@@texasslingleadsomtingwong8751 You made me do some math. Assuming 45 metric tons per tank and 8860 tanks lost, Russia has provided Ukraine with about four hundred thousand tons of scrap iron. Cody is really going to need to offer some low, low prices. :-)
I wonder if one of the metal filing collectors they use in machine shops would be useful for collecting the magnetite. It's used like a brush, but has a retractable magnet in it that drops what it's picked up.
That's too Gucci for Cody. Bro, just built an ore refinery in his back yard with a magnet and a couple 5 gallon buckets. Specialized equipment? That's cheating.
I think your problem would still be whatevers under ground. Cody was getting materials at least a few inches below the surface. Your machine has to be small enough to fit the channel and powerful enough to pull them from ubder the dirt that settled on top.
Unless he has someway of automating that for every single different dry streambed... It's probably more efficient to dig it up and move it to a central location for processing like he's doing.
I wonder if some of you folks actually watch the video before commenting. Because it seems like you fks read the title. Watch 10 seconds and then proceed to comment. THROW YOUR DAMN PHONE AWAY AND LEARN TO DEVELOP A GODDAMN ATTENTIONSPAN
@@WhiskersWatson Where does he get that amount of DC power at a remote location? A scrapyard magnet of that size would weigh a lot, what about the energy used in moving the magnet?
@@thewolfinI've seen in one of those shows on discovery channel how they managed to lift an entire car using 4 AA batteries so the power isn't the main concern it is the range since making it big enough to be useful will make it weak enough for it to not matter
You should add a second magnet under the primary one to essentially automate making a second pass. It will catch the stream of magnetite away from the sand steam. Also adding a lightly blowing fan would greatly improve purity as the magnetite is pulled by the magnets and will not blow away as easily.
@@LarryTheStrongsGamingChannel he likes making everything extra difficult since he already has an easy enough life where he can mine magnetite whenever he wants to.
That is so brilliantly simple! I worked for weeks on a system with a magnetic roller and a conveyor belt for a similar purpose. But just using the weakening of the field of a fixed magnet is brilliant.
Yeah, if he could get a magnet primitive technology could def get a setup like this, but it'd still be tough for him getting the material dry since he lives in a rainforest while Cody is in a desert.
@@theKashConnoisseur Crafting a magnet is probably very high on Mr.Plant's priority list for metal crafting. But without any magnet to bootstrap the process, making a magnet by magnetostriction is basically art and the reason why magnets were so precious in ancient times.
Here's an old miner's tip. Get you a sheet of steel to spread that stuff out on. When you throw it down it'll dry faster and won't mix with the dirt already on the ground so your yield will be higher per load.
@@CroppedCross3 They would put the plate down when they started mining and chipping away at a wall. All of the big chunks got hauled off in the carts while all of the small pieces, even as small as a spec of dirt, would fall down onto the plate. That allowed them to scoop it up with a shovel instead of risking losing the ore that they were mining for. When they took it topside to sort it, they would dry it out before grading it.
Every body in the comments making suggestions for how he can improve it miss the point that this is a simple solution that is very effective. I don’t think Cody is trying to trade any of that simplicity for extra purity or yield if he already has a system that can get him literal tons of magnetite in hours.
Still would probably be worthwhile to implement the "Put a Plastic Bag over the Magnet" suggestion though, as that's also dead simple to add to the system, and would increase the speed of post-operation cleanup.
@@travispluid3603 I think having direct contact between the magnetite filings and the metal of the magnet is probably a lot more efficient than having a gap there (the plastic)
Eh, its very easy to underestimate the amount of work one added "small" step of complexity can add. And over-estimate the benefit of what your super clever extra step does. Ive done it many times.
@@travispluid3603but there is no post operation cleanup? He doesn’t need to clean the magnet afterwards, he only did it so we could see how the process works
13:35 Use some kind of sheet (paper, leather, polimer etc) like isolation between magnet and flow of debris, u even can make this sheet mowable to redirect flow of magnetite to some point separating it from sand and preventing sticky-sticky situations on magnet.
I remember collecting a full sandwich bag of it with magnets during recess in the sandbox in elementary school in Las Vegas in the 80's. It took me a few weeks and I kept it in my desk all year.
Very interesting! I was actually planning on making 100kg of thermite but didn't like the idea of filling a pool with iron and salt for electrolysis lol. This looks so much easier. If I ever do it, i'll shout you out for sure
I have religiously watched your video's since the first beekeeping ones. Keep going Cody, you cannot imagine how many people you are helping with just documenting the things that are interesting to you. I feel like so many creators are just chasing what the audience wants, please just chase what you want. We are here...
I love how you are able to intelligently use common materials and objects to achieve things that many would only do purchasing expensive and specific tools, you go a step further and start from scratch, teaching us the very basics. I love your videos, they are very different, mixing two things that I really enjoy, the outdoors, and learning to do things yourself while having fun and learing about the things that surrounds us. Very clever!
The iron will likely be heavier than the rest of the sand, so you could improve your separation by having a fan blowing from behind, pushing the loose sand further away from the dropping iron. You'd want to add a backstop (frontstop?) to catch the blown sand so that you're not filling the whole area with loose dust though.
I had the same thought, but some of the iron particles are also smaller than a lot of the bits of sand and debris, so they may still weigh less. I think a fan would just stir up all the fine particles including the iron.
@t4thfavor1212 I was thinking the same, just extend the magnetic field back a bit more with a second not so big magnet so that the field drop off happens a bit further back and is more separate from the sand. However, like others pointed out, he already get significant purity for his needs and usually a second pass does the same, gets cleaner, no need for more magnets or use of electricity with a fan/blower.
I have been working on this exact same project separately by coincidence, and I would love to hear your advice on this. I have found that collecting all the sand in the affected area, wetting it and screening it first, and then magnetically separating it, produces very high purity magnetite very quickly since these first steps work in bulk and reduce the amount of junk you have to work with while using the magnet which is more small scale. Another thing I've found is that if you let the magnetite get too close to the magnet, the field strength will permanently magnetize the particles and cause them to clump together and trap impurities. To avoid this, just use a really large strong magnet, and put a spacer between the magnet and the magnetite so you only use the broad medium-strength field for separation which does not appreciably polarize the magnetite. Just for clarity, I do this whole process wet (under water) since it cleans off all the dirt and clay and softens any clumps ensuring that only the actual grain size is being measured and sorted, and additionally, when I'm using the magnet to sift the magnetite out of the cleaned and screened sand, being under considerable amounts of water also keeps the sand from sticking to the magnetite by adhesive and cohesive forces from the moisture either from the ground or from the first steps. The effect of lower relative density in water might be useful to look into, since it can cause the magnetite to float up to the magnet early leaving behind any partially magnetic rocks.
