tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10558338862247028202024-03-05T15:23:04.558-08:00Cauliflower LaboratoriesMr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-4010957487649127982016-03-06T18:29:00.001-08:002016-03-09T15:44:07.957-08:00View Camera and a Darkroom in a Small ApartmentAlthough I haven't written about it on this blog yet, I have been an avid (amateur) photographer for many years. I certainly enjoy the conventional artistic side of it, composing and mindfully lighting a beautiful image. But like most things, a lot of my enjoyment also comes out of trying to deeply understand the technical aspects, getting my hands dirty doing as much of the process myself as I can, and mechanically modifying things.<br />
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I of course own a digital camera, but my favorite camera by far is this 5x4" sheet film view camera. Looks old-timey, but I actually bought it manufactured new. Some quick snapshots:<br />
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The basic principle is that you point the camera at a subject, then use knobs to move the entire lens (just that little thing on the very front) to focus, the accordion part expanding or contracting as needed to keep the inside of the camera dark. The frosted / ground glass on the back (with grid, shown) then shows a faint image of whatever you are aiming at, and you can use this to ensure focus is correct. Putting a fabric hood over your head like you often see people doing with camera like this helps see this focusing image better. Disregard the tilting and pivoting of the lens for now, I'll discuss that some other time.</div>
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Once you're happy with your focus and composition, the whole panel with the glass tilts outward as a spring-loaded clamp, and you carefully insert a film holding device (shown below) into the clamp, so that the film holder is now held in between the glass and the body of the camera.<br />
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The film holder is designed so that once the glass panel is clamping it down, the film inside the holder is now positioned precisely as far from the lens as the glass USED to be, so that if the image was in focus when looking at the ground glass, it will be now on the film too.</div>
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The film holder consists of a frame, a central membrane, then then two (usually metal) "slides" with handles at the top. The photos below show modern ones (top, closed, slides in place) and an older one but easier to see the concept (bottom). In a darkroom, you pull a slide out, and feed a piece of film (5" x 4" sheet film, roughly the size of my hand) into guides so it rests against the center membrane. It holds another on the opposite side. Then you put the slide back in, forming a light-tight seal, so it doesn't expose the film once you turn the lights back on and go traveling to a location to shoot.<br />
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Later, when you're ready to shoot, have attained focus, closed the lens diaphragm, and inserted the cartridge, you can then remove the slide, and the film will be exposed to the dark interior of the camera. Now you snap the photo. The lens itself has gears and mechanics and setting knobs on it to select an aperture and a clockwork timed shutter to expose the film for just the right amount of time you've calculated (using a light meter or just experience with lighting and weather). Then put the slide back in protecting your film. Then remove the cartridge and store it to be developed later.<br />
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Holders.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/37/Holders.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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(5x4" film holders, 2 sheets each Jtknowles, wikimedia, public domain)</div>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Large-format-camera_Globus-M_23.jpg/800px-Large-format-camera_Globus-M_23.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/41/Large-format-camera_Globus-M_23.jpg/800px-Large-format-camera_Globus-M_23.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This film has to be developed manually. The developing process conceptually involves only a few simple steps: go somewhere absolutely dark, remove the film from the holder, submerge it in developing chemicals for the right amount of time, rinse with mild acid to stop the developing, then submerge in a fixer chemical, which stabilizes the image and makes it light-insensitive. Rinse again, and dry, and you have a negative.</div>
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There are many interesting details to all this that I will explore in other blog posts: the science and process of how to determine your developing times and chemicals, how to test and calibrate this for a given film, where I got giant sheets of film to begin with, what the tilting and pivoting parts of the camera (80%-90% of its hardware) is for, how to digitize large negatives, etc. etc. For now I'm just going to finish up with a description of my darkroom setup, though.<br />
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I have nothing remotely approaching the space for a dedicated darkroom. I live in a small one bedroom apartment. But you don't really need a dedicated darkroom unless this is your full time job. All you need is a place you can make very dark with chemical resistant surfaces in it. For me, this was my interior bathroom, which has no windows and opens into a hallway:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9TvR0l4ebc2GLRHNBS8NHtHTNYHvyGYz9f-YPbcLZ84qz9WLfSYSpmvBxSQQQdgQs1bxdN6-d54MNekxukehWF-0bH2k3RDEzHVwQRTHj0YV3JxDYJnuCOJhtqW0fO0IdfxUzOEYokele/s1600/IMG_7041_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9TvR0l4ebc2GLRHNBS8NHtHTNYHvyGYz9f-YPbcLZ84qz9WLfSYSpmvBxSQQQdgQs1bxdN6-d54MNekxukehWF-0bH2k3RDEzHVwQRTHj0YV3JxDYJnuCOJhtqW0fO0IdfxUzOEYokele/s640/IMG_7041_b.jpg" width="426" /></a></div>
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Not shown is the doorway, which I sealed with double flaps of painter's tape in opposite directions--one on the frame, one on the door--to force any light to pass through an "S" curve of tape, which stops nearly all of it. I also threw a towel on the bottom of the door for good measure. It is PITCH black in there with the lights off just from that, even after 20-30 minutes of letting your eyes attempt to adjust. Darkness is actually not difficult to achieve.<br />
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Other parts of my setup:</div>
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<b>A)</b> You can see some film holders with film inside ready to develop on the side of the tub. It looks like I only had 4 sheets of film (two cartridges) this session.</blockquote>
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<b>B) </b>Containers of concentrated developer chemical and a jug of DISTILLED water to the left. (I was not using that blender pitcher for anything other than clean water...)</blockquote>
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<b>C) </b>A graduated cylinder for measuring out precise dilutions, and rubber gloves -- developer isn't incredibly dangerous, but safety never hurts. I also wear goggles, and have a fairly strong bathroom vent fan on at all times.</blockquote>
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<b>D) </b>I bought a number of these convenient half liter or so plastic containers. Before turning the lights off, I pre-fill them in order with everything I need. Developer, mild acid wash (just dilute vinegar), fixer, and water, and arrange them on my tray in memorized locations. I also cut small scores into the bottles with a knife that I can feel in the dark with my thumb to identify which chemical was inside.</blockquote>
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<b>E) </b>The actual film I developed in PVC tubing. The inner circumference of this tube size is perfect to hold a curled 5x4" film sheet without overlapping itself. The developed side faces inward. You can see the tube is coated in black duct tape, because even light that gets through solid PVC can be enough to mess with the film if the lights go on or the door opens (like if I need to step out to answer the phone, etc.). The pipe is capped on both ends, caps shown next to it. This long pipe holds two pieces of film in a row.</blockquote>
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<b>F)</b> I have a red lightbulb on the shelf here. It turned out not to be safe for the film to have on constantly, but for parts requiring fine accuracy of pouring, I sometimes flip it on briefly. The book shields the film area from any direct light, so it's only light that bounces that arrives there. Mostly, though, I work in complete darkness with just practiced movements.</blockquote>
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<b>G) </b>A simple piece of twine and some binder clips works great for drying developed film. This is where the DISTILLED water becomes important: tap water won't screw up the chemistry, but it will leave spots of minerals on your film when it's dry, which will show up in the final image. Distilled water leaves nothing behind. The binder clip doesn't mar the image, because the very outside of the film isn't exposed--it's where the holder holds it. You can see this outline edge portion in the example photos further below.</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZcYAyk9mVrlHDBDNymNN92FQOeSAVhsauz8WgB4C7o8MavV10sjB_jBCKjGdaUgd_9kDufohNakIZjRrSu0MGuc-_BNuxTYWhjdLgd0i3K26QeNDNWtmLVdyBjvYsCLmyOsTWpSY6eyB/s1600/IMG_7044.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ZcYAyk9mVrlHDBDNymNN92FQOeSAVhsauz8WgB4C7o8MavV10sjB_jBCKjGdaUgd_9kDufohNakIZjRrSu0MGuc-_BNuxTYWhjdLgd0i3K26QeNDNWtmLVdyBjvYsCLmyOsTWpSY6eyB/s640/IMG_7044.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>
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Darkroom with low intensity red light on</div>
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Again, I'll be putting up several more posts including discussion of how to actually calculate and test developing times and chemicals and all sorts of processing steps, with many examples of the kind of results that come out, but for now, here's one example of a 5x4 developed film photo of a local hydro/gas power plant (inverted in photoshop to a positive image):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YswPbKQyFwp-MthxBGDvM7DES8qjp1q0gKGmvNpisHqddd93av8X3emTblyfs8Ztd6u8rbALCFsWCXnbC1oIGkfMUtfmqAqCwZ3_T_9Hf8CuuFLOO9xEVBLH75uTwboePBVl8go6CDI7/s1600/subsection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="507" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5YswPbKQyFwp-MthxBGDvM7DES8qjp1q0gKGmvNpisHqddd93av8X3emTblyfs8Ztd6u8rbALCFsWCXnbC1oIGkfMUtfmqAqCwZ3_T_9Hf8CuuFLOO9xEVBLH75uTwboePBVl8go6CDI7/s640/subsection.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Notice I added a box in photoshop in the middle. See the top bit of that brick building in the box, with the three prongs sticking out of it with shadows cast from them? You can barely even tell it IS a brick building in the image above. But here's a higher resolution (still not full res! But you can start to see the fuzziness now) detail of a tiny bit of that brick building and one of those prongs:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAcmo6W_jYDcP0K0bn2bGnOTIEGOgGbC_b98kz3tlyc-wny4rk19LgwlxoQB80WKP5b6tkMv8XJQiHNwZt3gSj-LtgQz3pKerDwVJ3Qh9sptqlW1vFQOaKILGqccULv6fBig42dBfui38v/s1600/bricks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAcmo6W_jYDcP0K0bn2bGnOTIEGOgGbC_b98kz3tlyc-wny4rk19LgwlxoQB80WKP5b6tkMv8XJQiHNwZt3gSj-LtgQz3pKerDwVJ3Qh9sptqlW1vFQOaKILGqccULv6fBig42dBfui38v/s640/bricks.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Now suddenly you can review the consistency of the masons' mortaring job on individual bricks... Yeah, large format film is amazing. And this is with a bargain basement $50 or something throwaway lens, too, and film designed to be used in x ray machines, not for fine photography. It could get crisper still with professional materials and equipment. This is also a detail in the center of the image, where most lenses are good. My terrible one I used here gets very soft at the edges, while a high end lens would not.<br />
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One more example photo:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14Mw4dS307TB2NgBO3Qu-oLG7Pf7JUtfukhSmYl5f6Ggf5_JeOY5qAk2PEPA4aI0N1KHBsNJDAEHwG5tcwb060771FjBG57-B89P725J3_i9PSxqlFrMThjKxVSk9EPhron2su_b_Zf8g/s1600/IMG_7064.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj14Mw4dS307TB2NgBO3Qu-oLG7Pf7JUtfukhSmYl5f6Ggf5_JeOY5qAk2PEPA4aI0N1KHBsNJDAEHwG5tcwb060771FjBG57-B89P725J3_i9PSxqlFrMThjKxVSk9EPhron2su_b_Zf8g/s640/IMG_7064.jpg" width="506" /></a></div>
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<br />Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-21920136032220696882015-12-08T19:32:00.003-08:002015-12-08T19:38:26.119-08:00Backstrap Loom WeavingHello again everyone! I am recently finished with my doctoral training and in a new job and back to crafting again. Well... technically, this post's topic of weaving I originally started as a stress-relieving activity <b>during </b>the height of my studies. Weaving is meditative and creates satisfying, well-ordered structure in front of you with minimal mental gymnastics. At least if you're not making any complex fabric.<br />
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"Weaving" probably initially brings to mind images of gigantic, unwieldy, wooden looms taking up half of one's living room. And indeed, if you want the height of industrial efficiency, stylistic freedom, and ease of creating different finishes and textures, that's the way to go. But I was A) poor, B) didn't have 100 square feet to spare, and C) just wanted a relaxing craft activity. So I chose to use backstrap weaving techniques:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmmENUOIGa5Dt_Ctne3wsSFsxajwmlUAIYx857oZ55fC4AavP-bnm4jqL7D0mKOB0C8UI7QGCB2UGwZZ84uJVNysp35stJC4Ft1aB4xIVW2gS1tlPQMZbtjpUIla_FFqt6ImHZfu0HW8h/s1600/Backstrap_loom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVmmENUOIGa5Dt_Ctne3wsSFsxajwmlUAIYx857oZ55fC4AavP-bnm4jqL7D0mKOB0C8UI7QGCB2UGwZZ84uJVNysp35stJC4Ft1aB4xIVW2gS1tlPQMZbtjpUIla_FFqt6ImHZfu0HW8h/s320/Backstrap_loom.jpg" width="288" /></a></div>
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Backstrap weaving (image by Infrogmation, GNFL license)</div>
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Backstrap looms, like the one shown above, are cheap to make, requiring only cords, straps, a series of wooden dowels and slats, and some spare lengths of the same kind of yarn used to weave. The fabric you are making itself holds the loom together otherwise. When not in use, the whole project can be rolled up and stored. While in use, the loom is held together by placing tension on the warp yarns (vertical to the weaver) with your body, leaning back and stretching them between yourself and an anchor point in front of you. Dowels then keep the yarns separated while you weave the weft yarns (horizontal to the weaver) back and forth between. As you finish sections, you partially roll them up on the bar nearest you so that the next section is in reach, and so on until finished.</div>
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I didn't start with anything as ambitious as the woman above's yard-width cloth. I started by making a simple, thin, acrylic yarn strap. Below is a third party technical diagram of a backstrap loom, followed by a photo of my actual homemade one:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-W5Q2rSbN8q6b1K41d_5F1UP24FNW1g8gjDWUY327ANEDwVujXpgo2F3tA0dRUqxw9dH3e9KPDrLJ-2SVDliZX1kPWZCM4QqX7mDhyphenhyphenr3WLavn8lBNu9TY88fLO-NlHhCzZiCtbbTMwWHa/s1600/Andean_culture_history_%25281949%2529_%252818196461581%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-W5Q2rSbN8q6b1K41d_5F1UP24FNW1g8gjDWUY327ANEDwVujXpgo2F3tA0dRUqxw9dH3e9KPDrLJ-2SVDliZX1kPWZCM4QqX7mDhyphenhyphenr3WLavn8lBNu9TY88fLO-NlHhCzZiCtbbTMwWHa/s400/Andean_culture_history_%25281949%2529_%252818196461581%2529.jpg" width="293" /></a></div>
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The warp threads are actually one continuous loop back and forth between the two anchor points of the loom, at the body and the far end. The warp threads can be seen splayed out at (A, furthest from the weaver) in the image. These tend to get tangled on their own, though, so to help prevent this, I made a "cross" (B) in the yarns by weaving a simple stick between every other thread, then weaving another one between the opposite threads (actual cross is between the sticks at B). This forces any tangles to resolve themselves and leave the yarns in order and well-spaced going toward the working section of the loom. To help keep the yarns spread out and untangled, tension is applied by the bar near the body (C), which is attached to a strap around the weaver's back (not shown, though notches are visible for the strap to attach). Two sticks are used here to allow the finished work to be rolled up as progress is made, without unrolling from the tension.<br />
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Then the actual process of weaving involves taking another length of yarn, the weft, and passing it through all the odd numbered yarns, then all the evens going the other way, back and forth. The weft thread is all rolled onto a bobbin (D, I used a knitting needle) so that passing all of it through the warps doesn't take an hour each time. The working edge of this piece of cloth is at (E); you can see where the weft has made it to so far. The stick right at the working edge is used to "beat down" the weft toward the finished cloth after each pass to make it nice and tightly woven.<br />
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How does the weft get between opposite yarns each pass? Well, you could thread it through each time manually, but that would be horrible. Instead, there's a system to quickly shift all the even numbered yarns up and then all the odd ones, quickly and efficiently. The odd numbered yarns are held apart by a nice thick bar (F) at the back of the loom. The even numbered yarns are then each individually tied to little strings ("heddles") that reaches down through the odd yarns, and then attaches above to a stick (G). To raise the odd yarns, the thick bar (F) is moved back and forth and up and down to well separate those yarns, while the heddle strings allow the even yarns to pass below without getting in the way. This creates a triangular space between (the "tent"). The beater stick (E) is placed inside (it is removed and replaced each pass), and flipped on its side to make the tent even bigger. Then the weft bobbin (D) is passed through. The weft is beaten down, and the beater stick removed again. Next, the thick bar (F) is pushed back out of the way, and the stick with all the heddle strings on it (G) is lifted, PULLING all the even-numbered strings through the odd ones so that they are now on top. The beater stick is put in again, the weft bobbin passed the other way. These two phases are repeated over and over again until a cloth is formed. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkIa8zIHcbn4FX0S_SVvei89UfpBbQu1OLmdMORcS2ELh8wciMzIo4Pu7jXclRoKeOgXcPp7gBTU3Pn_dm6D1R3kZDOHMzgZSm3Mjuf9jmyLBB1wEHNh83lL0rcWljglzOv5OBwyEwl4J/s1600/ribbon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqkIa8zIHcbn4FX0S_SVvei89UfpBbQu1OLmdMORcS2ELh8wciMzIo4Pu7jXclRoKeOgXcPp7gBTU3Pn_dm6D1R3kZDOHMzgZSm3Mjuf9jmyLBB1wEHNh83lL0rcWljglzOv5OBwyEwl4J/s1600/ribbon.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Above is the finished result of my first strap. If you look very closely, you can see several characteristic errors made by people who don't know what they're doing. For one thing, one end is about half as wide as the other. This is called "pulling in" and it results from not leaving enough slack in the weft thread as it is woven through the warp. When it gets beaten tight, the weft is crimped, and thus shortens. If there's no slack, this pulls in the sides of the whole cloth, making it progressively narrower. The way to fix this is to leave the weft at a slight angle before beating it tight, so that it is a bit longer than the width of the cloth, leaving room for crimping.<br />
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You can also see that at the edges, the texture changes in places. It becomes more square looking, while the middle of the strap looks hexagonal. This is because the warp yarns at the edges were looser than the ones in the middle. I didn't have even tension across my whole width. Thus, the warp and weft at the edges are about equally tight and pass over one another equally, while the warps in the middle are much tighter than the wefts, so one of them crimps and the other doesn't, leaving the hexagonal look as you can only see one of them. On the sides you see both warp and weft. My next attempt was a lot better:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrOuW1THP-A5KNDPmzS-7s3-gSixZAN3-QvHSv2JE9s-4RlAY9f99An41-7L88AJLUpwvZn71Sp8Aua1IoshLRC4mFyFJJkuT8-B5iauJYRcXQx1HsKCIOxKY4kUkdYDkiZ5fJMytWjAuG/s1600/IMG_6458.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrOuW1THP-A5KNDPmzS-7s3-gSixZAN3-QvHSv2JE9s-4RlAY9f99An41-7L88AJLUpwvZn71Sp8Aua1IoshLRC4mFyFJJkuT8-B5iauJYRcXQx1HsKCIOxKY4kUkdYDkiZ5fJMytWjAuG/s1600/IMG_6458.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here I was making a small patch of a twill fabric (specifically a gabardine). The first strap I made was a "plain weave", over under over under. In a basic twill, instead of having all the odd yarns alternate with the evens, what you do is pass over TWO warp yarns, then under two, then over two... Which two you pass also shifts over every time you send the weft through, like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifm1VoMidF34I5dd582kaPBGrEDQ1vKnsIuD-ZJG1qBz0DronuhREZ3z5bOR72KsC9M6rWSRgTaPdfRpGokXCKfKz6PBNF6mrupzq694qEbeCjd8O65Tm6EYEVst0Fknm8q7zzZPGejhBX/s1600/22twillsm.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifm1VoMidF34I5dd582kaPBGrEDQ1vKnsIuD-ZJG1qBz0DronuhREZ3z5bOR72KsC9M6rWSRgTaPdfRpGokXCKfKz6PBNF6mrupzq694qEbeCjd8O65Tm6EYEVst0Fknm8q7zzZPGejhBX/s1600/22twillsm.png" /></a></div>
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Twill Weave (by Jauncourt, CC Attribution Share-Alike)</div>
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If you imagine counting off every warp thread as 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4... this means that depending on the pass of the weft, you need to variably lift all the 1's and 2's, then next all the 2's and 3's, then 3's and 4's, and finally the 1's and 4's. Four different sets of yarns need to be controlled instead of the two sets for the simple strap I made. This means that I need not just one thick bar and one set of heddle strings, but instead one thick bar and THREE sets of strings. This way, I can achieve all four types of lifted sets of strings. You can see the three different tied sticks in the photo above. This is trickier to set up, but not much trickier to weave. I'm using orange yarn for the warp this time, and red for the weft, so that you can tell them apart later.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMguxS1E5WuMxTlENYbyPO1pX15fohUZuK9eHYR9jFyYFwmZa41JmZEEK0FttB-sKfzVYFXCyPnwUBU6r4-55qKAqkk9Xv3JaQnSNiDZM60Wfmcz5A3a2own-zCSTRoQ8vtACOeknhbpY/s1600/mouseblanketR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVMguxS1E5WuMxTlENYbyPO1pX15fohUZuK9eHYR9jFyYFwmZa41JmZEEK0FttB-sKfzVYFXCyPnwUBU6r4-55qKAqkk9Xv3JaQnSNiDZM60Wfmcz5A3a2own-zCSTRoQ8vtACOeknhbpY/s1600/mouseblanketR.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here's one side of the finished product (above). Notice that you can ONLY see orange. This is a "warp-faced" fabric since on the intended display side (above), you can only see the orange warp yarns. The red wefts are hidden underneath. Notice also that the cloth looks much denser and tighter than the strap earlier. Since the yarns aren't crimping as much as in a plain weave (only every two yarns not every one), more yarns are packed into a square inch than in a plain weave. This makes twills harder-wearing and popular for work clothes and jeans. The tight weave also makes twills more insulating (jeans are generally warmer than linen pants, which use plain weave), and easier to waterproof. Gabardine, the weave I made, is popular as an outer weave for raincoats, for instance.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhddnetYVQW0nxl6fnGHEG0bTeXOybPwvM9XccEWyTaTWHmfj8Z5w71RbHYwcvHWZ5P_o_rbh0g20fftXw9GuKdy3fKpTFEzq45Eef9dWnK9G4DfPVmPrcxUsspf2zTeLUGSlPyYqng5Cji/s1600/mouseblanket.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhddnetYVQW0nxl6fnGHEG0bTeXOybPwvM9XccEWyTaTWHmfj8Z5w71RbHYwcvHWZ5P_o_rbh0g20fftXw9GuKdy3fKpTFEzq45Eef9dWnK9G4DfPVmPrcxUsspf2zTeLUGSlPyYqng5Cji/s1600/mouseblanket.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Here's the back side of the same cloth. On the back, you can see the warp and weft about equally well. This is not the "face" of the cloth, though, so it's still called "warp-faced." Notice that the width doesn't change quite as dramatically as last time, but I still pulled in a bit from start (left) to finish (right). The tension is more even this time. The edges are also more consistent, from repetitive practice.<br />
