This bizarre density toy just got an upgrade
Вставка
- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Click the link www.kiwico.com... to get 50% of your first crate of a monthly subscription at KiwiCo.
I've been trying to make this 3 immiscible liquids thing work for years. Finding three liquids that don't mix with each other and beads that have the right density to make it a science puzzle object.
The original video from 7 years ago: • Mystery blue & white b...
Why white things are white: • Why white things are w...
You can buy my books here:
stevemould.com...
You can support me on Patreon and get access to the exclusive Discord:
/ stevemould
just like these amazing people:
Ubiquity Ventures
Pavel Dubov
Jeremy Cole
Jacob Chow
Jacob Elterich
Tj Steyn
Brendan Williams
Frank Hereford
Alex Hackman
Glenn Sugden
Lizzy and Jack
Lukas Biewald
Damien Szerszinski
Marshall Fitzpatrick
Heather Liu
Grant Hay
Paul Warelis
Nathan Blubaugh
Twitter: / moulds
Instagram: / stevemouldscience
Facebook: / stevemouldscience
Buy nerdy maths things: mathsgear.co.uk
![[UA] Eternal Fire проти NAVI | EPL Season 20 Malta](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/chvlsDygrZM/mqdefault.jpg)
PLA in acetone makes a really odd smell.
The sponsor is KiwiCo: get 50% of your first crate of a monthly subscription here: www.kiwico.com/stevemould
If it doesn't mix.
It's NOT an Emulsion!
C'mon Steve, you're better than this!
😊
is this anything to do with how an under water river works?
Why do ceiling fans turn the other way after turning off and slowing to a stop?
With the printed beads. Try baking them. There is a way you put them on a tray on salt. Then cover with salt so it's packed .then bake .seals the layers
Nice video, I was a little disappointed to see kiwico does not deliver in the Netherlands. My son would love these boxes.
I don't think I have ever heard this many names of plastics and oils in 13 minutes in my life
It's like he was talking about processed food ingredients 😂
Never read an ingredients label? 😅
Then you my friend have not gotten into 3D printing
i sure hope you aren't finding polystyrene in your food
also ipa
Never thought I’d hear Steve Mould lamenting not getting “the good stuff from Brazil”.
Steve to the rosewood: "Come from Brasil."
@@U014B Stevinhooo
That is giving "wrong grade of copper" vibes.
@@greensteve9307 EA NASIR !
kids: doing an interesting kiwico project and having fun
father: mixing liquids and beads in a bottle while slowly losing his sanity
The difference between canned projects and unguided projects. You never see the multitudes of problems that come with the real world until you actually do your own custom project. Not a knock on canned projects though. Canned projects are more about learning the methods and mechanics, which is much, much more difficult when you have to deal with all the messy experimentation.
Yeeaaah... My daughter did something similar, by herself. She was making some perfume and mixed random petals with water, put it in a bottle with a stopper, etc. Anyway, the petals fermented in the direct sunlight she left the mixture in, and it basically exploded all over the kitchen, one day! NICE!
@@moothemoo4896Agreed. Canned projects are solved problems chosen because there is, for the most point, one obvious and successful path forward. It’s like an unguided project but with unlimited luck.
@@pw.70not sure that’s the same unless that’s what she was going for…
definitely lost his salinity.
1:48 Remind me never to order a pint of IPA if the barman is a chemist...
The old "Two chemists walk into a bar" joke:
images.ctfassets.net/o78em1y1w4i4/73eRlkKIYyBKJkPYuXZtHx/c4ac0decfcfcf0223fbdb56f7b20a716/uic-cartoon-2.jpg?fm=webp&w=3200&q=75
Just clarify you mean the alcohol!
Wait, shit
How would you order the International Phonetic Alphabet at a bar?