This was an amazing video find. I live in southern ontario, and the beaches on the Lake Erie side are literally black, from Magnetite. I scooped up a 3gal bucket and did the magnet refining trick... took me a solid 2 days to purify this... you sir, just saved me HOURS or work.
Maybe use another magnet lower down in the stream on the second pass to help more thoroughly separate the streams so that the bucket doesn't need to be so precisely placed? Maybe a longer magnet could be useful to apply the magnetic force over a longer portion of the falling sand stream?
Oh yeah that would surely separate them further, I think the magnets could even just be be right next to each other but just angled away from the stream to carry it further away. Basically like having a bigger magnet but more width isn't helpful so you just stack smaller ones to get more length.
Great work Cody, I have had similar experiences on the shores of Lake Michigan, you can see the dark black magnetite form streaks on the beach. Once, long ago, carried a bucket of it up a 200’ tall bluff and then never figured out how to refine it. Hahah I love these videos for that reason- you would be the best person to run into on a day like that
CODY! LOVE YOU! you could probably build a trommel, that incorporates your clever magnet trick, so that the screening, and seperation, happen together. The way we seperate iron from foundry sand, is very similar, its a conveyor belt, with a magnet behind it, over another conveyor belt. The upper conveyor goes perpendicular, and the iron falls off, just past the range of the magnet, which is fine tuned, as you have done here. The reason i recommend a trommel, as opposed to a conveyor, is because the screen, and conveyor method that we used, requires constant interaction, whereas a trommel ditches the rocks and debris for you. Cant wait for your next video!
At 9:15, due to the almost constant flow of megnetite dripping from the magnet (look carefully at the bottom) it seems like there is still a substantial (yet reduced) volume of magnetite still present within the tailings, rather than it just being eroded from the larger mass of magnetite around the magnet. Still a very efficient system!!
Magnetite is also what gives many old gun the "Blueing" color. Iron would be lightly rusted, to form hematite, and then boiled in water or steamed at high temps, and that hematite would turn into magnetite!
It would be cool to convert an old lawnmower to pick up the iron with an elecrro magnet that uses the switching of the magnet and kenitic force to separate the material into the lawnmower bag. I found that a simple plastic bag over the magnet makes cleanup and / or separation of the iron from the magnet much easier 😁😁
Electromagnets take time to turn on and off (after all, they’re the very definition of an inductor) so if I’m understanding you correctly you couldn’t go too high rpm
I mean, a simple conveyor belt with a permanent magnet behind it would accomplish something similar, picking up moving and dropping the particles. What Cody has built does the job perhaps more slowly but with no electricity other than the spark plugs in the transport truck.
I personally like the simplicity of Cody's idea. Its already very pure for the work put in and just requires a bit of shoveling material. The rest is all gravity and a magnet
@Andrew..J Yes, but having to carry buckets of iron is a lot of work. Having an automated system would make an excellent video. This video would compliment it well. 🙂
Been subed for years now to this channel. Looking for the right time to start a conversation with you, Cody. And even if all the math and science hurts my brain trying to retain it, I'm still very inept at figuring things out through experimentation. For 28 or so years now, I've been expanding on the old-school version of the rockerbox. And I never have lost sight in creating an automated version of it. Around 15 years ago, I was selling self-rocking version, but I was surrounded by jealous family members who undermined me at every turn then. But I never stopped evolving the concept in my head. And now, 15 years later, I know I have invented the go-to machine for the small time miner to mine flourgold. Self feading and with an apron system that looses zero flour gold. Even the smallest of the micro gold is retained. Pluss through how it works, it processes it down into a firable amount of concentrates. That could also be drypaned to take 80% of the top. It now more of a viable income than it is at supporting a hobby with gold now being at 90 dollars a gram. Anyway, I'm hoping to enlist you to help with the scientific explanation of the process. As I was very close to getting Pat Keen on board. But I lacked the explanation to get him to afford me the time away from his business. I also know Kieth from Hardrock University. Both wanted to help but my desperation to make some money when I needed some surgery badly. Still do. I've been in hell for 30 years eating practically nothing. I ate ony eggs for 7 of the last of those years. So, as the world spirals into chaos I'm realy trying hard now to get it delt with. As I've always new this time was coming, and it's when what I've created shines the most. As it could be a wage for a great many in a time when making money will be hard to do. Anyways I've pissed everyone off now. And thought I'd give you a turn at it. Check out my home page I still have a crude video up there that proves how long I've believed in what I can do.
This was a fantastic process to watch. Straightforward, uncomplicated and impressively effective. Extremely so. Things like this are why I am always glad to see an upload here. I tend to over complicate and over think things, and this is an example of a simple solution excelling. I was amazed at the sheer volume of magnetite separated from the 'chaff'. The quality of the sand by-product was very impressive as well. The footage at the end showing the process in slower detail was mesmerizing. Very Well Done! I'm sad I didn't see this when it initially released. If you chance to read this, have a great day, and may God Bless You. (and even if you don't believe -whatever the reason- I am praying for you.) I look forward to your next video (well, beyond the one thats already posted that I'm about to watch, hahah).
Dear Cody, Thank you for sharing your projects, they are appreciated. I believe you would find a lot of enthusiasts willing to come do a thermite reaction ANVIL making workshop. Make the sand or investment mould, prepare the termite and cast a personal anvil. Perhaps insert a slab of high quality steel into the mould that will fuse with the melt and make a professional surface that is good enough for working. Some of the railroad welding thermite kits include a provision for adding a high strength alloy to the top of the rail for wear resistance and the same process should be possible when making smaller (5-50kg) anvils. Now you need a convenient way to pulverise soda cans and you could have a hand made anvil business that recycles sand and cans.
i love this so much i used to mess around picking up random bits of iron from the ground in middle school but i didnt know heck what i was doing and our soil had barely any, i got way more from the garage floor if you have more magnets you could probably separate sand and iron streams into funnels and run them right away through another magnet separation steps, so that it's even more continuous
How about putting magnet under and a bit behind (to only catch magnetide) another magnet. This way you could get higher purity but in one run and not have to put the magnetide through the system again.
the magnetite that falls is already in small lumps and it hitting directly on another magnet won't be the same as loose magnetite falling into it which means it won't be as pure as doing a second pass but better than a single pass he was doing.
