Chemical Forums
Specialty Chemistry Forums => Citizen Chemist => Topic started by: Limpet Chicken on August 09, 2004, 05:37:23 AM
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Hey guys, me again! been quite busy recently as you can see from the amount i've been posting :)
I currently have sort of an engineering project going, with some prople I know, it will be involving a whole load of acetylene welding, hardened steel and armor plating.
I am going to need to prepare a glass sphere, filled with CCl4, although I am not sure of how either aqquire it, what with carbon tet. being labeled a nasty forbidden carcinogenic solvent from hell nowadays, is it possible to synthesize CCl4 starting from either dichloromethane, or chloroform, both of which I have? if so, how?
I am thinking, something along the lines of a crystal ball filled with CCl4, maybe using a RB flask, question is, how to seal it without the damn stuff catching fire (I have never worked with CCl4 before and I'm not 100% thats it's even flammable but please tell me)
If CCl4 isn't flammable I may simply heat seal the RB flask shut at the base of the neck with an acetylene torch.
I am also in need of some way to produce a uberhigh intensity UV rapidly pulsed high voltage discharge (probably using a cannibalised magnetron and goodies from an old microwave) however my electronics skill isnt too great, basically I am aiming for an ultrahigh intensity rapidly (few hundred times a second) pulsed UV discharge.
Any suggestions as to how I might achieve such a goal?
Thanx yet again, from a very busy mad scientist ;D
I have since found out that carbon tet. is nonflammable, however the problem of heating to seal the flask remains, because, in each two liter RB flask, there will be enough CCl4 to fill the flasks up to the start of the neck, and enough iodine dissolved into the CCl4 to make a solution of I2 in CCl4 that holds as much as it can at room temperature and a pressure of 1 ATM.
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You know those sealed mercury tubes that are used for light? Those have high intensity UV, which is why its really bad if they're broken and you apply voltage. A microwave magnetron will yield 2.4ghz, don't know if thats high enough for you. The microwave range may not work, i've done a lot of work with magnetrons when I tried to make a microwave bazooka. Pulsing a magnetron? I don't think they can turn on-off fast enough for what you want. Thats what 'low' cooking power on a microwave is, it just turns the magnetron on and off. Communications grade stuff could work, but its EXPENSIVE. You could get over 100ghz range with that. Be sure to take all RF safety precautions, unless you want to cook yourself.
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How did your experiments with the microwave bazooka go?
I am working on a "little" engineering project, using welded hardened steel plate and teflon armor, if you have ever seen the metal gear or mechwarrior games you will know what I'm thinking of.
The globes of CCl4/I2 are to absorb visible light from an intense source and pass on only the infra red, this will be focussed through about 30 high power lenses and rapidly pulsed, with hopefully a good few megawatts behind it, to form a sort of high intensity infra red heat cannon. I need to install a copy of microcrap powerpoint so I can view some other schematics, concerning ion guns, and a working plasma cannon, allbeit with short range, which I plan to improve by modifying it to be a sort of plasma railgun capable of supersonic speeds.
I am going to be working on this project, and end up with something between 8 and 10 foot tall, heavily armored, piloted by a person inside, using hydraulics and servo motors.directional motors etc. to make movement almost effortless, heavily armored wit ha few inches of hardened steel armor with a teflon/kevlar plating either side of the armor, goretex fabric to wick away internal moisture, and a built in facepiece consisting of a modified gas mask in the center rated to deal with full NBC conditions.
My little project will also have fully replaceable and swappable weapon systems, like the heat ray, maybe plasma weapons, I'm sure I could improvise a gas tazer, and a few other little surprised I have got planned ;D
So what you think of the idea? Any thoughts on a name for my creations once their finished?
On a side note, would CCl3 or dichloromethane work instead of carbon tet. because I have both of those, yet CCl4 is murder to aqquire nowadays ;D
Just had a thought ;D
What about the idea of synthesising a tank or two of anhydrous hydrazine, and some nitric anhydride, that could be quite some flamethrower considering the size it would bee attatched to a ten foot stainless steel armored monster tank ;D
Oh yeah, Corvettaholic, I wasn't thinking of using a magnetron directly, I don't really have the experience to go designing microwave weapons, I meant, butchering the magnetron, and connecting a few up together to provide a hell of a high voltage amplifier coil 8)
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A mech idea! I've been tossing around ideas for a while on these things, which is why I was asking a while ago about those polymers that contract when voltage is applied.
As far as my magnetron experiments, they're dangerous. If you take the AC Capacitor, the transformer, and the magnetron, you can make a 360 degree weapon no problem. My experiences with it: it will burn you. It will make CD players stop working. Thats about it, if you go over the rated wattage too much (1100 is about tops), then you'll wind up with an internal short in the magnetron thereby ruining it.
The biggest problem I ran into with a mech design is the power source, and balancing the thing so you don't fall on your face. With recent advances in fuel cell technology, that could viable except for the exorbitant price. My idea was to use a small diesel engine out of a volkswagen rabbit, in a 'backpack' thing. Use diesel fuel? nah, use greasel. There's plenty of conversion kits, and its free, more effecient fuel. The thing is, weight is your enemy.