Isopropyl alcohol is similar in toxicity as ethanol, it just metabolizes into acetone instead of acetaldehyde... though it can give you alcohol poisoning more quickly. the point is, ethanol is poison and should be viewed by society as being the same thing as rubbing alcohol
a couple walks into a bar. the woman says "i'd like a glass of h2o, please!" the man says "i'd like a glass of h2o, too."
the man dies
Consider just putting a single bead of each type in the toy. The fun is seeing the types of beads settle at different points as if by magic and just having a single bead of each type will do that while avoiding the particles getting stuck on each other. It would look a little less impressive in some respects, but I think there would still be a nice wonder to single particles floating in the middle points of a tube of liquid.
or you can just have 3 bigger beads at each layer
I second this.
A bit more complex but figurines could be nice. Maybe two pairs of dancers that come together
@@glittery_fairy If you make the center of gravity different from the center of buoyancy, the figurines could self-orient.
If you really want to get fancy with it, you can try to make a scene with the figurines, like a cow under an alien under a flying saucer under the moon
2:36 Seriously, that stationery flex though.
I *think* I see a Rotring, a Mars, and a Kuru Toga, plus that lovely eraser and straightedge. 😳
the rotring caught my eye too
@scorinth do you know what sort of notebook is that? It seems super easy to erase 😮
@@MrManafonYeah I want to know this too!
If you could make glass "beads", you'd be sorted! I imagine that you could start with a glass tube, melt the ends together, and vary the density by varying the length, which in turn varies the enclosed volume of air. The glass would be unaffected by any of the liquids, and they would also look very similar, enhancing the mystery for the uninitiated viewer.
Essentially a Galileo thermometer?
Or tinting the glass to keep the color separation would work too.
I want a glass 3D printer
Nice
Miniature Japanese glass globe fishing floats
🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮🔮 ← (whatever that emoji is)
Other than colour, if there were sufficient variation in manufacturing the little glass globes, they would be _self-sorting by density_ !??
Wat is this blackboard at 3:00? And pen name please
Pen is a kuru toga idk what the board is but you can use google lens to find it
So glad you found a SOLUTION!
Too bad he needed an emulsion.
😂
After a while, it became clear.
@@NotQuiteFirst LoL
ugh
what are you writing on?
8:52 That actually looks really cool just on it's own.
Now I'm thinking about those ships in bottles. You could turn the bottle sideways and have a little plastic ship that floated on the bottom layer.
Two surfaces: two ships!
Submarine and ship
Or maybe ship and plane
Or seagulls and whales
Ship definitely needs to be a Benchy.
Paraffin is a messy term whose meaning has changed with time and geography. Historically it was synonymous with the word "alkane" in general (an alkane is any saturated hydrocarbon, that is, it's entirely made of carbon and hydrogen and it has no double or triple bonds). In the US it mostly means paraffin wax today - saturated, straight chained alkanes with ~20-30 carbons that are solid at room temperature and make nice candles. The paraffin oil you've got is essentially a purified version of kerosene that (should) only contain the straight chain alkanes with carbon counts in the teens. And there's surely some crusty old materials scientist somewhere who calls all alkanes paraffins still, because there's always someone like that...
There's Lamplight Ultra Pure Lamp Oil which is a reliable brand of 'paraffin' oil in the US. You can use this brand to look for your local offerings
It's proper to write "the meaning of which" over "whose meaning" when you are referring to inanimate objects.
Haynes Manuals always talked about cleaning parts in paraffin. It was confusing until I found out they meant kerosene.
Thanks for clarifying paraffins and alkanes. I was unaware of the old usage, and was curious what bizarre “new” paraffin this could be, having only heard it used for the soft white wax.
Now I’m confused about kerosene, though. I thought purifying kerosene produced gasoline, which would be a mistake for lamp oil (boom). Perhaps it’s a matter of degree. If you care to reply, I’d welcome it. I’m simply curious. (I can look it up, of course, if I actually need to know.) Have a good one.
@@Bob5mith no, they meant paraffin as written because they used paraffin which was, and still is, used as a cleaner in lots of UK parts washers, can be purchased by the gallon from many UK ironmongers and if you ask for kerosene they'll look at you blankly. Countries separated by a common language ... try to buy "gas" in the UK and you'll be opening a whole can of worms ...