@@witgangyounotube287 hmm, probably true. But then he can just use a sieve to break them down and a cone funnel to get the magnetide mix back on a path? This way it's still one pour but 2 passes.
@@ELYESSS simpler? As in less work or easier to set-up? Because method he uses is easier to set-up but it's 2 times the work basically if the thing I said is true. But I never tried the thing I said about 2 magnets.
Cody! Come on out to San Francisco's western edge. You'll find Ocean Beach, a true black-sand beach. In some areas the fine black sand is more than half magnetite. I like to use a piece of flat bar with several Neo magnets stuck to it, with a thin piece of rigid plastic covering them. Pulling the plastic away releases the captured material. One collection step and one purification step and it's above 90 percent, probably more like 95-98. A local art and sculpture supply house carries "atomized" aluminum, and there you go. I have a jar full of the mix on my shop table, waiting on a rainy day :)
@@theKashConnoisseurDuh, because people with 100kg of thermite have the capability to cause serious damage - a power they'd really like ordinary people not to have in a country with more mass shootings than all of Europe and Asia combined.
@@ToroidalVortices A single person with a 2-3 ton automobile can also cause serious damage. I guess we should ban vans and trucks then. Do you enjoy being an authoritarian, or do you just never really think about it?
A very good idea. I didn't even think of it, but by how many tons of material he's processing, it'd make sense there could be enough metal to be worth collecting.
Not worth the effort, because that area is not a gold-producing district. The geology is wrong. Not that I'm saying there's no gold-producing districts in northern Nevada, because there ARE, it's just that his property isn't in one of them.
We have a lot of black sand around here. I've been trying to work out a good way of separating and refining it. While I haven't built anything yet, I have identified all of the problems you ran into. I hadn't considered just letting it stick to the magnet though. It turns out the problem is actually the solution! Very nice! Thanks for posting this.
You could use a baby buggy with a centered rotating bikewheel (driven by a chain), where a magnet is attached at special spots (let us say 90° angles) and a semicircular hard plastic sheet in between the wheel and the ground plus a dropping pot. A rake in front of the baby buggy would spread the dust in the air, the rotating magnet would attract the magnetite, the hard plastic sheet hindering it to get caught by the magnet, the magnet tracking the dust into a dropbin.
2:10 was expecting some self driving thing with an electromagnet, but then I remembered, it's Cody, of course it's gonna be a shovel. And that's very cool too.
Middle of the video answered all of the questions I was going to ask lmao, well done! Running the magnet back over the trailings was something I was curious about and I'm glad you did it
I think you'd want to collect it in a funnel first so the stream comes from the same place instead of being spread out, so the separation is more well-defined for that step.
For the entire middle portion of the video, I wanted the magnetite clump to be brushed off the neodymium magnet, but wondered if the large clump helped with the purification process. Glad you did that explainer at the end!
Very cool! I’ve been running into small amounts of similar material in the Great Lakes looking for more solid rock. Too hard (or wet) to bother refining, but magnetic rocks sure entertains the kids. I’ll share the video to show them how useful the material can be. Great work!
I worked in ore refinement research for a year or so and watching you go through all of this all feels so familiar, sieving and separating over and over is such a universal way to process rock. Sieving your sand out into a pile and shoveling it into a bucket feels like an extra step of shoveling you could avoid with a drum sieve though. It'd make you change how you remove the plant material but we always burned off organics when possible
Not worth the effort, because that area is not a gold-producing district. The geology is wrong. Not that I'm saying there's no gold-producing districts in northern Nevada, because there ARE, it's just that his property isn't in one of them.
A video like this is exactly what needs to be taught in schools. It's not just about memorizing terms and methods. .it's shows that it's beneficial to be knowledgeable and focus on problem solving skills. Something like " how to filter rocks" would be boring as shit to 12 year old me, but adult me would be very thankful. It's not even fully about filtering rocks, it's about how anyone can do things that seem complex and of quality just using effort, common sense, and the internet.
@@dionh70 that’s why I said a little refining… I mean if he purified the iron and added Carbon: 0.9% - 1.1% Manganese: 0.3% - 0.5% Chromium: 0.3% - 0.5% Tungsten: 0.8% - 1.2% I’d be even happier.
You may be the only content creator that has done several different things and all of them are interesting to me. Honestly your channel has been the main go-to for my enjoyment of science . I’m not even a smart guy, but I love the stuff you do and every video is a treat, even after several years of watching :)
I love your simple yet elegant solution. As soon as I saw it my brain went "Well one pass and it's 90-95% cleaned at least" and sure enough showing the second pass it's even more then that. Good stuff sir!
Use a round magnet on a center shaft so it can rotate with a scraper on the back side.... as it accumulates weight, it'll rotate and shear off the magnetite away from the tailings stream.
It doesnt matter for the yield rates if there is always a kilo of magnitite on the magnets, and it makes the whole process much simpler. Because he is processing huge amounts of materials, that 1 kilo of magnitite that doesnt end up in your bucket (but doesnt get lost) doesnt really matter that much
Man, just wonderful. Nice haul! I bet there's tons of applications for all that magnetite...add some ions here, reduce some salts there....(I know nothing about chem) and you suddenly find some new fuel or illumination media. This is so fun to watch and learn about. Wicked man!
@@watchinyoutube8919 Because then the magnetite won't stick directly to the magnet, and to get it off, all you need to do is pull the bag away from the magnet, and it all falls off, leaving you with a clean magnet almost instantly, rather than fighting to separate the iron from the magnet.
I remember him doing that in an old video, but as he demonstrated if you remove the ball of iron you have to fill it again to restart the system, this seems like a dedicated setup, so he doesn't *need* to clean the magnet between runs. But if anyone needs to keep a magnet clean, a bag indeed works great.
