I finished the headboard and I’m happy with how it turned out. :)
Things I learned:
Wood glue doesn’t work very well on foam, but regular craft glue is fine. I guess spray glue would’ve been best, though.
A blunt bread knife doesn’t work very well for cutting this sort of foam. However, fabric scissors worked really well and I got nice straight cuts.
I cut the foam slightly oversized and pressed it into the frame, and didn’t glue it against the backboard. While this worked, I think it would’ve been better to cut it to size and glue it so it can’t bulge or come loose later.
Now I’ve got the thing behind my bed, I think it would’ve looked better if it were some 30cm wider, so it continued all the way to the wall. Maybe I will make a small separate piece to fill that gap. I have plenty of felt left. Or maybe I’ll make something out of wood, like a tall corner shelf/night stand.
I salvaged an aluminium drying rack for glass tubes. I already had some salvaged lab glass tubes and long bottles that I wanted to make racks for, and they fit nicely in the holes. However, I didn’t have enough of the bottles to fill it up, and it was too tall for the reaction tubes. So I drilled out the little rivets, sawed one of the plates with holes into two, and made the thing into two racks to fit both the tubes and the bottles.
It was nice to work with rivets again, I don’t have much experience with those. It shows if you look closely – the one in the back has four different sizes of rivets – but I learned in the end.
I’ll use these for propagating plant cuttings. They fit perfectly in the windowsill :)
I salvaged some foam from work that I might use to make a headboard for my bed.
It’s four 70x50x3cm pieces of firm foam, and two 70x33x3cm pieces of softer foam. I want a headboard that is at least 140x80cm so I guess I could just use two firm ones on the bottom and two softer ones on top. Then the two remaining firm ones could make a ~120x50cm back pillow for my bean bag sofa. I think I have enough felt material for both projects.
I have zero upholstery experience though, so I guess I should do some research first.
I have inherited a 500mL round bottom flask and heating mantle from my lab. I’m trying to see what I would need to make it into an essential oil still.
Option 1a: simple distillation, 250 mL capacity – 29/32
Option 3a: reflux steam distillation, 500-2000 mL capacity – 24/29
This one is the maximum I can do with my 500 mL heating mantle, although I could possibly fit a 2L chromatography flask too. Reduced to 24/29 better to keep 29/32 for easier filling/emptying? Reduce reflux separator and Dimroth condenser?
Wait a minute, I have an awesome big ~1.8L glass reservoir that is the perfect shape! It’s just missing the DN100? lid. The lid on its own is more expensive than all the other options though. Maybe use a temperature resistant funnel? Print a PETG lid and line it with PTFE baking sheet?
Option 3b: as above, but I’ve put more thought into it
Putting a stopcock between the boiling flask and the reservoir is a bad idea. It’ll clog up with plant material. Also, I want the biggest diameter reservoir opening possible, to make it easier to fill/empty/clean.
How on earth am I going to clamp such a tall installation
Do I want to use my jacketed column? Perhaps upside down, but how would I connect the little screw adapter into the 24/29 Clevenger? Maybe just get the cheaper shorter 200 mm Dimroth for €21.27?
Could I perhaps use my condenser as part of a DIY Clevenger? It has an extra port at the bottom. Would need to improvise a stopcock at the spout. This would make for a much less tall setup; it would sit next to the boiling flask / biomass vessel stack, with hydrosol overflow going up diagonally back into the boiling flask or biomass flask. Would need some sort of splitter adapter there, a hydrosol hose, a lid for my reactor (biomass) vessel, possibly an insulated metal pipe from the vessel to the condenser.. Maybe if I want a big volume, I should just hook up the Clevenger & Dimroth to a pressure cooker or other metal pot.
Do I need to put some sort of restriction at the top of the Dimroth condenser to limit flow/vapor loss?
Would a Vigreux column do something? I’m already refluxing
Option 3c
Ok I’ve decided I want the 5mL graduated 24/29 Clevenger and a Dimroth on top of it, but I think I can get away with a shorter 200mm one because of the low heating power and high efficiency of the condenser. I can ramp up the coolant pump if needed, or just add another condenser on top if it turns out to be too short.
