Author: thomas

Laundry detergents

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I want to make my own soap-free laundry detergents; one for wool wash and one for general laundry. The general one should use aggressive surfactants, the wool one must obviously be mild. I haven’t made any detergent before.

I’m starting off my research here at thethingswe’llmake, where they use liquid SLS, coco betaine, and decyl glucoside as surfactants, salt as a thickener, and preservatives. This looks like a great recipe for cotton and synthetics, but the SLS is too harsh for wool.

Wool is in some ways similar to human hair, and on hiking trips I’ve used my (CG) shampoo bar for washing my wool clothes. I think if ingredients are not CG, they are probably not good in a wool wash detergent too. Handwashing with mild shampoo seems to be considered safe.

Wool wash detergents typically contain:

  • Surfactants such as SCS, lauryl glucoside, and cocamidopropyl betaine – similar to some shampoos.
  • Emollients like lanolin (wool fat). Typically 0-1%, or 5-7.5% in lanolin replenishing formulations. However lanolin is probably not what I want, it’ll prevent moisture wicking of the garments.
  • Preservatives such as potassium sorbate or 2-phenoxyethanol
  • pH adjusters such as citric acid – pH should be neutral to acidic (pH<4 can help preserve)

I guess I could just adjust the thethingswe’llmake formulation to use a milder anionic surfactant:

  • 5% SCI – poorly soluble so mix with coco betaine first (melt the surfactant phase?)
  • 5% Coco betaine
  • 3% Coco glucoside
  • 2% table salt
  • pH adjustment to pH 5-7 is ideal for wool, pH <5.5 is ideal for Geoguard, pH >6.0 is best for SCI because otherwise it will start to hydrolyse. Maybe another surfactant or preservative? Aim for pH 5.5-6.0 otherwise
  • 1% Geoguard

Home chemistry formulations & ingredients

thomasLeave a comment

Not yet finished.

Conditioner

  • 3% BTMS-25 or 1.5% BTMS-50
  • 3% oil (sunflower, almond and/or argan)
  • 1% Geoguard
  • Citric or lactic acid – aim for pH 4.5-5.5
  • Optional:
    • 0.5% panthenol
    • 0.15% Vitamin E

Shampoo bar

  • 50% SCI noodles
  • 29% Cocamidopropyl Betaine
  • 4% BTMS-25
  • 4% carrageenan
  • 4% glycerin
  • 2.75% water
  • 0.25% citric acid 50% – aim for pH 4.5-5.5
  • 5% light oil (sunflower, almond, argan)
  • 0.025% vitamin E
  • 1% Geoguard

Personal lubricant, water-based

  • 10% (rehydrated) Aloe vera
  • 10% glycerin
  • 1.5% Hydroxyethyl cellulose
  • Citric or lactic acid – aim for pH 4.5
  • 1% Geoguard
  • Optional:
    • Vitamin E

Personal lubricant, oil-based

  • >85% oil (shea, coconut, sunflower, ..)
  • <14.5% corn starch
  • 0.5% Vitamin E

Toothpaste tablets

  • Silicone tablet mold
  • 60% calcium carbonate
  • 26.1% sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
  • 12.5% xylitol
  • 1% HEC
  • 0.3% potassium fluoride (~1000 ppm fluoride)

Laundry detergent (general)

  • 15% SLS
  • 5% Coco betaine
  • 3% Coco glucoside
  • 2% table salt
  • pH adjustment to >9 (so no need for preservative)

Laundry detergent (wool wash)

  • 5% SCI
  • 5% Coco betaine
  • 3% Coco glucoside
  • 2% table salt
  • pH adjustment to pH 5.5-6.0
  • 1% Geoguard

Shaving cream

Should be able to make from the other ingredients I’m already buying.

Deodorant

No formulation yet, but will probably use these:

  • Glycerin
  • Triethyl citrate (TEC)
  • HEC
  • pH adjustment – aim for pH 5.0
  • Geoguard