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Next, I used a mixture of stiff hemp warp strings and soft acrylic weft yarns, and chose a new pattern: a diamond twill. This is a normal twill, but with the pattern simply changing direction in blocks. When tying the warp strings, I changed the pattern partway, and I also changed the direction of which heddles I lifted occasionally while weaving to make the pattern change the other way as well. Here's the loom set up first, followed by a diagram of a diamond twill.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-hmVgvj83JU9UTehk62Am3tqGXIJCLGkJbp6sy6DsebfdninC0QsxwSPC3_DaTVCGwV6YsSU1_94N2MzU1BsbOVYIZru-HE_1dvzqhAobDiVsxPBvd5z_ZFsmPsOhdbnDmU5SGrR_6Ie/s1600/diamondweave.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-hmVgvj83JU9UTehk62Am3tqGXIJCLGkJbp6sy6DsebfdninC0QsxwSPC3_DaTVCGwV6YsSU1_94N2MzU1BsbOVYIZru-HE_1dvzqhAobDiVsxPBvd5z_ZFsmPsOhdbnDmU5SGrR_6Ie/s1600/diamondweave.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dcPt5y24ngacRsxRrzmnirmQyQP5mFGrwpvLbSQily9jTiVsbA9sF_Iqe71Tmo4zBZLPH1EGDUMc117hudDZmLhNPNrTnzlADfZj8o3a5BMLs3qaarGwEqNgN-Tkd6GK61dLd06jWwe8/s1600/diamondDraft.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dcPt5y24ngacRsxRrzmnirmQyQP5mFGrwpvLbSQily9jTiVsbA9sF_Iqe71Tmo4zBZLPH1EGDUMc117hudDZmLhNPNrTnzlADfZj8o3a5BMLs3qaarGwEqNgN-Tkd6GK61dLd06jWwe8/s1600/diamondDraft.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
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If you look closely, this looks just like a normal twill but in smaller "blocks" that flip occasionally.</div>
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Again, this pattern required 4 types of yarn lifts, so a bar + 3 heddles, varying which sets of warp yarns were lifted as I went. The finished product is below, with a bit fancier finishing of the ends. You can see the diamond pattern, though it's not a consistent looking as I'd like. You can see both hemp and red yarn here, because even though it's warp-faced, the yarn is so much bulkier that this balances out the tension visually and keeps them both more equally visible at once. Notice that when I cut the bottom, it by no means immediately unravels. These cloths could definitely be cut to patterns and used in sewing if large enough.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0J0IdhmK0P8rOSUoXkji-qgpgQ_31SZR7GsDgewZAK7ldXuo61-W9uhCxgSZzkHuRlHr091OK_rDznhyphenhyphenwGre3jsQzoe6uXKQlcX5dnMqMkijj_r1OSqnStT2rhrNb7bX9RBxTJWz7YR-a/s1600/diamondswatch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0J0IdhmK0P8rOSUoXkji-qgpgQ_31SZR7GsDgewZAK7ldXuo61-W9uhCxgSZzkHuRlHr091OK_rDznhyphenhyphenwGre3jsQzoe6uXKQlcX5dnMqMkijj_r1OSqnStT2rhrNb7bX9RBxTJWz7YR-a/s1600/diamondswatch.jpg" width="234" /></a></div>
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It takes me about 20 minutes to wind the warp yarns around two pipes in a wooden board and transfer them onto the loom, then anywhere from 30 minutes to hours to tie the heddles depending on complexity and width of the cloth, and about 5 minutes per inch of cloth to weave the weft along. Next up is going to be attempting a much larger piece of fabric, like a dish towel, perhaps. I also want to try out changing the warp and weft colors across the fabric, such as when making a plaid fabric.<br />
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Much fancier and irregular patterns can also be woven into a cloth, like the shapes of animals, but this requires manually "dropping" or "picking up" yarns in violation of the background pattern as you go, and it is very painstaking by comparison to plain fabrics like these.Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-53417020940316998112015-03-18T19:05:00.002-07:002015-03-18T19:05:39.942-07:00Where is Mr. Brassica?! Hello Cauliflower Lab readers!<br /><br />I am Mr. Brassica's assistant. I wanted to let everyone know that Mr. Brassica has had to put his blog projects on hold for the spring in order to complete IRL experiments and publications.<br /><br />He will be back in May or June with new posts.<br /><br />Thank you for your understanding!<br /><br />
-- A.P.<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-69057664483999245752014-12-02T13:12:00.003-08:002014-12-02T13:14:18.699-08:00Making Potash<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"Potash" is a vague term referring to any of a variety of soluble compounds of alkali metals, mostly potassium carbonate, potassium chloride, sodium carbonate, or sodium chloride. All of these compounds can be found in burned plant ashes as a portion of the leftover non-flammable, non-volatile material left after burning.<br />
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I desire potash for one reason: it acts as a flux for silica compounds. I will use this in two different other projects. First, as a <b>glaze for pottery </b>that can melt and seal ceramic items without the underlying item melting, thus allowing me to waterproof earthenware mugs and pots. Second, to lower the melting point of quartz for <b>making glass </b>at reasonable temperatures.</div>
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When you burn things to create ashes, though, a lot of other substances also end up in ashes:<br />
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Iron oxides<br />
silicon oxides</div>
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aluminum oxide</div>
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calcium oxide</div>
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magnesium oxide</div>
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manganese oxide</div>
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phosphorus oxides</div>
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unburned charcoal</div>
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The ratios of these and potash depend on the species burned. Willow wood yields a whopping 50% potash, and very little silicon or aluminum. English oak yields 23% sodium and potassium compounds. Rice husks only provide 1.3% potash, etc. I am using leftover ashes left over after other clay project firings, and I don't know the species. This is bad for achieving a consistent pottery glaze. Later, I will want to source a consistent supply of ash, but right now I'm happy with ANY result.</div>
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The best way to separate our desired potash from the other substances in raw ashes is to exploit potash's solubility. So first, we shovel some ash into a container, (I strained through a cheap spaghetti colander first to get rid of large chunks), flood it with water, and let it sit for a couple of days. It will look like this:</div>
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In the photo, the liquid on top is full of potassium, sodium, hydroxide, and carbonate ions, which we can now pour off into another container for further processing. The solids at the bottom are the non-soluble oxides that would ruin the melting point-lowering properties of the potash.</div>
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<b>Don't get greedy.</b> Don't pour off the liquid before the solids have settled, and stop pouring when you start getting any ashes pouring out. The non-soluble ashes will be counter-productive, because they are highly refractory and will <i>raise</i> the melting temperature of whatever you're making.</div>
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<span style="color: #cc0000; font-weight: bold;">Careful, the poured liquid is highly caustic. It is not a cellular poison in the sense that something like cyanide is, but it will chemically "burn" you (turn your skin into soap) if you get it on you and don't wash it off quickly. Wear eye protection and gloves when pouring, and flush any splashed skin with large amounts of water. Treat this liquid as essentially Drano.</span></div>
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By the way, <b>save the byproduct solid ashes.</b> For two reasons: One, you can refill with water and repeat the process again for more liquid from these several times. Two, once you're all done, the remaining washed ashes are wonderful for making fire bricks for furnace linings, because all the remaining materials are very resistant to heat and have very high melting temperatures.</div>
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Anyway, back to the liquid: letting this air dry is ineffective, because crystals will start covering the water surface and prevent evaporation. Boiling the water off works better. The amount of water you see at the top of the jar poured into a pan and boiled dry yielded this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8vMum9yl6pBDMNcejlo8ilv7CvuhNAesRYj2bV6NNKN_eAd7SigV0SC9HysTMNpQE9P-lgmhSjJbsLU6C8MpTa0CaUeEZVYcE6o0VZQRBtuEZk-wSylajsKSjyAXS3bkY5cAeo1DYaWW/s1600/IMG_3646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8vMum9yl6pBDMNcejlo8ilv7CvuhNAesRYj2bV6NNKN_eAd7SigV0SC9HysTMNpQE9P-lgmhSjJbsLU6C8MpTa0CaUeEZVYcE6o0VZQRBtuEZk-wSylajsKSjyAXS3bkY5cAeo1DYaWW/s1600/IMG_3646.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Again, these crystals are caustic. They will re-dissolve and saponify your skin if you get them on you with any moisture (like sweat). Be careful. That said, I unceremoniously scraped mine off with a spatula. The potash won't ruin your utensils or pot, and you can use them for food later, as long as you VERY thoroughly rinse and wash the potash off first. Tiny trace remnants that remain after going through a dishwasher or a good scrubbing will not hurt you, they are not toxic beyond being strong bases. Think of it like having Drano or bleach in a pot temporarily -- you wouldn't throw out the pot, but you would wash it well before cooking with it.</div>
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At the end of the day I disappointingly ended up with this much potash from one pouring of the container liquid:</div>
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These aren't exactly fluffy white crystals, but that's okay. It might be just that there are several compounds mixed here, so they inhibit one another's crystal formation. Since all of the hydroxides and carbonates are useful, though, this is not a problem. We don't need to separate or purify them individually (also, the crystals are still damp in this photo).</div>
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<b>Don't put the potash on aluminum foil.</b> It will react.<br />
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This is only one pour off the jar of ashes. You should be able to continue getting potash for many pours in a row, leave a day or two between each one, until you stop getting justifiable returns. My second pour-off a couple of days later yielded about 75% as much as the first, for example.</div>
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The potash will lower the melting point of clay it is mixed with. So when mixed with crumbled dry clay, ground up, mixed with water, painted onto a piece of ceramic, and left to dry, the surface mixture will melt sooner than the underlying clay piece, creating a glaze. I will cover this topic in more detail in a future blog post, but I have already achieved early success in using my potash to make glaze. The black corner of the right side piece in this photo is vitreous glaze made with the above crystals and clay powder. If/when I can cover a whole piece with successful glazing like this, I will be able to make waterproof items:<br />
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Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-82059835773671111882014-11-09T11:56:00.002-08:002014-11-10T14:36:17.677-08:00Homebrew Pottery - Firing local clay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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SO! I have now <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/07/finding-and-refining-local-clay.html">found some local clay</a> and I have figured out the best amount of <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/08/tempering-local-clay.html">tempering</a> to use. I also mixed up my pure clay with some different additives <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/09/creating-homemade-refractory-bricks.html">for the purposes</a> that I wanted.<br />
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Now it's time to fire the clay into true ceramic! Several processes are involved, but mainly, the firing process mainly drives out water (only some water evaporates, and the rest is physically trapped or chemically bound), burns off organic material, changes the crystal structure of quartz components ("quartz inversion"), and sinters particles together.<br />
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My "kiln" at the moment is nothing but a Weber grill. The temperatures on the rack where you would normally put food only get up to maybe 600-800 degrees, but by completely burying clay wares in charcoal, the temperatures can get up to the roughly 1800+ degrees needed to begin to make true, low-fire earthenware ceramics (bisque temperature). The whole heating process needs to proceed SLOWLY. For more information, google "firing schedules." Details are beyond the scope of this blog, unless people are interested.<br />
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I'm firing simple bricks for now, to be used later as kiln components for a proper homemade ceramic kiln. The orange bricks in the photos are ones I fired earlier, and have painted with a homemade ash glaze as test pieces for glazing. This is simply part <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/06/making-potash.html">potash</a> and part local clay, mixed with water and painted onto the pieces then left to dry in place. You can see the grayish ash on top of them (see future blog posts for more details).<br />
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First, I heat up the bricks around the outside of the grill, as the coals are lighting. This very gently brings them up to ~150 degrees over the course of half an hour to an hour, driving out as much water as possible without creating expanding steam that might crack the pieces:</div>
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Next, I move the bricks into hotter and hotter zones, eventually leading to a pile in the middle. This brings them closer to maybe 400 degrees, driving out the last bits of chemically bound water.</div>
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I remove the grill and very quickly (lest the pieces start cooling off) add more fresh charcoal to the fire to make a nice bed. I pile the pieces back on top of the new charcoal bed and leave them there for maybe another half an hour or so. You can see in one of the photos below that open flames are visible from organics burning off, and the bits of grass are charring away. this is somewhere between probably 600-1000 degrees. </div>
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I did this part too quickly still and caused some black charred-looking areas, which is a sign of too little oxygen and too quick of organic fuel consumption (it has to do with the iron in the clay body reducing), but oh well, lesson learned for next time.</div>
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Once most of the organics looked burned off, I covered the pieces entirely with a layer of lump charcoal. This decreases oxygen access, so AS SOON AS POSSIBLE they need to have a forced airflow added to them at this point, or further "black coring" will occur, which is bad for your clay. I had a box fan pointed at the fire when I did it at this point, but this was probably not enough.</div>
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The upper charcoal is lighting, and you can see the red-hot core of the inside part of the grill where the pieces are. Open flames are still visible, but at this point I wouldn't be too concerned about it being organic material, it's probably just the charcoal itself. This is dull to cherry red glow around 1500 degrees maybe at this point:</div>
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The firing continued into the evening hours. The internal temperature is now sufficient to create bright red to orange hot ceramic pieces inside, as you can see in the photo where I briefly lifted the lid off to show a brick inside. This bright orange to almost yellow glow is probably somewhere around 1800 (+?) degrees. During this time, I was blowing air into the fire from a squirrel cage electric powered fan, positioned underneath through the ash collection hole, firing oxygen up through the fire. I got lazy and was inconsistent with this, but it really should have been going continuously, all the way until the fire burned down, if I wanted the strongest pieces. Since I let it go without forced air for awhile, it further reduced more of my clay's iron and made the pieces more brittle than they should have been.</div>
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This temperature was held for maybe another hour or so, adding charcoal as necessary. After that, I let it die down on its own all the way until cool (several hours). Then I removed the bricks and took the photo you see below. The bricks have been successfully made into true ceramic, with their oxidized iron components giving them a familiar brick hue. The especially light color is no doubt due to the sand mixture I added.</div>
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The gray/black spots you see are reduced iron from me being impatient with my firing schedule and not using enough forced oxygen. These reduce the strength and effectiveness of the bricks and are to be avoided.</div>
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Generally, the bricks were very brittle, probably too brittle to use. Not just from black coring, but from probably using too much sand and grass clippings in the mixture. Just from touching them, it is OBVIOUS though that they have huge insulation value. The bricks are very lightweight and very porous from the burned away grass, almost like pumice. All those tiny air pockets make them more effective at insulation, at the expense of fragility. These need a higher percentage of clay overall, because the balance is too far toward fragility, but it's a minor recipe tweak.</div>
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The other three pieces were ones that were fired earlier, and simply had glaze applied to them. You can see how they hold specific shapes much better and have little or no porosity, because these pieces were 100% clay in composition (on the inside/main body). You can also see how they are redder in color due to higher iron content when sand and grass are not mixed in.</div>
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The glazing experiment was a partial success. From left to right in the image below, glaze mixtures with a lower ratio of clay slip to potash are shown. The highest clay content on the left strangely seemed to have burned away completely, or perhaps got scraped off by accident, this one is confusing. The other two are as expected: the medium mixture in the middle looks like I just painted more earthenware right onto the block. This is no true glaze, and won't help to keep water out, etc. But the high-potash content piece on the right shows signs of JUUUUUST beginning to form an actual glaze in the upper left, and a near-glaze (white) elsewhere. The black corner is actual glass, and is proper, waterproof glazing!</div>
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Getting the whole piece to be consistently covered will require a combination of just a slightly thicker coat of glaze painted on, a couple hundred more degrees of temperature, and probably more potash in the recipe. The more potash you add, the lower the glassifying temperature, but the more fragile and likely to crack (and harbor bacteria) the glaze is, so this is a careful balancing act, but I feel confident now that an actual waterproof glazed mug is within my abilities!</div>
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Next steps include making a more proper kiln with insulative lining to get hotter temperatures, adding better airflow and oxygen control throughout the process, and fixing the glaze and brick recipes.</div>
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<br />Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-63075578261047615032014-10-27T14:23:00.000-07:002016-03-06T22:23:25.336-08:00Geology Simulator -- Minerology and Petrology Systems<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/09/geovox-geology-simulator-for-game-worlds.html">Part 1 of this series here!</a></div>
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<a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.co.uk/p/index-by-category.html">Links to all posts organized by topic here!</a></div>
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In this post, I outline how the world will keep track of rocks, minerals and their properties, and why. I had to take a detour from plate tectonics to at least <b>think </b>about this issue, in order to make certain early database decisions. And by "think" I mean "read several textbooks" (well no not yet, but I'm most of the way through one!):<br />
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Unlike a game like Minecraft, I don't want to store my material information in terms of only distinct categories with a small set of ID numbers. Whenever possible, I want to store C<b>ONTINUOUS </b>information about things like chemical makeup, so that rocks for the most part vary smoothly and gradually across the world. ...Unless there's some reason for them not to, like in the case of a sudden magma tube or a fault line.<br />
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If I DID keep track of a fixed number of categorical rock types and then looked up their chemistry, it would lead to sudden, jarring jumps in rock types out of nowhere. These sudden jumps would then get worse over time as plates moved around and erosion occurred. It would also cause chemicals to pop in and out of existence, because if you change from potassium rich categories to potassium poor, the potassium just goes poof, which violates conservation of matter. If instead I keep track of element and mineral concentrations and then look up what type of rock it is if and when I need to name it, these problems don't happen.<br />
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<b>These are all granite!</b> </div>
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Yet as you might imagine, they have very different properties,<br />
ores, etc. One named category covers a lot of continuous ground<br />
that I don't want to miss out on!</div>
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There are a couple major problems with this continuous approach, though. One, it adds up to a lot more memory space than a cheap little ID number (Minecraft style). I've run some test simulations that simply populate the world with goxels that have all the information, and it was already pushing 1.5 gigabytes or so with just a medium size world, just sitting there (I'm trying to stay within 2 gigs for 32 bit users).<br />
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The other problem is even more pressing: I don't know how to guess a material's hardness, for example, from scratch (unlike chemistry, see later in this post). Hardness is an example of a number that depends on complex things like crystal structure and bond strengths that I couldn't possibly keep track of reasonably.<br />
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To kill both birds with one stone, I will put things like hardness in pre-supplied text files for index rocks (that I look up in books), then on program startup, interpolate between those reference points for rocks in between and store this in lookup tables. Later I can go grab the interpolated numbers during simulation whenever I need them. So we have two types of data: the goxel and the lookup table type:</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">DATA DIVISION </span></u></div>
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<b>Data Type 1, Information we can carry around in each goxel</b></div>
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<li>Whether it is a rock at all -- goxels can be rocks, or other kinds of things like liquids, gases, biological data holders, sediments, and so on. Those things reinterpret the data below as they need, instead of wastefully keeping additional space in memory that would usually be empty.</li>
<li>Rock class -- igneous extrusive and intrusive, sedimentary, metamorphic.</li>
<li>Rock subclass -- clastic, chemical, and biological sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks that keep track of their different original rock sources.</li>
<li>Chemical makeup -- relative proportions of ~20 geologically relevant elements in the goxel.</li>
<li>Texture -- i.e. whether the rock is made up of finer or coarser grains (several levels)</li>
<li>Highest temperature reached in the past (for metamorphic rocks)</li>
<li>Highest pressure reached in the past (for metamorphic rocks)</li>
<li>Current temperature</li>
<li>Current pressure</li>
<li>How much rock there is left, out of one full goxel -- keeps track of erosion having removed material.</li>
<li>How cracked and broken down the rock is -- this accelerates weathering, and acts as a path for aquifers and mineral veins and magma, etc. Also, if it reaches the maximum value (gravel sized bits), the goxel becomes a sediment goxel.</li>
<li>The identities and proportions of the few most prevalent rock-building minerals (special subset of minerals) that we have determined are currently in a solid goxel.</li>
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by Marie-Lan Nguyen</div>