One issue with using plastics in oils and other organics is that the plastic can swell and soften due to the organics seeping into the plastics due to their solubilities. That could be why the densities came out wrong and the beads stuck together.
Wood is porous. Its density is dependent on what you saturate it with. wax or epoxy coat it?
Same problem with 3D printing, FDM (filament) prints are slightly porous, however SLA (resin) prints are almost perfectly water tight, at high pressure they do absorb a bit of liquid, but that wouldn't be a problem unless you're making a submarine.
There are coating to make FDM prints water tight, but I would suggest investing in a resin printer, the precision is very beneficial for experiments like these.
@@ledocteur7701 can they print hollow stuff though? afaik they apply each layer as a whole, on the bottom of the container, via a uv screen; that might trap at least some liquid resin in the cavity.
@@gernottiefenbrunner172 Indeed, for this application it wouldn't work, but resin printing is just very handy overall, I'm sure he could find other use case.
@@gernottiefenbrunner172 That's exactly right. If there is no hole for uncured resin to escape, resin prints will be filled with liquid. May still be worth trying with 100% solid shapes of different resins.
If the wood has a density of under 1 and you fill the pores with water, it can’t bring the density to over 1 though.
It's awesome seeing your process throughout this video. Often times it's only the results that's brought up, but seeing you work through the different materials really gives a perspective of the work that you went through finding the right solution. I really like that. This is often overlooked.
Hey Steve! Wonderful demonstration. Couple of things:
1) 3D Prints are notoriously porous. It looked like your prints only had 2 perimeters, which would probably cause liquid to seep into the hollow cavity, affecting the density. Increasing perimeters to 4 or 5 should help, but in my experience I've had to coat my prints in epoxy to get true water-tightness (though that would throw off your density calculations and epoxy probably won't play well with your chemical cocktail).
2) I'm sure you considered this, but the squareness of the beads is probably causing them to lock up together instead of floating past each other. Maybe chamfering at least one side of the cube's corners would help them slide by each other?
And most people use Asatone misting to smooth prints.
@@wobblysauce I think the plastics you can acetone smooth are the very ones you wont ve able to use because they would melt in the acetone he is using in the toy.
These are both definitely good ideas to try! Maybe different shapes as well to see if that helps them slide past each other
@@robertellis6853True, but there are plastics that can be solvent smoothed that aren't acetone soluble (although by the time you're getting into more exotic FDM materials you could probably find a mix with the right density off the shelf and good layer adhesion, there's tons of blends of plastics with mixes of different base polymers and different fill materials. It would not surprise me if there's a fairly easily available polypropene available with the right density and PP prints are famously good at being watertight once you get them dialled in enough to print)
I think a lot less smaller beads would work a lot better but yes, density and melting is always going to be a challenge!
I have a vague memory of a demonstration at university where they showed 7 immiscible liquids in the same column. You can for sure go bigger than 3
Did they pour them in one at a time in a specific order? If so, they might not all have been mutually immiscible. Each one would only have to be immiscible with the ones directly above and below. So they might have just been alternating polar and non-polar liquids.
They are density separated (polar, non-polar, polar, non-polar...), not immiscible as a group, so once you mix them together they don't separate anymore.
The moment you said the word "acetone", I had a chuckle at how much of a ride you'd probably be in for. Acetone vapor is often used to smooth 3D prints, because it dissolves certain plastics really well. ABS is one of them, PLA is another, I think.
No, it doesn’t smooth PLA. Acetone can also smooth ASA prints in addition to ABS as you mentioned.
@@radish6691 Well, it doesn't smooth PLA, but as Steve found out, it does make them crack/damage.
Why not simply use pentane, salt water and DCM? DCM will form a stronger emulsion with water and be on the bottom. Pentane would form a stronger emulsion with water and always be on top. These 3 have very different densities. There is no risk of DCM and pentane forming an emulsion. These are 3 clear liquids. Only DCM is gonna dissolve much of anything.