Other

  • Peroxide for cleaning
  • Phosphoric acid for fertiliser

Table of ingredients

IngredientTypeConditionerShampoo barLube, water basedLube, oil-basedToothpasteLaundry (general)Laundry (wool wash)Shaving creamDeodorantOther
Vitamin EActives0.15%0.03%v0.50%
PanthenolActives0.50%1.00%v?v?
Triethyl citrate (TEC)Actives5.00%
Aloe vera (rehydrated)Botanicals10.00%
BTMS-25Emulsifyer (cationic)3.00%4.00%v?
GlycerinHumectant5.00%10.00%v3.00%
Light oil (sunflower, almond, argan)Oil3.00%5.00%v?
Heavy oil (shea, coconut)Oil99.50%
Lactic/citric acidpH adjustmentv0.13%vvv?
GeoguardPreservative1.00%1.00%1.00%1.00%1.00%1.00%1.00%
Cocamidopropyl BetaineSurfactant (amphoteric)29.00%5.00%5.00%– (rinse off)
SCI (noodles)Surfactant (anionic)50.00%5.00%v?
SLS, liquidSurfactant (anionic)15.00%
Coco glucosideSurfactant (non-ionic)3.00%3.00%v?
Hydroxyethyl celluloseThickener0.50%2.00%1.50%1.00%v?
Salt (NaCl)Thickener2.00%2.00%

Soap press

thomasLeave a comment

I want to make shampoo bars around 65-100g. The ones I buy from the store are about 6cm diameter, 3cm thick, 65g.

Some ideas:

  • DIY press using glue clamps and PVC pipe
  • Using a mooncake press – the common 50g ones are probably too small, but a 75g or 100g one would work. The press usually comes with multiple moulds
  • Using a rice ball (onigiri) press
  • Using a hamburger press
  • 3D print a puck mould like this one

Ways to keep the soap/shampoo/syndet bar from sticking to the mould:

  • Cling film
  • Corn starch
  • A drop of oil

Shampoo bar

thomasLeave a comment

I’m quite happy with my shampoo bar. However, it’s only available from 1 shop and they’ve been known to change their formulation.

The current formulation uses the following ingredients: SODIUM COCOYL ISETHIONATE, AQUA (WATER), GLYCERIN, COCAMIDOPROPYL BETAINE DODECANOIC ACIDS, PARFUM (FRAGRANCE), OLEA EUROPAEA (OLIVE) FRUIT OIL, SIMMONDSIA CHINENSIS (JOJOBA) SEED OIL, PRUNUS AMYGDALUS DULCIS (SWEET ALMOND) OIL, PERSEA GRATISSIMA (AVOCADO) OIL, CHONDRUS CRISPUS EXTRACT, URTICA DIOICA (NETTLE) EXTRACT, RUBUS IDAEUS (RASPBERRY) FRUIT EXTRACT.

The formulation clearly uses SCI in noodle/needle form to give the soap bar some texture, which really works well to get the soap into my hair so I want to replicate this. I’ll have to look up how to make a formulation without melting the SCI.

A similar recipe using SCI and Cocamidopropyl betaine can be found here although they use SCI powder. Also they add BTMS-25 which is what I already was going to get for my conditioner. Humblebeeandme also has a recipe including BTMS. Wait, this is what I was looking for! Humblebeeandme figured out how to leave the noodles intact. They use SCI/SCS/glycerin/oil instead of SCI/coco beatine/glycerin oil, and probably quite a bit less glycerin, but it’s close enough. The idea is that they use just enough water to dissolve the surfactants together but not enough to dissolve them completely. Alternatively, the secondary phase can be melted separately and mixed with the cold surfactants to melt them together but not melt them completely.

The 3 formulations I could find use about 90% surfactants, 2-4% humectant/binder, 4-6% oil.

Surfactants

  • Sodium Cocoyl Isethionate (SCI) noodles
  • Cocamidopropyl betaine
  • BTMS-25

Humectants / binders

  • Glycerin – in original formulation probably used to keep the bar from cracking
  • Hydrolyzed protein – but I don’t want protein
  • Agar
  • Carrageenan

Oils

I’d like to use some lighter oils than the Kruidvat bar:

  • Sunflower oil
  • Almond oil
  • Argan oil

Formulation

Taking the savvyhomemade formulation and the humblebeeandme one as inspiration, this is the formulation I would like to try:

  • Primary phase
    • 50% SCI noodles
    • 29% Cocamidopropyl Betaine
  • Secondary phase
    • 2% HEC
    • 4% BTMS-25
    • 5% glycerin
    • 1% panthenol
    • 2.75% water
    • 0.25% citric acid 50% – aim for pH 4.5-5.5
  • Tertiary phase
    • 5% light oil (sunflower, almond, argan, includes fragrance oils)
    • 0.025% vitamin E
    • 1% Geoguard

Would need to get/build myself some sort of soap press though.

