THE P.O.K.E.R. TUBE, VERSION 1

Cut 3 disks from 3" diameter Delrin rod

Cut holes in disks

Cutting the Delrin disk with a Dremel jigsaw.

Drill and tap

Compressor air hose

Air inlet

Cold pipe 4" long

The actual vortex chamber is very small, as seen here.

Hot pipe 16" long

Glue

Valve

VERSION 2

Compressed air enters the chamber.

Cold pipe 4" long

Glue

Illustration by Gerry Arrington

Hot pipe 16" long

The glue only held for seconds; epoxy putty was much stronger.

Valve

In just a few hours, we managed to cobble together a proof-of-concept Hilsch vortex tube that produced two streams of air with small, but measurably different temperatures. You’re welcome to try to improve on our efforts. If you succeed (or even if you fail) let us know at makezine.com/09/vortex_tube.

Our Hilsch tube is not as pretty as SciAm’s, but it worked (sort of).

Make: 37