In my last episode I was starting to prime one of my cleaned SR-71s. That went well and my Herc is back in full operation and with far better taste. I took my time this go round and primed it over the course of a day and a half, loading it incrementally and just using the power button to melt wax in while getting light hits and always inhaling slowly while applying modest heat. The past 2 times I primed a Herc I cheated and used a heat gun to speed up the process. That worked but I feel it's a lot more risky since you cant inhale air thru the cartridge while using the heat gun on it. (well at least i can't! - heat without air flow is the road to leaks IMO)
Halfway thru priming I switched from the standard top to the Iris set for 35W for easier control (7.2v but it's nice that the Iris gives a readout in watts). I used a total of .84g of wax as a buffer fill plus initial load. The last time I primed a Herc (with the heat gun) I used .90g.
I remember how much anxiety I had the first time I primed a Herc (so much oil! where is it all going!
). Now I can disassemble, reassemble and prime a Herc with confidence. Skills that will serve me for years to come I hope!
Anyway, what I really wanted to post about was my new water path setup:
I connected the Herc to my D020 bubbler with a bit of silicone tubing and a water pipe adapter. Works great.
While I have a Nibbler XL which I have used quite a bit, this setup just seems more convenient. The tubing is pretty stiff though and at first it had the tendency to unscrew the Hercules from the Persei. But I discovered if I twist the tubing in the opposite direction before I slip it over the Herc mouthpiece it then tends to keep the Herc screwed on. (does that make sense?)
my SR-71s!
Hedo