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<b>Data Type 2, Information we look up from centralized reference sources only as needed</b></div>
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<li>Name of the NEAREST rock category for human flavor (not geologically important)</li>
<li>Melting point</li>
<li>Chemical resistance -- to weathering</li>
<li>Hardness -- grinding resistance</li>
<li>Mechanical resistance other than hardness -- bending, pulling, etc.</li>
<li>Thermal expansion coefficient -- influences cracking in temperature cycles.</li>
<li>Porosity -- High porosity creates vulnerability to frost and salt wedging even in solid rock.</li>
<li>Density -- affects how heavy a goxel is for floating on the mantle.</li>
<li>Specific heat -- affects thermodynamic calculations, of course.</li>
<li>Individual properties of constituent minerals.</li>
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Most of the things in Type 1 are <b>used often</b>, <b>can't be categorized validly</b>, and <b>can plausibly be condensed down</b> into compact shorthand formats. Temperature, for example: we don't need to know the temperature of everything down to a degree. So for example I can actually store temperature more like just "steps of 100 degrees C at a time, covering only ranges relevant to rocks melting."<br />
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On the other hand, the things in Type 2 are there because they <b>are used rarely</b> and/or they <b>change nonlinearly</b> or in complex ways. But what do we do if we need to know a goxel's melting point right now? We use lookup tables to figure it out on the fly!<br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">ROCK IDENTIFICATION AND INTERPOLATION </span></u></div>
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The basic idea here is to choose the few critical variables for classifying rock types from amongst the stuff carried around by goxels, then make big tables of all the different possible combinations of those variables that hold the other data we want, just like we want it, ready to quickly read off.<br />
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Actual, known rocks are read from user text files (there will be defaults) placed at their respective reference positions in the tables. Then the remaining spots are all interpolated between their reference neighbors. So a spot 1/3 of the way from granite to diorite will store values averaged between those on file for granite and diorite, biased toward granite.<br />
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This is all calculated once at startup, using user-customizable entries in a text file for the reference rocks. This means that if you want to add your own rocks, you just say where, and the algorithm will automatically blend those properties into the local neighborhood when you start the program up. Then your new rock type will appear exactly where you would expect it to in your world at the very end, procedurally.<br />
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We can't just have one big dumb lookup table for everything, because it would take up like 20 gigabytes or something. But that's okay, because many dimensions are mutually exclusive anyway. Rocks formed in different environments can be delegated to their own smaller tables. Basically we end up with a flowchart of smaller tables that add up to only small peanuts of storage:<br />
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Some example reference rocks are listed by number on the chart above. You do need one rock type at least for each box, but after that, it's up to you how densely to fill in the space. For example, let's consider three versions of just the Igneous lookup table, with different reference rocks:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPmQYi0soC1EwXErtv9vk-ECRijUhdDtULakAjmNVGF-zo8MtbUXx7B-0EPH3SvX2u05lQVvqKTHTsixyOR-3NxVayklXekCrV4mqeNJpa2v0b98bmvxCwjGgBk0bIDslmqwNc2MOsJwJ/s1600/Lookup.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtPmQYi0soC1EwXErtv9vk-ECRijUhdDtULakAjmNVGF-zo8MtbUXx7B-0EPH3SvX2u05lQVvqKTHTsixyOR-3NxVayklXekCrV4mqeNJpa2v0b98bmvxCwjGgBk0bIDslmqwNc2MOsJwJ/s1600/Lookup.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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If you only have granite in that category in the custom text files, the game will treat all igneous rocks as identical to granite and call them all granite at the end. If you have granite and basalt, it will name some rocks one and some the other, with the dotted line showing the naming cutoff. The smooth color transition represents in-between rock material properties averaged across the space for in-between goxels. Adding in andesite makes the space more complex, and so on.</div>
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By having these tables precalculated, looking up information is very quick. Find your table, then look up your exact coordinates and just read the data off. There is no need for calculating distances or averaging any values during the actual simulation. The time saved this way should make up for the time calculating the tables many many times over, and goxels don't have to store as much info, either.</div>
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...So that's how we look up whole <b>rocks</b>, but I also mentioned <b>minerals</b>. What are those, exactly, and why do they also matter?<br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">MINEROLOGY -- VERY BASICS</span></u></div>
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Rocks are usually just mixtures of a finite set of minerals. Minerals are consistent substances with specific chemical formulae that will tend to form crystals or other reliable formations. Granite has no chemical formula. If you look at a chunk of granite, you can clearly see different distinctly colored regions. Each of these is a coarse grained crystal of one of a variety of pure (or at least homogenous) minerals:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7MHdUojia8taoM5DV87d-ftRxId23KgoB5uOlXKD7rXLkbgXE8c9CSfuSaZKqSVAoqi3Q5-hgyA2WmSahKyJp2B4PpdpA9SII_aK3tEX6XbiWV1HtBBd80u771EsVPa4dMfwW7oJivtZq/s1600/granite+macro+by+Friman+cc+by+sa+3_0.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7MHdUojia8taoM5DV87d-ftRxId23KgoB5uOlXKD7rXLkbgXE8c9CSfuSaZKqSVAoqi3Q5-hgyA2WmSahKyJp2B4PpdpA9SII_aK3tEX6XbiWV1HtBBd80u771EsVPa4dMfwW7oJivtZq/s1600/granite+macro+by+Friman+cc+by+sa+3_0.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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by Friman <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-BY-SA-3.0</a></div>
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In the case of this piece of granite, the pinkish crystals are probably some sort of feldspar, the white ones are quartz, and the black ones are either amphibole or biotite minerals. If you look much more closely, the crystals become quite striking in how distinct they are (not the same sample):</div>
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by Thomas Bresson <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-BY-SA-3.0</a></div>
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Why are these minerals so separated? Because granite is a rock formed by very <b>slow </b>cooling of magma trapped beneath the surface. As the magma passes gradually through different temperature ranges, specific minerals have a lot of time to crystallize out of solution all by themselves, because hotter crystallizing minerals already left solution and cooler ones aren't in range yet. And its different minerals don't blend very well, because they have different crystal structures. So all the crystals of each type end up relatively large and distinct.<br />
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By contrast, a rock that cools very quickly does not have visibly sized crystals, or has very small ones. This rhyolite rock below is probably almost chemically identical to the pink granite shown above, but cooled much more quickly (at the surface, in an eruption):<br />
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by Michael C. Rygel <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/">CC-BY-SA-3.0</a></div>
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Do I really care whether rock looks coarse or fine? Well no, I don't care how they LOOK, because I'm not modeling visual textures. But I do care VERY much about crystallization and minerals in general, for a few reasons. <b>All of the reasons revolve around the same theme of minerals influencing how chemical elements move around in non-homogenous ways</b>:<br />
<ol>
<li>Different minerals are more or less stable against erosion and weathering. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowen%27s_reaction_series">Generally</a>, heavier minerals that form deeper down (like olivine) tend to be less stable at the surface than lighter minerals that form closer to the surface (like quartz). So olivine will weather away into small clays quickly, and quartz will weather more slowly into larger grains of sand. These then get separated out by wave actions, for example, and form their own entirely different types of sediments (shales and sandstones) in physically distant locations. Entire landscapes depend on different minerals eroding away at different rates!</li>
<li>If crystals are already tinier than sand, then they won't probably erode into sand, for example. This compounds with #1 above.</li>
<li>Crystallization of minerals from magma (and melting into magma in reverse) can have <b>profound </b>consequences for distribution of chemistry in the planet. Crystals can sink in their magma as they form, as just one example, which can concentrate heavy minerals lower down and concentrate lighter ones on top. <i>This is no less important than the main driving force behind continents forming and persisting over eons!</i></li>
<li>Metamorphic rocks are partially a result of the shape and texture of rocks changing with temperature and pressure, but also partially a result of constituent minerals destabilizing and re-crystallizing in new forms with depth and heat. The minerals, not just a bag of loose elements, matter.</li>
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The erosion parts (#1-2) are pretty simple. Erosion just simply pays attention to minerals and then moves sediments in a biased fashion based on their properties, no big deal. The metamorphic issue (#4) I am going to ignore for now, because metamorphism isn't as important early on in my project. The crystallization (#3 above) is a lot more complicated and also important sooner, for igneous rocks:<br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">IGNEOUS CRYSTALLIZATION</span></u></div>
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Crystallization can happen in a lot of different ways, and depending on which way it happens, it can make a huge difference for geology. There's three main variables as far as I understand it so far: </div>
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<li>How many substances are present</li>
<li>Hwo well they form a solid solution. This means a solid that can substitute ions out of its structure somewhat freely. Alloys of metals are solid solutions, but mineral crystals can be too. Usually this happens when two minerals have similar crystal structures except for a substitution of one element... often in the same element series, such as calcium <--> magnesium. The different ions can diffuse in and out and essentially "dissolve" two types of crystals together. If a solid solution <b>doesn't</b> form, you'll get different distinct crystals next to each other instead.<br /><br />Solid solutions are on a continuum, based on how WELL ions diffuse in a given situation. From perfectly, to not at all. Also, what matters is ACTUAL diffusion. Rate of cooling or density of crystals can get in the way even if a solid solution / diffusion would have occurred eventually otherwise. So "low diffusion" can mean "chemically won't ever diffuse" or it can mean "would if it could but cooled too quickly" or it can mean "Crystals sank and aren't physically there anymore to diffuse into even if they would have qualified."</li>
<li>Whether each crystal is heavier or lighter or the same density as the remaining liquid after crystallizing.</li>
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These can combine in different ways to yield very different outcomes. Below is a <b>very simple</b> (I know it doesn't look like it!) phase diagram and some outcomes from it in different situations:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFCagMt_u4QhjBuMKKFiDkw9f_szX_N0tph-Y_rpC1xRzXfM_a5Wt3adfM37O64jfYihSopk-x71pOwH37bFXdcZxwYceusm_Y7yyU_iHX0kDPh7g-n3ClGkepkpnbpySijF7yLwtvzYR/s1600/Phases.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvFCagMt_u4QhjBuMKKFiDkw9f_szX_N0tph-Y_rpC1xRzXfM_a5Wt3adfM37O64jfYihSopk-x71pOwH37bFXdcZxwYceusm_Y7yyU_iHX0kDPh7g-n3ClGkepkpnbpySijF7yLwtvzYR/s1600/Phases.png" width="482" /></a></div>
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Okay, so the graph is a diagram of how two substances will crystallize (or melt in the other direction) based on temperature in different mixtures. On extreme left or right, you have pure substance A or B, and melting or freezing happens at a single point: the melting points. In the middle, you have a slurry phase, where the substances are crystallizing together not all at once.</div>
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Given example initial composition M, as the temperature lowers: T(ime)0 will be pure liquid. T1 is when the first crystals begin to form, where it intersects the "liquidus line." At T2, we are in slurry form. At T3 OR T4 (depending if A and B can form solid solution together), everything has crystallized.</div>
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The circles lower in the diagram outline different chemical situations:</div>
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<u>The top situation</u> </div>
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...has good ion diffusion and equal densities of everything, and the solid is a solid solution. Crystals are distinct temporarily, but eventually, ions diffuse evenly through the substance and the final solid is homogenous again, just like the liquid. (Sapphires are another example of this -- iron "dissolved" in a solid solution of corundum)</div>
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<u>The middle situation</u> </div>
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...shows low solid diffusion and crystals that sink, but the materials can still form a solid solution at freezing time. As you can see, you end up with a "sunset" chemical gradient from the top to the bottom of the lava chamber. <b>This is largely responsible for continents existing: the lighter weight crystals are less dense and concentrate on top, and thus top rocks float better on the mantle than the rock they came from.</b></div>
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<u>The bottom situation</u> </div>
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...shows non-solid-solution (immiscible) crystal forms that do not sink or float very well, and it forms a patchwork of different solid crystals that looks like, say, granite.</div>
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The phase diagrams can get more complicated. In the following diagram, there is a solid mixture that is only a solid solution on the sides, and converts to distinct crystals in the middle., depending on concentrations of each substance and temperature. You also end up with two different sets of slurry curves, and a center "eutectic point" where both crystals form at once:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFm0QEErBuq0onDSMliQBttsJPkdr5QUJZGGuHMyqvqTK57MY2AsK0KQWcqt7RwDaVJS79R6sJ__jdlQViAxtDTb5C8SDvLVa8yqTsk6DuR6iVykCNVQGXaOQ5fTqswOJZb1Y337pveF3/s1600/eutecticb.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqFm0QEErBuq0onDSMliQBttsJPkdr5QUJZGGuHMyqvqTK57MY2AsK0KQWcqt7RwDaVJS79R6sJ__jdlQViAxtDTb5C8SDvLVa8yqTsk6DuR6iVykCNVQGXaOQ5fTqswOJZb1Y337pveF3/s1600/eutecticb.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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You can also have situations with more than two substances present, in which case the curves become planes instead, and you have more of a triangular prism (in the case of three substances here):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBRT7wDibHRNtNiV58mDlddIIANXv3Cqa3gEDJOIjRG9f9foDhMH-K2pb9j-ZNlYFYHckT1JkEQHwVgJnKwO-yf8VolXKpMuiO9nYvZYuor5ttQbtizGLdTOZQG95EjcWkLHUajaAujvM/s1600/eutectic3d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBRT7wDibHRNtNiV58mDlddIIANXv3Cqa3gEDJOIjRG9f9foDhMH-K2pb9j-ZNlYFYHckT1JkEQHwVgJnKwO-yf8VolXKpMuiO9nYvZYuor5ttQbtizGLdTOZQG95EjcWkLHUajaAujvM/s1600/eutectic3d.jpg" width="274" /></a></div>
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Start at some triple composition of A, B, and C near the top. Cool down gradually, following</div>
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a path as if a ball were rolling down the hills. When on one planar surface, only</div>
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crystallize that substance. When on a middling ridge, crystallize two. </div>
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At the bottom point (Eabc), crystallize all 3 until solid.</div>
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Add in a whole bunch more materials, pressure as a variable, and the need to use shortcut formats since you can't draw an 8-dimensional space, and it gets almost incomprehensibly complicated and difficult to interpret by eye:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLNemPaft9BIIxXH7GNYQcYvbei5Md0Ux6z2pZXQdNRONJ-qJUxGN8h7y1_ReTkwWwIZ6_DWVf5lKXWczkYQKI954w52qKpTGdET0qBoP3xb_dUDjjy90Ixg1hqZHfL03j-P0F-eS21Jtz/s1600/mineral+phases+overlaid.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLNemPaft9BIIxXH7GNYQcYvbei5Md0Ux6z2pZXQdNRONJ-qJUxGN8h7y1_ReTkwWwIZ6_DWVf5lKXWczkYQKI954w52qKpTGdET0qBoP3xb_dUDjjy90Ixg1hqZHfL03j-P0F-eS21Jtz/s1600/mineral+phases+overlaid.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhetkhxwdT_P847w76Vf3_9ue30sezZxB7fTT2N3hotLV2UazFHt0Cmxay6UaPhX-sKUnAVzA4DlMKB5FV-8YLMpkuXTVJ9UjzX2IydM4X3HWMvWn6NRfhfUXP-m0nxWD1DwZHE1o-vlVgp/s1600/F7.large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhetkhxwdT_P847w76Vf3_9ue30sezZxB7fTT2N3hotLV2UazFHt0Cmxay6UaPhX-sKUnAVzA4DlMKB5FV-8YLMpkuXTVJ9UjzX2IydM4X3HWMvWn6NRfhfUXP-m0nxWD1DwZHE1o-vlVgp/s1600/F7.large.jpg" width="242" /></a><br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">SIMULATING CRYSTALLIZATION</span></u></div>
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The good news is that <b>I don't think all this is actually that hard to code, at the end of the day! </b></div>
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<b>First </b>of all, I can simply restrict the crystallization calculations to be limited to 3 substances, so a triangular prism is the most complicated we can get. The goxels keep track of their 3 most prevalent minerals to aid in this. This is good enough for tons of realism.</div>
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<b>Second</b>, there are a limited number of common situations that occur. I showed you a simple binary phase diagram, and a "eutectic" diagram (the two-lobed one), for example. There are only 8 or so normal types of diagrams like these, all similar to one another. I could code explicit instructions for each, without having to have a program interpret diagrams procedurally. I'll actually probably start out with just the 2 or 3 most common situations, and even that might be good enough.</div>
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<b>Third</b>, the program doesn't have to consider full 2-D or 3-D diagrams. It only needs to know the equations for the curves or planes, because that's where things actually matter. Thus, all this data takes up very little space and it is actually pretty quick and easy to work with. The rules are also the same for 1,2, or 3 dimensions, just pasting in a Y or Z variable as needed basically (sort of like a Euclidean distance equation).</div>
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<b>Fourth</b>, I don't need to have actual correct data for curves!! I will want to know which minerals actually form solid solutions and so on, but getting the actual curves exact is totally unnecessary. I can just encode the true melting points of different substances, and then have the program guesstimate a reasonable "almond shape" for the slurry phases, and nobody will be able to tell. I'm confident the geology will look fine at the end, at least that's how I'm going to write draft 1.</div>
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<b>Fifth</b>, I don't even need curves at all. I can estimate a curve as even just 2 or 3 flat lines or flat planes, and it will probably be good enough, and much faster to calculate and code up. So instead of almond zones, we will have polygons.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa3ibZWeyHpj7B6tWrDaymfSjgdlUkj5ZCJ9_1-qEFXHD-u9Vb7DwesQZRjJkDFZBySX03BaAwcs3ShN2KoKg7crk5QK1aTToU_Y3UHeKPIAOEheBRYFeVwgt8SAd8Sw4c5DChzdIjNXN/s1600/model+phases.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa3ibZWeyHpj7B6tWrDaymfSjgdlUkj5ZCJ9_1-qEFXHD-u9Vb7DwesQZRjJkDFZBySX03BaAwcs3ShN2KoKg7crk5QK1aTToU_Y3UHeKPIAOEheBRYFeVwgt8SAd8Sw4c5DChzdIjNXN/s1600/model+phases.png" /></a></div>
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AND this diagram is only for your benefit.</div>
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<b>The program just sees it as a list of simple information, such as:</b></div>
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0% B, slope = 0.7, liquidus</div>
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30% B, slope = 0.6, liquidus</div>
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70% B, slope = 0.1, liquidus</div>
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0% B, slope = 0.2, solidus</div>
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30% B, slope = 0.65, solidus</div>
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70% B, slope = 1.3, solidus</div>
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Melting point A = 21</div>
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Ion diffusion = 45%</div>
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Density A = 16 solid, 14 liquid</div>
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Density B = 20 solid, 15 liquid</div>
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Any elements / chemicals that get left out of the crystallization calculations? They are treated much more simply. For example, heavier ones might tend to sink a bit between goxels and lighter ones float up, but otherwise, whenever the crystallization is done, leftovers just get locked in, in an abstract sense, in that goxel. Rare ores and gems can wait to be calculated until the end of simulation.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">NEXT</span></u></div>
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Anyway, that was a LOT of information! And still no demo code! This stuff is going more slowly than I hoped, and I keep running into side issues, but the tectonics and the functional demo march ever closer even in the meantime.</div>
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<b>In my next post, I promise I'll have a down and dirty demo of simple tectonics in action!</b><br />
(Update: Promise completely broken, but I do still plan to get back to this.)</div>
Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-3693228568171704162014-10-19T12:06:00.000-07:002014-10-19T12:07:13.040-07:00Acetone Vapor Baths for Smoothing 3D Printed Objects<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Recently for my job, we've been developing some 3-D stimuli for children's psychology experiments. We found a 3-D printing service for rent at the university, and it works great, but the texture on the finished pieces is a bit distracting. In our case in particular, weird object textures might actually affect experimental results. We want to make the texture smoother, but without spending hours with sandpaper. So we decided to try out an acetone vapor bath solution.</div>
