This is the story behind how the author constructed a model of the Ruben's tube. The author highly recommends that you try this out, its so awesome to watch the flames dance! :D
Day 0:
Agenda : Do nothing.
( 5th March 2010, 11 am )
Exams have just gotten over, the author is very excited, decides to finish off his assignment as soon as possible and goes out in searching for a big pipe. Finds that its available in just one shop, enquires the prices et al. and decides to wait for a day to do any further work.
End of the day ( EOTD): Enquiry, essentially nothing. Sticking on to the agenda is nice right? :D
Day 1:
Agenda : Permission, buy stuff.
( 6th March 2010, 9 am )
The author realises that the pipe is going to cost a lot, and decides to inform his professor about this before proceeding to buy stuff.
( 6th March 2010, 10 30 am )
Author: "Sir, about the assignment, the pipe and other stuff cost around 500-600 bucks. Can I go ahead and buy stuff? Also, I have a couple of doubts, blah blah blah"
Prof: "Just get me proper bills, do whatever you feel is right for the experiment"
Clearly, Prof does not want to discuss any further details. The author then goes to the hardware stores and buys the materials, without realising how heavy they were. The author then painfully carries the stuff to his room, and decides to rest till next morning and proceed. A great deal of work is done - He thinks.
EOTD: Covered everything in the agenda, so far so good!
Day 2:
Agenda : Drilling holes into the pipe.
( 7th March 2010, 10 am )
Author goes to his prof and asks for a letter to be signed for taking the pipe to the workshop and drill holes. Prof asks the author to do the drilling by himself and if that doesn't work take it to the workshop. The author decides to take a shot at drilling, goes to the department supplies and borrows a drill-bit.
( 7th March 2010, 11 am )
The author goes out with this friends, decides to work later in the night. Returns back at around 6 and decides to start working.
( 7th March 2010, 6:30 pm )
The author is in big trouble, carrying the pipe all the way from his room to the lab is going to be a Herculean task. The pipe is about 20 kg heavy and has to be transported for about 3 kms. Just as the author comes out, he sees his room neighbor who has a bike. Sweet! The author then transports the pipe to the lab and sets everything up for drilling.
The pipe is in position, the drill-bit is set, the machine now starts rolling, the drill bit is slowly lowered, there is contact, and poof! the drill bit breaks. Disaster!
Now, there is no way any work could be done for the day, the author leaves to his room and watches Psych before sleeping.
EOTD: Nothing done, broken drill-bit. Smells like trouble.
Day 3:
( 8th March, 9 am)
The author wakes up, decides to take the pipe to the workshop to gets the hole drilled, and then realises that its a Saturday, nobody will be working.
He then think of taking the pipe outside to a fabricator and get the holes drilled, but trouble there, a permit letter signed by the prof is required to take stuff outside apparently :-|. And the prof won't be there as its Saturday.
This is when the author decides to follow the ultimate solution to all problems:
When the going gets tough, call Dad :)
Dad then calls mom, mom calls our electrician, he calls the author and explains that its hard to drill 2mm holes with a HSS drill-bit, and offers to help in drilling it tomorrow.
So the author puts peace for the whole day, finishes the 4th season of Psych, watches Death Race and Shooter and finally dozes off.
EOTD: Though nothing was done, it was a good day.
Day 5:
The penultimate day, submission due next day morning at 10 am.
( 9th March 12:00 noon)
The author wakes up to the call from his electrician (who's going to come in another half hour), rushes through his lunch and waits for them to come. (There are two of them coming)
( 9th March 12:30 pm)
The author takes the two electricians to his lab and shows them the pipe. Time to start measuring and marking the location of the holes.
Problem 1:
The author then realises that there is no chalk or pencil, and the pen doesn't write on the pipe. After frantically searches through the lab to find any of these, gives up and decides to wash his face before thinking any further. It was then when he sees the soap, aha! Soap is the new pencil of the day.
The author then marks the location of the holes with the soap and asks the other two to start drilling. But apparently, they need a punch to create a small hole which will guide the drill-bit.
Problem 2:
No punch available.
After turning the lab upside down in search of a drill punch, the author comes to term with the fact that there is no drill punch.
No drill punch -> no guidance for the drill-bit -> no drilling for the day.
It was then when the grinding machine catches the author's eye. The author takes a thick drill bit and grinds it to form a drill punch. yay!
The hole positions now have tap holes on them. Time to start drilling.
Problem 3:
No provision for injecting coolant.
HSS
The author goes around in another search mission for a bottle or something which can be used to pour water on the drill-bit during drilling, again there seems to be nothing that serves the purpose.
Finally the author sees the hand wash bottle, drains its contents and decides to use it for squirting water on the drill-bit when needed. Voila! Drilling can go on seamlessly now.
The drilling process begins and in about half hour its done, the author thanks the other two profusely as they leave. The author now begins to work on the other parts that have to be setup. The author in the process realises that there are 2 more issues to tackle.
Problem 4:
No teflon tape to make the joints air-tight. The author looks around, finds dismantled parts of another setup, carefully unwraps the used-teflon from those joints and uses it for his setup.
Problem 5:
There is no bolt to hold the rear side of the LPG inlet into the pipe, the author decides that using mseal is a very clumsy solution and decides to get wild. The author takes the rear end of the nozzle, heats it with a candle and creates a threading on the plastic cap with the heated brass instead of drilling a hole. The hold is still not strong enough. The author then begins another frantic search and finally finds a long collar that would serve as a bolt for the rear end of the nozzle. He then hack(saw)s the long collar, brings it to his required size, gives a layer of teflon on the thread and seals the inlet.
The setup is finally done by 7pm. Surprisingly, it actually works in its very first run!
Happ'y'ness++
The author then decides to blog about it and here he is.
And this is a video of the setup in action: (Its a pity that the setup in real life is waaaaay more awesom..er than how it appears in the video though)
The author now signs off to start writing his report.
