#CodysLab #video of “continuous feed jar for infinite pickles”
on 02026-08-25#CodysLab #video on #mining magnetite #materials efficiently. First he throws magnetite-bearing dirt with a shovel through a screen into a fan air current to remove gravel and dried grass. Then he lets it trickle out of a hole cut in the bottom of a 20-liter bucket onto a big magnet, which redirects the magnetite to the side into another bucket, while the non-magnetic sand bounces off in the other direction; it takes 8 minutes to process 20 liters. In a day and a half of work he collects 800 “pounds” of 90% thermite.
on 02026-08-24#CodysLab #video converting urine to 202 grams of potassium nitrate fertilizer #materials, precipitating Ca(NO₃)₂ (having previously replaced some ammonia with CaO) with K₂CO₃. Demonstrates recrystallization in water to separate NaCl. Also uses a paper towel at one point to filter solids out of his nitrate solution.
on 02026-08-24#CodysLab #video #casting iron from #thermite made with pop-top can tops in Petrobond in an outdoor desert location. He had to stir the mix with his dedicated thermite shovel to keep it from petering out, severely damaging the shovel.
on 02026-05-26#CodysLab #video on distilling isopropyl alcohol #materials with a countercurrent tube-in-tube heat exchanger built in a 20ℓ bucket on top of a mini-fridge, with a plastic tube on the outside of a copper tube. So he can distill at room temperature (and below) without needing a vacuum. He’s distilled about 250mℓ in a day with airflow driven by an aquarium bubbler.
on 02026-04-0916' #video #toread by #CodysLab on #mining magnetite #materials (on the beach with a shovel?)
on 02025-09-06#video about #bootstrapping salt #materials by oxidizing urea (from #CodysLab urine) with bacteria on a charcoal packed bed supported on hardware cloth with a process tower made of a Rubbermaid trashcan and a 200ℓ drum, with water sprayed through plastic pipes connected via tee hose barbs, mounted with baling wire, using a powerline timer to run the pump a couple of hours a day. An aquarium bubbler keeps the reservoir aerated; an aluminized tarp keeps sunlight off to prevent algae. I thought this might emit a lot of ammonia, but he said, “I knew I had fed it too much when it started to smell like a truck stop bathroom,” but normally it smells like a “well-cycled fishtank”. Calcium carbonate chips in the reservoir keep the pH from dropping too low for the bacteria. He thinks he would need a machine three times bigger to process all his urine.
on 02024-10-30#video by #CodysLab about why humans shouldn’t be going to #Mars yet, because humans will contaminate Mars with their bacteria, which would make it impossible to tell if there was indigenous Mars life, while AI could explore Mars. He proposes maintaining Mars as a nature reserve for a century.
on 02024-10-17#CodysLab #video #manufacturing a cast-iron skillet with thermite #materials
on 02024-07-07#CodysLab #video on #bootstrapping H₂SO₄ #materials with the chamber process. He gets 20mℓ. #scouting
on 02024-06-25#CodysLab #video on #expanding-grout. He uses quicklime (not slaked lime like “Dexpan”!) and, to delay the reaction, washing soda (200mg or 600mg per 10g of quicklime). Features a quicklime steam explosion in the kitchen. He sinters the quicklime to try to reduce its porosity, which I didn’t think will do much because his kiln was only set for 1200°, but apparently it did. The mix was successful in breaking a rock in a couple of hours and a test tube in a bit more. The higher-soda mix expanded more (possibly because it stayed wet longer) but more slowly.
on 02024-05-03#CodysLab #mining episode where he finds (possibly) silver ore in his mine, demonstrates drilling rock and blasting using a gasoline generator, and sets up a photovoltaic-powered LED array (a perversely inefficient means of illumination) for indoor growing of peas and whatnot. #bootstrapping
on 02016-10-10#CodysLab #video where he oxidizes aluminum with lye with a teakettle and fishtank to separate hydrogen and distills it out. #materials #bootstrapping
on 02016-10-10#CodysLab #video with beekeeping, chokecherries, and flame-cutting and #welding steel with an oxyhydrogen torch. And MELTING TUNGSTEN. And a crude version of the Birkeland-Eyde process, assayed with calcium carbonate. #bootstrapping #materials
on 02016-10-10jokey #Video of mining and timber-framing a mine by Cody, the #CodysLab guy from Logan, Utah, who refined diamonds and platinum from the street. Demonstrates assaying efflorescence for nitrate with charcoal and a modern Geiger counter, showing that the radioactivity inside the mine is four times lower than outside, 0.02 μSv/h. #bootstrapping
on 02016-10-10