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This is what the initial texture looks like from my university 3-D printing service. It holds decent detail, but the lines of plastic laid down are still visible, and that texture is going to show through even if painted.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJTbYuYxjD-kiOJ3pIuAc4PZv96_muAsH8FHNCKpooz9kUomlywxU9CBt2jW932o9tLbisEI2XjsCRVzeN7_d9SXnD6_JrYLVZkepP3RlgA0V-qZYWXlX6TgI7yr21-kZIOeFdgWASobG/s1600/initial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzJTbYuYxjD-kiOJ3pIuAc4PZv96_muAsH8FHNCKpooz9kUomlywxU9CBt2jW932o9tLbisEI2XjsCRVzeN7_d9SXnD6_JrYLVZkepP3RlgA0V-qZYWXlX6TgI7yr21-kZIOeFdgWASobG/s1600/initial.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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We can address this by exposing the piece to acetone vapor, which melts / reacts with the ABS plastic the 3-D printer uses, leaving a glassy finish. You can see the basic setup below. A large mason jar has a couple of tablespoons of acetone in the bottom of it. It is then also sitting in a hot water bath, which inceases the vapor pressure and speeds the reaction. I microwaved my water until it was boiling. The piece was then suspended from the lid inside the jar to bathe in the acetone vapors without touching the liquid directly:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaFwrhoShMsX6X23XYduiS74ZWXw9YE28eC4-mRoTjpTExzptb3Ov93OjTdmNC47UMB-AQkbyFdYzbrPfIJS15IfN3VysYIrBkUptjIhQl_BUJVMj_sKCMzCU46OuURftyVxKmZw81dq3M/s1600/prejar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaFwrhoShMsX6X23XYduiS74ZWXw9YE28eC4-mRoTjpTExzptb3Ov93OjTdmNC47UMB-AQkbyFdYzbrPfIJS15IfN3VysYIrBkUptjIhQl_BUJVMj_sKCMzCU46OuURftyVxKmZw81dq3M/s1600/prejar.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgjCg_bAN_rZmQ1YagVfJzSl2sL9pBwtBD_Ff1ptZ2DOFd9ZOYeUmhD68KLp-7H3wDx-1Up-hqIStcmjxPMSWHPDugs-7leLPm9WZTvo4xMRSQjIfSDt7UsgJ_SHfHSuQAC67D_nLy-I0/s1600/jar+setup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgjCg_bAN_rZmQ1YagVfJzSl2sL9pBwtBD_Ff1ptZ2DOFd9ZOYeUmhD68KLp-7H3wDx-1Up-hqIStcmjxPMSWHPDugs-7leLPm9WZTvo4xMRSQjIfSDt7UsgJ_SHfHSuQAC67D_nLy-I0/s1600/jar+setup.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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It is very important that an airtight seal be achieved, one that is strong enough to withstand pressure inside the jar. In the above images, I was trying to use some paint to seal the gap where the screw goes through, but that didn't really work. Later I tried a similar setup with clay as a sealant, and it worked perfectly. This following setup also worked, using super glue, although I don't know how it will stand up long term to the acetone (I switched to clay after just two runs):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlbPYS9styf15tDTD-rDcta7XkpFhDrTTQPyxw8Eaj_zDjWJQlMx0hHpPxwkDKFCspR4Pa922m9YVZaBkkdjjYJ0NGWITq-TPmdUcgDQGswfb0v8l90l5CvAR2zJUstqT4pUcoen_a1ok/s1600/lid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBlbPYS9styf15tDTD-rDcta7XkpFhDrTTQPyxw8Eaj_zDjWJQlMx0hHpPxwkDKFCspR4Pa922m9YVZaBkkdjjYJ0NGWITq-TPmdUcgDQGswfb0v8l90l5CvAR2zJUstqT4pUcoen_a1ok/s1600/lid.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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The yarn here is wool. If it were acrylic yarn, there's a pretty good chance it would have melted in the acetone fumes and dropped my piece into the drink. Paper clip chains would have worked, too. Double check that everything in your jar is acetone-proof, or test it with a junk piece (which you should probably do anyway), before you rely on it for something you care about.</div>
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When the seal is air tight and the water is hot enough, you should see acetone condensation on the side of the jar. That's an indication things are going quickly enough and that the seal is good. If the seal is leaking, you should be able to actually hear hissing if you listen closely, and won't see much condensation.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyMpNJ8sxGcQ5_4P2cAHkLEi5NS__QxyNuLP2U-Lo-Ir09Av2bs7ID965jFRcOvgxvr6h0KxJipKi7OYXXntng7ZHZR7UmIH2o19eNRcCjMNw3-Q3ROVqOOTVIQZy5uOMkBJk2q9YRo8GA/s1600/condensation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyMpNJ8sxGcQ5_4P2cAHkLEi5NS__QxyNuLP2U-Lo-Ir09Av2bs7ID965jFRcOvgxvr6h0KxJipKi7OYXXntng7ZHZR7UmIH2o19eNRcCjMNw3-Q3ROVqOOTVIQZy5uOMkBJk2q9YRo8GA/s1600/condensation.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here you can see it melting the surface. In the first image, notice that the bottom portion is smoothed out, but texture remains on top. In the second image, there is still some texture on the very inside top, but even that is looking glassy, and all the edges are done:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix9jSyRtLZWEhVWNeeYrzz3mK_lz3fMLyjoTVXkWj_C8uL6yzbCcwInNkP51P-0KsQrGR-PVB3oBeOLC7qKz0MVumKinTFANANHkHgB4Qq8TcvetQQJvGhxwdHJNKYsHzRzh6ItbF4Lcgr/s1600/partial2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix9jSyRtLZWEhVWNeeYrzz3mK_lz3fMLyjoTVXkWj_C8uL6yzbCcwInNkP51P-0KsQrGR-PVB3oBeOLC7qKz0MVumKinTFANANHkHgB4Qq8TcvetQQJvGhxwdHJNKYsHzRzh6ItbF4Lcgr/s1600/partial2.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95e6kgQH6hdqhI-bhX1KXLMqqQfkGzkO6tuLOavJ6EzxCH-eVmQoSha7GfDYxIa6NrnCNLmzWfj0zkHTAwW2t_Nc5VUd5JbkG3LdC2YDrlP0F2YE06TlmzmHU8fiqKJG1g8oxqeCrkZsQ/s1600/partial.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh95e6kgQH6hdqhI-bhX1KXLMqqQfkGzkO6tuLOavJ6EzxCH-eVmQoSha7GfDYxIa6NrnCNLmzWfj0zkHTAwW2t_Nc5VUd5JbkG3LdC2YDrlP0F2YE06TlmzmHU8fiqKJG1g8oxqeCrkZsQ/s1600/partial.jpg" height="400" width="300" /></a></div>
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When the piece looks sufficiently smooth to you (up to an hour for me, and maybe a change of re-heated water bath), take the jar out of the bath and place it in a sink. Now, fill up a glass of water, and have it ready (or the faucet), THEN remove the lid just enough to be able to douse the piece in water.</div>
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<b>Don't let it touch the sides of the jar yet</b>, until it is doused. The plastic with acetone still on it is very sticky, like warm caramel, and it will stick to the walls and leave ugly marks on your piece. After dousing with water, it's much more resilient. Enough so to pull out and hang somewhere to dry.</div>
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<b>The piece will also attract dust while it is "curing." </b>If you have a spare jar available, you might want to reserve one for drying purposes, to cut down on dust that permanently sticks to the surface. I hung my pieces from the corner of the drop ceiling in my office, and they avoided dust pretty well.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijeaokdod2HPh-xSjiI3zJ6UlmEcySQi3NgxI4wOGn38m2k_r0LXoOowl-YZMnEPfq53cWtsBu2Dc-LMZy_ADyLGjUe3SyA9wSwWTpcXmgfmwhlgTikWRUwAY-JlhSCuVXyXYDGjxFfeG/s1600/rinse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijeaokdod2HPh-xSjiI3zJ6UlmEcySQi3NgxI4wOGn38m2k_r0LXoOowl-YZMnEPfq53cWtsBu2Dc-LMZy_ADyLGjUe3SyA9wSwWTpcXmgfmwhlgTikWRUwAY-JlhSCuVXyXYDGjxFfeG/s1600/rinse.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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Below is the finished piece. For about another day or so, it will be soft and easily damaged. Not so soft that you will leave fingerprints, but enough for a nail to easily scratch it. The dotted line I drew here was from minimal pressure with a bic pen. If you can, it's best to just leave it hanging somewhere and not touch it at all for a full day.</div>
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Notice that the corners definitely get gooey and rounded, so if you need precision, this is not for you. It's an aesthetic thing, like if you're 3D printing a piece of an artwork or similar. (Note: the side corners near the slots in the photo here were actually damaged by the piece being slightly too big for the jar, not by the process).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXf15BlMWfbLWLdBawI2tHVFfDYaHvyABOMDIqayIhJtpm4sFIwbvnYSumCAdZXPCVaaIqfh7t8x1V66G-2w8c_zO0LT9pAkyRN4mOUivupA6lMDOtRkRu5KWfA4QwnQtn2nNkkrq-M14_/s1600/final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXf15BlMWfbLWLdBawI2tHVFfDYaHvyABOMDIqayIhJtpm4sFIwbvnYSumCAdZXPCVaaIqfh7t8x1V66G-2w8c_zO0LT9pAkyRN4mOUivupA6lMDOtRkRu5KWfA4QwnQtn2nNkkrq-M14_/s1600/final.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a><br />
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Here's another piece that shows how easily blemished fresh plastic is out of the bath - I was hanging it by the eye socket there, and just the weight of the piece itself pressing against a metal screw left that gouge mark. So be careful how you hang your piece!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSLzVpjTuuwQmME3xlCpCDQ8Hht7P4FBR0HEyUnu5_qoNIDz1Bml37Fvl1zjdewBVU18UC1hkY4sUYZP0oDoQyAlQNl2xYDg5u0xnu4evT2WVGDIBjGVvNVa34aZRhSodRZAp5cttik3U8/s1600/final2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSLzVpjTuuwQmME3xlCpCDQ8Hht7P4FBR0HEyUnu5_qoNIDz1Bml37Fvl1zjdewBVU18UC1hkY4sUYZP0oDoQyAlQNl2xYDg5u0xnu4evT2WVGDIBjGVvNVa34aZRhSodRZAp5cttik3U8/s1600/final2.jpg" height="480" width="640" /></a></div>
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If you prefer, and if you have a big enough glass container, you can also lay the piece into a platform in the bottom instead of hanging it. A piece of wood with nails works well - balance the piece on the tips of 3 nails, and the marks left behind will be minimal. Keep two things in mind, though:</div>
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<li>The distance from the piece to the acetone will affect how quickly it melts the top versus bottom relative to one another, because fumes are thicker near the liquid and the water bath.</li>
<li>Try not to leave any large surface flat on top. Tilt it slightly instead. This prevents acetone pooling from condensation and leaving blisters on your piece. You can also do this when hanging the piece, by hanging it slightly off center if possible.</li>
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Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-7821823648601401682014-10-11T14:39:00.000-07:002014-10-12T12:40:22.719-07:00Let's Build an Organ Pipe!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgowKf3K7JiFtXLn-HBtZVEcp7G5IZ2f_EXtuyxl4_w0nydosviy8whS75zC9W2m7nWjh2PVqXSWVV3rtgRCy1_tq6gYw6wR0i73hSM-E00bgb2C9sT7vVEniVY9aUxdhMesyMY7qTsNsrk/s1600/organ_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgowKf3K7JiFtXLn-HBtZVEcp7G5IZ2f_EXtuyxl4_w0nydosviy8whS75zC9W2m7nWjh2PVqXSWVV3rtgRCy1_tq6gYw6wR0i73hSM-E00bgb2C9sT7vVEniVY9aUxdhMesyMY7qTsNsrk/s1600/organ_2.jpg" height="149" width="320" /></a></div>
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Part one <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/09/making-homemade-pipe-organ.html">here!</a></div>
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In this post, I'll go step by step through my process for creating an (unpainted) PVC organ pipe! An organ pipe has two parts: the <b><u>resonator</u></b>, which is most of the length of the pipe as a simple empty tube, and the <b><u>fipple</u></b>, which creates oscillations.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">THE RESONATOR </span></u></div>
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The resonator takes vibrations (or perhaps more accurately, oscillating air vortices that I don't entirely understand) from the fipple and resonates at a fixed, controllable wavelength, allowing specific tones for music. Each pipe is going to produce one fundamental tone, just like individual strings in a piano. A single pipe will create several other tones at once when sounded, equaling integer multiples of the fundamental frequency (harmonics). The smaller the pipe, the more prominent the harmonics, but the fundamental is always the strongest.</div>
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Here are some different harmonics fitting into a single pipe (top three waves) and a fundamental of a longer pipe (bottom), with distance from midline being relative min and max pressure for each one:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3En7dLef13x3DlkMhx1DgiVHZT1kQf1wljVHsj8Ovbr5bMDvJ4oEm2lDYxXfKVUE2538UaB6vvjjTrMWRAZvo3tE_0DeQEA16SQ-krcMCt3pNidyjJxR537UITcW8LAtQuw8dDhTCB32/s1600/overtones.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju3En7dLef13x3DlkMhx1DgiVHZT1kQf1wljVHsj8Ovbr5bMDvJ4oEm2lDYxXfKVUE2538UaB6vvjjTrMWRAZvo3tE_0DeQEA16SQ-krcMCt3pNidyjJxR537UITcW8LAtQuw8dDhTCB32/s1600/overtones.png" height="320" width="249" /></a></div>
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However, less so than composers, we don't need to concern ourselves much with harmonics for building the organ. The pipe will sound like the fundamental frequency when you play it. So what matters more for us is the bottom of the image above: When you make a longer pipe, it will naturally resonate at a longer fundamental frequency. Longer waves are heard as lower tones. So by making different length pipes, we make different notes. One half the length of pipe = one octave lower, and other notes vary by even logarithmic steps in between. In other words, human perception varies logarithmically with frequency.</div>
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<b>So the resonator, at the end of the day, is just an empty tube of the correctly calculated length.</b> I'm making mine out of PVC pipe. For tuning purposes, I also have slightly larger pieces of pipe on top that can slide up or down to make fine adjustments to the lengths for tuning.</div>
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Middle C is an open pipe of about 2 feet in length, as a point of reference. A concert tuner of the A above middle C at 440Hz is about 1.28 feet long. </div>
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Closed pipes (with a stopper at the end) have twice as long of waves, roughly, because the wave has to "reflect" the length of the tube then back again from the fipple. A closed pipe sounds one octave lower than it normally would, so middle C would be about a 1 foot long closed pipe. This is useful if you want to fit big pipes in an apartment building.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">THE FIPPLE</span></u></div>
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The fipple is the vibration producing part of the pipe. I'm going to be routing air to my pipes by plastic tubing, so it needs to convert a stream of pressurized air from a circular tube into a consistent vibration. The fipple is much harder to make than the resonator.</div>
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Briefly, the concept of a basic flue pipe fipple (meant to sound something like a flute) is:</div>
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<li>You somehow shape incoming air into a laminar air flow (a flat, non turbulent sheet of air).</li>
<li>You get that flow to pass right into a thin knife of rigid material, which will then vibrate.</li>
<li>The vibration resonates in the resonating chamber.</li>
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The way we make those things happen is by building something like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHCBjO_MNQzD2AdtmZuyN1wXdxRXiSBfzDOZPB-G4wm7YdK2W96aJqmz_gPPOsqz4fIKCPaK2bJ3LV8gtsiegF38Hr-JuapQcOasdwXUE_hFxgitanGvDaDQuN24MW0HZCBfoneMLZk2w/s1600/organ+pipe+diagram.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHCBjO_MNQzD2AdtmZuyN1wXdxRXiSBfzDOZPB-G4wm7YdK2W96aJqmz_gPPOsqz4fIKCPaK2bJ3LV8gtsiegF38Hr-JuapQcOasdwXUE_hFxgitanGvDaDQuN24MW0HZCBfoneMLZk2w/s1600/organ+pipe+diagram.png" height="219" width="320" /></a></div>
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The pipe (<b><span style="color: red;">red</span></b>) has a cap on the end (<b>black</b>) with a hole for the air hose (<b><span style="color: lime;">green</span></b>). There's also a plug in the pipe (<span style="color: orange;"><b>orange</b></span>). Air comes into the cavity in the back and has nowhere to go, except for a narrow section of pipe cut away at the top. This forces the air into a sheet, which passes over and under a knife shape cut in the pipe (<b><span style="color: red;">red </span></b>also). This vibrates, which then causes resonation in the pipe (left off the edge of this image). Again, I think it is more like oscillations of swirling air systems in a much more complicated way than just vibrating, but that's close enough for me to build it.</div>
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So without further ado, let's build it! We begin with a PVC plumbing pipe:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1a3o9CtPw-3wcSvptYyGPFxjJhLtq9NOJLOR6ItWR0-inq40DWC3wKcW5FeSW6TrFVtIQ_fF1C5s5gqzYGMcA4gnQvTx7_kNe0TP7FV6sXpDD4K6cYVaigS4-D1pOY8IYIpPJLk4JqZK/s1600/pipe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq1a3o9CtPw-3wcSvptYyGPFxjJhLtq9NOJLOR6ItWR0-inq40DWC3wKcW5FeSW6TrFVtIQ_fF1C5s5gqzYGMcA4gnQvTx7_kNe0TP7FV6sXpDD4K6cYVaigS4-D1pOY8IYIpPJLk4JqZK/s1600/pipe.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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First, we need to cut a notch out of the end. The width of the notch is related to the diameter of the pipe, something around 2/5 the diameter. The depth of the notch depends on the system you're using for a cap. I used this tool here, a dremel with a grinding fiber/ceramic/something wheel:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkGmWI7eOHJKdfTLETWf7tjyIe9AR7VmSDwIGjLYakNgJ7rozuIiY-aBF1Yl6TXGeYO0AvgotFw8T13k5ftIliVGDQl42qDNv4xTb1uflxVRcx1dvStWoPDufrqUhF4PbBvJmi2LDobq6F/s1600/IMG_9042.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkGmWI7eOHJKdfTLETWf7tjyIe9AR7VmSDwIGjLYakNgJ7rozuIiY-aBF1Yl6TXGeYO0AvgotFw8T13k5ftIliVGDQl42qDNv4xTb1uflxVRcx1dvStWoPDufrqUhF4PbBvJmi2LDobq6F/s1600/IMG_9042.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Here's the notch cut out:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUMxIk_mSfZns4qPKNEmsw7guI5ynLbunUuQu-zZVk_SO9lLGHvo4_vq204gXC8a-1siBc8ZQ5McMGyoXqd4yO5PZEnULTJex1-B4sT-ApjJXTwZdreVVLd9npZG46-MwFEIvhGm5DDTVw/s1600/IMG_9043.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUMxIk_mSfZns4qPKNEmsw7guI5ynLbunUuQu-zZVk_SO9lLGHvo4_vq204gXC8a-1siBc8ZQ5McMGyoXqd4yO5PZEnULTJex1-B4sT-ApjJXTwZdreVVLd9npZG46-MwFEIvhGm5DDTVw/s1600/IMG_9043.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Then I used a much wider grinding stone (seen below), 100 grit sanding drum (not shown) and finally manual 220 grit sandpaper (not shown) to grind a sharp, gradual "knife edge" on the inside of the notch. Grinding stone:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4zVikzYRwov362xRTu3rDmjZqfUB5AWfw3UxIIpWZCXbHNzcCUA_9ChW-ZGgF8DwU7FNuB0OoqEPJE1Y0JLaH0DdsHR_ncTK1BsFKSE_-kVhWd2gy8jB5LIrP86I4KkS_MVefjILTqpvO/s1600/IMG_9046.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4zVikzYRwov362xRTu3rDmjZqfUB5AWfw3UxIIpWZCXbHNzcCUA_9ChW-ZGgF8DwU7FNuB0OoqEPJE1Y0JLaH0DdsHR_ncTK1BsFKSE_-kVhWd2gy8jB5LIrP86I4KkS_MVefjILTqpvO/s1600/IMG_9046.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Knife edge after all the dremeling work:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjBZcN796rcffOh__1lp0KxtSLwBrjNlFpRqZuCxcZxUdakqAs15wasCIa2_kPQ_4ipf8QcP3ZXxFNerdIIclbbPF0AoDk9ETQFNZToVYW1Yn4e_pBbbfVFZI6AC-_xCE-4b95jUBcyExf/s1600/IMG_9056.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjBZcN796rcffOh__1lp0KxtSLwBrjNlFpRqZuCxcZxUdakqAs15wasCIa2_kPQ_4ipf8QcP3ZXxFNerdIIclbbPF0AoDk9ETQFNZToVYW1Yn4e_pBbbfVFZI6AC-_xCE-4b95jUBcyExf/s1600/IMG_9056.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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Knife edge after hand sanding:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXanSJQgRhXp6gKYQh3Wlg2DDJgwIIrLx0esluS3FrSmtQQ2kAQL9SkfULtQ7JOB7ag4Fv6wh3gu50qh8lgcaDQZuSzIvlU1sD8iZ0Vu8V2e9qQqMCgsgpOCoxN7lxOTbQXyKXDH94ZOLq/s1600/IMG_9059.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXanSJQgRhXp6gKYQh3Wlg2DDJgwIIrLx0esluS3FrSmtQQ2kAQL9SkfULtQ7JOB7ag4Fv6wh3gu50qh8lgcaDQZuSzIvlU1sD8iZ0Vu8V2e9qQqMCgsgpOCoxN7lxOTbQXyKXDH94ZOLq/s1600/IMG_9059.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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We need a laminar sheet of air now. I achieved this by using the thickness of the PVC pipe wall itself as a guide for a sheet of air. So I need to block off the inside diameter, AND the outside diameter. The inner diameter is blocked using this section of a solid plastic dowel rod:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioGWilCIEci5_5YXbmSXq8IBmiajiVk2fJOVl9LGVXkhEVnEQCjI7gbn-ekxaWQVwmakqnEoNNgyTNj9y5cb7-_UsP6LocFY8B5AbZolNW1P7qHmUkssYbMGo0PNGnu2vK0NPXUw8mRcs9/s1600/IMG_9064.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioGWilCIEci5_5YXbmSXq8IBmiajiVk2fJOVl9LGVXkhEVnEQCjI7gbn-ekxaWQVwmakqnEoNNgyTNj9y5cb7-_UsP6LocFY8B5AbZolNW1P7qHmUkssYbMGo0PNGnu2vK0NPXUw8mRcs9/s1600/IMG_9064.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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The corner is sanded down to aid aerodynamics (the air needs to be smoothly guided toward the knife). The plug fits into the pipe snugly. Notice how the pipe walls stick above the plug, so that when the cap goes on later, there will be a thin slice of opening:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5P624_Gyxlfd_JFb7VAjkhKlNygrseKEL6K9K-0K6ijc3MtGpkfoAR8a-U_0BEUF_A6tYGyeQ-ip74zlCDLPXCm725rEOIrTBmN1hvbEuet74s8i_D9AqbBtLLUpO6dY2MT6NMfldfjQU/s1600/IMG_9068.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5P624_Gyxlfd_JFb7VAjkhKlNygrseKEL6K9K-0K6ijc3MtGpkfoAR8a-U_0BEUF_A6tYGyeQ-ip74zlCDLPXCm725rEOIrTBmN1hvbEuet74s8i_D9AqbBtLLUpO6dY2MT6NMfldfjQU/s1600/IMG_9068.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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A hole is drilled in the middle of the pipe cap. This is where plastic tubing will go to deliver the air supply:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfjJ9nm_9ZA-iBEN30XJrsreFXK_c2Dg5m1fiCkZeeqI97Bp2LtotFIgVezpuwIYDr7v5EH_uce21OUdA0dBKz-IN4Q7fBTnPE_10VNsZNnFZ1zFavMdQ5Yf_STZWs3UlxyF_uKng5Ct1/s1600/IMG_9079.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFfjJ9nm_9ZA-iBEN30XJrsreFXK_c2Dg5m1fiCkZeeqI97Bp2LtotFIgVezpuwIYDr7v5EH_uce21OUdA0dBKz-IN4Q7fBTnPE_10VNsZNnFZ1zFavMdQ5Yf_STZWs3UlxyF_uKng5Ct1/s1600/IMG_9079.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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And finally, the cap is attached. If you look closely, you will be able to see the thin slice of empty black space in between the plug and the cap nearest the camera. This is the guide for the airflow to make it into a sheet of air. It will then pass right into the knife edge, creating the musical vibrations, which resonate in the remainder of the organ pipe:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-N4P1060NxmX-zWTlXSjCVa4oPCYE1l813Kx78zB0FOVWijMST4W7nJrZw1_9vHRRkoS7fOV8eJqWYciYbTO3i436NEJrsqU8H99gDh6dPzpF0nT-FQD4dPHoxfybsMNYVQ_UI9qwVO_/s1600/IMG_9081.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu-N4P1060NxmX-zWTlXSjCVa4oPCYE1l813Kx78zB0FOVWijMST4W7nJrZw1_9vHRRkoS7fOV8eJqWYciYbTO3i436NEJrsqU8H99gDh6dPzpF0nT-FQD4dPHoxfybsMNYVQ_UI9qwVO_/s1600/IMG_9081.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Again, here's the schematic now that you've seen the real thing:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHCBjO_MNQzD2AdtmZuyN1wXdxRXiSBfzDOZPB-G4wm7YdK2W96aJqmz_gPPOsqz4fIKCPaK2bJ3LV8gtsiegF38Hr-JuapQcOasdwXUE_hFxgitanGvDaDQuN24MW0HZCBfoneMLZk2w/s1600/organ+pipe+diagram.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHCBjO_MNQzD2AdtmZuyN1wXdxRXiSBfzDOZPB-G4wm7YdK2W96aJqmz_gPPOsqz4fIKCPaK2bJ3LV8gtsiegF38Hr-JuapQcOasdwXUE_hFxgitanGvDaDQuN24MW0HZCBfoneMLZk2w/s1600/organ+pipe+diagram.png" height="219" width="320" /></a></div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">NEXT TIME</span></u></div>
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In the next installment of this series, I will explain how the air system works, and I think I'm going to actually try out a new idea, different than my original plan, for how to activate air flow to individual pipes. I will try experimenting with homemade electric solenoids, versus the alternative of manual springs and levers and things. If the electric version works, then the whole organ could be played either manually OR by computer program, potentially!</div>
Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-40534154395515267102014-10-04T14:59:00.001-07:002014-10-04T23:34:59.266-07:00Geology Simulator -- Plate Tectonics Algorithm<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCAK_0Tzfe7gQSU2eH-_30-wqbhlcVWUsIxoXkgS1tNL5zoj0aa4BL0_PZl_-RGy9p74fLhyphenhyphenj45Qs1n2Q2DO8AsfU_-xWHIU1OwETuKFNCoDQSV7yRxFQgJ7PstkRnukq6DqBAwRvJA8M4/s1600/geobanner3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCAK_0Tzfe7gQSU2eH-_30-wqbhlcVWUsIxoXkgS1tNL5zoj0aa4BL0_PZl_-RGy9p74fLhyphenhyphenj45Qs1n2Q2DO8AsfU_-xWHIU1OwETuKFNCoDQSV7yRxFQgJ7PstkRnukq6DqBAwRvJA8M4/s1600/geobanner3.png" height="158" width="400" /></a></div>
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(Part 1 of the series <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/09/geovox-geology-simulator-for-game-worlds.html">here</a>!)</div>
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It's time to talk about everybody's two favorite cocktail party conversation topics: plate tectonics and mantle convection currents. I'll also get to our first specific geology algorithm that simulates the planet's dynamic core and source of plate movement, as well as some basic methods of plate formation in the model.<br />
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Coding-wise, I've been busy in the meantime with some underlying framework: file input, graphics output, setting up utility functions, classes to store data on plates and columns, considering whether multithreading makes sense or not, etc. I won't bore you with those details right now, though. I'll get straight to the first interesting bits. We need to answer some basic questions about the simulation world:<br />
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<li><b>Why do the tectonic plates in our world move?</b></li>
<li><b>What happens at the boundaries of plates?</b></li>
<li><b>How do we start building our earliest continents?</b></li>
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The most logical place to begin is by looking for the answers to these same question when it comes to our very own, real-life Earth.<br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">CRASH COURSE ON TERRESTRIAL PLATE TECTONICS</span></u></div>
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<span style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">WHAT MOVES THE CRUST?</span></span><br />
