Applied Science - 2017-11-26
How to make small batches of specialty glass with minimal equipment. Good overview glass engineering book from 1920 (how to choose ingredients) : http://www.wallace-venable.name/Glass/bastow_American_Glass_Practice.pdf "5mW" *nudge-wink* 405nm laser pointer: https://www.ebay.com/itm/5MW-405nm-High-Powerful-Blue-Voilet-Purple-Laser-Pointer-Pen-Lazer-Beam-Light/381987406125 Alumina melting dish on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Crucibles-Melting-Dishes-Ceramic-4-Size-Casting-Torch-Melt-Jewelry-Gold-Silver/291595276663 Source of kiln paper, mold release, molds, glass fusing supplies: https://www.delphiglass.com/ Paragon Quickfire kiln: https://www.sheffield-pottery.com/PARAGON-QUIKFIRE-6-KILN-p/pqf6.htm Case of 12 insulating fire bricks: https://www.ebay.com/itm/IFB-Thermal-Ceramics-K26-2-5-12-pk/130342021835 Graphite mold: https://www.ebay.com/itm/5-in-1-Gold-Melting-Graphite-Ingot-Casting-Refining-Scrap-Bar-Coin-Combo-Mold/321838368964 Relevant patents for photochromic recipes: https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US2515936.pdf https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US3548060.pdf https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/b1/76/10/d4bd570c1a161c/US4374931.pdf https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/26/71/a3/481dc009490fe6/US2515275.pdf https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/a1/cf/ef/a11d9037375914/US2684911.pdf https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/0c/b0/d2/d53ec9e6fd478a/US3548060.pdf https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/3d/31/3b/0b3bc6c18b7ef3/US3419370.pdf Glass colors: http://www.compoundchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/The-Chemistry-of-Coloured-Glass.png Applied Science on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AppliedScience
This is fascinating. Such a cool topic to dive into.
oh well hello! i was about to click on a video of yours!
Try graphene. First on Youtube?
i would have been interested in your digression on the patent system
I'd like to make a mini glass tripod with holes. How to do that?
Thank you so much for this
I appreciate how thorough you always are in your videos. So many people leave so much detail out to make videos easier to watch for people who have short attention spans. I saw a 38min video by you and I'm like, "Time to set aside 38 minutes to experience some quality information!"
Looking at your setup, you might be able to synthetize YBaCuO ceramic. This is a high temperature supra-conductor you migth already know about. Its synthesis is commonly done in inorganic chemistry labs, althougth it can be a bit finicky at times. I think it would be a good challenge for you.
The synthesis is actually trivially easy. In the 80s when it was discovered it was actually called the "shake n bake" method. I made it as an HS student in the 90s with a simple tube furnace and a VERY poor mix of nitrates and oxides. It wasn't high quality but still demonstrated the meissner effect easily.
I thought of the same thing while watching, apart from "shake n bake", there is also "YBC, easy as 123" since it is Y1Ba2Cu3O6, the oxygen amount isn't critical since it's calcinated from Y and Ba carbonates and CuO, and you pretty much try to just saturate the amount of oxygen, if I remember correctly it won't really go above 6.
Ya, I didn't even bother with ball milling the reactants (not that I even knew what that was then) or oxygen flow during firing....nothing. Just ambient air in a hot furnace and pressed into a pellet with an ftir KBr pellet press when it was done. I couldn't believe it when it actually worked. Except for the yttria Ben probably already has the other reagents, he should do it, there aren't any other good videos on here doing it yet.
Do it Ben!
Man I am so lucky to live in a time where I have access to the internet. Who would have thought glass in the home shop would be so damn cool! Thanks so much for this Ben, super impressive and interesting.
But, not to seem flippant: glass is an area of physical & chemical engineering that has been relatively neglected for the better part of a century. I'm glad someone is taking note and trying to make it seem interesting.
Corning is doing some cool stuff, but i kinda doubt they are sharing their secrets.
I don't know if he is trying to :))) But in any case it's fascinating stuff. I love his methodology too :)))
glass making has been in the public eye lately for fiber optics and smartphone screens for example. also, glass tech is critical for optics and cameras are multiplying like rabbits these days.