I collect the stuff too! I usually use ceramic large magnets in an ice cream bucket for easy release. But getting a jig to refine quickly is a goal of mine. I also have found pulling it through water with the ice cream bucket method works really good too.
Unlikely, given the number of closed mines in the area. If there was decent amounts of gold in them hills, those mines would be all over it. But it's also not impossible that he could pan some flakes here and there.
As a geologist, it's hard to say. Magnetite and gold tend to settle in the same areas, but the rock that erodes into the sediment system needs to contain gold in the first place. If there's gold in the area it is eroding from, yes, there could be gold in that sand.
In the beginning I was thinking “oh an electromagnet would be cool with something to plug the hole then de magnetize and let the iron drop. Then re energize and unplug the hole.” Or something similar then near the end I was thinking it again but at the end, you perfectly explained why your solution was better. Great video, Cody
I'm so happy that I'm seeing your content come across my page again! I binged a lot of your content a few years ago and for some reason UA-cam stopped pushing your content to me! I saw an interview snippet that you'd done on shorts about nitroglycerine recently and it made me remember your gold chemistry videos fondly. Glad to see you're doing well.
You could maybe get it more pure if you add something to direct the iron build up so when it reaches it's max capacity the iron can run down a little further back before dropping. great ingenuity cody you've always sparked my passion to do stuff I love.
I grew up with really sandy soil and we used to do this in the backyard as kids. We built a sluice out of sheet metal, with big speaker magnets stuck to the back, and we'd use the garden hose to wash the sand down from the input hopper at the top. Parents weren't too happy about the flooded yard but it really wasn't any worse than most of the projects we did.
That's an impressive amount of magnetite!
Could magnetite help with the polar effect?
When are you guys getting a collab video going?
It's a Cody amount of magnetite (cody is a unit of measure for an amount of something cody would have)
That's gonna be a lot of thermite.
@@Nighthawkinlight maybe if radiacode sponsored you, you could make an interesting video maybe involving space radiation and how to protect astronauts
Cody: refines uranium
FBI: no.
Cody: fine. 800lbs of thermite
Next up: Uranium thermite
Ukraine calls , we need more thermite for our dragon drones.
1600lbs of thermite*
@@texasslingleadsomtingwong8751 You made me do some math. Assuming 45 metric tons per tank and 8860 tanks lost, Russia has provided Ukraine with about four hundred thousand tons of scrap iron. Cody is really going to need to offer some low, low prices. :-)
@@wargamingrefugee9065 they'd have to grind those tanks into dust to be able to make thermite. cody's magnetite is already in powder form!
"potentially half a ton of thermite here"
can't wait
RIGHT! The only sensible thing now is to go ahead and make the thermite and light it all at once
Well he would also need aluminum to react with the magnetite in a 3.2:1 ratio so it is more like half of a .67 ton thermite reaction.
It's like he wants another fbi visit 😂
@@WestCoastWheelmanLike any good American
ATF is just as thirsty.
Surprised and disappointed that Cody didn't capture a single Magnemite.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
that is how I read it coming into this vid lol
You have to hold the magnet tight.
get a life dork
He got half a magnet ton
I wonder if one of the metal filing collectors they use in machine shops would be useful for collecting the magnetite. It's used like a brush, but has a retractable magnet in it that drops what it's picked up.
That's too Gucci for Cody. Bro, just built an ore refinery in his back yard with a magnet and a couple 5 gallon buckets. Specialized equipment? That's cheating.
I think your problem would still be whatevers under ground. Cody was getting materials at least a few inches below the surface. Your machine has to be small enough to fit the channel and powerful enough to pull them from ubder the dirt that settled on top.
Unless he has someway of automating that for every single different dry streambed... It's probably more efficient to dig it up and move it to a central location for processing like he's doing.
You mean a "nail picker upper?"
I wonder if some of you folks actually watch the video before commenting.
Because it seems like you fks read the title. Watch 10 seconds and then proceed to comment.
THROW YOUR DAMN PHONE AWAY AND LEARN TO DEVELOP A GODDAMN ATTENTIONSPAN
half a ton of thermite is gonna make one really huge pan
Paella pan!😅
or a dutch oven
everyone needs a wok, right?
@@WGG25 Hey! I'm woking here!
Well somebody needs to give Gordon Ramsey a run for his title of "Wok FBoy"
"Any fool can make something complicated. It takes a genius to make it simple."
It takes a lazy person to invent something that will make things eazier and fastet
Humans are the best because they're lazy
@@WhiskersWatson Where does he get that amount of DC power at a remote location? A scrapyard magnet of that size would weigh a lot, what about the energy used in moving the magnet?
@@WhiskersWatson Logistics and money. Big uff
@@thewolfinI've seen in one of those shows on discovery channel how they managed to lift an entire car using 4 AA batteries so the power isn't the main concern it is the range since making it big enough to be useful will make it weak enough for it to not matter
@@WhiskersWatsongetting a giant scrapyard magnet
That’s easier said than done while this method uses what he already had
16:00 That's cool, you basically see part of the magnetic field.
Yes! Also at 12:27 you can see some particles falling, some reflected and some are even recaptured, so awesome.
You should add a second magnet under the primary one to essentially automate making a second pass. It will catch the stream of magnetite away from the sand steam. Also adding a lightly blowing fan would greatly improve purity as the magnetite is pulled by the magnets and will not blow away as easily.
Why settle for one more magnet?🥸 when you could do a magnetic field conveyor belt😈
@@BishopGantry diminishing returns
my thoughts exactly
Why not put the magnet in a bag? Then you just remove the bag when you're done?
@@LarryTheStrongsGamingChannel he likes making everything extra difficult since he already has an easy enough life where he can mine magnetite whenever he wants to.
That is so brilliantly simple! I worked for weeks on a system with a magnetic roller and a conveyor belt for a similar purpose. But just using the weakening of the field of a fixed magnet is brilliant.
Funny if the video just ended at 2:11
someone make cody upload more videos please
I thought the same thing, scoop it with a shovel, credits roll!
We need an edit
@@jafogx I'm dying over here !! 🤣😛
Primitive Technology crying in a corner right now
Magnets are op
The poor fella is scaping up slime to make drops of cast iron, meanwhile Cody is just extracting metric tonnage using buckets and a magnet.
