DC batteries and use a converter to make AC which is very easy to do...just reverse in fact you can buy one at plain old WAL-MART or Home Depot ect ect....DC battery converters from simple plug in for your car lighter up to 1000 or even 1500 watt converters. Needs standard variety car or tractor battery--12 volts and then you can run your laptop or TV what ever at 115 volts. even a good size Gell Cell.

[Sam12343]

Defibrillators use batteries and high voltage. It is DC. They don't use an inverter.

I think they use a capacitor to store more than thousands of volts using DC.

[Sam12343]

They use small batteries and a capacitor.

[deltaalpha21074]

Fine thye they must absolutely bump current up some how casue votage does'nt do shit --just ask any cop who will probably be more than happy to taser you..with 500,000 volts DC...

[Aeryk333]

Human body is conductive but still has high resistance. Lethal or not, even if it comes with high currents (through a GOOD conductor) it is VERY hard for 18 volts to go through it.

[Sam12343]

1 volt at 1 amp can kill but it takes a long time.

[Mrpsychotehpyro]

Well, its right, in theory any voltage can cause the heart to go into fibrilation etc.

Enough current is enough current, but in fact 12 V aren't dangerous at all if applied via skin.

Its not without reason that our association of german electric engineers (or however that term would be translated ) considers Voltages below 30 Volts to be non lethal under common circumstances.

[dusteroo]

Could you put the instructions to do this on instructibles . com ?? It's a COOL website. A better view of what you're doing, what you're using, and how you're using it would be better. I appreciate you sharing this. very fascinating.

~DW

[911RyAn911]

can this short out ur battery?

[deltaalpha21074]

you are right again GuitarPlayer but I don't know what you are making so much about I use a DC Arc welder like it's a lighter for a pack of marlboro every day at 75 amps DC and weld averything from .25 Aluminum to 3/8 inch Steel of everytype. But minaturization is pretty amazing showing that one can do this with micro welding. I appreciate the info on the micro Stick you use for the welding.

[guitarplayerepiSG]

deltaalpha21074, go read a book on electricity, you don't know what you're talking about. 18 volts could easily kill you. The danger involved isn't determined solely by volts, you have to look at the current too. Even if you have low voltage, if the amperage is high enough, it'll injure or kill you.

[deltaalpha21074]

Despends I think you are right no question and yes it's can kill you but do to the nature of DC very unlikely in fact I have crossed pole s numerous times witha standard cresent wrench on a good old Die Hard battery at 700 amps with little less than popping sparks and yes some smoke...now if I had coil attached to that pole and did so NOt too pretty. I.E. why you have a coil to your Spark Plugs.

[deltaalpha21074]

18 volts of DC is'nt enough juice to shock a

lady bug let alone kill you or even hurt you....unless you are bumping the current up like in a Stun Gun to create mega volts at DC current. What are you using for an electrode to make contact with can?

[workinmawayup]

Guitarplayer is right. 1 volt at high amperage can kill you. A car battery is only 12 volts DC but if you touch 1 hand to each of a car batteries contacts....lights out. I used .9mm pencil graphite.

[deltaalpha21074]

WHOA WHOA WHOA ---HUH touch one hand to each pole  UHHHH I would gladly BITE one end the PLus end or positive side and stick my hand in Salt water and touch the negative side while my feet are buried in fresh wet soil bare foot...DC doe snot kill you at any amperage...not even at ONE THOUSAND Amps DC..now I think you have it reverse workinma it's AC at say 24 volts at perhaps 1 to 2 amps that will kill you.

[workinmawayup]

go try it then :)

[workinmawayup]

and besides what kind of current do you think a defibrillator uses? If you think AC then stop arguing with me because anyone with any electrical knowledge would know that all batteries are DC and defibrillators do NOT plug into a wall out in the middle of the street....they use a BATTERY.

[deltaalpha21074]

OK so does your goode old Lawnmower which uses plain old WALMART 12 volt and take a simple 220 watt inverter and walla you have 120 volts AC anywhere you wish. In back yard or Downtown Bagdad Iraq...Laws of Inversion.

[fullrangechris]

There is no such thing as a megavolt stun gun. Learn your facts before you start spewing crap out of your mouth.

[webmasteroy]

Neat does it only ignite or "arc" when aluminum is involved I found a 9v battery that i think worked, well I hooked up the two battery things with wires and sure the pencil carbon got hot and i could create some really small electrical sparks in the wire but no torch... I couldn't find any aluminum i tried it on a knife but i think the battery died before then. not sure so could you give detailed instructions on what to do?

[workinmawayup]

I don't think a 9 volt batery is strong enough. I used an 18 Volt power drill battery.

[AlienVisitor]

when you burn aluminum it produces a very toxic smoke be careful

[potatoflinger]

That's very cool! Do you think it would work with two or three nine-volt batteries wired in series?

[deltaalpha21074]

Sorry -not plasma but standard carbon arch torch basically sing carbon which is Graphite under DC current right?

[workinmawayup]

yep. :)

[thorerik]

Nice show you had there :P

I found this out during my electro classes 2 years ago, we where cutting 2mm steel with a 2.5 mm and 120 Volts DC :) alot of fun, and pain in the eyes(and some headache for the rest of the day)

[turkaljd]

omg, it actually works, at first i didn't believe it. I was using 0.7 graphite and it exploded into little pieces, is that why you use 0.9?

And one more thing, I don't mean to contridict you, but plasma cutters use gas to cut, this is actually like a mini arc-welder strong enough to cut aluminum cans.

Also, are you an engineer or did you think of this by yourself?

[workinmawayup]

yeah I realized after some research that it isnt a plasma cutter, I thought it up on my own but I am going to college in 2 months for engineering, funny that youd ask.

[mijacr]

Would it light thermite? What temperature could it generate?

[workinmawayup]

I think it would light thermite, Graphite can take some major heat since its made of pure carbon, and this actually causes the graphite to explode, so I think it would.

[mijacr]

how u do it? tie one wire to the graphite and peel the other wire and make them both touch the can usinj it as conducter between the other wire and the graphite? or is it more complicated, im quite interested because i really need a cheap non chemical thermite lighter. And finally, thermite would conduct like the can right? i mean, its aluminium too even when powdered?

[workinmawayup]

yeah you're exactly right, you just attach each wire to one of the battery terminals and attach one to the graphite and touch both to the can (or thermite in your case.) The thermite should still conduct electricity since its aluminum. And hopefully its hot enough to start the reaction.