Personal lubricant

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Things to avoid

  • Silicones, they don’t play nice with toys and some can apparently cause uterine cancer
  • Petroleum-based products, sticky and generally bad
  • Parabens, might mess with hormones
  • Anything that can cause a yeast infection, e.g. sugars, honey, glycerin (except ultra pure stuff). Apparently (corn) starch is ok though.
  • Any oil, because it can break down latex and is not always toy safe either – however besides that it can work
  • Most preservatives can act as irritants, and often are only safe for external use

Things to consider

  • pH (water based lubes): for genital use in the range of 4.5 to 5.5, for anal use in the range of 5.5 to 7.5
  • Osmolality (water based lubes): should be around 300 mOsm/kg

Oil based formulations

Not for use with condoms and some toys!

I’ve already experiment with a whipped oil recipe, I’ve tried this formulation and it works well. I could experiment with the following:

  • Different oils (e.g. coconut, shea, sunflower oil, olive oil)
  • Different amounts of starch

Water based formulations

Typical recipe:

  • Water
  • Humectants. These are the ones I could find that are not on the avoid list:
    • Pure aloe vera
    • PDO (1,3-propanediol) as a vegetable-based replacement for propylene glycol – not well researched
    • However, because of osmolality, perhaps a humectant (other than aloe) is not a good idea anyway
  • Gelling agents. These are the ones I could find that are not on the avoid list:
    • Xanthan gum
    • Carrageenan (E407)
    • Hydroxyethyl cellulose – also a humectant
    • Carbomer
    • Agar
  • Preservatives, e.g.:
    • Potassium Sorbate
    • Citric acid
    • Sodium Benzoate – might not be safe, but probably fine
    • Vitamin E (Tocopheryl Acetate)
  • Other stuff, e.g.:
    • NaOH – to adjust pH
    • Lactic acid – to adjust pH
    • NaCl, KCl, CaCl – to adjust tonicity/osmolality

I could get concentrated aloe with preservatives already added, Xanthan gum and hydroxyethyl cellulose, and then experiment. Perhaps try to reverse engineer BioNude or just try this recipe. Here‘s an overview of some commercial formulations ordered by how safe they are.
All of these ingredients are CG approved, so I could use them for hair products too.

If I want to use both HEC and xanthan, the ratio HEC:xanthan should probably be around 2:1. The xanthan-only recipe uses 0.66% xanthan and 15% aloe. The BioNude formulation does not give percentages, but this HEC-based lubricant uses 1.27% (w/w) HEC and no xanthan, 8.5% (v/v) glycerin, 5.5% (v/v) propylene glycol. Another one uses 1.6% HEC and 20% butylene glycol. I’m thinking to combine this info into the following recipe:

  • 10% (rehydrated) aloe
  • 10% glycerin
  • 1.5% HEC
  • 1% Geoguard

Toothpaste tablets

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I like using toothpaste tablets but they’re expensive and the store where I get them doesn’t always have them in stock. Recipe: Xylitol, Microchrystalline Cellulose BP, Dicalcium Phosphate Dihydrate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, Mint Powder, Menthol, Sodium Fluoride.

Maybe this recipe?

Maybe use hydroxyethylcellulose? About 1%? The brand I’m currently using containts microcrystalline cellulose (MCC), and some brands contain up to 70% MCC. I can’t find any good sources for MCC, I guess calcium carbonate has the same function.

Hair conditioner

thomasLeave a comment

I use a lot of conditioner and so far I haven’t found the best one to make my wavy hair easier to handle and more curly. So I want to make my own recipe. Apparently it’s really easy to make, with only a couple of ingredients: water, oil, an emulsifier, and a preservative.

The emulsifier

I found two very similar recipes using BTMS as the main ingredient over at Humblebee & Me and The Things We’ll Make. BTMS is a lightweight, plant-based cationic emulsifier that is apparently a really good detangler and hair conditioner.

BTMS-25 and BTMS-50 are roughly the same price, but the latter is twice the BTMS concentration of the former, although with less of the stabilising additives blended in. I want a thin, lightweight conditioner that doesn’t weigh my hair down much, so maybe using less of the more concentrated BTMS is the best option for me.

For leave-in conditioner, about 3% BTMS-25 seems to work fine, so maybe I’ll try 1.5% BTMS-50. The TTWM recipe is 5% BTMS-25 and the Humblebee one is 4% BTMS-25 but those are not specifically leave-in, for which they recommend a lower strength. Humblebee does have a 1% BTMC leave-in conditioner recipe, and that is about twice as strong as BTMS-50. I could try the BTMC instead, but it’s harder to get and I’d have to get cetearyl alcohol too.