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The Earth is divided into several layers. The inner core is solid, as is the very outermost few miles of rock (crust). The rest ranges from sort-of-maybe-kind-of solid (very outer mantle/asthenosphere) to pretty much flat out liquid (middle portions), and so the outermost parts, to varying degrees, "float" around on top.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsuOepH6X69_hSceIeBacjneC3ErsuoGKsMTPPjocK4TqYlZwMD6VjVHjQ7QBDtifEtnYOLrp70YqbIaSfF1V4OLuV1nomesL-KDA6o-u216oDtMU_AMGsCf5F-2Xnl_G1qplflEqh4pB/s1600/Untitled-2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsuOepH6X69_hSceIeBacjneC3ErsuoGKsMTPPjocK4TqYlZwMD6VjVHjQ7QBDtifEtnYOLrp70YqbIaSfF1V4OLuV1nomesL-KDA6o-u216oDtMU_AMGsCf5F-2Xnl_G1qplflEqh4pB/s1600/Untitled-2.png" height="226" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>Why does it move around, though, instead of just floating perfectly still? </i>Well, primarily because of <b>convection</b>: the natural cycling pattern formed by fluids of different densities -- most commonly because of uneven heating. Take a look at this cartoon beaker of water on a stove top:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrKleoBXVWL4bCtwVVrhjAnK7YtP0HCDM2bjImKmRuzbME1pjZWhRDFDJ1oEp_0lvU6Yxl33hxPcLCLkkNjND4544rLGGCYDrVeu9twA5GDQbqS_SqnK0M-C1d1uctnwCvJmZ47_Lgy5-M/s1600/simpleConvection.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrKleoBXVWL4bCtwVVrhjAnK7YtP0HCDM2bjImKmRuzbME1pjZWhRDFDJ1oEp_0lvU6Yxl33hxPcLCLkkNjND4544rLGGCYDrVeu9twA5GDQbqS_SqnK0M-C1d1uctnwCvJmZ47_Lgy5-M/s1600/simpleConvection.png" height="400" width="227" /></a></div>
The hot fluid expands and become less dense, so it floats upward on top of the colder liquid above. The cold, dense fluid sinks to fill in its place nearby. The cold fluid then heats up closer to the source of heat, and the hot fluid cools off at the surface, so they begin cycling in orderly patterns. Depending on the shape of container, the rates of cooling and heating, etc., the cycles can take many shapes, from 3-D donuts to columns to rolling cylinders. A single modular pattern, whatever the shape, is called a "convection cell."<br />
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The Earth is heated from below, too. And I do mean actively HEATED: most of the Earth's internal temperature is from ongoing radioactivity converting nuclear bond energy to new thermal energy. It is also cooled on top as heat is lost to space. Since it is also partially liquid, it has convection currents.<br />
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<b>Now imagine a skin on the surface of the beaker above:</b> the currents from the convection would pull it apart and push it off toward the side walls. Sort of like these chia seed continents in my kitchen:<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzvBBrGLA6en6BmqHQ3-jF2bRkN0Ad6d59qDd6uEi3L4r5EESFFpHxgolKKDU_E2nZXwVkCkzulLLpFwCleZQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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The plates on Earth move much like that, except there are no sides of the beaker or pot in a round world, so things are less static. I.e., instead of hitting the wall and staying, plates wrap around the planet and tend to keep bumping around and re-jostling into new positions continuously.<br />
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<span style="color: #444444; text-align: center;">PLATE BOUNDARIES AND MANTLE / CRUST ALIGNMENT</span></div>
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It is often assumed that convection cells in the Earth's mantle line up with the joints between tectonic plates. Where plumes of heat are rising up in the convection cells, one theory suggests that that's where (and why) the new crust is forming, swelling, and sliding "downhill" away from the heat, usually in the sea floor. This is called a ridge or rift zone:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQMmaFNIeTp-1TB8HNNooknYLxFDpsTHivjGKhnx4nSmcjeXQfPNMrM6t4zj0Tdrcr05l_wwyiFlc-VxtQHiKXGfcl4L3eAxmVGW7lvaHHkKxi8b6KpYElvE_Foy5rQNvuQnMjWZUAAUT/s1600/ridgeC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvQMmaFNIeTp-1TB8HNNooknYLxFDpsTHivjGKhnx4nSmcjeXQfPNMrM6t4zj0Tdrcr05l_wwyiFlc-VxtQHiKXGfcl4L3eAxmVGW7lvaHHkKxi8b6KpYElvE_Foy5rQNvuQnMjWZUAAUT/s1600/ridgeC.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Elevation_flat_polar_quartic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/Elevation_flat_polar_quartic.jpg" height="292" width="640" /></a></div>
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(by <a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elevation_flat_polar_quartic.jpg">Wikid77</a>)</div>
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Notice those light blue / yellow lines in the middles of the oceans? Those at the mid-ocean ridges and their elevation swells, where most new crust is formed. This might reasonably line up with the rising heat side of a convection cell.<br />
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On the other hand, where plates meet, usually one will "subduct" under the other one. Some of the higher-silica-content material will bubble back up through volcanoes, but a lot of the material will sink and remelt into the mantle. In the Earth map above, you can (just barely) see dark blue lines where subducting plates plunge under deep ocean trenches. Japan is an example where two ocean plates meet, one subducts, and volcanic islands and a trench are formed. Cartoon version:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij6uB1P7EdBY8YlhmpscVlYtfvRiyOIav2WYmZOB7rda1Wa66HprzQCa2Rsm4JCiLpK1Dzjq-4wrMzwT4kKxJsHi6zMnSVgUWzPofgGVYG8ohhhzd8sxItJJnzgGPo97afYKBkXYcBWRzS/s1600/subductC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij6uB1P7EdBY8YlhmpscVlYtfvRiyOIav2WYmZOB7rda1Wa66HprzQCa2Rsm4JCiLpK1Dzjq-4wrMzwT4kKxJsHi6zMnSVgUWzPofgGVYG8ohhhzd8sxItJJnzgGPo97afYKBkXYcBWRzS/s1600/subductC.jpg" height="296" width="320" /></a></div>
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This subducting rock cools the area of mantle it pushes into, and thus might line up with the other, sinking end of a convection cell. The convection would occur anyway just from losing heat to the crust by direct conduction, but the crust itself recycling from rift to subduction zones might nudge the system into lining up in the same way. So you could get an overall picture something like this:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHD3cc5sEWC_wogyVL0TTr87CASI8WCnZb619UPfGC7wJMaBIBkYyqdRePxgbWguqO7qb-ZQW47O9OzbYLtB5-6_fY-7AtYZNZqYFyTB6njaJRz_D8KlPcobz1REWP2A7x6S_GXapNr-5k/s1600/mantleC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHD3cc5sEWC_wogyVL0TTr87CASI8WCnZb619UPfGC7wJMaBIBkYyqdRePxgbWguqO7qb-ZQW47O9OzbYLtB5-6_fY-7AtYZNZqYFyTB6njaJRz_D8KlPcobz1REWP2A7x6S_GXapNr-5k/s1600/mantleC.jpg" height="376" width="400" /></a></div>
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Things wouldn't be anywhere near that neat and tidy in reality, but it may be a rough approximation. In the following picture and video, you can see two interpretations of what a more realistic mantle convection pattern might look like. One is a bit more... tame than the other. But in both cases, you can see reasonable convection cells where heat travels up and down again in a recognizable pattern. You can also imagine how crust might move on top of the video model.<br />
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<a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Convection-snapshot.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Convection-snapshot.gif" height="157" width="400" /></a></div>
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(by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantle_(geology)#mediaviewer/File:Convection-snapshot.gif">Harroschmeling, CC-By-SA-3.0</a>)</div>
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(by turbulenceteamm)</div>
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<span style="color: #444444; text-align: center;">OCEANIC AND CONTINENTAL PLATES</span><br />
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Shifting gears a bit, it's also worth explaining an important distinction between two major types of crust that affect movement patterns: oceanic and continental. Both can exist together on the same plate. Oceanic crust is made out of denser, silica-poor rock (mainly basalt) and is thin. Continental crust is made out of relatively less dense, silica-rich rock (like granite), and is much thicker.<br />
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The continents float better, so when a continent and an ocean collide at a boundary, the ocean inevitably subducts under the continent. And when continents collide, sometimes one subducts, but sometimes they just crumple together like a car wreck. Since continents rarely subduct, they tend to stick around, and have been getting bigger over the ages as more of the silicon and lighter elements have settled out toward the surface over time and stayed. Whereas ocean crust comes and goes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYRMKze4FCMjK0oP8LoMpy0kg9hHxdzT20-BF2hmDafly_9TV4VwtQEoAMIXBZSxBpRsArbY_UVHRG5o9dViUfWE_PW93GZIQ1StNAviB8LsHtKDi3LVtgHzKcTyY8Kuw27YK9SJtpJaY/s1600/continentC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYRMKze4FCMjK0oP8LoMpy0kg9hHxdzT20-BF2hmDafly_9TV4VwtQEoAMIXBZSxBpRsArbY_UVHRG5o9dViUfWE_PW93GZIQ1StNAviB8LsHtKDi3LVtgHzKcTyY8Kuw27YK9SJtpJaY/s1600/continentC.jpg" height="367" width="400" /></a></div>
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In my program, ocean and continental crust will both be important, but I'm not going to directly code them by fiat -- I hope to instead have these distinctions arise naturally from modeling actual thickness, density, and bouyancy of rock columns.<br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">HOTSPOTS AND SUPERCONTINENT ISSUES</span></u></div>
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There are a couple problems with the above story so far:<br />
<ol>
<li>There are places on Earth called hotspots (about 40 "official" ones) where volcanoes or hot thin sections of crust seem to stay in one place for a very long time, ignoring plate movements. Like Hawaii. It doesn't really make sense that hot fluid can travel up in a stationary line AND flow around in circles in the same space at the same time. Something doesn't add up, and there's disagreement among geologists about what that is. Best case scenario, though, this would be a whole extra layer of programming for me on top of the above model. Worst case, it means I have no idea what to program at all.<div style="text-align: center;">
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</li>
<li>What happens when a continent gets too large? Remember, continents rarely subduct, so inevitably, they all pile up in a supercontinent. This would be very boring if they don't break up again. They do split, but geologists seem to disagree about what <b>causes</b> the breakup of supercontinents. Everyone agrees it has something to do with heat building up under the insulation, but the details for how this would work in the above model are a bit fuzzy.</li>
</ol>
Maybe I could soldier on anyway, maybe ignore hotspots entirely (and in fact I tried!). However, I think I may be able to leverage both issues to my advantage instead with a simpler overall system...<br />
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<b>What if we theorize that the mantle convection cells essentially "don't care" about the crust?</b> The crust moves and changes (in this theory) more slowly than mantle convection cells. They're rapidly churning away down below, and the crust and it's tiny features are just minor side effects.</div>
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<ul>
<li>This allows for hotspots... of course they ignore plates, because ALL mantle convection does.</li>
<li>This lets me use one of the simpler supercontinent theories -- which is that hotspots cause more damage under supercontinents as they move more slowly, and have time to burn through the thick continental crust. Eventually "unzipping" the supercontinents along the weakened connected dots.</li>
<li>Ridges and subduction zones don't have to line up with convection cells all the time, which removes several awkward implications and restrictions from the basic model. Getting this to all agree was like herding cats or trying to organize bags full of magnets. Whereas plates sliding around semi-freely on top with minimal feedback is much simpler.</li>
<li>This should still allow convincing, normal geology at the end product.</li>
</ul>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">CONVECTION + TECTONICS ALGORITHM</span></u></div>
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Alright, so let's get down to brass tacks and implement this concept in an actual algorithm! I don't have a working demo yet, but this is the quasi-implemented plan:</div>
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<b>1) Hotspots.</b><br />
First, we generate some random dots on the surface, representing hot convection plumes from the core/deep mantle (how many can be a customizable parameter):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilumgMgLhhzhzzAkyu_sNeUnJ2y5uoExNd3ydrCJXeA5QNZIYuP3s1CPI9b2uvlRcRoTUG90UDoiIMJ-HPGW4geIc6D8Gi92bKMXQQKxlcyOLFsCOP1rgqHJE32-wesGWaQNaMGWZLJ3vz/s1600/algorithm1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilumgMgLhhzhzzAkyu_sNeUnJ2y5uoExNd3ydrCJXeA5QNZIYuP3s1CPI9b2uvlRcRoTUG90UDoiIMJ-HPGW4geIc6D8Gi92bKMXQQKxlcyOLFsCOP1rgqHJE32-wesGWaQNaMGWZLJ3vz/s1600/algorithm1.png" height="216" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>2) Convection Cells.</b> </div>
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Next, we simulate what the convection cells for these hotspots might be. I'm going to use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voronoi_diagram">Voronoi cells</a> to represent the convection cells. Voronoi cells are shapes drawn between a set of points indicating the regions of space that are closest to each individual point. This makes sense for convection, because these would be the boundaries at which hot fluids sliding along the surface from different plumes would hit each other and stop having anywhere to go but down.</div>
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In real life, convection currents often do take on Voronoi cell shapes under the right conditions, which can easily be MY conditions, because I can invoke any depth of planet, any age of planet, any amount of radiation in the core, etc. Here's two actual videos of Voronoi-like cells convecting in a hot fluid, followed by a hand-drawn Voronoi algorithm applied to my hotspot dots above, representing something similar:</div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/nFWS0IRZ644?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/6BoEKUqDdLc?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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(by Jennifer Liang and csegal0)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPmw6ZO51g_6ZAhIXl6xS6O1KWc-wlzmmZlGgncMA8N69h2wWMJdqa-FHOp7KmbH0BbukWGXG_F10hGZIs5KlyDHaasqtjH9sudIB6XaeP5ei38R0IBPld2r2rbZGvmlmzzQ9EPO0k9np/s1600/algorithm2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitPmw6ZO51g_6ZAhIXl6xS6O1KWc-wlzmmZlGgncMA8N69h2wWMJdqa-FHOp7KmbH0BbukWGXG_F10hGZIs5KlyDHaasqtjH9sudIB6XaeP5ei38R0IBPld2r2rbZGvmlmzzQ9EPO0k9np/s1600/algorithm2.png" height="215" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>3) Plate Formation.</b></div>
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These cells radiate heat outward to the shared edges (below, I show this as a circle of heat, but it may actually work better if irregularly shaped due to different speeds of fluid flow within a cell). The heat will change the crust above it: weakening, blistering and thinning the rock, sometimes breaking through like in Hawaii or Yellowstone. These hot, thin, weak areas can rip open into a new crust-producing rift zone.</div>
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At the same time, cold (and therefore dense / heavy) crust at the furthest edges of cells wants to sink down. And especially if it happens to be thin crust that can break easily, it might just crack and do so, and one side can begin subducting.</div>
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Later, these cracks will be harder to form, but right now the whole world is just brand new, thin basaltic ocean crust everywhere and the first few plates form more easily using some simple pathfinding algorithms that use heat levels and thickness as "pathing costs:"</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphenbNUrwjtBOZG-Ypo4VoWOXakfxYCMSt1Q-6Zqg3Irwz94q7HqY90ecllwqBZoYfo-FFFGHdVOFd_154KoqmN4Tl_ZzR8upXPF-W6PDF81Kk52nqf7qX8-oJc_tO1tGubF__MOI8pZXuM/s1600/algorithm4.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhyphenhyphenbNUrwjtBOZG-Ypo4VoWOXakfxYCMSt1Q-6Zqg3Irwz94q7HqY90ecllwqBZoYfo-FFFGHdVOFd_154KoqmN4Tl_ZzR8upXPF-W6PDF81Kk52nqf7qX8-oJc_tO1tGubF__MOI8pZXuM/s1600/algorithm4.png" height="217" width="320" /></a></div>
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(red = rift, blue = subduction zone)</div>
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<b>4) Plate Drift.</b></div>
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Due to our torus-world, we need at least two cracks to make two plates, since things wrap around. So here we now have two plates. Where do they move? Well, remember the strategy here is that the crust is just a <b>side-effect</b> of a much more powerful mantle. So the mantle convection flows don't care about our new fault lines. They just do their thing, and the plates respond dependently.</div>
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Therefore, the movement of each plate will be pretty much purely the resultant vector of the convection currents moving underneath it. So what we do is add up the resultant vectors for all the cells that are part of them:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7VPTodYghbvGb2l-7vyU6GbJrqVoED0GrCBd0rsuiEozgkaYBwqAmJPcX_MAU9DF0Sk8OlRw8fHuXo9m3lZ0Ntf_JWKYp4sELdYfl6YM6Oe1d3ZBszCs093yTf4bPTheQHPHff6aT7MY/s1600/algorithm5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp7VPTodYghbvGb2l-7vyU6GbJrqVoED0GrCBd0rsuiEozgkaYBwqAmJPcX_MAU9DF0Sk8OlRw8fHuXo9m3lZ0Ntf_JWKYp4sELdYfl6YM6Oe1d3ZBszCs093yTf4bPTheQHPHff6aT7MY/s1600/algorithm5.png" height="218" width="320" /></a></div>
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And so we end up with two overall vectors for plate movement, appropriately moving toward the subduction zone and away from the ridge. </div>
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<b>5) New and Old Crust and Continents.</b></div>
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One of the plates will subduct under the other (coin flip at this point, since both are equally thin, cold, and chemically identical. Later, these factors will make one outcome more likely), causing volcanic island chains in the upper plate, which are then lighter weight than basalt and will stick around, forming the nucleus of our very first continents. And of course, where the plates spread apart leaving no data, new crust gets added on in the simulator. In the model for now, this is simply deleting some cells at overlaps, adding others at gapes (after movement), and keeping track of thickness and volcanism changes, etc.</div>
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This is hugely simplifying things. But for now, I need to keep things simple until I can get a working model of SOME sort, at least. Later though:</div>
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<b>6) Increasing Complexity</b></div>
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Over time and with future features, this picture will get much more interesting:</div>
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<ul>
<li>The plates will slide over the hotspots, which tend to weaken crust above them and maybe even break through, leaving a sort of perforated line of weakness which is then liable to crack to make more plates later, and more interesting dynamics. </li>
<li>At the same time, plates will sometimes fuse if jammed together particularly violently. </li>
<li>The plumes will slowly shift and rearrange.</li>
<li>Continents will build up and alter the patterns of subduction. </li>
<li>Sometimes oceans may get gobbled up entirely.</li>
<li>Thicker plates will be harder to break through for hotspot volcanoes.</li>
<li>And plenty of other geologically-relevant things I haven't talked about at all yet: erosion (waves, wind, rivers), sediment deposition, rock metamorphism from heat and pressure, life forms, changing atmosphere (oxygen rusts minerals...), details of volcanoes, and more.</li>
</ul>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">NEXT TIME</span></u></div>
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My focus now is on finishing up a few straggling bits of basic engine framework, Then implementing steps 1-5 of the above algorithm. Hopefully I'll have a working demo next time, along with tales to tell about whatever is bound to go wrong along the way! Or I may have to make a short detour into discussing multithreading or simialr. We'll see.</div>
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Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-23554669284060847962014-09-29T12:45:00.001-07:002014-09-29T12:50:57.313-07:00Creating Homemade Refractory Bricks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1o2MdpB120PB5z8qBgk-aWGYwQeDN7rGvnAOozUf9GYD9n_juiV7Ge10CjTcNw1aBzDvUa3ie4gnkxBeN7BG5q1Tg6-qHzQg7ncov1ep30qJ0KhnKrf4ZXT8IlmxTheydCakJdqQv0guw/s1600/pottery3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1o2MdpB120PB5z8qBgk-aWGYwQeDN7rGvnAOozUf9GYD9n_juiV7Ge10CjTcNw1aBzDvUa3ie4gnkxBeN7BG5q1Tg6-qHzQg7ncov1ep30qJ0KhnKrf4ZXT8IlmxTheydCakJdqQv0guw/s1600/pottery3.jpg" height="152" width="400" /></a></div>
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"Refractory" is just a word that means "very resistant to high temperatures." In the context of pottery and glassmaking, I need refractory material for the lining of my kiln(s) I am going to make. Regular, pure clay doesn't cut it. I can also use refractory for making bricks to hold up pieces in the kiln or to use for making the actual walls of a kiln, if I want to make one out of entirely my own materials.<br />
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For either of these purposes, I need a substance that is actually not only refractory, but also insulating. That is, it should neither break down at high temperatures nor should it let heat get past it. Tungsten metal is highly refractory but a poor insulator. Cotton is not refractory (will burst into flames at maybe 400 degrees F) but is a great insulator.<br />
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Pure earthenware clay by itself is mediocre at both of these things by itself--it will slump and melt at moderately high temperatures, and it isn't actually <b>that</b> great of an insulator (Think about how quickly your mug gets too hot to touch on the outside when you pour coffee in it). So we want to improve these qualities for furnace materials.<br />
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Refractory recipes can get very complicated, but for mine, I want only locally available ingredients. I am going to have 3 ingredients: dry grass, quartz sand, and some of the clay I prepared earlier <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/07/finding-and-refining-local-clay.html">here.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WV4mmDoqrkFgsTo3kvLQeeTG5HyEvEhr-B0aSH9uYrGt-5MWtEPiWKj4QmKWmJP4vllOapRGSSYzudDaEFe8rBV_ScDUXJ_HQTEGaF0Jzy1kI_eOo9H1yjyudKFTXDjoBa2dnbLUQK5Q/s1600/B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9WV4mmDoqrkFgsTo3kvLQeeTG5HyEvEhr-B0aSH9uYrGt-5MWtEPiWKj4QmKWmJP4vllOapRGSSYzudDaEFe8rBV_ScDUXJ_HQTEGaF0Jzy1kI_eOo9H1yjyudKFTXDjoBa2dnbLUQK5Q/s1600/B.jpg" height="299" width="640" /></a></div>
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<ul>
<li><b>The clay</b> forms the main body of the material and holds everything together. It is also, of course, reasonably heat resistant.</li>
<li><b>The sand</b> raises the melting point of the material significantly, since quartz melts about 500 degrees celsius higher than earthenware clay does (note: sand is locally available, but this particular batch used hardware store sand just for now). </li>
<li><b>The oven-dried grass</b> helps hold everything together at first, since the clay mixed with sand is crumblier than pure clay (see here [link]). Later, the grass will burn away in the kiln and leave lots of tiny air pockets that will help insulate against heat transfer.</li>
<li>...another ingredient I could have added is wood ash. <b>WASHED wood ash.</b> I.e. the stuff left over after you have soaked new ashes in water and drained off the potash a few times (this will be the subject of an upcoming blog post, since potash is used for glass making and pottery glazes). Washed ash stuff is much more heat resistant than quartz, so replace a little or a lot of the sand with it, if it's available. It must be washed ash, though: raw ash contains potash, which is a chemical that actually lowers the melting point of quartz, and thus is counterproductive.</li>
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The ratio I'm using is about 50/50 clay and sand by <b>volume</b> and then about another equal part as the sum of the first two ingredients in dry grass <b>by volume, loose</b> (not packed!). In reality, it's probably something like 70/27/3 by mass for clay/sand/grass, but I don't know. It's easier for me to measure volume, so I'm just using that. Mix it all together, and you get something like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhazploMo82S-h35smhIxwpae0LJOYMryp-40Wi1Z1jP1xbi2wKe0UjYkWd5oJIN68I2U3_gYzW9sdZtQphrefxlnJ1LPG3Yd-YphSeUxRv3F9Q-z-rPeB3VIYypcbGujh12AvANKx1fTts/s1600/A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhazploMo82S-h35smhIxwpae0LJOYMryp-40Wi1Z1jP1xbi2wKe0UjYkWd5oJIN68I2U3_gYzW9sdZtQphrefxlnJ1LPG3Yd-YphSeUxRv3F9Q-z-rPeB3VIYypcbGujh12AvANKx1fTts/s1600/A.jpg" height="375" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is essentially <b>adobe</b> in it's raw form. You can build some pretty strong buildings out of this in dry climates if you let it bake in the sun for awhile, although you'd probably want more sand and grass in it.</div>