Round bottom flask 500 mL dual 29/32 €16.26 single €16.92
Ergo, 200W might just keep up with 500 g / 2 L flask? Otherwise, just run for longer?
Will my 500 mL boiling flask provide enough water for the process?
Fill to max 50%
Water is refluxed
2.8 L/kg -> water must be refluxed at least 6 times
If not enough, just add through condenser? And pre-wet biomass?
Do I want to spend the extra €20 on a flask twice the size?
Do I want to spend €100+ on new glassware when I already have used stuff? It might be toxic and I’d have to figure out connections, especially both sides of the 1.8L reactor that has no lid.. The condenser I could probably figure out now that I know the screw connections. I still want a Clevenger in any case.
I’ve bought a Clevenger (5mL graduated, 24/29 connections).
I’ll try to connect everything I already have up first. But none of those things are made to connect. There are 4 places that I’d like to be mostly “steam tight”:
500 mL round bottom flask to biomass flask: 29/32 ground glass to glass hose connection. Maybe drill out a rubber stopper?
Biomass flask to biomass flask lid: custom clamp? Or maybe make a new lid from stainless steel or old pot lid?
Biomass flask lid to Clevenger: GL25 (or was it GL32?) screw connection to 24/29 ground glass – maybe a 24/29 to hose adapter, and then stick it in a screw cap with teflon ring?
Clevenger to condenser: put the glass hose connection of the condenser into a drilled out 24/29 rubber stopper again?
Lab was throwing out an old drying rack. It’s not in the best shape, but it was free and it’s exactly what I wanted, so I guess I’m not making one myself any time soon. Also, found a spot on the wall.
I played around with some recycled candle wax bits. I had some cheeky silicone moulds as well as a candle stick mould that I hadn’t used before, and I tried some simple toilet roll candles too.
I’ve made “dipped” candles before, but never poured ones. Couple of things I learned:
I probably need to put some holes in the silicone moulds for the wicks. Just putting them down into the bottom doesn’t work – the wicks float.
The candle stick mould with a hole for the wick leaked all the wax out on the first try. On the second try I put a few knots in the wick to close the hole, but it made it hard to get the candle out of the mould. Apparently you can use something like clay to plug the hole (see below).
Best pour hot into a thick-walled mould, or pre-heat the silicone, to prevent cracks at the surface where the wax instantly hardens.
Pour slow to fill all the details and prevent hollowing out?
Big candles take a while to cool down. Wait several hours before unmoulding.
I should take more care to centre the wicks.. and think ahead and have what I need on hand. Maybe clothes pegs?
Our lab threw out some surplus potassium phosphate, so I used it to formulate hydroponic fertiliser. That was a mistake. I forgot that potassium phosphate with calcium nitrate gives insoluble calcium phosphate, which happily proceeded to precipitate. I also added some other stuff that may or may not have precipitated out, so I can’t even save the stuff by filtering out the solids and making it into a two-part fertiliser, because I wouldn’t know for sure the composition.
I do have urea phosphate, which does not react with calcium nitrate. Urea-N isn’t as good for growth as nitrate-N on its own, but at least 20% of total N can be replaced by urea without negative effect. My previous formulation using urea phosphate worked great, even though it was more diluted than it needed to be and it had some pre-mixed dry fertiliser in it. It got some algae or something in it, not much of a problem but if it were concentrated enough I think that shouldn’t have happened.
Goals:
Concentrated 1-part fertiliser, preferably 500:1 or even 1000:1
Nutrient composition suitable for leafy aroids, taking into account local tap water composition
Acid enough to bring down tap water pH to ~6 without extra acids
Ammonia-to-nitrate ratio that keeps pH relatively stable in semi-hydroponics even if all water is taken up, e.g. 3:7 or 4:6 – even if this is not ideal for growth rate
Preferably formulated from simple salts, no mixes or acids. Mixed trace nutrients are ok
I took nutrient compositions from literature and from commercial products, I downloaded the latest local tap water composition report, and looked up properties of various possible ingredients. I put everything into a big spreadsheet, set up goal values based on requirements, and used a DEPS evolutionary algorithm solver to optimise for the above list. This is also what I did for my earlier formulation, this time I just forgot to check if the resulting ingredients were compatible.