Yeah, if he could get a magnet primitive technology could def get a setup like this, but it'd still be tough for him getting the material dry since he lives in a rainforest while Cody is in a desert.
@@theKashConnoisseur Crafting a magnet is probably very high on Mr.Plant's priority list for metal crafting.
But without any magnet to bootstrap the process, making a magnet by magnetostriction is basically art and the reason why magnets were so precious in ancient times.
@@cornonjacob I don't think the iron rich bacteria stuff he uses would be magnetic anyway.
Two weeks later, NASA announces astronauts on the ISS could see Cody's thermite experiments.
About as likely as a moon landing
😂
@@bluemamba5317 buh
@@bluemamba5317 So you don’t believe magnets are real, eh?
@@jacksons1010 Magnets? What are you on about?
15:50 Cody's on a first-name basis with most FBI agents at this point
Here's an old miner's tip. Get you a sheet of steel to spread that stuff out on. When you throw it down it'll dry faster and won't mix with the dirt already on the ground so your yield will be higher per load.
What were "old miners" doing that required that?
@@CroppedCross3 They would put the plate down when they started mining and chipping away at a wall. All of the big chunks got hauled off in the carts while all of the small pieces, even as small as a spec of dirt, would fall down onto the plate. That allowed them to scoop it up with a shovel instead of risking losing the ore that they were mining for. When they took it topside to sort it, they would dry it out before grading it.
As a metal detectorist I really really hate magnetite - please dig up and get rid of it all :)
"Are you a metal detector? No, I'm a detectorist. This is a metal detector" - The Detectorists. Awesome show.
Good one
@@scaletownmodels😅😅😅
@@scaletownmodelsAs a metal detector, beep beep bebebebebe BEEP BEEP bebebebebe
Have You Tried Panning it And Look for Gold?
Every body in the comments making suggestions for how he can improve it miss the point that this is a simple solution that is very effective. I don’t think Cody is trying to trade any of that simplicity for extra purity or yield if he already has a system that can get him literal tons of magnetite in hours.
Still would probably be worthwhile to implement the "Put a Plastic Bag over the Magnet" suggestion though, as that's also dead simple to add to the system, and would increase the speed of post-operation cleanup.
@@travispluid3603truly the only worthwhile suggestion
@@travispluid3603 I think having direct contact between the magnetite filings and the metal of the magnet is probably a lot more efficient than having a gap there (the plastic)
Eh, its very easy to underestimate the amount of work one added "small" step of complexity can add. And over-estimate the benefit of what your super clever extra step does. Ive done it many times.
@@travispluid3603but there is no post operation cleanup? He doesn’t need to clean the magnet afterwards, he only did it so we could see how the process works
Its always a good day when Cody posts
13:35 Use some kind of sheet (paper, leather, polimer etc) like isolation between magnet and flow of debris, u even can make this sheet mowable to redirect flow of magnetite to some point separating it from sand and preventing sticky-sticky situations on magnet.
Love that you walked us through how you came up with the system.
*"Like sands through the hourglass...so are the magnetite of our mines."*
😌
"I understood that reference"
I went all soapy too when he said that.
Came here to post something similar but not nearly as clever! I thought I might be the only one to make the connection.
Deflected off course?
and they call it a mine A MINE!!!
Nevadan here and I can smell this video. :) We used to just gather it with a plastic bag over a magnet. Your method works really well.
I refer to that as a "magnet condom" and it definitely keeps things cleaner
Does it smell like Vegas👃
Smells fishy
I remember collecting a full sandwich bag of it with magnets during recess in the sandbox in elementary school in Las Vegas in the 80's. It took me a few weeks and I kept it in my desk all year.
Were you doing that just for fun or was there a practical application?
Very interesting! I was actually planning on making 100kg of thermite but didn't like the idea of filling a pool with iron and salt for electrolysis lol. This looks so much easier. If I ever do it, i'll shout you out for sure
Mad scientist collaboration when?
Now I'm Imagining if you visited Cody at his Mars base for a month long of Mad Science Camp
NileGreen spotted.
please don't
I have religiously watched your video's since the first beekeeping ones. Keep going Cody, you cannot imagine how many people you are helping with just documenting the things that are interesting to you. I feel like so many creators are just chasing what the audience wants, please just chase what you want. We are here...
For real, while I didn't watch most of the base making videos, I love Cody doing vlogs of just his experiments
I love how you are able to intelligently use common materials and objects to achieve things that many would only do purchasing expensive and specific tools, you go a step further and start from scratch, teaching us the very basics.
I love your videos, they are very different, mixing two things that I really enjoy, the outdoors, and learning to do things yourself while having fun and learing about the things that surrounds us. Very clever!
That separation between magnetite and sand is so clean. Super satisfying to watch!
The iron will likely be heavier than the rest of the sand, so you could improve your separation by having a fan blowing from behind, pushing the loose sand further away from the dropping iron. You'd want to add a backstop (frontstop?) to catch the blown sand so that you're not filling the whole area with loose dust though.
I was kind of thinking about the blower assistance thing too.
Crossed my mind as well just a light breeze.
I had the same thought, but some of the iron particles are also smaller than a lot of the bits of sand and debris, so they may still weigh less. I think a fan would just stir up all the fine particles including the iron.
Or just multi-stage magnet filters (several magnets positioned further back to capture more of the magnetite)
@t4thfavor1212
I was thinking the same, just extend the magnetic field back a bit more with a second not so big magnet so that the field drop off happens a bit further back and is more separate from the sand.
However, like others pointed out, he already get significant purity for his needs and usually a second pass does the same, gets cleaner, no need for more magnets or use of electricity with a fan/blower.
