Why sand blast electrodes?

[rpatten]

from what i've read people are sand blasting their plates to help production.
How exactly does this help?
Also won't this cause hot spots because of the slight differences in plate spacing?

[myoldyourgold]

from what i've read people are sand blasting their plates to help production.
How exactly does this help?
Also won't this cause hot spots because of the slight differences in plate spacing?

Even though I think that we do not understand all the things that are going on when we media(sand) blast the plates here are SOME of the known facts proven by a lot of testing. There is more.

Heat goes down. This would mean there is no hot spots of any significances.

You increase your active surface area by at least 2 and maybe by as much as 4 or possibly more.

More gas is produced with less heat and less amps.

This produces a surface with micro points where bubbles are formed creating micro bubbles which aids in the flow and the quick exit of the gas, preventing hot spots caused by larger bubbles that get stuck and have to be forced out by other bubbles.

and the list goes on.

[jerrymc777]

Even though I think that we do not understand all the things that are going on when we media(sand) blast the plates here are SOME of the known facts proven by a lot of testing. There is more.

Heat goes down. This would mean there is no hot spots of any significances.

You increase your active surface area by at least 2 and maybe by as much as 4 or possibly more.

More gas is produced with less heat and less amps.

This produces a surface with micro points where bubbles are formed creating micro bubbles which aids in the flow and the quick exit of the gas, preventing hot spots caused by larger bubbles that get stuck and have to be forced out by other bubbles.

and the list goes on.

I think I recall reading that on some of Meyer's work. "The quicker loosening of the smaller bubbles"
Kind of makes sense because the bubbles would have less of a smooth surface to hang on to.

Does it make any difference which way the surface is blasted or sanded?
(Vertical verses horizontal verses diagonal?)

[rpatten]

Sense would say that running a belt sander up the plates making a grain run in the same direction as you want the bubbles to rise, would be better than sand blasting and erratic cross sanding surely?
Also is there a particular side of the plate to sand blast or both?
Again only the side that the electricity is exiting would make sense to me.
I will try and test all of these options but it's nice to know other peoples findings to compare.

[TimCollins]

I also read the postings about benefits of media blasting plates. I happen to have my generator disassembled to passivate the plates right now so I am taking advantage of this time to sand the plates (I dont have a media blaster). I used 60 grit sand paper and cross sanded both sides of each plates. I have no clue if this will have any real benefit, I am just taking advice of the forum. At first I thought sanding would have little impact on SS. However sanding did grain the surface quite a bit, more than I thought it would. I can see where sanding or media blasing would increase surface area, however I dont know by how much. I saw and earlier posting where they said this might increase surface area 2 to 4 times. It would be interesting to do the math, but if we are really increasing surface area that much then I could see where that would impact gas production, amps, heat generation, etc...