'coming is doing.............' who is coming?
I'd rather thought we are in the "Age of Glass". From test tubes and optics to silicon chips and lasers - glass and ceramics are t the root of quite a few of the innovations that drive the tech that defines our culture. Stone age, Metal age then Glass age. Next is who knows what.
I'm so glad channels like yours exist. You pick a subject and really dive into it. Expanding your knowledge and experience, sharing all that information with the world must feel amazing.
A friend of mine is a glass engineer at PARC, it's wizardry! She develops glass that, when shattered, pulverizes into invisible glass dust. Has some sort of military application. Cool video!
I spoke to this very person in order to help me understand the world of glass. It's a small world when it comes to glass research, and I know quite a few current and past PARC employees :)
towlie911 That type of glass is used as a cover for missile seeker lenses. It protects the lens during the flight but if you fire the missile you want the cleanest possible lens. To remove the cover a small striker hits the edge and POOF, it's gone.
I've always wanted to try this but was overwhelmed and didn't have enough money to throw around while I learned from mistakes. This makes it seem more accessible.
Thank you.
I've been making synthetic ruby and sapphire as of recently. I'm building a Verniuel furnace and I'm thinking the same way about this as you are about getting people into working with glass. Created ruby and sapphire is actually incredibly simple and easy. Growing the boule past infancy is the difficult part, but making small starter boules can be accomplished with a MAPP/Oxy torch. Using Al2O3 combined with 1% - 3% Cr2O3 yields ruby.
Sapphire is a lot more difficult to achieve the rich blue color normally associated with blue sapphire. I found using iron (II) oxide and not iron (III) oxide with titanium dioxide in a 3:1 ratio is a good dopant formula for adding to the alumina. Mix the oxides in an oxygen free atmosphere--CO2 works perfectly well here. The latest test batch I made last night is a larger scale follow up to a batch I experimented with over this past weekend.
My latest sapphire recipe:
Al2O3= 98.54g
Fe(II)O = 1.09g
TiO2= 0.373g
This video is awesome! I'm a glassblower (flameworking to be specific) and this gives me a whole new appreciation for what it takes to make the colored glasses that I use!
Very late to this video, but as someone who was involved in making photochromic glass commercially (we used to make various borosilicate and phosphate based lenses) I have to congratulate you on getting as far as you have. As you've found out, it can be quite a tricky process!
From a general glass-making perspective, the video was excellent (although I think that there is quite a lot of information about there that would help with the basic techniques). Off to look at your channel to see if you ever came back to this.
This man and his garage are all we need to rebuild modern civilization should it ever fall.
Chaos - ‘should’?
When.
Kick boxing
center pillars of all understanding , I consider him recognize him also. a.i wont let me auto correct. lol
@Centre D'innovation de L'arbre de la Vie Nice Google translate
@Centre D'innovation de L'arbre de la Vie What the heck are you talking about? Are you using a translator of some sort? Whatever you're using isn't working because it's all nonsense
Excellent video. I love how broad the spectrum of what you study is. I'm definitely going to start researching how to make specialty glass in the near future.
Its been 5 years, hows your progress?
The way your videos are filmed is so simple yet they educate (and entertain) much more than any other science/engineering channel I have seen on YouTube. Please keep it up, it’s much appreciated!
I love how your random experiments look like my grad research notebooks. Some good habits never die I guess.
I cant tell you how much of an inspiration you are. Keep up this incredible work
My God;I knew this video was going to be be good, but my giddy anticipation was quickly turned to humble admiration.
Seriously; you are one of a kind, and although I respect many YouTube educators, you really top the list of most enjoyable to watch.
Thank you
As usual, quite brilliant. I really appreciate the way that you explain things that you tried and didn't work, and generally give a reason why it didn't work. Really great content. Thanks!
So I have a suggestion for something to investigate. During some of my own research I stumbled upon Lead Bismuthate glass. It sounds like something you’d like playing with considering your other videos on specialty glass. It’s transmission spectrum is uniquely wide and it could be used as a lens material in UV and IR applications. From what I understand Lead Bismuthate glass has some unique challenges due to its tendency to crystallize during the annealing process. So it might be a fun challenge too. Anyway I love your videos and I hope to see many more in the future.
