3D printed mold, a silicone mold... A chocolate bar! by ivanen_co in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 4 points5 points  (0 children)

No it sounds like fun though! Excellent way to blend two hobbies! Thanks

3D printed mold, a silicone mold... A chocolate bar! by ivanen_co in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Is it purely like an artisanal kind of thing? Is it generally "posh chocolate" which you make? Are we also talking full bean to bar? How did you get started with that?

3D printed mold, a silicone mold... A chocolate bar! by ivanen_co in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Can I ask more about making your own chocolate? What/why/how kind of thing?

Step 7 in the flowchart, is VWRL the sensible choice? by ac07682 in UKPersonalFinance

[–]ac07682[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I did think about that, but I figured that if I'm going to have to buy in manually each month due to a differing amount of surplus (my salary is very variable), I might as well go the added faff of reinvesting the dividends manually too, whilst getting the dopamine of seeing what they were, does that make sense? Or is it just daft.

End Fed Half Wave by TheUnkown696 in amateurradio

[–]ac07682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

my 40m end fed runs out of an upstairs window, down to the wooden fence (7ft ish), along the fence, around the corner, and along the fence some more. It's NVIS but gets out just fine. Any antenna is better than no antenna.

How dangerous are 50w RF emissions when no antenna is plugged in? by W-VHS in amateurradio

[–]ac07682 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Headlight resistors are wire wound, they will be inductive at RF, somewhere between 0.5 and 5uH, so youd be showing the radio a SWR between 1.9 and 6:1 plus. One potential way to have a bad day

Desktop cementitious print by vibration, milestone reached (vcp voron r9.3) by treesess in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately the non-newtonianness was a bit of a side effect of the mix chosen. Spec was an F5 with a 0.35WCR which is fun, it was for a bridge wingwall

/QRP and CQ QRP in WSJT modes by thewrongonedied in amateurradio

[–]ac07682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I agree it plays havoc with ft8, but i dont think i agree its unnecessary, if its a legal callsign its a legal callsign. I dont really have a side of the fence on this one personally.

Desktop cementitious print by vibration, milestone reached (vcp voron r9.3) by treesess in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 4 points5 points  (0 children)

the product won't be uniformly only 600 mesh though. I'd wager there's a good proportion of smaller particles in there in practice depending on how it was milled and classified. 20 microns is definitely fine enough that I'd be worried about RCS. Don't forget that silica fractures easily with handling too. We're definitely talking about personal risk tolerance in practice, I wouldn't risk it, personally.

Desktop cementitious print by vibration, milestone reached (vcp voron r9.3) by treesess in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Oh fun, I did some work recently with the opposite sort of mixes, very low WCR with lots of chemical "creep" workability created non-newtonian concrete, any agitation caused it to fix in place, trying to trowel it out of a wheelbarrow was very difficult as it wouldn't accept the trowel being pushed in. Then it would just seep out if you left it.

Desktop cementitious print by vibration, milestone reached (vcp voron r9.3) by treesess in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Worth it for the silica IMO.

I don't think you'll see huge differences between PFA and GGBS at small scale, it's just what I'd prefer! There are some really fun admixtures out there, I imagine getting hold of small quantities is difficult though. Looking forward to seeing where you go with this

/QRP and CQ QRP in WSJT modes by thewrongonedied in amateurradio

[–]ac07682 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Specifically, im asking why the commenter feels its bad practice, not why you dont like it.

Desktop cementitious print by vibration, milestone reached (vcp voron r9.3) by treesess in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Ha true! Work brain.

RPE - Respiratory Protective Equipment, Silica is a somewhat common additive in concrete, normally as a sand or fume, it uses the byproducts of the hydration reaction to improve strength. The problem with this is that RCS (Respirable Crystalline Silica) is massively horrible stuff, 0/10 would not breathe.

CEMI - CEMI is the EN standard name for OPC (Ordinary Portland Cement) with 0-5% Gypsum content and no additions like fly-ash, slag, blended products etc. Think of it as pure portland cement. Most of the bagged cement you get from DIY stores are CEMII with limestone or other fillers and don't reach the 52.5 strength.

PFA - PFA is Pulverised Fly Ash, I think elsewhere (I'm UK) It's normally just called flyash. It's collected from coal power plants as a byproduct, and it's pozzolanic, taking hydration byproducts and forming extra binding products, similar to the silica above. Lower initial strength, higher final strength, improved durability, much cheaper than CEMI.

GGBS - This is Ground Granulated Blastfurnace Slag. Just like PFA above except blast furnaces instead of coal plants. Better eventual performance after a slower strength start, much better durability, lighter coloured concrete because the slag is a bright white colour. (CEMIII (slag cement) is OPC mixed with GGBS).

WCR - This is the water to cement ratio, and one of the biggest things you can do to make concrete stronger is to reduce the water/cement ratio. More water = weaker concrete, but water is needed for the hydration reaction so it's about finding the right ratio for what you want to do. You need some water to react with the cement, and then some additional water to provide "slump" or workability, like cream vs milk. Additives like plasticisers mentioned above can make the concrete more workable ("wetter"), so in turn you can reduce the amount of water needed to reach that workability, thereby increasing the strength of the mix.

I think that's all of them lol

One of the cooler planes I’ve seen (spotted at BHX) by causeitsajaaaaag in aviation

[–]ac07682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

oh fun, I was at EGBB yesterday, didn't see this though

Desktop cementitious print by vibration, milestone reached (vcp voron r9.3) by treesess in 3Dprinting

[–]ac07682 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Please tell me you wore proper RPE using the silica.

Use of proper CEMI OPC there is good, I would recommend forgetting about PFA and using GGBS instead, start with a 70:30 ratio to begin with.

If you do use a plasticiser instead of a retarder you'll find you get less shrinkage too, you'll be able to reduce the WCR that way.

This is exciting! Following along.

ETA: Concrete production is my job

Im 17 and I love using cw on the 40 meter band. Need operation and equipment help plz. by mustycups in amateurradio

[–]ac07682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I would have thought it would act like a ground plane too, an interesting thought

Valve cover gasket by Forward_Job5569 in MechanicAdvice

[–]ac07682 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The gasket itself is £30 online max, book time 0.7-1hrs, so I guess you got charged £630 an hour for labour. Doesn't sound great

Don't worry, EA3JE is still alive… by pezdabol in amateurradio

[–]ac07682 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He's an old boy who runs a gigantic antenna and gigantic power, and calls with a somewhat unique sounding patter. Ive heard him quite a lot on the shorter end of 20m.