
Homemade Liquid Nitrogen with the Joule-Thompson Effect - areoform
https://hackaday.com/2014/05/23/homemade-liquid-nitrogen/
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ChuckMcM
Link to the actual project:
[http://www.homemadeliquidnitrogen.com/index.html](http://www.homemadeliquidnitrogen.com/index.html)

I kept getting errors trying to show the video. Its a pretty cool project (no
pun intended). Back when I worked at Intel there was a LN2 "generator" outside
the building, you could walk out, hold up your Dewar and fill it up. The whole
thing was probably 8' on a side and 10 - 15' tall. Later when the building was
torn down to make it a data center I saw the remains of the generator where it
had been dismantled for scrap and that made me a bit nostalgic, and I thought
"I wonder how hard it would be to do this at home?"

And now this guy goes and does just that! Given his progression I'm wondering
if his next step will be to build a liquid oxygen generator using the liquid
nitrogen to liquefy it.

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t34543
Silly question - what can you really do with liquid nitrogen at home? I can
think of cooking applications but I’m pressed to think of something else.

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tosser0001
1\. I’ve seen people overclock using liquid nitrogen

2\. Freeze off warts

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dbcurtis
> 1\. I’ve seen people overclock using liquid nitrogen

Heck, when I was at Intel we used to do that in the lab. A copper cup full of
liquid N is a great heat sink!

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vernie
How often did you have to top it off?

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dbcurtis
It only got used for short experiments. More of just one-shot use.

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L_226
The bloke at the Youtube channel Veritasium has a good video [0] where he
makes LN2 using a Helium stirling engine chiller [1].

[0] -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCXkaQa53QQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCXkaQa53QQ)
[1] -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryocooler#Stirling_refrigerat...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryocooler#Stirling_refrigerators)

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fnord77
unless your goal is just to see if you can produce LN2:

> In most US cities, you can get LN2 for between $0.30 and $1 /liter. Just go
> to an Airgas or whatever with a dewar and they will fill it right up for
> you.

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londons_explore
In Europe, both dry ice and LN2 are harder to get. They aren't sold at
Walmart, and only seem to be available if you know someone at a university or
industry using them.

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yetihehe
Nah, you can buy dry ice commercially for about $1/kg in many places, it's
used for shows, parties and food refrigeration. ln2 is only a little harder to
obtain, but there are companies which will lease dewars and fill them with
LN2. It's not like walmart level, but you can get them in bigger cities.