While watching the video i remembered a visit in a museum for ceramics. There was a big vase as an exhibit (i was 12 years old i think). The glazing changed the color when warmed up (the hand was enough) from red to a blueish green. Would it be possible to make something like that your self? I would suspect that the inner working of temperature sensitive glass is different than light sensitive glass.
That blue glass you made is stunning.
If you just knew how much I respect you and your work. You are one of the most important teachers the world has seen. I really do Believe that, because you reach so many people and you have such a big range of different things to teach about and while you your self learn you teach us others. You really are Great Brother....:) GOOD LUCK
Absolutely fascinating!!! I never had any idea that there were that many variables in making photochromic glass. It makes me think about the trial processes that the original producers used. Other than basic chemistry that they knew about it was obviously a lot of trial and error. I also really enjoy your presentation style and appreciate you taking the time to educate us.
Thanks for all the great videos and knowledge you share. Something I’ve always wanted to do, but will never have the resources for, is to create a large laser diode . Sounds like a project that’d be right in your wheelhouse . Keep up the good work!
You and Destin Sandlin are the only youtubers I can watch for a half hour or more at a time. Actually learning stuff with that time makes you guys pretty awesome! Very inspiring.
Destin Sandlin... lol you probably also feel smarter every day! Destin is leagues below Applied Science in terms of content and complexity of topics!
I did try to reproduce this glass composition with a propane torch burner (similar to the one that the King of Random made) with about the same ingreedients that were used in the Video except for the photochromic stuff. It didn't work at all in my setup, so respect for your patience^^. Every time i try to heat up i can see a greenish flame coming up. If i do add Sodium Hydroxide i can see the redish flame. Also i did try to use a graphite cruicible which didn't work either as the carbon from the cruicible does start a chemical reaction with the glass as you can see later in the microscope. So my next attempt will be stainless steel as it would be easiest to clean from the glass by putting it in cold water. Also stainless steel can do up to 1500°C. What would be interresting to me is why did you use the Boric "only" glass type? Was it to keep the melting temperature lower or is there a better phonon transition for the photochromic effect? Would it be possible to let me know your Temperature profile? Is there a maxmium temperature for this BorGlass?
Really interesting stuff! I love to learn more about glass chemistry!! Makes me wonder what’s possible with ceramics glazes!
Awesome job, thanks for taking the time to do a detailed video on this. Glass is one of the few basic materials that isn't documented well on the internet.
When you used supercritical co2 to extract oils from vanilla beans, you needed a thick glass chamber since the critical co2 dissolves plastics. You mentioned that you had looked at boiler gauges that could withstand up to 600psi. Maybe you could try and make a glass chamber yourself, or at least pressure test it? Thanks! Love your videos!
I love how at the end of describing some new part in the process there is always the footnote of "but the glass will react and absorb it into the glass sooooo..."
Awesome. It might be cool to learn more about your process for tweaking variables. Do you go full DOE for your variables? Or just tweak and hold single variables constant based on what you know about the process and what you see from previous batches? Or some other method for how you approach this kind of challenge. Especially for the hobbyist with so many unknown variables to start with, I'm curious how you approach the problem.
I've been looking at casting some custom optics for a laser spectrometer I'm DIYing, so this was an interesting watch.
I'll probably just go with lead oxide, germanium dioxide (from pulverized fiber optic fiber). I haven't got into my exact proportions yet. I'm leaning towards 20% lead oxide, 20-30% germanium dioxide, and the rest being potassium silicate. (it should be a low temperature melting glass, with a high refractive index that thermally stresses easily.)
With regards to the recipe given, boric oxide glasses can be sensitive to water in their environment. It's probably all well and good in the lab, but since aluminum is already a thing in the recipe, I'd go with a higher alumina content. If you do that you can switch out silver nitrate for silver phosphate and get an aluminum phosphate glass.
A bit of engineering I've never really considered. Super cool!