Movement: hydraulics are waaaay too slow unless you get the super expensive industrial grade stuff. The goal here is something I can build in my garage. I tossed around the idea of cable driven, using electric motors as a winch. That way, it'd have a basic muscular structure similar to people. Drawback: it'll look like a walking sewing machine and you need POWER for those winches. You could also load up 4 or 6 car batteries, and get the type of winches used on off-roading vehicles. Budget is key here.
Materials: for a prototype don't bother with kevlar or teflon, too expensive. Use waste iron from a junkyard. Sure its heavier, but for a protoype you just want proof of concept. Old bulldozers can have some mighty useful parts in them as far as hydraulics, but to fit my budget i'll have to steal them.
Now how would you translate hand motion into the armor actually moving a hand, or whatever body part? I was thinking of wearing an outer skin with pressure sensors all over it, and sensors that detect acceleration. Basic analog output, and the output voltage would determine how much juice to give the actuating motor. If you want to use a joystick method, or a bunch of levers, you won't have enough hands to work all the controls for proper movement.
I've given weapon systems a thought, but more important is to get the thing moving and staying upright. You'll need big feet for stability, and a low center of gravity. I was just going to slap a 12 gauge shotgun on it, with a remote trigger. Recoil based weapons could be a problem for stability though, unless the thing weighs a huge amount, but you have to have strong enough motors to move that much mass.
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This is going to sound REALLY crazy, but for the final in-use model (there's going to be a fair few of them built), did you ever read the tale of teh radioactive boyscout?
If you have you will get my train of thought pretty much straight away..
And yeah, I was only going to put the proper armor plating/NBC capability on the final model, the one that gets put into use.
I wasn't really thinking of trying to mimic hands and fingers accurately, merely a large pair of hydraulic grippers on each arm. Weapons could be mounted on top of the arms, or shoulder mounted in the even that I decide to add on any type of rocket based weapon, I think a 12 gague would be useless really, only effective against soft squishy meat based targets, and unless you could build a belt fed mod of one, too slow and innacurate.
I had a little though, about using picric acid based shells built in similar design to a bullet, only a great deal larger and firing armour piercing or incendiary WP rounds,
and having a magazine fed by a large spring, I like my idea of using hypergolic propellants as a flame thrower though ;D
It might be possible even, to build two "boyscout" type reactors, one to power the weapons systems, and another to power the mech it'self.
Of course, I am going to go with a diesel or petrol motor for the initial prototypes.
It's going to be quite a talking point fi I can pull this one off, a fully combat capable 10-15 foot tall nuclear powered assault platform like this standing in the driveway besides my dad's car and maybe the cat sleeping on the top ;D
Actually, I have quite a surplus of 9mm blanks that could serve as the firing cap in any large tank-shell type of thing...
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Well if you want anti-armor capability, a sabot round works great. We used those against Iraqi tanks, and they had no chance. I remember the radioactive boyscout, but if I built one of those here in america, I would be in jail in NO time. A fuel cell I think would be the safest option. Read: safest. Radiation isn't my friend. I think a 12 gauge would work fine, maybe a 10 gauge rhino shotgun, using slugs.
Even barring the use of hands, how are you going to synchronize pilot movement with arms, shoulders, elbows, knees, hips, and so on? I think the pressure sensitive overgarmet is the way to go. But like I said before, you won't get any speed at all with hydraulics, and the more I think about it... cable driven is the cheapest way to go. You can get electric winch motors for about $80 that will pull a 1000 pounds in one direction. Great if you happen to have a steel cable attached to part of the superstructure that you want to pull. God help you if that cable breaks though. Have a series of rings welded onto the cable, so as it pulls the structure there will be springs acting as a counter force. It will prevent motion that is too rapid, and springs will pull the "muscle" assembly back to the resting position when power is cut to the motor. You'll need variable torque engines if you want to do anything other than full blast run or stop.
Still need to address the balance issue. Give the thing a swift kick and it might tip over. Try walking down the hall, and watch how your legs move and how that affects your balance. Try lifting a leg while walking and take your sweet time putting it down. Thats going to be a serious engineering challenge.
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Hmmm, good idea, although I'm not too keen on the shotgun idea, I mean, how are you supposed to reach out and reload the shells in an environment full of tear gas chemical weapons? The mech wouldnt neccessarily have to go too fast, but a pressure/responsive suit is WAY beyond my abilities.
Actually getting one of these things to run would be quite amazing to witnedd, let alone drive :)
I think I could probably get away with the reactor on the sly so to speak in britain though, not as paranoid an atmosphere over here thank lucifer.
I think it would be best to have all the projectile weapons loaded fully before deployment, while the reactor or whatever could take care of the needs of energy weapons :)
U mentioned a fuel cell, what sort of cell would you be thinking?
one of the hydrogen powered borohydride cells would be interesting, but if I ever get my hands on any NaBH4, it's going STRAIGHT to work reducing tryptamines hehehee.
I could well take a slightly different approach to piloting the mech though, using a joystick or something like it to controll the movement, while a seperate controll system took care of the armaments.