Pla is hygroscopic, which may account for the shifting bead density over time.
it also might be the fact that pla prints aren't water tight so it's possible the cavities fill with the liquids and release air slowly
@@itayvolk - Exactly that. Not just the main cavities, but also the small gaps between layers.
@@itayvolk I think we can see this in action in the shake up at 10:38. You can see one white bead sink, presumably because it is full of the heavier fluid, but once it sinks and diffuses its internal liquids into the solution at the interface, the space inside the bead is replaced by the next fluid up in the strata, which causes it to float again.
I bet that the beads that remain on top are doing so because they are filled with a fluid that is lighter density than the plastic of the bead. Most likely trapped air that can't diffuse out of the bead.
@@itayvolk Also, IPA dissolves PLA. Not very fast, but eventually it gets dissolved, enlarging the gaps between layers.
He said he was using PETG.
6:30
“Surprisingly the 3D printed beads seem to change density as their left in the bottle”
FYI 3d prints are not water tight
However resin 3d prints are watertight
The red zigzag at 6:40 was interesting, it's totally jumbled before he turned it. from random to a pattern
keep in mind, the zig-zag was there the whole time, falling into place as the cubes settled slightly more efficiently against one another. he merely turned it to show us that cool section
What's that black thing you draw on?
Colored mechanical pencil lead just blew my mind
I know, right?
Literally pulled up the video on my phone while it's playing on my TV for the singular purpose of figuring out where I buy the magic pencils.
Please tell me that someone knows where I can buy them. I love them more than Dobby loves socks
@@hotmessmonster4240you can buy colored lead anywhere that sells pencil lead online, I like jetpens
@@hotmessmonster4240There's a bunch of different colored leads on Amazon
@@hotmessmonster4240 He used quite a few mechanical pencils! none of them however come with the great colored lead. The pencils used were the Uni Kuru toga ruoulette in both silver and black, and the Rotring 600. All of these are great pencils! I personally really like the Rotring, but it doesn't have the cool lead rotating mechinism. as for the lead, I think they are just standard colored lead sold by Pilot, they have IMO the best quality lead, however I haven't actually tried their colored variants. However Uni also makes a colored lead which he could be using
I wonder if, rather than round or square beads, use narrow cylinders with pointy ends. But have the cylinders made of 2 different materials glued together, with different densities. For example, have a set of cylinders that are 25% heavy plastic and 75% light. Then another set 75% heavy and 25% light. Or any other combination. These would essentially be programmable. Their overall densities would be different, plus they would orient themselves. That way they would be able to pass each other and less likely to jam.
Density... beads... uh huh... What was that thing you were drawing and erasing on?
Yeah! I too was fascinated by that. I suppose it's a blackboard for liquid pens.
what blouse or hoodie were you wearing at 11:10? looks nice
Your comment called my attention to it, and you’re right it’s very interesting.
When I was in college my professor had me write a paper on PMP, and I’ve never heard it referenced or used ever, since I wrote that paper about 5 years ago. I am so glad to finally see it used/referenced somewhere!
5:00 if you ref the density of rosewood it's "raw" whereas a fret board is _treated_ with one or more of various substances, not least being dye/stain and esp. a High Density polymer, likely polyurethane (HDPU).
it may also have been Steam Pressed, a process that squishes it down like a sponge, by first softening it with steam. this process may also be combined with a pressure chamber and the aforementioned HDPU etc. in order to impregnate and densify the material into something much stronger and heavier per volume than before: perfect for the abuse of a fret board which needs to also be a thin plate.
EDIT: and it COULD have just absorbed the salt water, for a combined density greater than the constituents.
Admittedly I'm not a guitar builder but from my understanding, a lot of those treatments happen after the guitar is built (well, when the neck is built).
@@jacobfife7273 that's true, but from what I understand, "Treating" and "Finishing" aren't quite the same. treatments like the ones above are more often "factory treated" rather than finishing, which is largely for appearance.
but again it's only a guess, only he would be able to determine that by contacting the seller (or lab tests).