One of the best YouTube channels of all time. Great video, as usual - it's mesmerizing to learn so many things about a subject I knew almost nothing about!
Really cool and intresting!
I have a furnace that goes up to about 1300°C with metal wire elements (an alloy of Fe + Cr + Al wich can handle slightly more than nichrome, wich is Ni + Cr) that I have built, mostly to play around with. But I think it's hard to do with the elements in the walls. My elements is spirals on ceramic tubes in the chamber - that maximizes heat transfer, but have the disadvantage of taking up some space in the chamber. I also have a PWM regulator where power can be reduced gradually close to maximum temperature, without the temperature peaks the elements get if they alter between full power on and off, to regulate the temperature.
Despite that I have no real temperature controller (power is continously vaiable, but can only be adjusted manually (just like if you run the furnace on a variac). I appherently have to build a real temperature controller if I want to try this.
I've been making ceramic glazes as a hobby for a while now, it is fascinating stuff and there is a good amount of literature on it and the effects various chemicals add to the glass to get colours and effects. I've recently started looking into lustre which is a metallic layer added back on top of a glass at a lower temperature of around 600-800c, the result can be like a silver mirror layer on top but works with gold, copper and a number of other metals.
I love the colours you manage to obtain. I am so fascinated by all of this, but I do not know anything about chemistry, so I need to learn that first. <3 Very nice video thank you!
Re: kiln floor "resists" -- That kiln paper (or kiln wash) is good, but can be expensive (especially the paper). You can use sand and it actually makes cleanup easier as it can clump any stray glass like kitty litter. Might want to do a test firing (or a firing for cleaning) in a crucible first, but sand generally has a higher melting point than the glasses you're trying to make. I use it to line the bottom of my reheating furnace in a glassblowing studio and that goes over 2150F.
Great channel. I love how diverse yet insightful your subjects are.
This was awesome! I am impressed with the detail and effort you always put into your videos. In australia it seems near impossible to do anything related to science and chemistry. Trying to get nitric acid for gold refining seems near impossible for the average person
Thank you for the very cool video! Would it be possible to try to make granite / stone like compositions? They seem to be made of similar materials. Would be very interesting.
Excellent as always Ben. Yet another very interesting area of art/science.
Hello, Ben! I am also interested in the melting of glass. At work, I want to get a protective glass for thin-film platinum temperature sensors. I took 6 brands of glass that used to be used to produce vacuum lamps and indicators. I thought that the main task to be solved is the discrepancy between the temperature coefficient of linear expansion. But it turned out that there is still a problem of interaction of platinum with glass. Some of the oxides in the glass are reduced in the presence of platinum, and because of this, the surface is covered with bubbles. Regarding your video, the problem of mixing is solved by double melting. First you mix the ingredients, you float them, then you get the ingot and grind it in a ball mill, then float it again. In this way glass is made in the Institute of Glass in Russia, I managed to visit their laboratory.
What an amazing reason for making a video. Leave it to Applied Science to pave the way for people in the home shop to start making glass.
your work is always so admirable and inspiring.
22:00 I'm reminded of "power metallurgy", which allows for more direct selection of the elements that go in, and the ability to use things that you could not simply melt and stir together. The dusts are mixed first, and then it is heated so the melting and mixing takes place at a small scale, without the atoms moving across the entire sample.
I wonder if something liker that would work for glass?
Great video. If your interested in melting above 1100C on this middle furnace consider replacing you heating coil with "Kanthal Wire" which won't fail until ~1400C. Be careful as your bonded aluminosilicate muffle furnace "could" begin to yield at temperatures in excess of 1300C.
So very cool! I'm not sure what I would do with this, but what a wonderful reference! That's a neat kiln. There are small glass kilns for jewelry that may be great for experiments, but perhaps their upper temperature limit is not helpful.
love the way you say, designing small pieces of glass whilst surrounded by a table filled with dozens of tubs, containers and equipment . the beauty is your explanation, perfect.
NightHawkInLight - 2017-11-28
Very clever to dilute your minor ingredients for more precise measuring. Excellent video