Newest formulation to test: urea phosphate, calcium nitrate, potassium nitrate, magnesium nitrate, ammonium sulfate, trace elements. Starting with 250 mL 500:1, and will try more or less diluted depending on how that goes.
I’m a little worried about forming calcium sulfate, but at low pH (from the urea phosphate) I think it could work? Actually, I should calculate the amount of calcium sulfate that could be formed, and compare it to the solubility. Solubility is about 0.24 wt% at room temperature. At pH=2.5 solubility is only improved by +12%, although high salt level can improve solubility by about 3x. Even in pure HCl you can only get 1.8 wt% calcium sulfate in solution. I guess I could use a chelator like EDTA to keep more in solution if needed (about 4%), but that’s an expensive way to go. Maybe this is why the commercial 1-part formulations don’t have much sulfur and/or calcium, except perhaps Liquid Gold Leaf which I think has a chelator.
Actually EDTA isn’t all that expensive. I should research that.
Or maybe I should just accept a lower ammonium/calcium/sulfate concentration to get a more concentrated 1-part fertiliser, or keep with my low concentration fertiliser.
I want a drying rack for my home chemistry glassware, for drying & storing.
Maybe something modular, so I can expand my glassware collection later?
Perhaps incorporate a drip tray?
I have round wooden rods, I think 13mm and 8mm diameter, that would make nice pegs.
Maybe first find some wall space to hang it. Right now I only have space behind a door, but obviously I don’t want to smash fragile glassware every time I open the door.
I want more plants in our lab office, but I don’t want to clutter my desk too much. I’ve already found a way to suspend some plants from the ceiling, but I also want to reuse some old / damaged lab glassware as planters and I don’t want to hang those.
My desk is in a corner with two windows overseeing the lab. Both windows have a small ledge, so I’m thinking of putting a shelf onto them. I could make it mostly out of reused wood from the lab, e.g. wood that was used for shipping some of our machines.
I think the weight on top will keep everything in place, but I want to secure the thing to be sure. I don’t think I’ll be allowed to drill into the window frames. I guess I could wedge something between the frame on the long side, so the shelf can’t move. Maybe I can use bolts in T-nuts to push into the steel frames on both sides and wedge it that way? Or perhaps a very strong magnet on both ends to make sure the thing doesn’t slide off?
Another fun project idea: making a DIY overhead stirrer. Something like this but simpler.
I think I already have a suitable 12VDC reduction motor somewhere, and I have spare adjustable DC power supplies (12V 2A and 12V 5A) that I could use to control the speed. I would need a chuck and something to attach the motor to my lab stand. Also, a stirrer attachment.
I can’t find my big gear motors right now, but I do have a cute little 6V 30 rpm one and a 24V 18 rpm one. Plenty of torque, but slow and I think they’re only about 3W continuous.
Ideal would be something like the one in the video, which is the larger ~15W continuous cousin of my mini reduction motors. I guess the 470 rpm one would be nice. I could easily attach a drill chuck to the 8mm shaft using a JT0/B10/B12 connecting adapter, then I don’t have to fabricate anything like the guy in the video did. I think B12 is the right size if I mainly want to use it with 6mm and 8mm stirrer attachments. Either that, or an M10 adapter with an M10 chuck.
I’m going with the M10 option. It has better reviews, it’s not missing the set screws and I like the chuck better.
For attachment, I think I will go with the very simplest option first: just clamp it to the lab stand with a lab clamp straight onto the motor. The motor would be facing sideways but that doesn’t matter. If I like the setup, I might find a better solution. Perhaps a piece of 12mm rod with two hose clamps or something.
