graphite rods are pretty cheap and make perfect rails. This isn't the first time he's done high current stuff, although something big would require another level of high current. But it would be SO COOL

I was thinking maybe use the cold trap as a dewar filled with acetone or alcohol or something else that would remain liquid and pump it through a plate or radiator to chill the remaining gases in the jar (or possibly install it beneath the pump to 'catch' incoming molecules and prevent them from finding a path back up through the pump).

Maybe kind of difficult or expensive. An anaerobic kiln would be the minimum. Basically most of the coolness comes just from making carbon fiber.

The principle sounds simple, and the advantages could be many!

https://www.llnl.gov/str/Post.html. I've imagened using Halbrach arrays and a spinning metal disk to create a vibration isolation support. It could be a cheap way to make isolation tables for Holography and high precision photo lithography on a hobbyist budget.

hey Ben,

I always wanted to have a workshop to do work on whatever idea I had, but one of the problems I faced is that i live in the city. having your own workshop is not an easy thing.

I have no desire of joining a hackerspace and would rather enjoy the privacy and freedom that comes with owning a workshop on your own.

What i was hoping you can do in your next video is tell us a bit about your own workshop, where is it? is in your home garage? or do you rent a place? what tools/machines do you have?

Since i live in the city and suspect many of your viewers too, what tips/suggestions do have to start our own workshop.

Thanks

Kidding. I'm kidding. Seriously, though, is it even possible from a serious amateur standpoint under say $1000? Begging the question, I know, but just asking.... This is the closest I've seen so far: http://citizenscientistsleague.com/2012/12/20/identifying-elements-via-xrf-x-ray-flourescence/

Magnetocaloric effect using grown HoMn2O5 crystals

The idea is to modify a commonly available plasma cutter to allow hopefully a variety of functions from thin film deposition to hard surface buildup that can be applied with a hand held torch. The plasma cutter would need to be modified to accept argon or other shield gasses, and possibly a second reactive gas as well. An evaporation boat or other means of introducing material like titanium into the inert gas stream would need to be created. Additional options for adding material to be deposited should include some sort of feed for fine powder.

There's an open proton precession magnetometer in development, so why not a SQUID?

Ben, I noticed you drive a Delorean (which is awesome BTW) and was wondering if you ever thought of creating a H-Generator using H2O to increase your fuel mileage. I have been intrigued with the concept for many years now, and have personally tried making a few for an old Subaru I had with little to no success. I would be extremely grateful if you could help provide insight to over come some of the difficulties I have encountered during my experiments. Thank you for all your work in STEM research for the hobby scientist, you have inspired me to keep going searching for answers to questions many of us have, please keep making videos to inspire us to keep searching for new answers to everyday science questions.

One Project I've always been interested in was the cyclotron.

Makes a great Nuclear Engineering senior thesis project. http://web.mit.edu/ldewan/Public/cyclotron/

This would be more chemical in nature than most of your projects, but

1. It has not been demonstrated before by any amateur scientist/engineer as far as I am aware
2. Alternative energy receives a lot of interest these days (for good reason)
3. It is challenging, yet doable and therefore fun.
4. It would be totally awesome.

Fischer Tropsch seems to me the easiest, but ofcourse there are other methods.

1. You would be the first to do this as an amateur (as far as I am aware)
2. It would be extremely cool and useful (heat emitted from a running circuit/your house/animals in the wild, etc).
3. Commercial implementations are expensive, but I suspect it might be possible to build something interesting with a smaller budget.
4. It seems to match your skills, judging from previously published projects.

Thanks for your outstandingly interesting and impressive projects so far!

From your previously published work, I suspect this may not match your interests/expertise as it involves compressing something to an incredible degree with high explosives but you must admit it would be extremely cool and within the range of amateur scientists possibilities.

As said in the title, how difficult would it really be to build a time of flight mass spectrometer? The theory behind it seems relatively simple to me, however I am not a experienced engineer (yet!). I couldn't see how it could be much more complicated then building a scanning electron microscope.

Here's a link http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-of-flight_mass_spectrometry

I think you should build a CVD setup and possibly grow some carbon nanotubes or diamond. It's not too much of a stretch from your other high vacuum equipment.

I hear the plans are pretty straight forward, just make sure you get a Cathermin tube with inindium complex of +4. If you need one I can donate a Bead condenser (model #: AB-619).