Making a magnetic stir plate when god damn USPS hurries up!

submitted over 10 years ago by Thumper_357

I'm making a stir plate based off of this video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XVLB9c0j1iU

Seems super easy and really affordable. Has anyone else built one based off of this video?

Comments

1 points

by adamwest9over 10 years ago

I used the same concept with mine. Got a 12v power supply from eBay and rheostat from radio shack. It works well but not very powerful. I have to put the stir bar in before turning on. And haven't tried it with larger batches or high VG.

1 points

by Thumper_357over 10 years ago

I won't be mixing more than 120ml at a time with it. And i usually heat up my VG before adding it to my final mix. I heard it works a lot better when the juice is warmed up so it can form the vortex

1 points

by BuryMeInSmokeover 10 years ago

I built one almost the same for homebrewing. Only differences were that I made my own voltage controller and used HDD magnets.

I had mediocre success with mine. When it worked, it worked great but sometimes it was a right pain in the arse.

Make sure whatever you're mixing in has a nice flat bottom. I was using flasks that had a convex bottom so unless the bar was in the perfect position it would fly off - I think my magnets may not have been strong enough though.

1 points

by Thumper_357over 10 years ago

My beaker has a convex bottom that i was concerned about. It's not too much of a convex but I'm sure even the slightest bit can throw it off.

1 points

by BuryMeInSmokeover 10 years ago

Try it and see how you go. The beaker I used the most (and had the most trouble with) was a 2L. I had a few smaller flasks that weren't as bad.

Possibly the thickness of the VG would help stop the flinging stir bar.

Also, the voltage/speed control helps a lot, if you're having trouble you can sometimes make it work by starting off really slowly and increase it until you find the sweet spot.

But otherwise, it worked great with flat bottom beakers, I could get it spinning so fast the liquid would damn near fly out of the beaker.