I’ve ordered a reduction motor, M10 connector, 1.5-10mm drill chuck and stainless paddle stirrer for €25. That should be everything I need, besides the stand, clamp and adjustable power supply I already have.
I want to play with plant hormones. See what their effect is on growth patterns of houseplants. I specifically want to see if I can prevent epiphytic aroids from reverting to a more juvenile form when growing downwards instead of up something.
I already did some literature research. I also found this page, I want to read it with some healthy scepticism because biodynamics. But first, other projects.
As a first test, I added 4 grams of it to 46 grams of store-bought SAPDMA-based conditioner. So about 8% L-Arginine HCl or 6.6% L-Arginine. The change in viscosity was immediate, it got so thick I could barely stir it. I applied it to my hair as I normally do, about 15 grams spread using a wet detangling brush on wet hair, and leaving it in.
Compared to the same conditioner without the Arginine, I feel it works a little worse as a wet detangler because of how thick it is. However, it does seem to work otherwise as intended – my curls appear stronger and more defined, without the gloss that some other products give to my hair. If I add more of the stuff to my hair, it works like hair gel, but less glossy/oily.
I will continue to test it for a few more washes, also see if I can apply it just dissolved in water as a hair mask. I want to understand better what it does before I start formulating with it.
I’ve saved some lab ware and equipment from the dumpster. I wonder if I can use some of it to make a distillation setup for essential oils.
Some things I want to try extracting oil from:
Banana peel
Mandarine peel
Ginger
Cherry tree petals
Rhododendron petals
Monarda didyma
Mentha aquatica
Pine/fir/spruce needles
Green walnut peel
I could start with putting the material straight into my 500mL round bottom flask, which is incidentally the largest still size I can use legally. However it would only fit about 250mL, so adding a biomass chamber with it would be very nice. It would be great if I could somehow use my ~1.8L reactor, it is the perfect shape, however it is missing a lid. I think my jacketed chromatography column could make a decent condenser. However none of them have matching glass fittings..
Thinking of buying a oil/hydrosol separator, or a Clevenger apparatus, to separate and reintroduce the hydrosol to the boiling flask.
Here’s a non-exhaustive list of home lab equipment I own.
Glassware
10L Schott bottle with wide flange (75mm flat ground)
5L Schott bottle (GL45) with bottom side port (GL32)
25cm vacuum desiccator, lid is currently stuck
~1.8L thick-walled reactor with wide flange (100mm flat ground) at the top, spherical joint at the bottom (28/15). No lid, but I do have a hose adapter (18mm?) and clamp to go with the spherical joint
100mL, 500mL and 1000mL volumetric flask (only 100mL one has ground joint & stopper)
250mL (8x), 750mL and 1000mL flat bottom flasks (only 250mL have 29/32 joint, most with stoppers)
500mL round bottom flask with single 29/32 joint, fits my heated mantle
Amber storage bottles in various shapes and sizes. Some beautiful wide mouth ones with octagonal ground glass stoppers that I use for salts (100-2500mL), some narrow mouth ones with screw caps that are more suitable to liquids (250-2500mL).
Chromatography column (?) that is jacketed for 40cm, has a slightly bulbous section on one end with a spout and a GL25 side port, has a GL14 screw connection at the top and two more for the jacket
Various flow meter tubes
Smaller glassware, including reaction tubes and amber dropper bottles
Equipment
200W heated mantle for 500mL round bottom flasks
Various pumps
Analytical balance 0-20g, accurate to a couple mg
Small balance 0-500g, accurate to a couple dozen mg
Other
Glassware drying rack
Beefy lab stand (16mm rod, 1m tall, heavy 45x40cm base)
When I go hiking with my backpack, and it’s a little chilly out, I often get a sweaty back and sweaty armpits. But when I take my warm layer off, my shoulders and chest get cold. Sometimes I’m even cold and sweaty at the same time. I already have the most well ventilated pack I could find, and I wear breathable wool, so I haven’t been able to find something that keeps me warm but not sweaty yet.
