You know the problem. You are ready to melt some metal in your microwave oven, and you don’t have any crucibles. Not to worry. [Shake the Future] will show you how to make your own. All you need is some silicon carbide, some water glass (sodium silicate), and some patience.
The crucible takes the shape of a glass container. Don’t get too attached to it because the glass will break during the crucible construction. You can also use 3D-printed forms.
You can shape the vessel before it cures and after. Then, you give it a heat treatment. [Shake The Future] also recommends you harden it at the end. This is optional; he tells you how to decide if you need it.
Hardening helps prevent cracking during use. The process involves wrapping the vessel in a ceramic sheet and heating it until the crucible turns red. The ceramic sheet is somewhat dangerous to work with because it has such tiny fibers and dust, so he only treats the crucibles when necessary.
We always enjoy watching [Shake] casting metal. He’s even done a Benchy.
Zero mention or use of respiratory protection? Can we please start requiring proper safety disclaimers for dangerous projects?
Watch the video, it is mentioned multiple times
Ah, thank you. I can see in the video now that he is also wearing one in the reflection in some parts.
This is HaD, not a site for children. You don’t need a safety disclaimer under every single post. What’s next, putting a warning label on soldering video’s because you might burn yourself?
This is exactly why I think warning labels should be banned by law. They seem to lower the amount of common sense people have.
Au contraire: Especially at Hackaday, where we show a ton of “dangerous” things, and not everyone is trained in the respective fields, trying to be as informative about where the dangers lie is important.
You might know that handling fibercloth kicks up bits that might require a respirator — I didn’t before watching a video from this same guy about five years ago — but how about when cutting carbon fiber, or handling noxious chemical X? Some people here know the hazards of race conditions better than the hazards of high-power lasers, and vice versa.
So I appreciate Denny / Shake-the-future-guy’s warnings, and I don’t think it’s totally useless to mention them in our writeups either, for those who don’t watch the video all the way through, or that carefully.
That said, I agree with you in part. The blanket “don’t try this at home” statements are essentially without value. Someone is going to try it at home, and giving them a heads up about the danger spots is the right thing to do. “Here is what the MSDS says about precautions you should take with this chemical” is much more useful for our audience than “don’t play with acid”.
Safety isn’t always about not doing the dangerous thing, it’s about knowing where the dangers are and minimizing them as best as you can. (And maybe not doing it if you can’t, but that’s your call.)
applause
Sure I did a ton of sketchy stuff (disassembling and reassembling a suicide cord whilst it was plugged in and live when I was under 10 yrs old is the one which makes me boggle at how I survived) but I’m not going to let others hurt themselves for lack of information and safety warnings are exactly that, information.
Then it’s down to the reader, viewer, user to make their own choices.
I knew glass fibers were bad news when I was 12 (that’s 28 years ago) when I worked in a hardware store and had to handle glass fiber insulation and was asked to wear a respirator because “it’s like asbestos”. When I was 14 (26 years ago) I asked a store to shorten the carbon fiber seat post on my racing bicycle and they were wearing masks. When I asked they told me it was very bad and “it’s like asbestos”. I think it’s is pretty common information these days that these materials are bad. Fiberglass insulation is even banned here because it’s so bad.
There are a few things where I agree with warnings for this site. Magnatron power converters for wood burning for example, that I get. That’s something I refuse to do. But everyone here should know that “particles in the air is bad”. Some are worse than others. But these constant posts under every article, “oh you shouldn’t weld because it’s dangerous” “oh you shouldn’t solder because it’s dangerous” “oh you shouldn’t use a grinder because it’s dangerous” “oh you should be careful with batteries because it’s dangerous”. It’s just seems like those people have nothing to say and want to say something to annoy others.
Back in the days you had lawn darts, uranium energy toy labs for children, easy bake ovens, slingshots, etc. Back then, children learned from their parents to handle things that are dangerous. Now everything even remotely fun has to come with a dozen warning labels. I have one on my chainsaw that says not to touch the spinning chain. On a chainsaw! That’s why I think warning labels should be removed of everything. If you aren’t smart enough to understand that some things are dangerous, maybe just don’t do those things or you end up learning why. They are on the same level as mandatory safety training by companies. It’s just to protect themselves against lawsuits, nothing else.
Careful, or warning labels will come with warning labels that they’re going to set you off in the comments, leading to long anecdotes, rose-glasses revisionism, and a notable lack of empathy or the ability to put yourself into other’s shoes
The irony of complaining that nobody should need warnings by relating two stories about strangers giving you explicit warnings as a child
How does a safety warning have any negative effect on you? The audience for DIY videos is pretty much every age and type of person you can imagine. Many people have little to no experience in industrial environments.
Going so far as to say that warning labels should be criminalized is the most ridiculous thing I’ve read in the last 30 mins.
and fill Lawyers pockets with money, add strain to a burdened legal system
“The ceramic sheet is somewhat dangerous to work with because it has such tiny fibers and dust, so he only treats the crucibles when necessary.” not sure if that was there when you read the article but when i read that sentence i heard in my head the words ‘respiratory protection’ shrug
I’ve been building stuff based on his work for a while and can tell you that his design decisions are based in a lot of experience. If you try to build a crucible using one part forms, rather than the multipart ones he uses, you’ll wreck the uncured material trying to get it loose from the forms, and once it’s cured in carbon dioxide, it won’t let go of the forms no matter what you do. So make something like his that you can peel off the carbide. He also has an advantage in having access to fully analog old microwaves. Modern ones work fine but you can’t do the duty cycling he does without some significant control system modifications.
I appreciate that he emphasizes using respirators and does some of his work outside for better ventilation. Watching his previous videos about safety and how he surface treats his insulation system to reduce its dust production is a really good idea.
Why not wet the ceramic fiber to keep down airborne dust? Perhaps wetting it makes the fiber fall apart?
Safety is a good thing. Common sense is also a good thing. But you know, it always seems that on just about any board, forum, blog or chatt place dealing with my chosen hobbies, there’s always this one guy, that’s hobby seems to be to take the fun away from everyone else. A preacher yes, giving sermons on safety, on FCC rules and anything else they can drum up, except what the project is actually about. If we could get him and that guy that knows everything better than the rest of us together, they could solve this planets problems. In a safe way of course.
That guy is why I don’t put safety warnings on anything I publish. I like making that guy mad.