Ooooh interesting thought - I sure the garage is a bit colder

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel I mean the reality here is that you should use a resin print from the beginning, pointed downwards, with anti-aliasing enabled, which will already give you the smooth surface you want. Such a printer is about $300 - like the Mars. And btw, resin printers are also very sensitive to temperature.

the general rule of thumb for organic chemistry is double the reaction rate for every 10°C increase

Too hot though and the epoxy doesn't cure properly. Might lose out on cure hardness for cure speed or viscosity while pouring. May also end up not curing right at all and end up still sticky. Many variables to think about when it comes to resin/epoxy and what the end product needs. Generally the max cure temp for any resin should be used as much hotter than the 90-100 degree F will screw up the curing process in my experience. I messed up a resin desk top by curing at the top end of the range and it never fully hardened to be useful as a desk top as a fingernail would leave a dent easily and it scratched by rubbing a finger on it.

Could it also have something to do with UV exposure?

Fantastic tips! I’ll go look at that solarez resin right away

Whoops, didn't see your post before posting mine -- hehe I think I suggested similar things but more grumpily :-D High-fill primers are great for filling in layer lines and painting over, i've always paid out the nose for the artsy 'textured' spray paint version but I recently got a paint sprayer attachment for my little compressor so I may try your suggestion! thx!

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel You can throw epoxies in a vacuum chamber to de-gas prior to application. I do it for all of the types I use. And for application I would use a 'pour over, drip off' type approach rather than a brush on. With a brush you necessarily introduce microbubbles (even if you're insanely careful and exacting).

I've given up on XTC-3D too. These days I use automotive filler primer for my props or anything that needs a "finished" look.

I can't recall the details, but some plastic prints can be smoothed by exposing them to solvent vapor (acetone, IIRC) that softens the surface and makes the parent material do the same surface tension trick. (Edit: a few links) kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bN52iLF3rJO5e3k.html kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hM93ZM11qq2Um3U.html These seem a lot easier than mixing up resins and trying to get even coatings.

This really got me, I felt personally attacked haha

16:13 on the left for the chrome paint. He sure knows how to troll :)

Sh!t usually sticks...

Thanks Cave Johnson

Its a mirror-cool

Not just a giant concrete scorching Fresnel lens? Where do you find them?

Yo Angus! I love the channel - I binged a huge backlog of your channel and Stefan’s channel a few years ago when I got more into printing and learned loads. It’s real weird now that my channel is getting wider impressions, I was kinda hoping one of you would make your way here through the benchy thumbnail… And yes because the surface is bare silver it should age over time. Some of my parts still look perfect, and some have actually yellowed slightly, which makes me think there’re still reactions with the resin, but I’m looking forward to the black patina. (Not for the mirrors, but for the button and the benchys!)

Now we can pretend our 1:1 prints were casted, and screw with our friends when they pick them up at 100% arm strength.

Would that silver layer be electrically conductive? If so, electroplating would increase layer thickness allowing mechanical polishing on a regular basis and reduce the matte issue. Would also allow you to sort out your 1M subscriber button.

@@___xyz___ you are evil... I like it.

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel The benchy did get my attention for sure, but so did the process! Subbed for more.

Yeah the advantage of the glass is that once you grind the perfect shape, you can etch and re-coat the front surface as many times as you want. this plastic method is quite a bit less robust. My dad ground some telescope mirrors in high school I think and I can't imagine the patience that took

The guy from Huygens Optics channel has a lot of videos on grinding mirrors and lenses. Not sure if he does a lot of parabolic mirrors, but there's a lot of information about making glass near atomically smooth on there.

@@DFPercush He tries to avoid aspherical surfaces, but he has a ton of admiration for those who do use them and sometimes makes videos about them, like the guy that makes an entire mini-telescope out of one solid piece of glass.

spin casting was a possibility, as was high-rpm spin-coating to get as much resin off the mirror as possible. I think the best answer without switching resins may be spin-coating and then letting it rest with a hole in the center to drain excess through. (although based on other comments, I think I'm switching resins)

This does work, there was an article in Scientific American about 30 years ago that included this- they used resin to create large (2m) parabolic mirors. You can also buy first surface mirrors at a reasonable price from Cloudray or other laser suppliers, they are common in CO2 lasers.

Spin casting is the way many telescope mirror labs rough out their blanks. But in glass, not resin. ;-) I believe University of Arizona has the largest spin casting oven. And they keep it under the football stadium.