What if I make some sort of shoulder wrap, like the ones made famous by Outlander?
It’s a Victorian Sontag – usually it’s just a big triangle, but I guess I could take the “point” off and make the back much smaller. Then it would only warm my shoulders and core, without overheating my back and armpit areas. The bottom would just tuck into my backpack strap. It would be easy to put on, and very easy to make it less warm by just opening up the front.
I have no experience with knitting or crocheting. I guess crocheted, it would be thicker, heavier and warmer than needed. Perhaps I should just cut it from woven fabric, or maybe even weave something myself.
I could try air blown yarn, e.g. Drops Air, which is a lightweight alpaca/merino mix blown through nylon mesh. The mesh is strong, but from reviews it seems that the alpaca fibres will quickly come out and just leave the nylon mesh, so it’s not ideal in places that see much wear. Since it will be under my backpack shoulder straps, I think I need something a little sturdier. It would be nice to use wool so it will still insulate a bit in light drizzle.
Maybe still knit from a lightweight wool yarn, but sew on some sturdy fabric over the pack strap areas, like wool commando sweaters do?
I think this would also be a very nice garment to wear when I’m sitting in an office chair for hours on end. I have the same problem with cold shoulders and/or overheating back then.
Also, I’ve ordered some synthetic uv/cycling sleeves so I don’t have to change from a long sleeve base layer to a short sleeve shirt when it gets warmer. Been wanting to buy these for a while but hadn’t found them in the right length yet.
To solubilise HEC: add slowly to cold water with high shear mixing. To speed up, increase pH first until it hydrolyses, then pH can be adjusted down again.
BTMS-50 too heavy or too greasy in leave-in conditioner? Use Stearamidopropyl dimethylamine (SPDMA) or PEG-100 (emulsifier 165) instead? Panthenol just marketing, makes sticky, ok for leave in conditioner?? Could just use glycerin or proyplene gylcol as humectant, but also stick.
Quats (cationic), e.g. Cetrimonium chloride (detangler), honeyquat, polyquaternium (polyquat, e.g. polyquat-7, polyquat-10), – cationic conditioning ingredients. PQ-7 and 10 should be very low in leave-in product, 0.1%? Cetrimonium chloride is max 0.83% in leave-in products. But: in leave-on products, you don’t need specific cationic polymers. You can use emollients straight away.
Emulsifiers: cationic work best, nonionic ok too, but in leave-in conditioner cationic surfactants not needed. Frizz: can be both from cationic or anionic charge buildup.
Emollients, also for slip: carrier oils, silicones, esters such as C12-15 Alkyl Benzoate, coco-caprylate (cyclomethicone replacement), PEG esters
Humectants: glycerin (but sticky at high concentrations), propanediol, sodium lactate,
Go for nonionic surfactants? Coco glucoside, Caprylyl/Capryl Glucoside (only acidic non-ionic surfactant), fatty alcohols like Cetearyl Alcohol and Cetearyl Glucoside, sucrose cocoate (sanfteen, doesn’t work at pH<7), emulsifier 165
I’m looking to formulate a leave-in conditioner for my thin and damaged curly hair. After some searching I have found a product that works for my hair, but it’s a little heavier than I like (it’s not meant as a leave-in) and I would like a little more clumping/hold. It has the following ingredients:
Aqua,
Cetearyl Alcohol,
Stearamidopropyl Dimethylamine,
Glyceryl Stearate SE,
Hydrolyzed Keratin ,
Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice,
Camellia Sinensis Leaf Extract,
Behentrimonium Chloride,
Dipropylene Glycol,
Cetrimonium Chloride,
Glycerin,
(parfum, preservatives, pH adjusters)
I’ve used the above formulation as a starting point but want to change a lot of things. I have the following goals for my formulation:
Wet detangling
Non-greasy / non-wet-look
Provides some clumping/hold
Does not build up on repeated use without shampooing
I want to lower the amount of cationic surfactants, but I can’t source SAPDMA, so I’m using BTMS as a high HLB surfactant. I want to replace Glyceryl Stearate SE with Glyceryl Oleate for its refattening properties, and use Cetearyl alcohol to make up the rest of the low HLB. Then, I want replace all the humectants with a bit of propanediol, and add Coco-Caprylate as an extra emollient. Finally, I would like to use some PVP/VA Copolymer for a bit of clumping/hold. I’ve read that natural gums are harder to use and can cause flaking.
