platinum is now my least favorite metal
Jun. 6th, 2006 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
georion23because we have very little, not exactly in the form i need, it's damn expensive, it sucks up iron if that's in your starting composition (of course mine is really iron-rich), and when it sucks up the iron, it becomes really brittle. ugh! stupid platinum! why can't you just behave?! this is going to be a very work-heavy entry, so beware.
met john at school and the two of us searched for two hours for a damn platinum crucible for me to do my furnace experiments in today. we found two that were too big and one that was the right size but looked like it had been through a nuclear blast and was full of holes (= no good for holding liquid). asked everyone we could find. nope, no one has one. and they're crazy expensive. like $1000 each. which i'm sure tom doesn't want to spend but he's at field camp so i can't ask him. finally michelle came down to do some work and it dawned on me that she might have one. and she does. so it might work out, but i might kill it with all the iron and then i'd have to buy her a new one (enter tom and his money again). of course, this was at 4:30, which is way too late to start on everything. and so once again we are pushed back a day. and we added another step so i'm actually pushed back two days. grumble. and i have to have platinum tubing in my assemblies once i start doing runs and apparently whomever we buy from has gone out of business so i have a little piece 3 inches long and that's all there is in the world of asu. which is definitely not enough for a thesis. have to find a new place to buy platinum tubing. in all its expensive glory. yes, i'm griping. do i care? no.
i did get my starting material made, which is nice because i am now done with that whole set of calculations and i don't have to look at them anymore. finally. weighed everything out and got to grind it up. that was a good stress reliever from the grand platinum search of 2006. i ground it in alcohol so it would be homogeneous (and not splash out of the container) and you'd think it would dry quickly, but no. after an hour and a half of waiting, i got impatient and put it in an oven. it's almost dry and it's only been 15 minutes. much better. means i can go home soon.
ooh! and! i tried my hand at electric arc welding! so fun! makes a loud crackling noise and blue sparks and everything! hehe! my new toy. i likey. seem to be decent at it too, which is super since i'll be doing it quite a bit.
i haven't seen todd or kirsten since saturday. maybe i'll see if they want to do something tonight.
it appears i am obsessed with austin todd and sara. of the 22 pictures i have hanging in my office, 10 are either of them or pictures taken when we were out doing something. i can't help it that we take such good pictures together...
tomorrow's busy. physical therapy at 10am. home by noon, shower and food. then up to school. session with adrienne at 2. need to put my nicely mixed (almost dry! couple more minutes!) starting material in the box furnace and crank it up to 1000°C over the course of two hours. let it sit for another hour. regrind it. put it in a glass container till thursday.
so i made mars dust today. started out as mars soup. then to mars pudding. then mars clay. now it's mars dust in a bottle. fun stuff. i'm such a dork.
starting material should be dry. time to pack it up and go home! woo!
EDIT: i was overwhelmed by the smell of rain as i emerged from the basement. got up to the ground floor and it was plenty cloudy and windy but it wasn't raining. no no, we got a crazy duststorm. and i got to walk the 15 minutes to my car in it. the drive home was lovely too. ugh. hope it stops soon. the sky is brown.
met john at school and the two of us searched for two hours for a damn platinum crucible for me to do my furnace experiments in today. we found two that were too big and one that was the right size but looked like it had been through a nuclear blast and was full of holes (= no good for holding liquid). asked everyone we could find. nope, no one has one. and they're crazy expensive. like $1000 each. which i'm sure tom doesn't want to spend but he's at field camp so i can't ask him. finally michelle came down to do some work and it dawned on me that she might have one. and she does. so it might work out, but i might kill it with all the iron and then i'd have to buy her a new one (enter tom and his money again). of course, this was at 4:30, which is way too late to start on everything. and so once again we are pushed back a day. and we added another step so i'm actually pushed back two days. grumble. and i have to have platinum tubing in my assemblies once i start doing runs and apparently whomever we buy from has gone out of business so i have a little piece 3 inches long and that's all there is in the world of asu. which is definitely not enough for a thesis. have to find a new place to buy platinum tubing. in all its expensive glory. yes, i'm griping. do i care? no.
i did get my starting material made, which is nice because i am now done with that whole set of calculations and i don't have to look at them anymore. finally. weighed everything out and got to grind it up. that was a good stress reliever from the grand platinum search of 2006. i ground it in alcohol so it would be homogeneous (and not splash out of the container) and you'd think it would dry quickly, but no. after an hour and a half of waiting, i got impatient and put it in an oven. it's almost dry and it's only been 15 minutes. much better. means i can go home soon.
ooh! and! i tried my hand at electric arc welding! so fun! makes a loud crackling noise and blue sparks and everything! hehe! my new toy. i likey. seem to be decent at it too, which is super since i'll be doing it quite a bit.
i haven't seen todd or kirsten since saturday. maybe i'll see if they want to do something tonight.
it appears i am obsessed with austin todd and sara. of the 22 pictures i have hanging in my office, 10 are either of them or pictures taken when we were out doing something. i can't help it that we take such good pictures together...
tomorrow's busy. physical therapy at 10am. home by noon, shower and food. then up to school. session with adrienne at 2. need to put my nicely mixed (almost dry! couple more minutes!) starting material in the box furnace and crank it up to 1000°C over the course of two hours. let it sit for another hour. regrind it. put it in a glass container till thursday.
so i made mars dust today. started out as mars soup. then to mars pudding. then mars clay. now it's mars dust in a bottle. fun stuff. i'm such a dork.
starting material should be dry. time to pack it up and go home! woo!
EDIT: i was overwhelmed by the smell of rain as i emerged from the basement. got up to the ground floor and it was plenty cloudy and windy but it wasn't raining. no no, we got a crazy duststorm. and i got to walk the 15 minutes to my car in it. the drive home was lovely too. ugh. hope it stops soon. the sky is brown.
