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
