DIY projects

The Rogue Science workshop and laboratorium bustles with activity most evenings late into the night. Acrid fumes of burning metal waft lazily into the night air as they seep from underneath the doors, while blinding blue welding arcs flair briefly through the windows. Light bulbs dim and flicker for blocks as power is momentarily sapped from the neighborhood. Cell phones and wireless networks lose service. Radios and TVs hiss with interference. Garage doors ascend and descend of their own volition. Science is happening . . .

I am developing a multitude of projects, in various states of doneness, for Rogue Science. It is my hope to chronicle my progress on these projects here, with the eventual goal of transforming the pages into full fledged how-to guides for others to reproduce my work. I still need to transform my references, research material, notes, and experimental results into an organized document suitable for displaying on the web. For now I have a short list of the major projects I am working on.

Projects under Development:

1. The Grand Project. With over 14,000 references on the synthesis of nearly 1000 explosive compounds, I will be busy for some time.
2. DIY Microwave Reactor. I am building a modified microwave oven capable of refluxing, stirring, monitoring temperatures, and adjusting wattage output.
3. Microwave Furnace. I am trying to build a 5000W multiple magnetron microwave furnace with a firebrick lined cavity using susceptors (microwave absorbing heating element) made of silicon carbide whiskers. My goal is to make it powerful enough to melt steel.
4. Nitric Acid Synthesizer. Three different bench-scale devices capable of manufacturing nitric acid: from air using electrical arcs, from ammonia using catalysts (Ostwald process), and from air using microwave plasma. Dependant projects include generating ammonia using the urea-to-ammonia (U2A) process, using catalysis other than platinum, maximizing yield of nitric oxide produced from electric arc plasma, and building an inexpensive DIY tube furnace.
5. DIY Book Digitizer — The MegaBook Scanner. An inexpensive DIY machine enabling books to be scanned with a digital camera, complete with auto-aligning book cradle, glass platen, and powerful lighting. I am writing a guidebook on how to build the MegaBook Scanner, properly and efficiently scan bound material, and post-process the images into pdf files.
6. Algae Photobioreactor. Algae could be a future energy source as the oil it produces can be transformed into biodiesel. Culturing large amounts of algae as inexpensively as possibly using a DIY photobioreactor is one method I am exploring.
7. DIY Plasma Reactor. A microwave generated plasma flame, with temperatures in excess of 5000 °C, can accomplish some interesting chemistry. Making the plasma is easy, containing the plasma without melting your container is tricky, and getting the desired reaction is trickier still.
8. Solar Furnace. I am building a solar concentrator, built using materials as inexpensive as possible, powerful enough to melt glass.
9. UV Photochemical Reactor. My research of microwave chemistry led me into learning a little about higher energy photochemical reactions. To my knowledge there are no inexpensive UV photoreactors, so I need to build one myself.

Other projects I may work on in the future, that I have collected some preliminary references on, could include the following: cellulosic depolymerization into sugars for ethanol fermentation, building a sonochemical reactor, recycling polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic by chemical depolymerization into transparent greenhouse panels, synthesizing benzene from scratch, building a high-pressure hydrogenator, building a self-tuning monomode microwave reactor like the CEM models, attracting lightning strikes with hydrogen filled balloons tethered to copper wire, making my own chocolate from coco beans, making my own supply of organophosphate wasp killer, preparing s-block metal elements from molten salt electrolysis, and not killing myself while doing any of these projects.