The oil

I’m looking for a lighter oil, this rules out things like shea & coconut butter. Also, I’m not really looking for a coating oil that makes my hair shiny – what I’m looking for is a penetrating oil. The following I think are light penetrating oils judging by this site:

  • Sunflower oil
  • Grapeseed oil
  • Almond oil
  • Argan oil

Grapeseed is the lightest oil and sunflower is by far the most penetrating out of these. The other two contain vitamins, almond oil also containts proteins, and none of these should leave greasy residue on fine hair.

TTWM uses a 1:1 oil-to-BTMS-25 ratio (5% oil), Humblebee uses a 2:1 ratio (8% oil). If I indeed go for 1.5% BTMS-50, I guess I could start with 3% oil. I could also try the Humblebee formulation without oil first.

The preservative

I need to do more research but it looks like 1% Geoguard would work. Interestingly it is the most expensive ingredient at around half of the total formulation cost.

Other ingredients

  • Film forming humectants, plant gels
    • Panthenol – expensive but good idea, 0.5%?
    • HEC for enhancing slip? Should be 0.5-2%
    • Carrageenan
    • Aloe vera
  • Film forming humectants, hyrolysed protein – I’ll try without first
  • Glycerin

Folding Python delta trike

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The following is mostly a project post from about a year ago. I started ordering some parts but still haven’t settled on a final prototype design yet, even after I got some very good advice on a lot of aspects on the AtomicZombie forum. I don’t know if I will ever actually build it.

The idea: a recumbent Python delta trike, but make it foldable.

Design requirements:

  • Comfortably haul a 10kg 40L backpack, to go on hiking trips I otherwise can’t do without a car
  • Be able to take it (plus backpack) on a Dutch train, which means it has to fold down to a small size
  • Max 75cm total width, to fit through shed door and comply with Dutch traffic regulations more easily
  • Fun project to build together with my dad, who is an experienced aluminium welder and has worked on bikes before

Nice-to-haves:

  • Functions as seat when folded
  • Still rolls when folded
  • Can carry heavy/large items, e.g. using a 60x40cm Eurocrate
  • No dimension over 85 cm when folded – this would make it easier to carry on international trains too
  • Lightweight
  • 26” wheels – probably won’t work with the other design requirements though

What I’ve learned about Python trikes so far:

  • Inspiration: the only other folding Python trikes seem to be Howard Stevens’ Porta Velo’s, but folded up they’re still a little too big/wide for what I want, and the Russian Denedi trikes which more closely resemble what I want to do
  • Pivot point & seat should be as much forward as possible, to put more weight on front wheel. This is extra important because of the added weight of the backpack
  • Wheelbase should be as long as possible, also to put more weight on front wheel
  • Seat should be as low as possible for cornering stability, but not so low that there is no ground clearance

Current design idea:

  • Python type recumbent, with two rear wheels. Open space between the rear wheels for mounting a backpack, maybe with straps under the seat
  • Folding: the rear wheels are on double pivoted swing arms that allow the wheels to fold all the way against the front wheel. The seat folds forward over the three folded up wheels. When folded, the backpack can stay attached to the seat and the whole thing acts as a luggage trolley running on the rear wheels
  • Wheel size: 20”, because 24″ or 26″ would make the whole thing just so much bigger :(
  • Suspension: none. Perhaps a balloon tire in the front (Big Ben?) for a smoother ride, or even 3x balloon tires
  • Wheelbase: 90 cm
  • Track: 67 cm (total width 75 cm)
  • Pivot angle: 60°
  • Pivot type: Rod end bearings M12
  • Seat angle: 50°
  • Seat height from ground: 20.0 cm
  • Trail: -18.4 cm
  • Ground clearance: 11.9 cm – 15.0 cm
  • BB-EOS: max 76 cm (my inseam is 89 cm)
  • BB: Press fit in 40x3mm tube, adjustable with clamping bolts
  • Front hub: 8 speed gear hub with roller brake?
  • Rear hubs: Sturmey Archer 70mm drum brake, single mounted (12mm axle)?

Alternate designs that might fit requirements

  • Instead of folding, detachable rear wheel arms?
  • Upright two-wheeled folding bike design with rack for backpack?

Vacuum dessicator terrarium

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The lab was throwing out this vacuum dessicator because the lid is stuck.

I want to turn it into a terrarium / ecosystem, but first I have to get the lid unstuck.. Things I have tried:

  • Dissolving the hardened grease between the ground surfaces in alcohol
  • Softening the grease with sunflower oil
  • Heating the interface with a hair dryer for almost half an hour

I’m afraid to put more heat in it because I don’t want the thing to explode. I know it’s safe to -1 bar (relative to atmospheric pressure) but I don’t know how much positive pressure it could take. It’s pyrex glass though so it should be able to take concentrated heat.