Same!- I subscribed somewhere around 20k i think

Nile is not a chemist. His channel makes chemist cringe so hard.

​@@Egg-vv8de I have honestly tried to search for his qualifications before and could never find them. When you say degree you mean an undergraduate diploma correct? PS: biochemist aren't chemist, they are biochemist... there is a difference.

And I don't dislike the kid. I watch his content all the time but the blatant disregard for safety is hugely disappointing. The lack of technical knowledge is ok and especially more so if he is trained in biochem not synthetic chemistry.

@@kpedretty3012 look at his older videos

@@kpedretty3012 so basically you're saying he has no idea how chemistry works? I would like to believe that's not true, based on his videos

Yes, another variable might be to accomplish the tasks under red light (darkroom) conditions.

with epoxy you can also use fire to take out bubbles

@@antzjr2184 What do you think a butane torch is?

Was going to comment this. Vacuum chambers *are* useful for getting bubbles out of your resin, but only if you do it *before* you pour. Any bubbles that make their way into your casting after you've poured can only be fixed with heat, a pressure chamber, or one-by-one with a needle.

Ya de gas your resin mixture before applying it

I recently tried spray putty without sanding (I hate sanding PLA) and it resulted in, at least locally, perfect results and hidden layer lines.

mine too

Be warned that this coating is really quite fragile and easy to scratch - it’s literally a telescope mirror. Good luck!

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Can you coat it?

The recommendation for miniatures seems to be Molotow Liquid Chrome, and there's a video review where Mechhead talks about what coatings are compatible.

I imagine the silver could be coated with a thin resin or just a spray-on clearcoat. Even PCB lacquer.

I tried spray polyurethane since it was the only spray-on clear thing I had in the garage and it made it a lot fuzzier. it wasn't self-smoothing

The 2^15 play button was ORIGINALLY going to be a computational project and I watched your fantastic Conway video while researching. That project got put on hold when I realized I could do a lot more with it but it was going to take a few extra weeks of python

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel Ohh thank you so much! 😊 Feel free to get in touch if you have any question about GoL-related stuff! ⠠⠵

Alot of these kits are chinese kits off ebay, there is no MSDS. The professional autobody kits tend to give the bare minimum in the terms of chemicals listings. but yes most are infact based on the tollens reagent reaction. Same process is used for typical retail mirror production.

Hi there! It looks like he used products from our company-Angel Gilding-and you are right-the SDS will show the majority chemical component. He is right in guessing it was silver nitrate. That is the Silver Solution. The Silver Reducer is a Sodium Hydroxide Solution. We also suspect you are onto something with the resin. We are going to post a comment about that part. There are certainly recipes out there for your own silvering solution (this basic chemistry was developed well over a hundred years ago). We always caution folks though to be careful-it can be a dangerous process and can even create fulminating silver if done improperly.

@@AngelGildingcom I take it you mean fulminating as in the nitride Ag3N as opposed to a fulminate? My first thought was the latter, as I could see someone cleaning a surface with an alcohol and having residue react with the nitrate, but I suppose if ammonia were used in a solution you could indeed get the former. Either way, I'd agree notion that it should be avoided. Certainly good to keep in mind, thanks for that tip.

@@amarissimus29 yes, the main risk we reference is in the manufacture of the chemicals themselves.

I agree, it's seems that you're one of the only people here who has mentioned relative humidity which plays a big role in evaporation rates. The higher the relative humidity is the lower the evaporation rate will be and the slower the curing rate will be.

I came to the comments to mention the variables of humidity and temperature that were more than likely the main difference between garage and indoor.

If it hadn’t I would have given up instantly and you wouldn’t be watching this video lol. I only kept trying because I knew it was possible…

The best way is to degas it in a vacuum chamber after mixing, then cure in a pressure pot

Could there be a risk of giving your 3d prints the bends? They're full of pockets of air

degassing with vacuum works well for any mixtures that are not too viscous. Also, reintroducing air and then pumping down a few times can help as well if the bubbles dont want to pop..

I wonder if the test was an acetone-thinned one. Acetone has quite a low boiling point / high vapor pressure. It will eventually stop bubbling, but it will cool off in the process so takes longer, and you're back to a plain resin mix.

Degassing it in a vacuum chamber after mixing but before applying it can help, but you can also hit the resin with a blowtorch to pop any remaining bubbles! Just make quick passes over the surface with the flame to pop them without burning the resin.