Love your videos Cody! Please post more
1000%
I absolutely agree 👍
he has over 700 videos lol
I have been working on this exact same project separately by coincidence, and I would love to hear your advice on this. I have found that collecting all the sand in the affected area, wetting it and screening it first, and then magnetically separating it, produces very high purity magnetite very quickly since these first steps work in bulk and reduce the amount of junk you have to work with while using the magnet which is more small scale. Another thing I've found is that if you let the magnetite get too close to the magnet, the field strength will permanently magnetize the particles and cause them to clump together and trap impurities. To avoid this, just use a really large strong magnet, and put a spacer between the magnet and the magnetite so you only use the broad medium-strength field for separation which does not appreciably polarize the magnetite. Just for clarity, I do this whole process wet (under water) since it cleans off all the dirt and clay and softens any clumps ensuring that only the actual grain size is being measured and sorted, and additionally, when I'm using the magnet to sift the magnetite out of the cleaned and screened sand, being under considerable amounts of water also keeps the sand from sticking to the magnetite by adhesive and cohesive forces from the moisture either from the ground or from the first steps. The effect of lower relative density in water might be useful to look into, since it can cause the magnetite to float up to the magnet early leaving behind any partially magnetic rocks.
This was an amazing video find. I live in southern ontario, and the beaches on the Lake Erie side are literally black, from Magnetite. I scooped up a 3gal bucket and did the magnet refining trick... took me a solid 2 days to purify this... you sir, just saved me HOURS or work.
Have you analyzed if you are getting any other heavy metals along with iron?
There could be some Cadmium or Nickle
what other metals are magnetic?
@@basketofdeplorables4253 That's not the point...
gotta be some gold
If radiacode sponsors cody he could check for thorium and uranium
Please more mineral mining ❤
I Second that , used to love your mining videos
Maybe use another magnet lower down in the stream on the second pass to help more thoroughly separate the streams so that the bucket doesn't need to be so precisely placed? Maybe a longer magnet could be useful to apply the magnetic force over a longer portion of the falling sand stream?
Oh yeah that would surely separate them further, I think the magnets could even just be be right next to each other but just angled away from the stream to carry it further away.
Basically like having a bigger magnet but more width isn't helpful so you just stack smaller ones to get more length.
I was thinking about a multi-stage configuration also!
what might work best is a long magnet mounted at a 45 degree angle, to maximize the shadow effect he was talking about.
My thoughts exactly.
Put another one below and more to the back and make the magnetite drip father away from the normal sand.
Longer magnet at an angle so it has to take a longer concave path, perhaps
Great work Cody, I have had similar experiences on the shores of Lake Michigan, you can see the dark black magnetite form streaks on the beach. Once, long ago, carried a bucket of it up a 200’ tall bluff and then never figured out how to refine it. Hahah I love these videos for that reason- you would be the best person to run into on a day like that
CODY!
LOVE YOU!
you could probably build a trommel, that incorporates your clever magnet trick, so that the screening, and seperation, happen together.
The way we seperate iron from foundry sand, is very similar, its a conveyor belt, with a magnet behind it, over another conveyor belt. The upper conveyor goes perpendicular, and the iron falls off, just past the range of the magnet, which is fine tuned, as you have done here.
The reason i recommend a trommel, as opposed to a conveyor, is because the screen, and conveyor method that we used, requires constant interaction, whereas a trommel ditches the rocks and debris for you.
Cant wait for your next video!
At 9:15, due to the almost constant flow of megnetite dripping from the magnet (look carefully at the bottom) it seems like there is still a substantial (yet reduced) volume of magnetite still present within the tailings, rather than it just being eroded from the larger mass of magnetite around the magnet. Still a very efficient system!!
Magnetite is also what gives many old gun the "Blueing" color. Iron would be lightly rusted, to form hematite, and then boiled in water or steamed at high temps, and that hematite would turn into magnetite!
It would be cool to convert an old lawnmower to pick up the iron with an elecrro magnet that uses the switching of the magnet and kenitic force to separate the material into the lawnmower bag. I found that a simple plastic bag over the magnet makes cleanup and / or separation of the iron from the magnet much easier 😁😁
Cody should try this neat idea
Electromagnets take time to turn on and off (after all, they’re the very definition of an inductor) so if I’m understanding you correctly you couldn’t go too high rpm
I mean, a simple conveyor belt with a permanent magnet behind it would accomplish something similar, picking up moving and dropping the particles. What Cody has built does the job perhaps more slowly but with no electricity other than the spark plugs in the transport truck.
I personally like the simplicity of Cody's idea. Its already very pure for the work put in and just requires a bit of shoveling material. The rest is all gravity and a magnet
@Andrew..J Yes, but having to carry buckets of iron is a lot of work. Having an automated system would make an excellent video. This video would compliment it well. 🙂
Been subed for years now to this channel. Looking for the right time to start a conversation with you, Cody. And even if all the math and science hurts my brain trying to retain it, I'm still very inept at figuring things out through experimentation. For 28 or so years now, I've been expanding on the old-school version of the rockerbox. And I never have lost sight in creating an automated version of it. Around 15 years ago, I was selling self-rocking version, but I was surrounded by jealous family members who undermined me at every turn then. But I never stopped evolving the concept in my head. And now, 15 years later, I know I have invented the go-to machine for the small time miner to mine flourgold. Self feading and with an apron system that looses zero flour gold. Even the smallest of the micro gold is retained. Pluss through how it works, it processes it down into a firable amount of concentrates. That could also be drypaned to take 80% of the top. It now more of a viable income than it is at supporting a hobby with gold now being at 90 dollars a gram. Anyway, I'm hoping to enlist you to help with the scientific explanation of the process. As I was very close to getting Pat Keen on board. But I lacked the explanation to get him to afford me the time away from his business. I also know Kieth from Hardrock University. Both wanted to help but my desperation to make some money when I needed some surgery badly. Still do. I've been in hell for 30 years eating practically nothing. I ate ony eggs for 7 of the last of those years. So, as the world spirals into chaos I'm realy trying hard now to get it delt with. As I've always new this time was coming, and it's when what I've created shines the most. As it could be a wage for a great many in a time when making money will be hard to do. Anyways I've pissed everyone off now. And thought I'd give you a turn at it. Check out my home page I still have a crude video up there that proves how long I've believed in what I can do.
This was a fantastic process to watch. Straightforward, uncomplicated and impressively effective. Extremely so.
Things like this are why I am always glad to see an upload here.
I tend to over complicate and over think things, and this is an example of a simple solution excelling. I was amazed at the sheer volume of magnetite separated from the 'chaff'. The quality of the sand by-product was very impressive as well.
The footage at the end showing the process in slower detail was mesmerizing.
Very Well Done! I'm sad I didn't see this when it initially released.
If you chance to read this, have a great day, and may God Bless You.