It COULD also be that his fluids were tainted too, likely diluted to stretch profit margins, thus reducing their densities... or he could have been looking up "pure/lab-grade" versions rather than "commercial" concentrations. 🤔
The latest fad is torrefied (roasted) maple. It does seem to be superior to regular flamed maple in structural and durability aspects, but it does sound a little different. Jury is still out on whether it's better, worse, or just different. A lot of differences can be dialed away at the pedalboard or amp pretty easily.
I don't know if they're doing the roasting process with anything but maple, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do. Surely it can't just work on one type of wood and no others.
@@mal2ksc oh GREAT! 😡 Now I'm craving PANCAKES! 😖🥞 Thanks!
🤣
This is how engineers innovative their products. They experiment with their new idea, find its flaws, do research and kept making better and better versions of that until they achieve the desired result. ❤
Whats the notebook you're using in the video?
I don't know for sure, but it looks like it might be a Rhodia one.
I'd love to know which, and also what coloured pencil leads he's using.
Wood is kind of like a sponge, the density measurements assumes it's just air inside. With Water/IPA soaked in it, it will be denser.
Great video, but what I want to know is where can I get that mechanical chalk pencil and the tiny blackboard :)
same lol if you find out lmk
seems to be a Rhodia Touch Black Maya Pad A4+ (Black Paper) and the pencil is a Rotring Tikky Mechanical Pencil - 0.5 mm - Black
As a luthier, Brazilian rose wood is insanely hard to get your hands on because its endangered, and There are heavy restrictions on shipping out of the country. The rose wood used now days is farmed from other places, and isn't the same species as the good stuff. hope this helps!
Yes, yes, but is that a MINI BLACKBOARD!!!???
black dot grid notebook and colored pencil leads.
@@NathanCaggiano That surprises me, I haven't had good results trying to erase colored pencil.
@@billberg1264 it's a PVC foam eraser I believe. Sakura SumoGrip Block Eraser
“I don't know what you heard about me
But a bead costs a dollar you see
No Cadillac, no perms, you can't see
That I'm muthatruckin P-M-P”
The 3d printed beads were probably not water tight. Over time, liquid fills the voids which changes the densities. If they are sealed first, they might stay where expected, but acetone and even IPA could strip that sealant.
True, but the other issue is that many 3D printing filaments are hygroscopic and absorb water, so inevitably a trial and error approach is still going to be required with the understanding that the resulting bead density is inevitably going to be different to the calculated density, probably a bit higher
@@bosstowndynamics5488 That's why he wanted to get as much difference in the liquid densities as he could. It would give him a lot more maneuvering room when it comes to the beads.
@@mal2ksc I'm not sure how that changes anything I said though, what I'm getting at is that fully sealing a hollow PLA print will not prevent the density from changing
Looks like you had fun with this! You’ve probably unintentionally made some Methamphetemine precursor too, Phenylacetone 😂
Let's not assume that it was unintentional... ;-)
In a mirror universe, it could just be nasal decongestant
Damn he made a widely used organic chemical thats found in the medical industry and probably just about every single home in america. But yeah meth is worth mentioning when
Don't give Kiwico kids acetone. They will destroy all plastic appliances and tables in the house.
There are 3d printer filaments available that change density (foam up) based on how fast or what temperature you print them at. Might allow for some more control of custom beads.
The algorithm thinks you will enjoy this video next:
The video: I was the one you just came from/just watched
I can't believe you spent 100 dollars at 1 dollar per bead. That's dedication.
FDM (filament) prints are slightly porous, however SLA (resin) prints are almost perfectly water tight, at high pressure they do absorb a bit of liquid, but that wouldn't be a problem unless you're making a submarine.
There are coating to make FDM prints water tight, but I would suggest investing in a resin printer, the precision is very beneficial for experiments like these.