Totes! I’m paused right there now just appreciating that for a moment!

I'm saddened to find only one comment referencing Bender. The rest of you can "kiss my metal shiny a$$" ! :D

Yeah table saws absolutely terrify me and this is the first one I've owned so I'm trying to catch up on best practices quickly - another comment had some good suggestions about when to use the guide and when to use the miter to avoid kickback, but since I'm typically just doing ply, sometimes I don't have a great way to use either (if the plywood is larger than the table) do you have any tips other than "go in a straight line"? obviously I don't expect high quality cuts when "freehanding" like that, but I'd like to be able to do it without actually freeing my hand from my arm.

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel So if you're trying to rip larger sheets of plywood, my go to would be to use a circular saw unless if you had a large outfeed table set up for your table saw. To get an accurate cut, I like to clamp a guide to the plywood, and then put my circular saw up against it/(or in it in my case) to do the rip. There are a ton of how to videos to make a good guide (I followed the plans from a video called "Super Simple Saw Track" by One Minute Workbench on YT and it works fantastic for what I need it to do). You can also purchase them, Kreig makes decent ones. I'm terrible at free handing myself. Once it is smaller and can be supported by your table saw, that's when I would use it. If you do not have space in your workshop for an outfeed table (it's a table you can push the ripped plywood onto after a cut, highly highly recommend one if you have the space), you can use a roller stand to support the piece. Kickback ultimately is caused by the wood binding in the back of the blade which is spinning towards you, the blade catches it, and then flings it forwards or upwards. It does it with enough force and quick enough that you really don't have time to react, and since you're the softest thing in the shop, can impale you, or also draw your hand into the blade before you can react. Your riving knife (piece that sticks out on the back of the blade) is there to prevent the wood from binding in that way. If you are trying to make an angled cut using your miter gauge, youre not going to want to use the fence, the wood might get pinched between the blade and the fence hence the kickback. If doing a rip cut, it's very important to make sure that your blade is parallel to the fence or it also might cause that pinching action. The thing though that started the comment though was your position of how you were pushing the wood for the rip. You want to be as stable as possible, get a stand, they are under $200 and are able to be folded and stored away or make one so you are able able to push the wood through while standing up comfortably. In that squat position it it's way way way too easy to fall forward and that's your face in a sharp blade that can easily kill you. My ultimate recommendation though, watch some safety and how to use a table saw videos on YT, they're really dangerous and it just takes a single fuck up or accident and then you might be missing some digits or worse. Stumpy Nubs is a woodworker on YT that I respect and would recommend his safety videos for any woodworking equipment. Sorry, a bit of a long response. Regardless, stay safe and healthy and just remember we're the softest meatbag in the shop.

Yeah, I've worked with a few industrial machines spinning at tens of thousands of RPMs and they never unnerved me as much as when I used a table saw. Every time I go near one my mind races with all the possibilities of accidentally tripping into it or slipping my hand. There is something about such a large blade so exposed that is terrifying.

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel kickback can of course happen when you twist the plywood going in. But by far the biggest risk for kickback is with lumber, when ripping it. If the boards have a warp or twist, cutting it can release internal stresses and cause the cut to close back in on itself. That's why a riving knife is required on all european saws, I believe. It keeps the wood from closing back on itself. Here in the US sometimes those are built into the cover, so you may have to take them off before cutting ply, but make sure to put it back on when ripping boards.

check out the Huygens optics video about mini telescope mirrors for satellites! if you can print suitably clear resin that'd be awesome. nowhere near diffraction-limited optics, but still pretty cool

@@AlphaPhoenixChannel yeah I saw that one. Maybe I'll give it a go. I am thinking about picking up an airbrush off Craigslist to try "silvering" much cheaper than the kit you used. It won't be nearly as good, but it's a lower cost way to at least get a proof of concept going. I found some videos of Alclad polished aluminum paint that looks like it may work

If you’re doing a second-surface like that I believe it’s significantly more forgiving. The specularness is set my the interface roughness rather than the interface AND the quality of the coating

Too many subs too fast! I’m a button and a half behind…

Hmmm wall stick is a great point - I made some waffles the other day and got a bite of dry mix powder at one point that was not very appetizing. I think it detached from the bowl late…

I’ve used CA to coat prints before sanding and polishing with really good results. I could see my reflection quite clearly.

Did it work for you? Would like to make one too.