(and even if you don't believe -whatever the reason- I am praying for you.)
I look forward to your next video (well, beyond the one thats already posted that I'm about to watch, hahah).
thats pretty smart.. the way you setup is.. dang nice!!!!!
Best channel on YT
5:43 - so are the days of our lives
Dear Cody,
Thank you for sharing your projects, they are appreciated.
I believe you would find a lot of enthusiasts willing to come do a thermite reaction ANVIL making workshop. Make the sand or investment mould, prepare the termite and cast a personal anvil. Perhaps insert a slab of high quality steel into the mould that will fuse with the melt and make a professional surface that is good enough for working.
Some of the railroad welding thermite kits include a provision for adding a high strength alloy to the top of the rail for wear resistance and the same process should be possible when making smaller (5-50kg) anvils.
Now you need a convenient way to pulverise soda cans and you could have a hand made anvil business that recycles sand and cans.
i love this so much
i used to mess around picking up random bits of iron from the ground in middle school but i didnt know heck what i was doing and our soil had barely any, i got way more from the garage floor
if you have more magnets you could probably separate sand and iron streams into funnels and run them right away through another magnet separation steps, so that it's even more continuous
Love your videos thanks for sharing everything you do
Babe wakeup. Cody is alive!
She knows already. She was over at chicken hole while you were sleeping.
😅😅😅
How about putting magnet under and a bit behind (to only catch magnetide) another magnet. This way you could get higher purity but in one run and not have to put the magnetide through the system again.
which one is the simpler method of the two?
the magnetite that falls is already in small lumps and it hitting directly on another magnet won't be the same as loose magnetite falling into it which means it won't be as pure as doing a second pass but better than a single pass he was doing.
@@witgangyounotube287 hmm, probably true. But then he can just use a sieve to break them down and a cone funnel to get the magnetide mix back on a path? This way it's still one pour but 2 passes.
@@ELYESSS simpler? As in less work or easier to set-up? Because method he uses is easier to set-up but it's 2 times the work basically if the thing I said is true. But I never tried the thing I said about 2 magnets.
@@stasi0238 simpler as in less things to go wrong
I can watch this video 50 times. Your demonstration is so simple to watch, thanks for sharing!!!
Cody! Come on out to San Francisco's western edge. You'll find Ocean Beach, a true black-sand beach. In some areas the fine black sand is more than half magnetite. I like to use a piece of flat bar with several Neo magnets stuck to it, with a thin piece of rigid plastic covering them. Pulling the plastic away releases the captured material. One collection step and one purification step and it's above 90 percent, probably more like 95-98. A local art and sculpture supply house carries "atomized" aluminum, and there you go. I have a jar full of the mix on my shop table, waiting on a rainy day :)
you know how to tickle the people from those 3 letters agency dontcha', Cody?
They really don't like it when you know how to do fun stuff without their approval. Even when it's completely legal to do so.
Cody simply needs to become a nuclear armed power and then they'll leave him alone.
@@theKashConnoisseurDuh, because people with 100kg of thermite have the capability to cause serious damage - a power they'd really like ordinary people not to have in a country with more mass shootings than all of Europe and Asia combined.
@@ToroidalVortices A single person with a 2-3 ton automobile can also cause serious damage. I guess we should ban vans and trucks then. Do you enjoy being an authoritarian, or do you just never really think about it?
lol are you a republican idiot calling someone with a rational argument an authoritarian? such an IQ
My day just got a whole lot better. I hope yours did too
Cody you may have Platinum Group Metals present! And Gold! After the thermite burns, check for precious metals!
A very good idea. I didn't even think of it, but by how many tons of material he's processing, it'd make sense there could be enough metal to be worth collecting.
Not worth the effort, because that area is not a gold-producing district. The geology is wrong. Not that I'm saying there's no gold-producing districts in northern Nevada, because there ARE, it's just that his property isn't in one of them.
So all of northern NV areas with gold are all already known? Every half acre has been checked out?@@dionh70
We have a lot of black sand around here. I've been trying to work out a good way of separating and refining it. While I haven't built anything yet, I have identified all of the problems you ran into. I hadn't considered just letting it stick to the magnet though. It turns out the problem is actually the solution! Very nice! Thanks for posting this.
when its collecting on the magnet it looks like a magical hedgehog sucking up power. I absolutely love that part.
That intro was therapeutic
You could use a baby buggy with a centered rotating bikewheel (driven by a chain), where a magnet is attached at special spots (let us say 90° angles) and a semicircular hard plastic sheet in between the wheel and the ground plus a dropping pot. A rake in front of the baby buggy would spread the dust in the air, the rotating magnet would attract the magnetite, the hard plastic sheet hindering it to get caught by the magnet, the magnet tracking the dust into a dropbin.
nope bucket with a hole
bucket hole
8:43 who else squinted at this part
2:10 was expecting some self driving thing with an electromagnet, but then I remembered, it's Cody, of course it's gonna be a shovel. And that's very cool too.
Middle of the video answered all of the questions I was going to ask lmao, well done! Running the magnet back over the trailings was something I was curious about and I'm glad you did it
If you added a second neodymium magnet just below the the first one would that get you more pure magnetite sooner?
I think you'd want to collect it in a funnel first so the stream comes from the same place instead of being spread out, so the separation is more well-defined for that step.
I feel like there is an ATF arc in front of us.
For the entire middle portion of the video, I wanted the magnetite clump to be brushed off the neodymium magnet, but wondered if the large clump helped with the purification process. Glad you did that explainer at the end!
Very cool! I’ve been running into small amounts of similar material in the Great Lakes looking for more solid rock. Too hard (or wet) to bother refining, but magnetic rocks sure entertains the kids. I’ll share the video to show them how useful the material can be. Great work!
that last shot shot of the magnetite drip should be in textbooks. amazing
I saw a comment on a NileRed video and was just thinking it's about time for another strange contraption from the internet's favourite mad chemist!
15:32 Thanks Cody, another watch list I get to be on. ;P
FBI are wetwipes
3:56 Formerly Chuck's
Chucks feeduck and seeduck 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
Love a simple yet effective solution.
Also, there's something calming about watching dirt drop out of a hole in a bucket
I love how the falling magnetite in the last shot still aligns with the magnetic field in the region below the magnet! That's a really good shot!