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The adobe is much harder to work with than pure clay, but making things like bricks is still easy. Below are some examples of bricks that I made out of this material and then fired (I'll cover firing in a later post). Click for a larger size. As you can see, the grass has burned away and left them porous. These things are super lightweight and feel like pumice, and their insulation is probably excellent. Unlike the raw adobe, though, the fired bricks are also extremely brittle and easy to break, since the binding strength of the grass has been removed and now actually <b>hurts</b> the strength of the material by leaving air behind instead. </div>
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The examples below actually used more like <b>60/65%</b> sand, 35-40% clay by volume, and the fact that they are so brittle is why I'm now suggesting a <b>50/50</b> mixture instead (I also toned down the grass slightly from these bricks):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70AjdOCDBYnCRkf7MpralK5N-rm8BQqxAmyi1LOztfzHKP-x2f5f_vBY2uj9nikCCAu46UufYZVG26hPOtbpGKh14QM7Of9aRx64YbMZgvS9ZROSEzC9F_tk7V8QbbIfvcWDAnnfijpht/s1600/bricks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg70AjdOCDBYnCRkf7MpralK5N-rm8BQqxAmyi1LOztfzHKP-x2f5f_vBY2uj9nikCCAu46UufYZVG26hPOtbpGKh14QM7Of9aRx64YbMZgvS9ZROSEzC9F_tk7V8QbbIfvcWDAnnfijpht/s1600/bricks.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Notice the gray spots all over -- there was not enough oxygen and/or not enough time during firing. This is the same issue as that cheap hardware store pot I showed in an earlier post. It's not the end of the world, but it does increase brittleness even further, and I need to fix it. I'll discuss this more in my post(s) about firing clay.</div>
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You can also see a crack in the middle brick that formed just from roughly piling them in this stack! That's how brittle these are with the sand-heavy recipe... Again, use more clay than this (which I will be doing in the future).</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">HELPFUL LINKS</span></u></div>
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Probably the most popular recipe for homemade refractory online is this one:<br />
<a href="http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/refractories.html">A version using perlite for insulation and cement as well.</a><br />
It does not use local materials though. Even less local and not homemade are commercial versions:<br />
<a href="http://www.menards.com/main/heating-cooling/fireplaces/fireplace-accessories/refractory-cement/p-1705857-c-6845.htm">An example of hardware store refractory.</a><br />
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My own version is adapted from commercial versions and the backyard metal casting website, but substituting locally plausible materials (the sand and clay are literally locally gathered) to fill all the same roles in about the same ratios.Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-45011965331393852672014-09-25T20:49:00.002-07:002014-09-25T21:13:07.310-07:00Making a Homemade Pipe Organ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSGQAptwK_KIkn8ZkUe4YQkgAW7XikjXf3MYBmAvtSEHrEPobq335Qc4xfu0exC9GxjK8ZE4gjWVlvU3BDQgrIGTooh3tTSftnxGLtTuFWQjrm0mtValnCdvEGEe6EGYVG0V2zf_n3dF3/s1600/Organ_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguSGQAptwK_KIkn8ZkUe4YQkgAW7XikjXf3MYBmAvtSEHrEPobq335Qc4xfu0exC9GxjK8ZE4gjWVlvU3BDQgrIGTooh3tTSftnxGLtTuFWQjrm0mtValnCdvEGEe6EGYVG0V2zf_n3dF3/s1600/Organ_1.jpg" height="186" width="400" /></a></div>
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One of my long term crafting projects is to build my own working pipe organ. Do I know how to play the organ, you ask? The answer is no. No I do not. Why did you ask that? I hardly see it as relevant.<br />
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Moving on, this will be a "positive organ," or in other words, a small desk-sized one. In the layout below, the entire table there is about 4 foot by 2 foot, and the largest pipes are 2" in diameter and would just barely clear a typical apartment ceiling (top pipe in the splash image above). The color coding is for commercially available widths of PVC pipe, my primary building material:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBigiIMmAq8SvPi2Chgumm8SORrjuXGYMC1QQKULL4dwq0z5RKM-nw7hJYoUis_nb6IU13apI61gTLYSiM8uh0_nrLKHN3UoRGzGXptelO1so1-duBa3HoHxqhRKDKqbfCPmRyk374FaV/s1600/layout.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmBigiIMmAq8SvPi2Chgumm8SORrjuXGYMC1QQKULL4dwq0z5RKM-nw7hJYoUis_nb6IU13apI61gTLYSiM8uh0_nrLKHN3UoRGzGXptelO1so1-duBa3HoHxqhRKDKqbfCPmRyk374FaV/s1600/layout.png" height="230" width="400" /></a></div>
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I don't remember at all what made me interested in this project, but hopefully it will be capable of creating wonderful art when it's all done, whether or not I'm the one making art with it!<br />
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Overall, a pipe organ requires the following components, and thus these are the major areas of the project:<br />
<ol>
<li><b>A frame</b> of some sort -- this can be anything from a modified table to a huge gilded architectural wing of a building. In my case, my most important design consideration is portability - I am keeping the organ small and desk-sized, and I want to be able to break it down for transportation.</li>
<li><b>A lot of pipes</b> -- My organ has five octaves (61 pipes) in flute-like sound, give or take a few pipes possibly for different harmonies at the end(s). One octave is a 2x difference in pipe length. You can "cheat" your way for one bonus octave without longer pipes by making ones with stoppers in the ends which effectively doubles the virtual length. Thus, my organ will have pipes from about 4 foot to 6 inches. They also get narrower as they get shorter. I am planning 2-3 additional redundant octaves in something much more fun. Tentatively, "bubble" sound. I.e. bubbling water, but in specific pitches. Because reasons.</li>
<li><b>A keyboard</b> (called a "manual" on an organ). This doesn't have to have a key for every tone, although it is convenient and mine will. The color coded keys above are ones that would be able to play either/both bubble and flute pipes, based on a pull-control knob (a "stop").</li>
<li><b>A "wind" (air) supply</b>, including some sort of fan or bellows, as well as a regulating reservoir to control for consistent pressure despite however many keys you are playing at once. Without a regulator, an 8-note chord would play 8x more softly than a single note. We want consistency, which requires building up a reserve of air pressure. i will use a squirrel cage electric fan and a box with a rising, weighted lid for a reservoir.</li>
<li><b>A windchest</b>, which is an interface that takes in the main air supply, and uses linkages from the keys and any number of control stops to distribute wind to the appropriate pipe or pipes.I plan to take advantage of plastic tubing to greatly reduce the mechanical complexity compared to traditional church organs. Basically all I need are some small boxes and flap valves for each key, and some airtight gaskets, and that's it. Possibly one sliding board to convert between flute and bubble pipe voices.</li>
<li><b>Finish</b>. Most of the pipes in my organ are going to be made out of PVC plastic plumbing pipe, so paint is a high priority to hide that fact. A tentative paint scheme is something like this (the arrangement of pipes here is not realistic, just slapped on the image):</li>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9kAbtLEeXE4RH9SCwCvyfR76UBwCPbshFpoTN5T6-Org_sLMPx7NY_BPtRyqhozfh8ZYeW655XqoJNDjunh4fhx5Jej56pDYHu26ihzbpjGe2DQai-dbF-55BU0aR2PuuA26hAxDRXYyA/s1600/organ+paint.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9kAbtLEeXE4RH9SCwCvyfR76UBwCPbshFpoTN5T6-Org_sLMPx7NY_BPtRyqhozfh8ZYeW655XqoJNDjunh4fhx5Jej56pDYHu26ihzbpjGe2DQai-dbF-55BU0aR2PuuA26hAxDRXYyA/s1600/organ+paint.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></div>
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<b>(Possible paint scheme of my organ. An air pressure reservoir is on the floor. </b></div>
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<b>The tube sections on top of the pipes are tuning slides.)</b></div>
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In my next post for this project, I'll dive right into the design and airflow diagrams for individual organ pipes, which are all homemade here, mostly out of PVC.<br />
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In the meantime, here's a sound clip of the four pipes from the splash image. In order from the top: 1,2,4,3. Sorry, the highest note is a bit wheezy and cracks its voice--it's not the pipe, it's just that I can't play it as hard as it is designed for without blowing out the audio on my microphone. At normal strength, it is crisp.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwQCTEe6SC_CuO95yUV4PCoj3cfNb38qvZO_b66mpMAzZVo0NEBkP2-25K0pouAaxuIpcl98uZOItvYB4VtRQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">HELPFUL LINKS</span></u></div>
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I'd like to extend deep thanks Raphi Giangiulio, who I have never written or talked to myself, but whose website about homemade organ building has been my #1 go-to resource for this project so far: <a href="http://www.rwgiangiulio.com/">Mr. Giangiulio's homemade pipe organ</a>. Here's a sound sample using flue pipes similar in construction to what I have planned (mine would be less warm and rich): <a href="http://www.rwgiangiulio.com/sounds/toccata-nr.mp3">Giangiulio sound sample</a><br />
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Matthias Wandel's project has also been especially helpful as an inspiration: <a href="http://www.sentex.net/~mwandel/organ/organ.html">A less ambitious but still awesome homemade pipe organ</a><br />
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(I don't think either of these guys knew how to play the organ either, by the way!)</div>
Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-5461004656261361282014-09-21T12:31:00.004-07:002014-10-27T18:28:33.785-07:00Restoring an Antique German Typewriter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj587HU4IQqGmju-40rBUfOkj-99qPhjliUMWuPb7J4o6sZmaukSpRAp3w6e_i8t90J9G5Z44jgK0xrN29NeNzS5VFgdKMOwbQer6Lfy8uzNlsbLtq0PAXDS7Z8kluT25hTI35tIGgQ-BEb/s1600/typebanner_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj587HU4IQqGmju-40rBUfOkj-99qPhjliUMWuPb7J4o6sZmaukSpRAp3w6e_i8t90J9G5Z44jgK0xrN29NeNzS5VFgdKMOwbQer6Lfy8uzNlsbLtq0PAXDS7Z8kluT25hTI35tIGgQ-BEb/s1600/typebanner_1.jpg" height="136" width="400" /></a></div>
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Laptops are for suckers. Why put up with the hassles of a cord and wall outlets, when you can enjoy the unfettered freedom of a 40 pound block of manually operated, electricity free cast iron?! Also, if you start taking mortar fire while typing a memo, this guy's got you covered:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3SaA1kKQ3_urwJ5ENyhe0fqrY1lQMB0Y5vCru_TZUw-0MYNsg1a_tAHD6_JphTMpvko9PtIQKICaRIE5euLIBRz6whyHL6cHR1RBpU76q4E7W7CAQTTm4oYQ8LnbA-z6gc_kMHCDwX9x/s1600/intro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3SaA1kKQ3_urwJ5ENyhe0fqrY1lQMB0Y5vCru_TZUw-0MYNsg1a_tAHD6_JphTMpvko9PtIQKICaRIE5euLIBRz6whyHL6cHR1RBpU76q4E7W7CAQTTm4oYQ8LnbA-z6gc_kMHCDwX9x/s1600/intro.jpg" height="276" width="640" /></a></div>
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Unfortunately, this circa 1905 Kaiser-approved German desktop typewriter arrived in rough shape fresh from UPS. It needs a lot of TLC before we can even attempt to type with it, let alone rely on it or display it proudly as some beautiful, functional art.<br />
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So... let's fix it! Repairing typewriters is a joyful experience in my opinion. Nowadays, most of the machines we use require computer diagnostics, etc. to even attempt to work on them. Even if you understand the mechanics of things like cars, there are fewer and fewer things you can fix or modify yourself as a hobbyist.<br />
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With mechanical typewriters, you can fix almost anything with only some screwdrivers, oil, ingenuity, and gumption. I obviously have no formal training on these, but I can still figure it all out, because it's all just levers and springs, and you can reliably follow them around and puzzle it out in the end. It's a sometimes very challenging, yet an almost certainly solvable puzzle, and one that uses your eyes and hands -- the best kind!<br />
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First, we begin with just testing the features:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBm1I0shJsByV4LCyK3T6hVCFLfZRsQIBUP7AqrZjmKRBU4rS-l9EgWMpR4ZH7ylw9AuBJxlUFLWsViWQPs9yD-VQK34VZ1uPgvCpJM2yvw0G6qWpvowqaBkVmbfqZfBrus_2Uqgw0eRqt/s1600/isotype.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBm1I0shJsByV4LCyK3T6hVCFLfZRsQIBUP7AqrZjmKRBU4rS-l9EgWMpR4ZH7ylw9AuBJxlUFLWsViWQPs9yD-VQK34VZ1uPgvCpJM2yvw0G6qWpvowqaBkVmbfqZfBrus_2Uqgw0eRqt/s1600/isotype.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJRMMgwsqLcRUGdPe35WQxQ52RU9DK_fWNmDMfVb6ZXdg7osk5j-au85fxvXi_WNBaFa8kL3Bxwx5xSBh62XJdACkl1_qSPRrvwRDfQihxfue6PTvUVne7TWqieCeswFiSfLo0aESPyD0d/s1600/back.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJRMMgwsqLcRUGdPe35WQxQ52RU9DK_fWNmDMfVb6ZXdg7osk5j-au85fxvXi_WNBaFa8kL3Bxwx5xSBh62XJdACkl1_qSPRrvwRDfQihxfue6PTvUVne7TWqieCeswFiSfLo0aESPyD0d/s1600/back.jpg" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<li>The keys, of course (<span style="color: red;"><b>A</b></span>) - What happens when you hit them? Well, what happens is that a couple of them stick ("H" and "^"), and the rest make it about halfway to the platen (the rubberized striking surface at <span style="color: red;"><b>J</b></span>), before they meet with mysterious bouncey resistance.</li>
<li>The space bar (<b><span style="color: red;">B</span></b>) - It snapped in half, but the lever seems to function.</li>
<li>Shifting (<b><span style="color: red;">C</span></b>) - The buttons seem to work, but the carriage (the whole top assembly) is jammed or messed up, so they don't really do what they are supposed to. I don't think it's the shift's fault, though, intuitively. This can be revisited later if necessary.</li>
<li>Caps Lock (<span style="color: red;"><b>D</b></span>) - Same as shifting.</li>
<li>Carriage return lever - It moves the carriage, but it requires a stupid amount of force to do, like there's a lot of friction, about halfway across. It also makes a horrible grinding sound from the teeth skipping on the gears in the back (the rack gear <span style="color: red;"><b>S</b></span><-><span style="color: red;"><b>T</b></span> with the teeth of the escapement mechanism <b><span style="color: red;">P</span></b>). </li>
<li>Margin release - It's hard to see, but it's a button that pops out at <span style="color: red;"><b>F</b></span>, when you hit the right margin. You can push it and give yourself a couple more letters if you need them (shame on you you bad bad typist! *ruler smack*). This doesn't work, because it's not attached to anything in the back (<b><span style="color: red;">N</span></b> - see the empty hole at the top of the lever).</li>
<li>Ribbon advancing - The ribbon holder (<span style="color: red;"><b>H</b></span>) is supposed to move whenever you type a key. The knob at <span style="color: red;"><b>G</b></span> reverses the direction. Both seem to work.</li>
<li>Platen knobs (<b><span style="color: red;">I</span></b>) - This is used for manually turning from line to line. One is missing, the other is horribly deteriorated, but there are no mechanical issues, the parts just need replacing.</li>
<li>The platen itself (<span style="color: red;"><b>J</b></span>) - The rubber is in good shape!</li>
<li>Lever that lets the carriage slide freely (<b><span style="color: red;">K</span></b>) - Has the same friction and grinding issues with the carriage, but I don't think this is a cause, since it's just a minor input.</li>
<li>A bar is missing that is supposed to hold the paper down (based on internet photos of the same typewriter) at (<span style="color: red;"><b>L</b></span>).</li>
<li>The single/double/triple spacing selector (<b><span style="color: red;">M</span></b>) - There was a spring that kept this in place that was out of whack. It took 2 seconds to pop back in position, and this now works.</li>
<li>The backspace function - This is disconnected in back just like the right margin is. It seems to be missing parts (<span style="color: red;"><b>O</b></span>).</li>
<li>The escapement and main spring assembly (<b><span style="color: red;">P</span></b>) - This is grinding against the rack gear above it, but I don't think it is the originator of the problem, because it looks solidly attached and whole, etc.</li>
<li>Arms that hold paper (<b><span style="color: red;">Q</span></b>) - These work. There is some gross mildewy felt under them though.</li>
<li>The bell is missing (area below <span style="color: red;"><b>N</b></span>), but the adjustable clapper that is supposed to hit it works (<span style="color: red;"><b>R</b></span>).</li>
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<b>General aesthetics</b> -- Dusty and dirty. There are a few areas of uncontrollable rust, and a lot of minor rust. It should clean up pretty well, though, with some light abrasion and chemicals and elbow grease. The decals are in good shape (the back one and ribbon spools look awesome), the front one is dim but intact, and it seems to be behind a layer of flaky varnish or something. The side lettering is worn, but very easy to touch up. The paint looks great, I don't see many chips or flaws in the paint job. The keys are in mediocre shape. There's some stubborn tape or something on the top of the case.</div>
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Most of these issues can be steadily repaired and cleaned up one at a time. But the carriage issues are by far the highest priority. If they can't be fixed, the whole machine will always be useless, and so would any other repairs.</div>
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The symptoms the carriage is exhibiting are increasing friction toward one side and grinding gears. Gradual friction implies that two large moving parts are not properly aligned. Grinding implies that gears are not aligned. My first thought was thus that a major rail somewhere was bent. Thankfully, I couldn't find anything like that!<br />
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My next thought was that two or more large rails were just entirely not lined up, even though straight. For example, are screws holding the fram together missing? No. Is the FRAME straight (also not a great question to find yourself asking...). Turns out <b>NO </b>it isn't. The frame has a difficult-to-see but large crack in the back near the foot (somewhat below point <span style="color: red;"><b>N</b></span> in the above pictures):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfr2hyi9Y7IUZzfEwWqtuu7oDjuWuWwneCQQRLtbE7KkYtYX8jtTr6Un1PAiMb3hguK98Mf7BsT7E8dfec0irrS6F8hEI4ojw7Z20OSV1fJRPTuOfYi11RqNSrI7nQmAwEjjl8wbOInRLA/s1600/cracks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfr2hyi9Y7IUZzfEwWqtuu7oDjuWuWwneCQQRLtbE7KkYtYX8jtTr6Un1PAiMb3hguK98Mf7BsT7E8dfec0irrS6F8hEI4ojw7Z20OSV1fJRPTuOfYi11RqNSrI7nQmAwEjjl8wbOInRLA/s1600/cracks.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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This is not good, however typewriters don't actually experiences THAT much stress. The frame can probably be fixed with just a really strong 2 part epoxy (I also considered drilling through and bolting, but the surface area isn't large enough). Before doing that, though, I got a small C-clamp and just dry-clamped the sections together. What happened was that the friction largely disappeared, but the gear grinding didn't, and some parts were still knocking into each other. I futzed around until I found where:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAM5Il9BCJ11zybfk7n5tpBApqNZISQeYUF4KnU-75gi6AatKtMYpMwbIvARasZmXBzuvUoAhDM-9SdiVKKIWHz7Y8K2R0SgnUqe_2BHhWkos7F52WbF0andnpuSRHn4VFxMe-YuS6uyW/s1600/IMG_5471.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSAM5Il9BCJ11zybfk7n5tpBApqNZISQeYUF4KnU-75gi6AatKtMYpMwbIvARasZmXBzuvUoAhDM-9SdiVKKIWHz7Y8K2R0SgnUqe_2BHhWkos7F52WbF0andnpuSRHn4VFxMe-YuS6uyW/s1600/IMG_5471.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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A screwdriver just bent out the middle part by a couple of millimeters and it was fine (hopefully this doesn't mess up typing later! I don't think it will.). Next, the gear issue. Turns out that one of the two screws holding that rack gear on was rotten and the head fell apart when I tried to unscrew it (see points <span style="color: red;"><b>S</b></span> and <span style="color: red;"><b>T</b></span> above). Here is an over-dramatization of the rack being misaligned (in this photo it's entirely unattached not just loose) and the gear underneath it's supposed to interface with:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpwQKPCwtAztPys_j226zeiGA_StW3FcRgDlo7mqF16BQuu0jA9dxmizdGXA1u5TrMJSGcaFYwAl5IPY6cnGPU9HJu19-B0wt-7hW0EkK0W8V3bwYvjvD3TeRdQ9s4PaFHp58L8c_FLtTZ/s1600/IMG_5436s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpwQKPCwtAztPys_j226zeiGA_StW3FcRgDlo7mqF16BQuu0jA9dxmizdGXA1u5TrMJSGcaFYwAl5IPY6cnGPU9HJu19-B0wt-7hW0EkK0W8V3bwYvjvD3TeRdQ9s4PaFHp58L8c_FLtTZ/s1600/IMG_5436s.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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These screws from 1905 Germany aren't exactly standard modern thread sizes. I tried the hardware store, but it seems to be something ridiculous like M3.5 threading x 5mm long?? So instead, I found a random set screw of the same threading that wasn't doing much from elsewhere on the typewriter (see the remaining screw on the other side):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFGtWXa41-UD1pk8X_5NjNW9L6CDFSjhpaUspON5-gTpbBQ7zIytDqvGUFy-xYTYSgt9xsY6g_PDL1xQnNoi1dzrz2PtFaqbTpBwXdVIOHbtfiNWyfw5G4fC_tpifPagUsaQUj9UlEAXo-/s1600/IMG_5495s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFGtWXa41-UD1pk8X_5NjNW9L6CDFSjhpaUspON5-gTpbBQ7zIytDqvGUFy-xYTYSgt9xsY6g_PDL1xQnNoi1dzrz2PtFaqbTpBwXdVIOHbtfiNWyfw5G4fC_tpifPagUsaQUj9UlEAXo-/s1600/IMG_5495s.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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This screw was too long, so I clamped it in some vice grips and used my dremel to cut it down to the right size, then filed down the burrs on the end so it would thread (broken screw on the right):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6Ivifn93pE09b_kUjZH2A8E4sxs2617LicaUjpS0gQs5bNm7nMPz_2ISrAvDkRM-bHsn3Yq_22cAAntwywI1Fl6EEMLUYDLzKjyFGMAkKZJMUS8K4VcGGgHvfzD8gMBaJqxtX6RagDe3/s1600/IMG_5432s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw6Ivifn93pE09b_kUjZH2A8E4sxs2617LicaUjpS0gQs5bNm7nMPz_2ISrAvDkRM-bHsn3Yq_22cAAntwywI1Fl6EEMLUYDLzKjyFGMAkKZJMUS8K4VcGGgHvfzD8gMBaJqxtX6RagDe3/s1600/IMG_5432s.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaqIFxeNN4kAusNzfLyBhLQ_DHOqobz3z5va5MAatRjFvJogXxzuixTH7SGfGpXVG0x9ZsytqSxr_F687wF-LXmBi9_bK-Alt8fxofFV-N9DlFgloQcg4872Dl2WIKxTTxt3v2-UL7KF_/s1600/IMG_5437.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaqIFxeNN4kAusNzfLyBhLQ_DHOqobz3z5va5MAatRjFvJogXxzuixTH7SGfGpXVG0x9ZsytqSxr_F687wF-LXmBi9_bK-Alt8fxofFV-N9DlFgloQcg4872Dl2WIKxTTxt3v2-UL7KF_/s1600/IMG_5437.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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(in its new home)</div>
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After fixing the rack, the carriage now moves smoothly (C-clamp still dry-fitted for now), and doesn't skip teeth. It does still have a couple of issues though. First of all, it's WAY too strong. I assume that somebody working on the typewriter in the past tried to ratchet up the power on the main spring to just <b>FORCE </b>their way past the friction from the broken frame (tsk tsk tsk!). As in, the entire typewriter was vibrating with force every time the rack gear moved at all. So I loosened the tension dramatically to make it safer and less damaging to the machine. I rocked this lever back and forth to slowly release tension one tooth at a time until the carriage was too weak to move forward. Then I re-strengthened it by a few teeth (you can just grab the wheel with your hand and turn it usually):</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc4_C9sLNxBZyJIHY51p0hJcfm9ISi_kj9-2gDu1VCe7iE9NwmZrzeBBtG6Uc8jZ21LBb3kK9xkos8eu8NzJZcxoXI8Ukbve9gIEpMgOUTnI_QvtS4izUh2B9eg3-d_O6JF8JvJ7HvbNHK/s1600/IMG_5496t.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc4_C9sLNxBZyJIHY51p0hJcfm9ISi_kj9-2gDu1VCe7iE9NwmZrzeBBtG6Uc8jZ21LBb3kK9xkos8eu8NzJZcxoXI8Ukbve9gIEpMgOUTnI_QvtS4izUh2B9eg3-d_O6JF8JvJ7HvbNHK/s1600/IMG_5496t.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Finally, the carriage seems to sort of randomly stop partway across, and keys now sometimes work, and sometimes don't. When it does stop, it's a "soft" stop. It's hard to explain, but having used typewriters a lot in the past, it "feels like the typewriter doesn't want me to go further" not that something is broken and binding.<br />