The reason I like the idea of energy weapons oin the thing so damn much, is there's no recoil to worry about. How about the idea of using uranyl nitrate/acetate (i forget which)
that's OTC from specialist photography shops, reducing to the metal, and making DU penetrator ammunition, fired by the picric acid charged shells I suggested previously?
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Why does it need to stand up? Why not just make a tank, you could carry heavier loads, weapons, ammunition, more power.
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Could do, hell yeah! why not! lets go and bould us some tanks! :D
Standing up would be sweet though, you could just stomp anybody that triewd to resist into so much meatpaste...MUAHAHAHAHA LOL
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Yeah but its not as practical, standing up would be good for lighter stuff like combat robots but not heavy stuff. Like a forth of your total mass would have to be all in the legs, whereas a car or tank can carry more at a faster speed with the same sized engine. You could get good abilities with a bipedal robot like climbing, and going over rough terrain. Do you really expect a several ton mech with a low center of gravity to be able to climb over a wall? Sure you could plow right through but you can do that in a tank too.
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Given big enough feet, I think a several tonne, heavily armed mech would be pretty good for inner city fighting, that's the idea mainly behind the mech design, inner city fighting, as a heavyweight urban enforcer rather than for fighting in open areas.
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So your looking for maneuverability in tight areas?
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Yeah, that's pretty much the idea, hevyweight armored urban shock troops.
With the added bonus of inspiring widespread fear and terror of having these metal monsters suddenly appear behind your ass in the miggle of a warzone :)
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Well I think personally I would rather have a amphibious hover tank… I can see the advantages in a city/urban area but I don’t think the technology to do that is cheap enough or widespread enough to do that yet. What are you planning on doing with your mech anyway?
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WORLD TAKEOVER!!! MUAHAHAHAHA lol, just for the challenge really, and for the fact that it would be fun to go out with friends and set target ranges up and blast stuff to bits with improvised energy weapons :)
Besides, a 15 foot mech would certainly look more than impressive parked outside my garage:)
Why do you ask?
Besides, you mention "mech", like theres going to bee just one....
If the initial prototype stages are a success, then there in going to be many of them, a large squad of the things :)
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For the mech I want to build, I just want to walk to work in it. As a conversation piece, you know? That and I have a fascination with ballistics, and caseless ammo. Good for shooting off some rounds in the arizona desert. A tank would work a LOT better, but the mech has the 'coolness' factor.
So no pressure responsive suit for movement, that leaves control sticks and foot pedals. You'll need a seperate controller that can synchronize all the movement so you don't have to manually move each leg and arm. If you swing the arms, that can help shift weight around so while you have a leg up you don't tip over. What about a fluid ballast that can be pumped around to move weight? Think mercury would work? But the EPA would love to a giant walking mech that pumps 100 gallons of mercury around to just to be stable. I'm not too familiar on how gyro's work, but I think you can get some small ones from model rocketry suppliers, but I don't know how to interpret the output.
Currently the US Army is working on an exoskeleton, but they're using nanotechnology and its soldier size. A monster sized one would be a lot neater though.
As far as power, I was thinking of a fuel cell that ran either off methane or hydrogen. A water splitter would be neat, but I don't think those work. The trick is getting a hold of a fuel cell with enough to juice to power all those heavy duty motors, then watch your fuel! You'll probably need an emergency 'let me out of here' door.
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Yeah I thought about the need for an emergency exit, I was thinking, entry and exit through the cockpit, at the top of the mech, I love improvising my own weaponry/sciency stuff, as you could probably tell from my expriments in mustard agent chemistry:)
But I agree, it would just be sweet to be able to walk around the city in a fully armed and armored urban mechanized shock trooper squad :)
I thought of using Hg myself too, unfortunatly, I lack any good source of quicksilver, I have a little that I cannibalised from thermometers, although at £4 a time, I can't afford to buy more than a few ml, sufficient for catalytic use, but not much else :(
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Maybe jdurg would know how to get a large quantity? But here in the US, the feds will be all over that and WATCH you. Kinda creepy. There has to be a better balancing system, and I think it has to do with feet. You when people start falling backwards, you can throw your arms forward and lean on your heels? Gotta have multiple joints in the feet that can shift weight around. This is where hydraulics would be good, because you don't need the faster response of arms and legs. You'll need a hydraulic pump running at all times though, and thats a good drain on available energy. For a cockpit seat, I was just thinking of grabbing a seat from a 1980's camaro, and have a basic sheet metal control panel with holes cut out for the levers.
Figure you need one lever that controls throttle, where it links to the motion controller to move forward at a certain speed. Lever 2 should control turning, by slowing down and shortening the step of either leg. Lever 3 should rotate the torso only and keep legs straight. Lever 4 should allow the head to move so you can look around, or just install a lot of remote cameras. Then you have another panel where you can blow things up at the push of a button. Think foot pedals would be good for anything? jumpjets...
Oh a thought just occured to me for a powerplant. Use an old decomissioned Allison 250 turbine engine. Not enough flight hours left to be used on a plane, but plenty good and cheap for us!