Rosewood and other woods will change density if dropped into a liquid, since they will start to absorb the liquid. This is especially true with water since green wood is 30 to 40% water. After normal seasoning, their water content is usually 4-8%. To maintain their dry density when dropped into a liquid, you would have to use some kind of coating which is impermeable to the liquid. Many such coatings such as enamel or nail polish would also dissolve in acetone.
Finding a coating which would work would be very difficult. Another problem is that density in wood is highly variable at a small scale. A large board would likely correspond to the published density since everything averages out. If the board is broken into small pieces, the density of each piece would vary from the average by as much as 4%. One consolation, however, is that the Rosewood shown in the video does appear genuine.
I was getting myself all psyched up to make one of these myself, until I heard the cost of PMP...
A possible solution for the less dense beads getting stuck at the bottom could be to make the more dense beads smaller, allowing the less dense beads to push through the layer of more dense beads. That could also help reduce the surface tension making the beads stick to each other as well.
Similar to the way a liquid metal battery works. Very cool!
You should print them rounded in a resin printer. Find a resin that doesn’t solves in your liquids, but you could print toroids or spheres that won’t stack.
Thanks for all your work!
You should look into biomolecular condensates if you're interested in liquid-liquid phase separation. Really fascinating stuff that is essential for life.
Thanks. 🙏
I just wanted to say this was an excellent demonstration of determination, persistence, and dealing with frustration. Doubly important to teach such skills to children.
Hollow glass beads could be good. Would be difficult to source I imagine, but can be coloured easily and can vary the cavity, like the 3D printed cubes.
All i want to know is - WHAT KIND OF ERASABLE BLACK PAD IS THAT ???? Never seen such a thing in my life and I want one.
Additionally what kind of pens are those ?
I'm too dense to fully understand this.
people told me that IPA actually tastes really well once you're getting used to it. they told me that don't really like regular beer anymore.
Something that comes to my mind watching this Steve, is that you can manipulate the density/buoyancy of a fixed size cube with a 3d printers infill parameter. A given size cube printed at 5% infill will be much more buoyant than a cube with 50% infill, and a 100% solid cube would not only take all day to print, but it would just sink if its density is greater than that of the liquid you put it in. I know you're familiar with K.I.S.S. (keep it simple smarty-pants ;) AND how something just like this can easily be overlooked.
I offer my 2 cents with a handshake, And a thank you for being one of my teachers. I hope the youtube bucks do you well, because I know if you were within a public school system, you would use your own cash and time to provide teaching to the best of your ability. This is a better way to teach, I am glad you're here in this classroom of a million+ people. 🙃
What is the paper and pens you use?!?
While PLA is NOT soluble in most solvents including Acetone, it is rather easily broken down via Hydrolysis in water which would explain the apparent softening of the prints; I suspect that the reaction was accelerated by the presence of the salt, since salts can increase the natural activity of water via catalyzation of "spontaneous" Hydronium and Hydroxide ions which in turn attack the PLA.
10:33 The "eating corn" pattern
PLA absorbs water to some degree. It becomes brittle which is why it needs to be kept dry before printing. After printing the beads, that isn't likely a problem, but their density changes, which is.
wth were you writing on? that looks amazing to sketch stuff
I made some liquid density toy bottles at like 6 years old, using water, vegetable oil, and paint thinner. I still have them today, and they still work.
If you happen to see this, one thing you could try with your plastic "sausages" is to implement a way of extruding from a plastic bead hopper. Of course, your existing sausage beads would likely not work for this, but if the smaller tiny beads it looks like you started with will work (or hell, you could try using a really powerful blender or shredder of some sort? on your existing sausages) will fit, you could try and print it into the same uniform cubes you did with the others.
Greenboy3D has a video on converting a printer to pellets and the title claims it could be done with any printer, though I'm not sure how easily it could be done with that (very nice and fancy) Bambu X1C, with those having enclosures.
I really love how the last liquids were looking when separated. Like water and air.
You could try printing a ship and a submarine and let them float on the surface and in the water underneath. :D
using round beads in different sizes instead of beads that have defined corners/edges should prevent them from getting stuck more and probably also look better. I also agree with other comments here, that just putting less beads solves the jamming problems further.
very cool video!