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Sure enough, my intuition helped me figure out the problem after a bit of looking in the right places. Remember that margin release that was disconnected? Here's another photo of what should be there:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbUqPPdngEWN0TSZE7lGFsMilFJlARm1th9iTly86vMFdSgN2zG_4wU0K4i4TOO_K9lebR2qJFv3Gi0OW8Qf-vzuvElOcma7zSq3d5RNQj2Ajvz7anTbMkOOLSpCAwlV5cuGHdd9qO5uy/s1600/IMG_5447s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbUqPPdngEWN0TSZE7lGFsMilFJlARm1th9iTly86vMFdSgN2zG_4wU0K4i4TOO_K9lebR2qJFv3Gi0OW8Qf-vzuvElOcma7zSq3d5RNQj2Ajvz7anTbMkOOLSpCAwlV5cuGHdd9qO5uy/s1600/IMG_5447s.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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That missing arm is supposed to help keep the lever to the left UNTIL you hit the actual right side margin. The spring at the bottom helps hold it to the left, but was never designed to do this all by itself. What was happening was that the lever was too weakly held in its current state and was wandering randomly to the right side, then the machine thought that I was at the margin now and then, and it was dutifully stopping anything from working. For now, I just slapped some rubber bands on to hold it to the left.</div>
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<b>SO </b>now the carriage works! It moves one spot when you type a key all the way across and returns properly with good tension and no resistance. This is a big relief. The rest of the problems can definitely be addressed and are worth working on, now that the carriage works. I still want to keep it under observation while I fix some other things before I epoxy it, but we can move onto other things.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">OILING</span></u></div>
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At this point, I also oiled the main rails and pulleys of the carriage. Oiling bars is always a good idea. Just be careful to not get oil in the springbox or in any very dense areas of machinery like the big block that holds all the typebars. Oil in hard to reach places can get gummed up and is very difficult to fix later. Getting it inside coiled spring is bad too.<br />
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<b>DO NOT</b> use WD-40. Use a proper machine oil. Something like sewing machine oil would be best. I'm a little lazy, and I'm just using basic 3-in-1 oil, but it's still universes better than WD-40, which will seize up in no time and make a huge mess later.<br />
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A dab will do you! <b>I prefer to use an old toothbrush with a few drops of oil</b> and not even pour any oil from the bottle directly on the machine at all. It leaves a medium-thin layer everywhere with no dripping into bad places.<br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">HELPFUL RESOURCES</span></u></div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://site.xavier.edu/polt/typewriters/tw-restoration.html">The classic typewriter page</a> has an excellent reference article on general amateur typewriter restoration.</li>
<li><a href="http://typewriterdatabase.com/seidelnau.241.typewriter-serial-number-database">The typewriter database</a> provides year of manufacture estimates for most typewriter brand serial numbers and other identification images and resources.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.typewritermuseum.org/collection/index.php3?machine=ideala&cat=kf">The virtual typewriter museum</a> similarly provides identification resources for a lesser number of machines, and for this one it had some very useful information about how parts are supposed to go together and what was missing on my own model.</li>
</ul>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">NEXT</span></u></div>
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I need to finish up all the remaining more minor mechanical issues, fixing some linkages and fabricating a part or two (backspace, margins, missing and rusty knobs, making a new space bar, new feet, new ribbon, new bell, unstuck "^" key).<br />
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There's also a LOT of cleaning to do - rust removal, cleaning crud and dust and grease in general, dealing with the weird varnish/tobacco mix or whatever is on the front plate, retouching gold lettering, polishing, waxing. At some point, I'll probably have to remove the surface panels and clean up individual typebars underneath too. Also, re-felting.<br />
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A couple specific photos of things still left to fix that I didn't include earlier. Top: a super rusted and old rubber platen knob. Middle: A completely missing other platen knob. Bottom: Another view of the remaining knob and a lot of surface rust on other levers and things.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2s5l31l_QEnc-GiYXWDUOMerYe81Ab1qiN-XdSdAgr12_PQ52lzUYMjNJoOpBlPrxynfEPQM3AD7f0ddbKC0fe3drHavQbvsU37AtauG7-vWk0DKBk4ceeADzI-zq40X6Gx_qvAnlQ-cQ/s1600/platen2s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2s5l31l_QEnc-GiYXWDUOMerYe81Ab1qiN-XdSdAgr12_PQ52lzUYMjNJoOpBlPrxynfEPQM3AD7f0ddbKC0fe3drHavQbvsU37AtauG7-vWk0DKBk4ceeADzI-zq40X6Gx_qvAnlQ-cQ/s1600/platen2s.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK1zUQy7Gy5J-QzQ-7nz0sHdLwoRqgeiw-LYHhpPhVbgt04gSpPPBGNVmWhif9yVP6PxKBrrMTdeSeE25qukTux_XFc7ThgoNePQGlaW5rQ-6dsmK0bsI7vHIRpIqVXkElLx3BvG57XPT6/s1600/platen3s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK1zUQy7Gy5J-QzQ-7nz0sHdLwoRqgeiw-LYHhpPhVbgt04gSpPPBGNVmWhif9yVP6PxKBrrMTdeSeE25qukTux_XFc7ThgoNePQGlaW5rQ-6dsmK0bsI7vHIRpIqVXkElLx3BvG57XPT6/s1600/platen3s.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVaqWr0FiAH79VOglclVGontxxkHCFa1uAxamL9QeHESFn7sLH4WUpvVZkDrdQ06ZXvgdPgKU0HKOWHJSnZ1hwsffWL4FegFZGXtZOa4fkChSR7ebbIHICC0cmwjJRrzjQS53X2hOSBzy/s1600/IMG_5489.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqVaqWr0FiAH79VOglclVGontxxkHCFa1uAxamL9QeHESFn7sLH4WUpvVZkDrdQ06ZXvgdPgKU0HKOWHJSnZ1hwsffWL4FegFZGXtZOa4fkChSR7ebbIHICC0cmwjJRrzjQS53X2hOSBzy/s1600/IMG_5489.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-80614458278714473802014-09-15T17:40:00.000-07:002014-09-18T09:09:47.144-07:00Geology Simulator - The Shape of the World<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishs-pCx1b-Xp73OrJZlgkiBd9ZI-pf8fxJElerYZHKtnzlXPx2mook_07ub-IJVdHAIPqDfpvpwWS2Rn9NA_xztbimu8RpvxTJBpqSHLpKLzUpecZeLnPUReoEo6J0KnOP7So-9TZ3KkU/s1600/geobanner_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishs-pCx1b-Xp73OrJZlgkiBd9ZI-pf8fxJElerYZHKtnzlXPx2mook_07ub-IJVdHAIPqDfpvpwWS2Rn9NA_xztbimu8RpvxTJBpqSHLpKLzUpecZeLnPUReoEo6J0KnOP7So-9TZ3KkU/s1600/geobanner_2.png" height="158" width="400" /></a></div>
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(Part 1 <a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/09/geovox-geology-simulator-for-game-worlds.html">HERE</a>)</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">THE SHAPE OF THE WORLD</span></u></div>
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Earth is a sphere. Due to their inability to fit rectangular grids, spheres are really difficult to work with in a program, though. Also, I'm making this geology engine for games that use rectangular environments anyway. So I'm not going to use a spherical planet. Instead, I need a different shape that satisfies the following criteria:<br />
<ol>
<li>Easy to translate neatly into a rectangle or rectangular prism</li>
<li>Convenient to write code for (well defined, orthogonal dimensions)</li>
<li>Only one continuous surface, so that plates can smoothly glide anywhere and LOOK like they developed on a familiar spherical world</li>
</ol>
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The best shape I've discovered to fit the bill is a <b>"torus."</b> It looks like the image below. Notice that it has rectangular grid cells all the way around, nice perpendicular dimensions, no annoying poles where everything comes to a point, minimal distortion of the cells (which I can just ignore), and a single smooth surface:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir_WN7tN5Wnfaau85pvGgnGJM05hhnDjtvGNSwXrGVybFNxaMsECQe5QODxKm-5wvdgkSCv3s3MyuH6t6qz80GrLqLLB-PW_2Dcpviok2q6kMJdOYNep1Xoh9OQIjRSNOXNsztni1VZZ1u/s1600/A.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir_WN7tN5Wnfaau85pvGgnGJM05hhnDjtvGNSwXrGVybFNxaMsECQe5QODxKm-5wvdgkSCv3s3MyuH6t6qz80GrLqLLB-PW_2Dcpviok2q6kMJdOYNep1Xoh9OQIjRSNOXNsztni1VZZ1u/s1600/A.png" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
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(image by Dave Burke)</div>
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You can also turn a torus into a rectangle easily. Just slice along where the red arrow is and where the blue arrow is, unfold, and you have a rectangle of surface, or a rectangular prism if you keep the thickness. In fact, we don't even really have to run our program as a torus, we can just use a regular 2-dimensional matrix, where things that go off the edge are assumed to show up on the opposite side. This is just a another way of looking at (projecting) the skin of a torus:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjohEeOfQiY_M1vmTFXAN4ylhy9FP-5Ngyh_W3oxYN5VThAZgK0H9jsYWA1sWpgdERqr0LduIWURWwbtF4MQ9O2FoSRB9Z9z1qcXqsIdfz63iZDy2MYnrTIj7bf7yex3KL3F7FxNZmyyFtj/s1600/wraparound.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjohEeOfQiY_M1vmTFXAN4ylhy9FP-5Ngyh_W3oxYN5VThAZgK0H9jsYWA1sWpgdERqr0LduIWURWwbtF4MQ9O2FoSRB9Z9z1qcXqsIdfz63iZDy2MYnrTIj7bf7yex3KL3F7FxNZmyyFtj/s1600/wraparound.png" height="251" width="400" /></a></div>
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There are a few differences from a sphere for world simulating purposes. For one thing, cutting around either entire circumference (red or blue arrow or similar), unlike a sphere, does NOT divide the world into two plates. You need to make two cuts like that (red vs. blue plates below). Alternatively, you can carve out a chunk with one single border that does not wrap all the way around (green plate below):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9jiHKaAafDX7Aq-nlt7Xpv883wxegLWvgZX7SUtqtVHplfPLYGS6UrvId2Oz7GhpSzsTUxr_c7qvpDzyE1ETj_fJ5zWPOL-IW0wQQC67geZYQC7undtzXTCctE-33D1N42-5NiIJuAFLT/s1600/Diagram2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9jiHKaAafDX7Aq-nlt7Xpv883wxegLWvgZX7SUtqtVHplfPLYGS6UrvId2Oz7GhpSzsTUxr_c7qvpDzyE1ETj_fJ5zWPOL-IW0wQQC67geZYQC7undtzXTCctE-33D1N42-5NiIJuAFLT/s1600/Diagram2.png" height="237" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhyTb-ozX42l2nhP-_g0NywV2F35Ku2OBcYlxocHFcnEDWEtUTJ4ymQNgfnA6zy6bxUNPLFR7BCBxIcv_IB_elvnfaitW-yoM8KaMfanI8b4N32CVq7-DKLBUvBDO58l3HlD66dxmGfKS/s1600/torus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDhyTb-ozX42l2nhP-_g0NywV2F35Ku2OBcYlxocHFcnEDWEtUTJ4ymQNgfnA6zy6bxUNPLFR7BCBxIcv_IB_elvnfaitW-yoM8KaMfanI8b4N32CVq7-DKLBUvBDO58l3HlD66dxmGfKS/s1600/torus.png" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
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Rectangular and toroidal versions of the same</div>
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tectonic plate situation (sorry the number of</div>
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cells changes, ignore that)</div>
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Another difference is that north and south are not destinations like on Earth, where you're as north or south as you can get. Instead, they are just like east and west: they're just directions of travel only, that go forever, looping around. The red arrows in the first image represent north and south, the blue arrows east and west.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">CLIMATE</span></u></div>
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Finally, climate would be very different than on a spherical world, and climate matters for geology (glaciers, frost wedging rocks apart, etc.). <b>I should only take this into account, though, if the game world is actually supposed to be a torus, not if I'm just trying to simulate a sphere.</b> So I will probably just cheat and overlay a sphere's climate. But if it were actually supposed to be a torus, I believe it would look something like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6n54IhltmIWOjt_dgMcjI-7Du6CeabYk5_bIiuSkEvU3p4ujkWkx1nXBkhQD7VgnYx10H1sNHbOOsggWwUrfIHDKVPI4T9FtzfaGVOR6KuGLswaqt3NMflHz1zwUPDfDVtvxTq6KRBHE/s1600/climate.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgU6n54IhltmIWOjt_dgMcjI-7Du6CeabYk5_bIiuSkEvU3p4ujkWkx1nXBkhQD7VgnYx10H1sNHbOOsggWwUrfIHDKVPI4T9FtzfaGVOR6KuGLswaqt3NMflHz1zwUPDfDVtvxTq6KRBHE/s1600/climate.png" /></a></div>
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The inner portion hardly ever gets sun, and is permanently iced over. The top and bottom of the planet suffer extreme temperature swings, with the sun never setting for half the year, and in darkness the other (if tilted like Earth is). Temperatures might be near boiling and then a hundred below across seasons. Plants can't live here, so the rocks are barren (migratory species might spend some time in the area to breed or similar, and sealife is sustainable. Very hardy annual plants might survive). On the very outer edge, the climate would be similar to Earth's temperate zones (like Europe), but with a double speed cycle of seasons. This is easily survivable year-round, and plant life is sustained here.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cU3YzEvK5dJh0qnw2gOlsHfGRN_8OoOwjNEKump_N2U8QIrEMctL6EjnIxpNirunBxUhWgZGzTWmkLLD1VJAPe0syyAsCkNdD-8WtzJf5gJUTIogOEQXYbYkDy59kOpjB3YVLTuZDIKG/s1600/climateTorus.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2cU3YzEvK5dJh0qnw2gOlsHfGRN_8OoOwjNEKump_N2U8QIrEMctL6EjnIxpNirunBxUhWgZGzTWmkLLD1VJAPe0syyAsCkNdD-8WtzJf5gJUTIogOEQXYbYkDy59kOpjB3YVLTuZDIKG/s1600/climateTorus.png" height="256" width="400" /></a></div>
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I'm no meteorologist, but the weather should also be different. The seasonal instead of daily temperature fluctuation would either make more extreme weather (due to the larger difference) or less (due to less turnover/mixing things up), I'm not sure. This is something to keep in mind if I want to simulate an actual torus world later when I get to erosion parts of the model.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">PROGRAMMING STUFF</span></u><br />
<span style="color: #444444;">(Non-programmers: worth skimming, but don't worry about the details too much)</span></div>
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<u>Organization</u></h2>
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I'm writing this in C++, so in order to define the world's shape and behavior, we also have to start thinking about the world's major object classes. As of right now, I'm carving the physical world into the following organizational classes (there are also custom vector classes and things not mentioned):</div>
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<b>WORLD:</b> The whole world stores the plates in it and its dimensions. It also keeps track of the time. It has many important methods involving interactions between plates, like actually determining how far plates move together, which boundaries subduct versus crumple, and how much pressure and resistance plates get from the direction they try to move in. </div>
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<b>VOXEL:</b> A voxel is a 3D cube that is the smallest size that would be seen during eventual gameplay. Such as a single block in Minecraft. These are not actually simulated during geological timescales.</div>
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<b>GOXEL:</b> A goxel (geological voxel) is a 3D cube that is the smallest size considered during geological simulation. I'm likely to change how many voxels make one goxel as I go, and have it later be a user-defined parameter. 16x16x16 voxels is a good starting point. Goxels don't do much, they mainly just store information about material types, temperature, pressure, etc. and get pushed around by other methods.</div>
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<b>COLUMN:</b> A column is the smallest size unit in the 2-dimensional rectangular projection of the world. It is a stack of some number of goxels (the thickness of the crust changes in different places around the world). Columns do various things as a unit that makes them a useful class. For example, they float on the mantle of the planet, and this can cause stresses that cause them to crack away from neighboring columns and cause fault lines. They're also convenient for erosion and other things, like efficiently swapping real estate between plates.</div>
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<b>PLATE:</b> A plate is a collection of columns. It gets moved by the world object, but it does various other things itself, like checking the buildup of pressure under the crust to calculate the likelihood of splitting into two plates (more likely the bigger it is) it also checks for whether columns have managed to create so many fault lines that they have effectively made a new plate.</div>
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<b>REGION:</b> Possibly a generic "region" superclass that has methods and variables relevant to keeping track of areas of the world that have other areas inside of them (i.e. all of the above except voxels).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3zZLnxrWqkpZRz6T4FbhBaqyfB-vD3wHZ20p2z78pJ7nNS1ezZ8VTMkAyAoXLjBC1pwcMUOJ1-Dm3mJ5vxziIBvfPzYP3fMBeNxBQgWOK-zq7R4AmQCzeh0CYdAOgNOp2j1O82XdcnuX/s1600/Diagram3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE3zZLnxrWqkpZRz6T4FbhBaqyfB-vD3wHZ20p2z78pJ7nNS1ezZ8VTMkAyAoXLjBC1pwcMUOJ1-Dm3mJ5vxziIBvfPzYP3fMBeNxBQgWOK-zq7R4AmQCzeh0CYdAOgNOp2j1O82XdcnuX/s1600/Diagram3.png" height="225" width="640" /></a></div>
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Whenever possible, I am going to attempt to make every constant number in the whole program come from a user-variable text file, which will be the main source of control and input, for a good combination of user friendliess and coder friendliness (I hate GUIs, especially in C++).</div>
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<u>Output</u></h2>
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I'm probably going to output as color coded image files or ASCII for now. One of my design principles is definitely to have all of the output be modularly separate from the simulation code, though, so other people could swap it all out later.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">NEXT TIME</span></u></div>
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I'm going to try to tackle just plate tectonics alone first. Plates splitting, moving due to new rock in ocean ridges, slowing down as they smash into things, deciding to subduct or not, etc. I will keep track of crumpling or uplifting of rocks as just numbers for now stored in columns ("7" = more crumpled rock is sitting here than "3," etc.). Same for volcanism. I can use these to output colorful pictures and get an idea of whether it looks reasonable or not. Actually storing more useful versions of that information can come later.</div>
<br />Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-86463963637721930812014-09-10T19:52:00.003-07:002014-09-18T09:10:03.773-07:00A Geology Simulator for Game Worlds<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjABU10S2sB_Ul76SmV-i4BaDfYwHLDwwhN7bosoEUf64_R2CTthMSDe2M-LAsPirtpLAOUvViuKR5mKBymjBFMpNFFikmURC60cNl3YfuZkzHAG4gHEbj2fmFRd29_VkV2E1_Ipzh_uEVj/s1600/geobanner_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjABU10S2sB_Ul76SmV-i4BaDfYwHLDwwhN7bosoEUf64_R2CTthMSDe2M-LAsPirtpLAOUvViuKR5mKBymjBFMpNFFikmURC60cNl3YfuZkzHAG4gHEbj2fmFRd29_VkV2E1_Ipzh_uEVj/s1600/geobanner_1.png" height="158" width="400" /></a></div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">THE STATE OF THE ART IN SANDBOX WORLD GENERATION</span></u></div>
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Unless you've been living under a rock for the last several years, I'm sure you've at least heard of the game Minecraft (and if you have been living under a rock, don't worry: you've been getting a very similar experience). </div>
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The game uses a procedurally generated 3D world of blocks. You run around freely in a world that looks like the one below (default Minecraft) and dig and rearrange blocks to build things, such as the luxurious dirt hovel I put together <i>especially </i>for this blog post.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilb91rhk5gkM0U0xcpzhqHwj5E7bU4LxewXz-Lddyd-9HxCtDA8pN22mloIUlYBe4bFZ5msgFRK0Dh3UXvH0qGxk-iEqifbArIVylOBh_zXSNkNjdhgW5kDVYhBp8OSCBfJ71x3AnIspa9/s1600/Untitled-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilb91rhk5gkM0U0xcpzhqHwj5E7bU4LxewXz-Lddyd-9HxCtDA8pN22mloIUlYBe4bFZ5msgFRK0Dh3UXvH0qGxk-iEqifbArIVylOBh_zXSNkNjdhgW5kDVYhBp8OSCBfJ71x3AnIspa9/s1600/Untitled-2.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
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(Terrain generator by Markus "Notch" Persson)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWyRNSbDNE6hwUccM0O41V1uHqTpRL2rdbCanpoMkNkFuy4LisrDtMU_cMtIP7sZw8Lmuzf0_48yjXhe7t3D0SFLUw7ZDQyrFgEW4b6YM9fcv9f0t-NTZcuGcln5iBezJ9tP5GHZFO_Ero/s1600/dirt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWyRNSbDNE6hwUccM0O41V1uHqTpRL2rdbCanpoMkNkFuy4LisrDtMU_cMtIP7sZw8Lmuzf0_48yjXhe7t3D0SFLUw7ZDQyrFgEW4b6YM9fcv9f0t-NTZcuGcln5iBezJ9tP5GHZFO_Ero/s1600/dirt.jpg" height="305" width="400" /></a></div>
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(Built by <i>yours truly</i>! I also made <a href="http://i.imgur.com/FXmlAcX.jpg">this</a>, by the way.)</div>
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I played minecraft for several years, as part of a server full of 20-40 year old nerds (the <a href="http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/mapping-and-modding/maps/1558574-the-voxelbox-mega-release-topic">Voxelbox</a>). We were not terribly impressed by the default gameplay, controls, or creative options. However, we did recognize an excellent core concept and a very modifiable set of bones to the game. We went about making a variety of tools to ease the creative process, allowing of course infinite free blocks, building from a distance, boolean shape logic, smoothing operations over thousands of blocks at a time, etc. Basically, the goal was 3D multiplayer photoshop. We eventually ended up being able to make landscapes like this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCEAW7cy3vnnPPwM-wFw-H_L8HQ04yS6t2rP2DuMqEu9FvkqtvpgA72UZZr0Q1g4kFzuGvj0rJof1MPEESmX53dwd481GJ8kNBQn96UZ4lxG4ZmqoSDXADo6oKItjHkJqN8yo5M0xm-c0N/s1600/gHi4eo3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCEAW7cy3vnnPPwM-wFw-H_L8HQ04yS6t2rP2DuMqEu9FvkqtvpgA72UZZr0Q1g4kFzuGvj0rJof1MPEESmX53dwd481GJ8kNBQn96UZ4lxG4ZmqoSDXADo6oKItjHkJqN8yo5M0xm-c0N/s1600/gHi4eo3.png" height="302" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>or</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOXwALJWC3RaWHAyjMr6Va7ZCorubLn1Z_yxoksPAlN-LsHDTPtXZYhP44PBw6JBFQcba1RQraBdG6TaFb1tTYC6B_-woV9IsRafur7mzpDulAf_EKFvcbiR1e4_PpRabba4LaFczLPKMk/s1600/blerh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOXwALJWC3RaWHAyjMr6Va7ZCorubLn1Z_yxoksPAlN-LsHDTPtXZYhP44PBw6JBFQcba1RQraBdG6TaFb1tTYC6B_-woV9IsRafur7mzpDulAf_EKFvcbiR1e4_PpRabba4LaFczLPKMk/s1600/blerh.jpg" height="327" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><u>BUT CAN I PLAY IN IT?</u></span></div>
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As nice as these end up looking (for a voxel engine), they doesn't really function as anything more than essentially a 3D painting on the wall. What if we still want to play the actual game?</div>
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<li style="text-align: left;">The custom landscaping is only a thin veneer for looks. You could never play an actual game on this landscape that involved any sort of digging under the surface. It's all just solid gray down there.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">It still takes hours of hand sculpting to make a section of land like this. It's fine for a proscribed experience like Skyrim, but not procedural games.</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">They're made by fantasy artists, not people who actually know anything about geology (or biology), so these scenes still tend to lack a lot of realism even at the surface, something a mining sandbox game should probably care about.</li>
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What if we just forget it when we want to play the game, and use the vanilla terrain generator? Well, even though Minecraft does a somewhat decent job of procedural surface terrain, its underground situation is just plain terrible. When you cut open the world, it's little more than a random jumble of uniform gray "stone" and caves and such. Clearly this has no geological realism to it:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiVm2wRZlnkWiitbvIJtT9SPkeqHXaYRVaYbDzDxiIoMXwvddNESAV3cJCSappKVz9noJOXx94u9Bx5mpLpz5kN4aJMGktQ9Hj1f6qnwxdfzxcWbxA-kCKtQGx2Ye7nH45z3nAznrWHmVP/s1600/blah.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiVm2wRZlnkWiitbvIJtT9SPkeqHXaYRVaYbDzDxiIoMXwvddNESAV3cJCSappKVz9noJOXx94u9Bx5mpLpz5kN4aJMGktQ9Hj1f6qnwxdfzxcWbxA-kCKtQGx2Ye7nH45z3nAznrWHmVP/s1600/blah.PNG" height="178" style="cursor: move;" width="320" /></a></div>
