Y'know, I never committed to not ranting
IDK how this is gonna turn out but as I'm writing this first sentence, I think it's gonna be a brief summary of some things.
So, first, I've gotta say that I'm kinda really annoyed at how dumb I am. First I find this 2 year old bottle of concentrated urine (for a project, if you aren't familiar please refer to the last post) that I had stored for some dumbass reason (I started a project then forgot what the project was because it took so long) but it's apparently like 20 liters fresh concentrated down into 1.5 liters. So, I'm super happy about that, since it saves me so much time, but then I go and boil it down along with some other fresh stuff and guess what? I get it down to 20mls and THERE'S NO SOLID. Like, wtf? There shoulda been at least some salt even if all the precious urea has been degraded. Anyway, it got late so I packed up my stuff. Then today, I went and boiled down some fresh stuff along with that, and as I get down to the last 10 mls or whatever and get scared that there's still no solid I noticed that there's a super thick crust of material stuck to the bottom of the pot I was using to boil it down. It's the same colour and texture as the pot (light gray and looks bumpy), so I hadn't noticed it before. Anyway, now that's all been turned into a powder and hopefully soon I can get around to crystalizing the urea and removing the salt. I won't be able to get the same purity as commercial stuff, but I'm not even trying for that, it just needs to hopefully crosslink the god damned saccharides.
Okay, second: Anyone have familiarity with making pistons or lathes? Specifically without specialized tools. A long term project of mine has been to make a working high pressure pump without relying on machines I can't make entirely myself. My current best idea is to make a very pure clay, make a basic potter's wheel, then use a knife to make the edge very flat as the clay turns about. I am however worried that this would leave me without a 90ΒΊ angle. And without the 90ΒΊ angle, it (or any other pistons made with this as the creator of their molds) would either lose it's airtightness when pulling back or the chamber I make (using the piston to get the exact shape down) would taper which would cause the piston to get stuck or at the very least move very badly. So, anyone got advice? I'd be happy to hear any ideas.
Also, anyone who read this far into the madness that is (sadly) my very filtered thoughts, congrats. Give yourself a pat on the back. We're proud of you for not giving up earlier and thankful that someone decided to spend their time reading this.