I’ve been showing this poly-density demo in my live Science Shows for a decade. It’s awesome to see you explore this beautiful demo!
Very creative and interesting. Thank you, Steve.
Once you identify an ideal polymer that does not dissolve in any of the liquids or their mixtures, you might consider experimenting with tailoring the polymer density by milling different amount of different pigments into that one ideal polymer. My concept of a pigment is that it is composed of very-finely-divided particles that do not dissolve in the polymer. Titanium dioxide is one, carbon black is another, and various other minerals (of various colours) could be used as pigments. Perhaps artists' paint supply stores might be a source.
Obviously you must also choose pigments that do not dissolve in any of the liquids or their mixtures. That is why I mentioned mineral pigments.
Good luck.
Rosewood is porous and can absorb liquid increasing its density, unlike the plastic beads. Printed beads have the same issue. They aren't perfectly water or oil tight.
No matter how many times I watch this guy I can't stop hearing the Grand Admiral Thrawn in his voice
Gotta admire your persistence in making this work. Personally, it was a triumph of my own persistence to remain absorbed and interested for the length of this video.
Very cool to see macro scale random motion in the 10:05 timelapse (it's not Brownian motion of course, it's caused by emulsion beads popping). You took on yourself a task that every chemist that ever did similar liquid densities extraction would just refuse to even try - and succeeded! You may be a bit unhappy with how visible the emulsion is, but seriously getting to the point you did is already a big success.
If the density of your printed cubes are changing over time, they're probably leaking. I suggest upping the extrusion multiplier in your slicer settings, this will make the print 'uglier' but will also help to make it waterproof. (since pushing plastic where there isn't space closes the gaps in between extrusions)
Man this could be an analogy for every engineering project I've ever seen. At the start, we have some success... by the end we're shaping plastic sausages, just trying to get by.
Ditch the bead layer and use a single bead for each instead. Still should be a clear indicator of the emulsion edge but they won’t get stuck and it might have a nice minimalist aesthetic.
As someone who was aware over 1/4 of a century ago that you can strip paint of metal miniatures just fine with acetone, but not a good idea for plastic, I was waiting to see when the penny dropped for the beads :P
6mm Airsoft bb’s are available in a wide range of weights. I’m not sure if they would land in the right range but they are typically available from .12 grams to .6ish
The wood and 3D printed beads suffer from the same issue of absorbing water and other liquids, but applying a thin coating of varnish over them should solve that without affecting their density much, just need to find a varnish that isn't soluble in acetone or any of the other liquids. Really cool though! Would love to see a decorative vintage looking glass bottle with dice made from various different wood types or something like that!
I have some explanations for some of your surprising results.
6:30: The 3D printed beads changed density because they absorbed water.
We don’t think of plastic as being absorbent, but PLA actually can absorb water, and it causes some really annoying problems for print quality. People will keep their filament in dry boxes, and some even dehydrate it in an oven or dehydrator before printing.
Also, even the best prints aren’t watertight. Liquid will seep between the layers and fill in the cavities in the part. You can sometimes prevent this with an epoxy coating. In ABS parts, you can use acetone to vapor smooth the surface and seal the cracks, but you’ll still have trouble with the plastic absorbing the moisture.
Speaking of ABS and acetone: at 9:30, the 3d printed plastic that melted was probably ABS. It’s a common filament, and you can even mix acetone and ABS to make a slurry that’s used as a chemical weld for parts, or to coat the build plate to make the print stick better.
I'm impressed with your axis reversal, I find it tickles !
It is so fun to listen to you talking about trial and erroring different types of plastics, what can go wrong and how you are trimming everything. Investing so much effort and time in a small physics gadget, exactly my type :))
I think you've encountered an example of an expert blind spot.Simply use fewer beads, and they will separate perfectly. Alternatively, you could use one larger bead each, which would also allow for creative 3D printouts, such as text or symbols.