Maybe I’ll have to make a wooden jig to slide the lid off with a lever, after applying the hair dryer again to soften up the old grease.

To be continued.

Radiator cover

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I’m making a radiator cover.

Goals

  • Hide ugly radiator
  • Extend windowsill for plants
  • Protect windowsill plants from touching hot surfaces
  • Work with fabric for a change

Steps

  • Measure
  • Find inspiration
  • Draw design
  • Buy materials
  • Cut materials to size
  • Assemble

Design

I would’ve embedded the Pinterest section I made for inspiration in this post, but apparently you can’t embed Pinterest sections, only whole boards. Here’s just the design I came up with:

It’s a simple design made out of wood, unbleached cotton and rope. Part of the wood is reused hardwood skirting boards that we had laying around. The plywood sides are closed, the bottom is open, and the plywood top has a 10mm ventilation slit. The whole thing is lightweight, which makes it easy to attach to the wall so I can vacuum under it.

I might put some reflective foil on the underside of the overhanging part of the windowsill extension, so less heat is radiated directly into the plants. I might even extend it all the way down behind the radiator, but I don’t know if the fabric I bought is dense enough to hide it.

DupeGuru on Fedora

thomasLeave a comment

After many years of Ubuntu, I’m still a Linux noob. This is me typing out loud while I try to install a program.

I moved to KDE Nobara (Fedora) late last year and so far it’s been a nice experience. The only program I didn’t immediately manage to reinstall after the move (besides my wireless dongle) is DupeGuru. On their homepage they only give an option for Ubuntu as well as the source, and I’ve never compiled anything from source.

I was expecting this to be a whole adventure log with me learning to convert or to compile from source or something, but apparently they do have an .rpm package, so I installed that.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work straight away:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/dupeguru", line 88, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
             ^^^^^^
  File "/usr/bin/dupeguru", line 71, in main
    from qt.app import DupeGuru
  File "/usr/share/dupeguru/qt/app.py", line 22, in <module>
    from core.app import AppMode, DupeGuru as DupeGuruModel
  File "/usr/share/dupeguru/core/app.py", line 26, in <module>
    from core import se, me, pe
  File "/usr/share/dupeguru/core/pe/__init__.py", line 1, in <module>
    from core.pe import (  # noqa
  File "/usr/share/dupeguru/core/pe/block.py", line 9, in <module>
    from core.pe._block import NoBlocksError, DifferentBlockCountError, avgdiff, getblocks2  # NOQA
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'core.pe._block'

Instead of using a search engine, I asked AI (Perplexity) what to do. It told me to check if the core.pe._block Python module is installed and how to install it. That did not work and the AI kept repeating itself. So back to the search engine, the first hit was somebody with the exact same problem on the DupeGuru github. There the following was suggested:

sudo ln /usr/share/dupeguru/core/pe/_cache.cpython-39-x86_64-linux-gnu.so /usr/share/dupeguru/core/pe/_cache.cpython-310-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
sudo ln /usr/share/dupeguru/core/pe/_block.cpython-39-x86_64-linux-gnu.so /usr/share/dupeguru/core/pe/_block.cpython-310-x86_64-linux-gnu.so
sudo ln /usr/share/dupeguru/qt/pe/_block_qt.cpython-39-x86_64-linux-gnu.so /usr/share/dupeguru/qt/pe/_block_qt.cpython-310-x86_64-linux-gnu.so

I checked my Python version (3.11.6) so I changed the 310 above to 311 and ran the commands.

Now it works.

Yay.

Site updates

thomasLeave a comment

2024-09-09

  • Added “recipes” page.

2024-01-31

  • Added “uncategorised ideas” pages and categories to each project category. I think I will let go of categorising by project stage and dump everything that is just an idea into these categories

2024-01-25

  • I think I’ve got my project pages to be uniform now, still want to do some CSS things though
  • I want to also sort my project pages by how far along they are. Right now I only have them sorted by theme. I’m not sure if that’s possible, because I think they can only have 1 parent

2024-01-16

  • Site moved to root
  • Issue with showing (recent) posts on project pages, not uniform. I think it’s because some pages use “Latest Posts” showing post content, and some use “Query Loop”
  • Want to implement: some sort of plugin? to automatically hide all posts in a certain category behind a single password. What I’ve tried so far asks for a password for every single post in the category. I don’t want to do anything with users, just a single password cookie

2024-01-15

  • Started with layout & first categories