I worked in ore refinement research for a year or so and watching you go through all of this all feels so familiar, sieving and separating over and over is such a universal way to process rock. Sieving your sand out into a pile and shoveling it into a bucket feels like an extra step of shoveling you could avoid with a drum sieve though. It'd make you change how you remove the plant material but we always burned off organics when possible
15:59 Codys weed weeds cody
pan for gold in there as well??!
Not worth the effort, because that area is not a gold-producing district. The geology is wrong. Not that I'm saying there's no gold-producing districts in northern Nevada, because there ARE, it's just that his property isn't in one of them.
Mineral assay for the tailings?
Very clever way of doing it with the magnets. Simple but brilliant.
A video like this is exactly what needs to be taught in schools. It's not just about memorizing terms and methods.
.it's shows that it's beneficial to be knowledgeable and focus on problem solving skills. Something like " how to filter rocks" would be boring as shit to 12 year old me, but adult me would be very thankful.
It's not even fully about filtering rocks, it's about how anyone can do things that seem complex and of quality just using effort, common sense, and the internet.
Cast Iron Cannon with homemade black powder project?
Cast iron is WAAAAAAAAAAAY too brittle for reliable cannon. That's been understood since the 1700s.
@@dionh70 Cannons are made out of cast iron and black powder would have a lower chamber pressure.
assuming magnetite is $1/lb that's $800 in 1.5 days work, not bad!
No industrial buyer would by magnetite for $1 per lb. It is more lime 10-20 cents per pound.
A quick Google suggests $2.50 per pound.
And correct. Definitely don't sell to industrial people, sell to other people :)
I’d buy a knife blank of that with a little refining!
Cast iron knives are useless. There's a very good reason why knives are made of STEEL, not iron.
@@dionh70 that’s why I said a little refining… I mean if he purified the iron and added Carbon: 0.9% - 1.1% Manganese: 0.3% - 0.5% Chromium: 0.3% - 0.5% Tungsten: 0.8% - 1.2% I’d be even happier.
You may be the only content creator that has done several different things and all of them are interesting to me. Honestly your channel has been the main go-to for my enjoyment of science . I’m not even a smart guy, but I love the stuff you do and every video is a treat, even after several years of watching :)
I love your simple yet elegant solution. As soon as I saw it my brain went "Well one pass and it's 90-95% cleaned at least" and sure enough showing the second pass it's even more then that. Good stuff sir!
The notification flashed up, by the time I got here there was 5 likes and 33 views lol
Use a round magnet on a center shaft so it can rotate with a scraper on the back side.... as it accumulates weight, it'll rotate and shear off the magnetite away from the tailings stream.
It doesnt matter for the yield rates if there is always a kilo of magnitite on the magnets, and it makes the whole process much simpler. Because he is processing huge amounts of materials, that 1 kilo of magnitite that doesnt end up in your bucket (but doesnt get lost) doesnt really matter that much
Although not the same principle, this does remind me of the coin sorteer you once made
Very impressive separation, love the 2nd run demo cause I was skeptical. Great vid
In the final shot you can see the magnetite coming off along the field lines. Pretty sweet!
2:40 robo cody took the day off
We need urgent Chicken hole base update
Please wear some kind of dust mask so you're not inhaling all that dust
Naaa, silicosis is fine 😅
I love the abstract thinking and out of the box problem solving.
Man, just wonderful. Nice haul! I bet there's tons of applications for all that magnetite...add some ions here, reduce some salts there....(I know nothing about chem) and you suddenly find some new fuel or illumination media. This is so fun to watch and learn about. Wicked man!
You need a plastic bag on your magnet
Why
@@watchinyoutube8919 Easier clean up at 12:28 and no magnetite dust permanently stuck to it.
@@watchinyoutube8919 So you can remove all metal from magnet by romoving the bag
@@watchinyoutube8919 Because then the magnetite won't stick directly to the magnet, and to get it off, all you need to do is pull the bag away from the magnet, and it all falls off, leaving you with a clean magnet almost instantly, rather than fighting to separate the iron from the magnet.
I remember him doing that in an old video, but as he demonstrated if you remove the ball of iron you have to fill it again to restart the system, this seems like a dedicated setup, so he doesn't *need* to clean the magnet between runs.
But if anyone needs to keep a magnet clean, a bag indeed works great.
Cody looking like a Kazakhstani bandit at the start of the video.
Yippee!!!
I collect the stuff too! I usually use ceramic large magnets in an ice cream bucket for easy release. But getting a jig to refine quickly is a goal of mine. I also have found pulling it through water with the ice cream bucket method works really good too.
Cody, you are a smart cookie! Always able to troubleshoot a problem and come up with a better solution, I love it!
Would there be any gold along with the magnetite where it settles?
Yes
Iron and gold. Doesn’t get better than that
Unlikely, given the number of closed mines in the area. If there was decent amounts of gold in them hills, those mines would be all over it. But it's also not impossible that he could pan some flakes here and there.
Gold isn't magnetic.
As a geologist, it's hard to say. Magnetite and gold tend to settle in the same areas, but the rock that erodes into the sediment system needs to contain gold in the first place.
If there's gold in the area it is eroding from, yes, there could be gold in that sand.
In the beginning I was thinking “oh an electromagnet would be cool with something to plug the hole then de magnetize and let the iron drop. Then re energize and unplug the hole.” Or something similar then near the end I was thinking it again but at the end, you perfectly explained why your solution was better. Great video, Cody
I'm so happy that I'm seeing your content come across my page again! I binged a lot of your content a few years ago and for some reason UA-cam stopped pushing your content to me! I saw an interview snippet that you'd done on shorts about nitroglycerine recently and it made me remember your gold chemistry videos fondly. Glad to see you're doing well.
You could maybe get it more pure if you add something to direct the iron build up so when it reaches it's max capacity the iron can run down a little further back before dropping. great ingenuity cody you've always sparked my passion to do stuff I love.
I grew up with really sandy soil and we used to do this in the backyard as kids. We built a sluice out of sheet metal, with big speaker magnets stuck to the back, and we'd use the garden hose to wash the sand down from the input hopper at the top. Parents weren't too happy about the flooded yard but it really wasn't any worse than most of the projects we did.