To keep low-density beads from getting stuck under high-density beads, maybe try making the higher-density beads smaller in diameter than the lower-density ones? At least in a pile of dry particles, the smaller ones will naturally tend to fall to the bottom. I think the effect is called sieving.
It's worth mentioning that Brazilian Rosewood, and indeed all Dalburgia species, are now CITES appendix II listed, meaning that they are "at risk" endangered species so we all really shouldn't be using them if we can find a better alternative.
It's not similitude in polarity, but similitude in molecular structure between two compounds what makes them miscible. As an example, picric acid is only slightly soluble in water, even though both are polar.
Many types of 3d printing plastics tends to absorb humidity, and in general printed objects are themselves often not 100% water-tight. So 3d printed beads might have variable density when sunk in water after a while.
I'm not a native english speaker and throughout the video I heard you say "when the emotion settles" and I was thinking it's such a poetic way to describe the phenomenon of the chaos that happens after you shake the jar, a chaos that later calms down, kinda like an emotion, and that lead me to think "damn, English is such a poetic language!" when it clicked you were just saying "emulsion"🤦♀️
That shot of the single bead at 8:53 is really, really, cool. I like you can see the surface of the lower liquid deform under the pressure of bead - it's like one of those tabletop GR models. Super cool.
Its tricky to make 3d prints water proof, which is why they change density over time. Theres stuff you can use to coat them but I'd be surprised if that held up in the hostile conditions of those 3 liquids. But you can probably also melt the cubes slightly to fully fuse the layers
A larger circumference might help the beads slip by each other in case there is any interaction with the wall going on.
3d print a safe plastic that floats at the top and during mid-print load the Center cavity with accurate amount of lead shot. To change the density. But if they are all the same outer colour it doesn’t matter if some get stuck in the wrong boundary.
Your beads are probably filling with the fluids and oils, hence the changing density. Filament printing isn't watertight unless you seal it with something like resin, so over time the substances are probably seeping in.
I will use this video as a reference for demonstrating a common problem I see in the 3D printing space. 3D printed objects are really porous, not all of the layers have a perfect connection and you end up with lots of microscopic channels and pockets, which are perfect spots for bacteria to live in. That's why 3D printed objects are never food safe, even if the material and tools can be made food safe. The process itself is not, unless the items are coated with a sealant.
Wood is porous, so it soaked up some nice dense liquid. You can see bubbles rising off the rose wood cubes as more of the salt water soaked in.
I would use less beads to prevent blocking. And I saw it coming from a mile away when certain 3D printed materials melted because I've seen acetone vapor smoothing performed for rough surface 3D prints. Very cool scientific toy! I hope you keep at it and market the toy once it's perfected.
For anyone wondering about the notebook and pencil lead.
Colored lead is easy to order. Pentel and Uni NanoDia have multiple colors.
Couldn't find his exact notebook but Pilot has a couple black page notebooks, including with the dots. Also Michael's sells a black page journal.
The 3D printed items are absorbing liquid through the cracks inherently built into them from 3D printing. You have to coat the outer surface to seal them.
There are many UA-cam videos that show what happens to a 3D print under pressured water and they describe this.
I strongly suspect that the shape of the beads may have an effect on how well they beads are able to move past each other when the emulsion settles. If you round out the cubic beads into spheres, they might make a much more consistent and satisfying separation!
10:09 "with some monumental faffing" didn't sound at all as "faffing"😂😂😂
About the 3d printed beads changing their density, it's a matter of prosity, 3d printed pla is very porous, you can't make any part pressure tight, at even .2 bars of pressure difference, water rushes in-between layer lines. Here it's not about pressure but I would think that molecules of liquid get through the polymer due to osmosis. In the end PETG might work, as it's less porous, make the printer overextrude a bit to fill better the gaps, but it's still a supposition
Another solution would be IPA/salt water/PFA (perfluoroalkyl) oil. You would not have as many issues with the material compatibility as with acetone, nor with density. PFA has density of 1.9 kg/L, is immiscible with both liquids and it is transparent