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Considering that the game involves spending a huge amount of your time underground--you know, <b>mining--</b>this becomes a serious drawback of game design. Other games, like <a href="http://www.bay12games.com/dwarves/">Dwarf Fortress</a> also heavily focus on 3D procedural worlds. Dwarf fortress does a better job of realism, including some layers and stone types in somewhat reasonable locations:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyukzmAWpBbgfV3o8sQHjtQAKDx2CfTb80b-7q-ByZh-4qrLC3hz26zG3qURtP9WGZ_jfwhB4Twtau0Ba8fViLmbV8HNioVN8BJQcD175CMowenz8RB_WxFtBLRaNdY5LK5W5eiUhtmc5t/s1600/DF.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyukzmAWpBbgfV3o8sQHjtQAKDx2CfTb80b-7q-ByZh-4qrLC3hz26zG3qURtP9WGZ_jfwhB4Twtau0Ba8fViLmbV8HNioVN8BJQcD175CMowenz8RB_WxFtBLRaNdY5LK5W5eiUhtmc5t/s1600/DF.png" height="132" width="400" /></a></div>
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(Terrain engine compliments of Tarn Adams)</div>
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...But we are still looking at completely flat, fairly random jumbles of rock types, mostly shallow, rounded, boring mountains, perfectly straight vertical volcanoes/tubes pasted abruptly into the landscape with only 3 feet of obsidian around them, and no correspondence to any broader geological history, other than putting the broadest categories of rock in roughly the right order.</div>
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A significant improvement is needed. I plan to attempt this by making a terrain generator that simulates actual geology, rather than faking an end product with simple fractals like these games do. If successful, this should exceed the realism, variety, and gameplay richness of the current leading games in the sandbox genre for world generation, both above and below ground.<br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><u>TO MAKE A REALISTIC GEOLOGY ENGINE FOR GAME WORLDS</u></span></div>
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I am planning on implementing the following features for a geology simulator:</div>
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<li>Proper plate tectonic-based continental history. Actual world plates will move around in a simulated history, collide, subduct, join together, break apart again, etc., forming realistic mountain ranges and continental shapes and compositions.</li>
<li>Bouyancy of plates causing bending, uplift, and fault lines.</li>
<li>Rock strata that curve in 3D when appropriate, for example when plates crumple together.</li>
<li>All continents come from somewhere. The world begins as all oceanic plates, and any continent can trace its history back to simulated volcanism, uplift, etc.</li>
<li>Realistic volcanism, with volcanoes of different types appropriately existing along corresponding plate boundaries. </li>
<li>Magma is modeled underground and may not reach the surface, instead bubbling up in intrusive plutons that solidify into granite for example.</li>
<li>Metamorphism occurs from actual simulated pressure or heat from geological events.</li>
<li>Erosion follows (simplified) watercourses, weather patterns, and frost wedging.</li>
<li>Different rock types weather differently, leading to certain interesting and realistic features like Yosemite's Half Dome.</li>
<li>A rough simulation of life as it is relevant to geological history at first (for iron oxidation, mass extinction coal and oil layers, limestone formation, etc.), as well as more detailed climate and biome types added at the very end of the simulation.</li>
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The goal is to get cross sections that look more like the below image, with obvious geological features like this old, solidified lava tube, volcanic cone, sedimentary rocks filling in above over time, and the oldest rock strata down below pushed apart into curved blisters when the ancient magma forced its way between them:<br />
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(pixelated version: this is lower resolution than would be used)</div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large; font-weight: normal;"><u>NEXT UP IN THIS PROJECT</u></span></div>
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I'll lay out my plans for the basic framework of the world (and of the program, written in C++), including the main data storage types, the shape of the planet, and some other high level planning.</div>
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Later on, I'll dive into large scale plate tectonics by themselves as the first major benchmark to get working.</div>
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Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-71853732469730067602014-08-29T13:32:00.002-07:002014-09-18T09:10:52.176-07:00Homebrew Pottery - Tempering local clay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9JUKSuJ26OZgWU7ftBL_Ztkqy1MdTDeSHSpJiZnWxG3JH9psTE8wF8mAROXLOjhZfHhUAxBMKwSXX8TahjP8_Rva1VPshcUDCBJ348mbzDRus64z64joXEuQkJ87eyaLJqJW485bIaZAd/s1600/pottery2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9JUKSuJ26OZgWU7ftBL_Ztkqy1MdTDeSHSpJiZnWxG3JH9psTE8wF8mAROXLOjhZfHhUAxBMKwSXX8TahjP8_Rva1VPshcUDCBJ348mbzDRus64z64joXEuQkJ87eyaLJqJW485bIaZAd/s1600/pottery2.jpg" height="152" width="400" /></a></div>
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People in ancient Mesopotamia didn't have the luxury of driving over to Blick art supplies and buying a clay that had exactly the physical properties they wanted. When you dig your own local clay, you have to consider including additives to change how "plastic" the clay is, how strong it is versus how easy it is to work, how well it dries and avoids cracks, etc.<br />
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">TEMPERING</span></u></div>
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<b>"Tempering" </b>clay is adding some amount of non-plastic material to a clay body to change its working properties. Namely, appropriately tempered clay is supposed to crack less easily and shrink less (which also makes it more thermally shock-resistant) than non-optimally-tempered clay. You can make temper out of:<br />
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<li>Crushed shells</li>
<li>Crushed old bits of already-fired pottery</li>
<li>Sand (if it has sharp-edged grains)</li>
<li>Really, anything else that can take the heat of a kiln and that has particles with "bite" to them</li>
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For my temper, I chose crushed pottery, also called <b>"grog."</b> The pottery in question was a boring old terracotta pot from the hardware store. (The black core is because the manufacturers were cheap and fired the pot too quickly, so the iron reduced to a different oxide. It's fine for my purposes)<br />
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(<b>By the way</b>: I'm going to be "cheating" on my "from scratch" rule to start early on at various steps, only as I am learning. Like by using hardware store pots. Later, once I know what works, I will go back and do things like make grog out of pottery I made myself instead!)</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">MAKING THE TEMPER</span></u></div>
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First, I crushed up the pot between an old sheet for eye-safety (<span style="color: red;">use goggles as well!</span>). You'll probably have to re-fold the sheet over and keep hitting several times to get enough small pieces:<br />
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This leaves you with a variety of different sized bits at any given point. Once I had them pretty small, I poured a handful of them all into this burlap bag, to sift to a common size (I had no idea if this is the optimal size ... SCIENCE!), and sifted them onto a clean area:</div>
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This is now my (unusually fine) grog. Apparently people tend to use larger grain sizes than this, but I didn't know that at the time. I might get better results if I try again with a larger mesh.</div>
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<u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">TESTING THE TEMPER</span></u></div>
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But anyhow, the next step is to take some test clay and divide it into some equally sized bits. We are going to add different percentages of grog to each bit and see which proportion of grog gives us the optimal working characteristics for this particular local clay, going in 10% increments (I just did it by apparent volume). Here are my clay bits and grog before being mixed:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_U0Q9lBWXQkhfzIYoChJKzF_Y24dJPJBSKpwFm1cJhVdaqRIwjuDaaJUn1TzUG8vtx6LPn_HVAzQWG1tPq7W3EyGx59ERvRY5dO1eGGV_uG2gWrnWiryP0N_ahAoL48cc7OVXgnMYklu/s1600/IMG_3540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia_U0Q9lBWXQkhfzIYoChJKzF_Y24dJPJBSKpwFm1cJhVdaqRIwjuDaaJUn1TzUG8vtx6LPn_HVAzQWG1tPq7W3EyGx59ERvRY5dO1eGGV_uG2gWrnWiryP0N_ahAoL48cc7OVXgnMYklu/s1600/IMG_3540.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWtslCV29X21fiyRo8oSAmScDj26WCinGVo7rizZ_P35U_CVQBHwObDFD4b-_EMd_1muiFSufzrGYLrJrzErjA82CM06CXqYkqh5MppGwD5S6dNjObSzsim9ijex3faN9CoZDgDIhe53n/s1600/IMG_3539.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrWtslCV29X21fiyRo8oSAmScDj26WCinGVo7rizZ_P35U_CVQBHwObDFD4b-_EMd_1muiFSufzrGYLrJrzErjA82CM06CXqYkqh5MppGwD5S6dNjObSzsim9ijex3faN9CoZDgDIhe53n/s1600/IMG_3539.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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(Don't know why it looks ashy gray here. It's the same reddish grog as above.)</div>
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Once you have thoroughly mixed a set of 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%, etc. balls of clay/grog, smash them into discs. Make note of how easy or difficult they are to work with while still moist.</div>
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Then wait for them to fully get bone-dry. This means "dry looking but also room-temperature when touched, which indicates no more deep evaporation is happening, either." Whichever mixture cracks and shrinks the least is the proportion you want. In my case, any amount of grog seemed to be a bad thing (0% performed best)!</div>
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<span style="text-align: center;">From left side, going clockwise: 60% grog, 50%, 40%, 30%, 20%, 10%, 0% (pure clay):</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieQSZSZFL6VZJ1dxws7ou1R1U5lOtb77CkYhphOqfqF_p-hUlj-nkpxIef3AJw289qkPrZXa4jf3o41xxXU77lH35aiSW_aD5IHGx7qEJjB2oO7NIDOuhz_j-2E5K9FbksT4n04tJUwAwQ/s1600/IMG_3541.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieQSZSZFL6VZJ1dxws7ou1R1U5lOtb77CkYhphOqfqF_p-hUlj-nkpxIef3AJw289qkPrZXa4jf3o41xxXU77lH35aiSW_aD5IHGx7qEJjB2oO7NIDOuhz_j-2E5K9FbksT4n04tJUwAwQ/s1600/IMG_3541.jpg" height="346" width="400" /></a></div>
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After drying, the situation hadn't changed. The pure clay didn't crack at all, and the tempered clays all got worse.</div>
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Since doing this test, I have tested another few mixtures for furnace lining (see future posts!) but all of my test items themselves are pure, un-tempered clay. That doesn't necessarily mean that's the best solution. If I were to be very thorough, I would want to test other types of tempers (shells? sand?) and also different mesh sizes of temper.</div>
Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1055833886224702820.post-9495028058474670262014-07-08T18:20:00.002-07:002014-09-18T09:10:59.654-07:00Homebrew Pottery - Finding and Refining Local Clay<div style="background-color: white;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMU6fap3FbfiDQFv7Qbr6G45rPESeZS-FDjSOGerNe6Px5kIXE0WiBmEFJ8UXJKX0H4Ta1NWVSAKmnJ0kPwV03LZi80CHvk8u6jtFxEKAH8uVY2uuacRMIc6hT-x4lHPToaNuCq6zuMQIi/s1600/pottery1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMU6fap3FbfiDQFv7Qbr6G45rPESeZS-FDjSOGerNe6Px5kIXE0WiBmEFJ8UXJKX0H4Ta1NWVSAKmnJ0kPwV03LZi80CHvk8u6jtFxEKAH8uVY2uuacRMIc6hT-x4lHPToaNuCq6zuMQIi/s1600/pottery1.jpg" height="152" width="400" /></a></div>
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In this long term project, I'm going to make a drinking mug completely from scratch. I will dig my own clay, make my own additives, refine my own high temperature fuel, fire it all in a homemade kiln, and apply homemade glaze then fire it again. In the process, I hope to get more fully in touch with all of the items and the effort that go into a single, simple tool in my life. This is a project about attaining a broader perspective.<br />
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Also... I get to play in the mud.<br />
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<u style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">SO LET'S BEGIN! FIRST WE NEED TO FIND SOME CLAY</span></u></h3>
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There are many kinds of clay, and you should be able to find some sort nearly anywhere you live:</div>
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<b>"Earthenware"</b> clay is easy to find most places. This is clay that has a significant number of impurities, notably iron oxides. As a result, it falls apart at lower temperatures than higher grade clays do. It also turns red when fired from the iron content (or black in an oxygen-starved environment). Earthenware won't vitrify (turn to a glass-like state during heating), so the products aren't waterproof unless you glaze them.</div>
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<b>"Stoneware" </b>clay (also called fire clay) is a purer clay that can be fired to much higher temperatures, where it can vitrify and be watertight naturally. You CAN also glaze it if you like. It is white or light gray in color and is usually deeper underground.</div>
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<b>"Porcelain"</b> clay (or china clay) is an almost pure "kaolinite" mineral of silicon and aluminum and oxygen, which allows for the highest firing, whitest, slightly translucent pottery wares. This is rarer than fire clay, harder to work with, and you're very unlikely to find any on your own.</div>
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Personally, I was only able to find local earthenware clay. Not too pretty right out of the ground:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk427H7esFSw6A6cYK_LHBCTntfHPJsVMVDn18DXKmmsHbGadzGrgsM0Szdy2803prvwGn4b9h1Wzbr4MWSrWg-HwdbPYgQRNAL-OXkddltc_2XwciPhtf0EQxrLWT7BFEbDCuZstGlE5R/s1600/IMG_3956.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk427H7esFSw6A6cYK_LHBCTntfHPJsVMVDn18DXKmmsHbGadzGrgsM0Szdy2803prvwGn4b9h1Wzbr4MWSrWg-HwdbPYgQRNAL-OXkddltc_2XwciPhtf0EQxrLWT7BFEbDCuZstGlE5R/s1600/IMG_3956.jpg" height="425" width="640" /></a></div>
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For earthenware, just look around your neighborhood or yard for areas that LOOK like clay when wet (pretty technical stuff, I know). A good time to notice this is after a storm. Also check any bluffs/cliffsides/ravines that show you a cross section of soil. River or stream banks are also good bets.</div>
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Another method is to go to this website (<a href="http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm">http://websoilsurvey.sc.egov.usda.gov/App/HomePage.htm</a>), hit "start WSS," highlight your neighborhood as an area of interest, then go to the "Soil Data Explorer" tab and run a map of "clay content" - it asks you for a depth first, so choose something like 0-12 inches. You will see a colored overlay of your neighborhood with % clay of nearby soils. Find a spot where you might get permission to dig that has a lot of clay, and start there!</div>
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Once you find what you think is a high clay content soil, get it sort of wet, and roll a "snake" between your hands about half an inch thick. Try wrapping it around a finger. If it wraps without breaking apart, then you have a good amount of clay in that soil. You can still work with lower content soils, it will just take longer.</div>
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<u style="background-color: transparent; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">NOW TO REFINE YOUR CLAY</span></u></h3>
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Chances are, if you dug up some local clay, it's going to be impure. The process of purifying is pretty labor intensive, but also entertaining! You get to explore your inner child and go play in the mud a lot.</div>
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You will need: A couple of 5 gallon buckets (if you used one to dig clay, that counts as one), some twine or rope, straining cloth like muslin, a sieve or loose burlap, an old large spoon, and one or two nice wide wooden boards or a piece of plywood for drying.</div>
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<ol>
<li>With the clay in a 5 gallon bucket, pour in about 2 parts water for every 1 part soil you dug.</li>
<li>Use your hands to break up any big chunks underwater. You want the smallest possible sized bits of clay. Be careful <b>NOT</b> to compress clay together! This will will slow everything down, because water won't get to your clay particles as easily. Just loosely break up clumps, and swish water into all the nooks and crannies.</li>
<li>Let this sit for a full day (you may want to put a lid on it if it's outside, due to bugs and leaves and stuff). The smaller the bits you crumbled up, the faster the clay will "slake" into fully wetted clay water.</li>
<li>The next day, stir up the mixture just a bit to get settled clay off the very bottom. The idea is to get tiny clay particles in suspension again, but then wait just a couple of minutes for sand and silt to settle out again.</li>
<li>What you're going to do is pour the clay into some muslin or similar cloth to let it drip out excess water. A small scale version I did looked like this:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtj-vbx51B5qswHk2SqzB1dRC4coV5Hb9gsLNfjCQkzn_-udgDFNhBnrUQDhm_w42GLOJyEpVKgKn1KzyENA_eExpFSp96zMOAxbhIk-PWmQbIoFA3q5mu5aTtie6BBxN_hKWM25n2V-le/s1600/IMG_3501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtj-vbx51B5qswHk2SqzB1dRC4coV5Hb9gsLNfjCQkzn_-udgDFNhBnrUQDhm_w42GLOJyEpVKgKn1KzyENA_eExpFSp96zMOAxbhIk-PWmQbIoFA3q5mu5aTtie6BBxN_hKWM25n2V-le/s1600/IMG_3501.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
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<li>But it's more efficient to do everything at once. Since then, I've changed to 5 gallon buckets with muslin tied around their rims, with the water dripping into the bottom of the bucket. So tie off some muslin VERY SECURELY (4-5 <b>tight </b>wraps of twine, it needs to hold heavy weight!) around the rim of a bucket, leaving about a 1/3 bucket height worth of room at the bottom for dripping. Then position a strainer and pour your clay water through it into the cloth, to remove the floaters. <i>As soon as you see anything other than clean, smooth looking clay water coming through</i>, <b><span style="color: red;">STOP</span></b> pouring:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9chxlZ_XvCnnd0Q90upJBNtNxrL5JjqFsr5Vo_NQZAFWnVWelwePZkB3ZL60i5IaOh0gYIwlQkOCT3rbfkX1b8_tuUnnRBiykumQNqNzRUKuF-9B-rc13CbiKJbN5h_Xd-KTxoI6V4Z-/s1600/IMG_3572.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM9chxlZ_XvCnnd0Q90upJBNtNxrL5JjqFsr5Vo_NQZAFWnVWelwePZkB3ZL60i5IaOh0gYIwlQkOCT3rbfkX1b8_tuUnnRBiykumQNqNzRUKuF-9B-rc13CbiKJbN5h_Xd-KTxoI6V4Z-/s1600/IMG_3572.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
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<li>Discard everything left in the first bucket, which should be a bit of clay, lots of sand, rocks, etc. Also discard whatever the strainer caught (usually remaining floating things). From my small scale versions, this is what some of the leftover material in the bottom looked like:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZeIzxtWhyO9fm4r5Rc7OenG35QqWX-dTa0f9pu86bmuiGtJHOVDEWwMVEYpi-s4tRWEpB8PxwqUX_JkEe8C33-6yz5sPEQWR-d9UDpxzbCCI7O7sA-pQMqSUvoAwRbJ5V2y6PmVUOSww/s1600/IMG_3483.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbZeIzxtWhyO9fm4r5Rc7OenG35QqWX-dTa0f9pu86bmuiGtJHOVDEWwMVEYpi-s4tRWEpB8PxwqUX_JkEe8C33-6yz5sPEQWR-d9UDpxzbCCI7O7sA-pQMqSUvoAwRbJ5V2y6PmVUOSww/s1600/IMG_3483.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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<li>You may want to repeat steps 4-7 if you still feel sand or sediment at the bottom of your bucket, but really it's not that big of a deal.</li>
<li>Around 1-2 days later, check on your clay. A lot of water will have dripped off, but it should still be fairly wet. If it is dry enough to spread onto a board without running off the side, then you're ready for the next step. Usually a "milkshake" consistency is enough to make it not flow off the board. If it is still too wet, let it sit another day. Note: the clay will compact a bit on the bottom near the cloth. It may look like pure water on top, but be milkshake consistency or thicker underneath still, and it might be ready. Check the actual clay.</li>
<li>Now take a spoon or your hands and glop your clay onto your wooden boards or plywood, and spread it maybe 1/2-1 inch thick. Scrape off as much as you can from the cloth.</li>
<li>Set the boards outside in <b>full sun</b> if available, and they will dry out the clay rapidly. A fan blowing over them works pretty well, too, at night, but sunlight is much less tedious. In sun, check every 10 minutes or so and remix if necessary to make sure that the edge clay isn't drying too quickly. With a fan, every 20-30 minutes. You don't want it to ever get crumbly-dry.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGP14lnU1QBNDdPm0nG26bXx2Rin_LDhBciB2isz3KezOk5m9tMQdxJM4jcfDmdT8SuUtpNn_m6ev3eCMAsnHiho3_Hgp7hVP3wymtoNbPUupMcRkdc0Vp9WZUP3hIvwIpJDpel6iPSEh/s1600/IMG_3525.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGP14lnU1QBNDdPm0nG26bXx2Rin_LDhBciB2isz3KezOk5m9tMQdxJM4jcfDmdT8SuUtpNn_m6ev3eCMAsnHiho3_Hgp7hVP3wymtoNbPUupMcRkdc0Vp9WZUP3hIvwIpJDpel6iPSEh/s1600/IMG_3525.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
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When the clay is of a good strong pottery building consistency, put it in a plastic bag or wrap in plastic wrap or similar, so that it stops losing moisture. Now you should be able to store it and treat it like any store bought earthenware clay. When it's all dry, it works just like commercial clay! Here's some freshly sunned clay:</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJnkfxOQyJp0_77VC-XoFE54qK5cmQdihdroRB_3VZKcP0SpcPmNTxo1sZ1Rc1eHNoNzfghqInMXuJY5G9qeXaGWsARH_Bi1C6AioxkEJELgxGYMtwP0RLY5cUYbGa-S5E2Rirfu9wutbz/s1600/IMG_3540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJnkfxOQyJp0_77VC-XoFE54qK5cmQdihdroRB_3VZKcP0SpcPmNTxo1sZ1Rc1eHNoNzfghqInMXuJY5G9qeXaGWsARH_Bi1C6AioxkEJELgxGYMtwP0RLY5cUYbGa-S5E2Rirfu9wutbz/s1600/IMG_3540.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></li>
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Be sure to "wedge" your clay before building with it, like you would a commercial clay. If you don't know what I'm talking about, wedging means just mixing it together to make it an even consistency. There are many ways to wedge clay, and I can't explain them as well as online tutorials can. Check out several methods here: <a href="http://pottery.about.com/od/preparetothrow/tp/3wedgmeth.htm">wedging/kneading methods</a>. Then build stuff:</div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfsb2prz6Qk8DELDXwV9NzF-zn7XhGoOvcPeQfF3VnFVyvWFumtSsGiuMcSUM78qBwvPjB0HZ1PJqtF_eK-C8LqHaksvVOp0LwiyBmSLjrlfTJk9IgK-lkS31F9jlbX0ra6ADdHAHC-yA/s1600/IMG_3544.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIfsb2prz6Qk8DELDXwV9NzF-zn7XhGoOvcPeQfF3VnFVyvWFumtSsGiuMcSUM78qBwvPjB0HZ1PJqtF_eK-C8LqHaksvVOp0LwiyBmSLjrlfTJk9IgK-lkS31F9jlbX0ra6ADdHAHC-yA/s1600/IMG_3544.jpg" height="266" width="400" /></a></div>
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(I know, I'm a masterful potter, eh?)</div>
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<h3 style="background-color: white; text-align: center;">
<u style="background-color: transparent; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">IN FUTURE POSTS</span></u></h3>
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I will go over the remaining steps to making pottery wares (assuming I can get them to work!):</div>
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<li><b><a href="http://cauliflowerlabs.blogspot.com/2014/08/tempering-local-clay.html">Tempering</a> </b>the clay: adding crushed pottery bits, shells, or sand to the clay to make it less likely to crack. This requires methodical testing to find the right amount to add for a given clay.</li>
<li><b>Making some sort of kiln: </b>I will be attempting a wood or charcoal fired kiln to continue with the "from scratch, if possible" theme. In another post, I may also attempt making my own charcoal. Ideally, the kiln would be made out of homemade refractory bricks, but I might need a source of fire clay first, if I'm to do that.</li>
<li><b>Firing the clay</b>, and possibly glazing it usefully somehow, although I understand glazing is difficult to do with low temperatures and with non-exotic, local materials. We shall see.</li>
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Mr. Brassicahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16145375548393187720noreply@blogger.com1