Carve Steel with Saltwater, Electricity and a Tin Earring (BB Video + Theo Gray + Popsci.com)

Boing Boing Video (boingboingvideo.com) teamed up with Theo Gray and Popsci.com to produce this video that demonstrates how you can mold steel with electrochemical machining, using a soft, cheap piece of tin -- without any physical contact. Theo is the author of the book Mad Science, in which many other experiments like this are featured.

Theo says:

"I remember seeing a demonstration of a seemingly magic process at an engineering open house decades ago, in which a soft metal bit carved detailed shapes into far harder metals. It's called electrochemical machining (ECM), and it's so simple in principle that you can do it at home with a drill press, a battery charger and a pump for a garden fountain.

"ECM is basically electroplating in reverse. In electroplating, you start with a solution of dissolved metal ions and run an electric current through the liquid between a positive electrode and the object you want to plate (the negative side). The ions deposit themselves as solid metal onto the surface of the object."

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Read the whole HOWTO over at popsci.com: Carve Steel with Saltwater, Electricity and a Tin Earring
http://www.popsci.com/powersculpting

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Boing
• boing
• theo
• gray
• popsci
• engineering
• electrochemical
• science
• madscience
• experiment
• howto
• diy
• dangerous
• pyrotechnics
• machining

[DAIGORO14]

I don't understand why americans don't just use metric you could say nano or pico metres instead of 1/1000". Video was very interesting.

[Terakasi]

It's called SCIENCE! Now go back to sleep, crack smoking, car jacking, knocking over liquor stores or whatever it is you do.

[moxiemike714]

@DAIGORO14 When machining in metric, measurements are in mm followed by 1/10 and 1/100. So if you want to keep something 0.001" away from something you would need to keep it 0.025 mm away. The advantage of metric is when converting units.

[MADdwarfWorkshop]

Sorta cool, but seems kinda pointless, especially when its so blurry and ugly looking. any real practical purposes?

[BuickDoc]

@DAIGORO14 Why do Scots use "Stone" for 13#, why does the chicken cross the road?

[XerosMagicSchool]

@DAIGORO14 im american. and i completely agree.

[freeloader619]

@tmagdahl He's not doing EDM, nor did he claim to be.

[1freedomfighter11]

totaly cool