Would these ingredients work well together as a non-greasy leave-in conditioner for curly hair? I am quite new to formulating, so are there any things to look out for, like incompatibilities?
Other film formers: 3.5% – 1.5% hydrolysed silk protein, 1.5% PVP/VA copolymer, 0.5% glyceryl oleate
Emollients: 3% – Coco-caprylate
Oil phase: 4.5%
Formulation:
Heated water phase
88.55% Distilled water
1.5% 1,3-propanediol
Heated oil phase
0.75% Behentrimonium chloride
0.5% Glyceryl oleate
1.5% Cetearyl alcohol
3.0% Coco-caprylate
Cool down phase
1.5% hydrolysed silk protein
1.5% PVP/VA copolymer
0.2% fragrance/essential oils
1.0% Geogard
PVP/VA copolymer gives a wet look which I don’t like. Use less/no humectants (only film forming) to give a dryer look? Some may still be necessary to keep gel hydrated
Idea: LGN using glyceryl oleate (GMO) and Polysorbate 80. This study uses 90mg GMO to 40mg polysorbate 80, for 30% high-HLB by weight. 10-30% is recommended. However, this gives an overall HLB of only ~7.4 which may be too low to emulsify emollients. To get a HLB of 9.3, it would need to be ~45% high-HLB. Calculating by molar percentage, I have to get the molar weights. I asked Perplexity, the answers were wrong but the sources are useful: glyceryl oleate 370.5234 g/mol polysorbate-80 428.60 g/mol. This means the molar ratio in the study is 1:2.6 (high:low), but to get an overall HLB of 9.3, it would need to be 1:1.2. Ratios within 1:1 and 1:6 are mostly LGN, with 1:6 to 1:3 giving high viscosity. Ratios within 6:1 and 1:1 are mixed type emulsions (LGN & micellar system). Additionally, emollients such as ester oils like the coco-caprylate I’d like to use can reduce viscosity.
So: this anionic thickening LGN may be possible, but it may not emulsify coco-caprylate. For it to emulsify, it would no longer be thickening. I would need to add something like cetyl alcohol (242.4 g/mol).
To get to a HLB of 9.5 (ignoring the cetyl alcohol) and a 1:3 ratio high:low, starting from 0.5% glyceryl oleate, I would need the following amounts:
0.50% glyceryl oleate
0.50% polysorbate 80
0.50% cetyl alcohol
Which might not be thick enough because of the coco-caprylate interaction. With BTMS or BTMC instead of polysorbate 80, I would need more cetyl alcohol.
What if I drop the coco-caprylate, so the HLB can be lower?
1.5% Glyceryl oleate (conditioning, refattening)
0.5% BTMC (this brings HLB to ~6, and molar ratio 1:3.3)
5% L-arginine (emollient & simple humectant & fixative) – use 6% if L-arginine HCl
may not emulsify fragrance/EO
May not be thick enough
1% Geogard
acid to pH 4.5-5.0
If using 5% L-arginine (free base)
~3% lactic acid (L-arginine 174.20 g/mol, lactic acid 90.08 g/mol -> about 2:1 molar ratio to neutralise)
~5% citric acid (closer to 1:1 molar ratio)
~1% phosphoric acid (tripolar 98.00 g/mol -> about 5:1 molar ratio to neutralise)
It doesn’t work with glyceryl oleate (GMO) alone, so above formulation needs a thickener or change to BTMC/cetyl alcohol
This study suggests it does work as LGN, but at 25+% surfactant, together with GMS, and even then it is not thickening
GMO together with Polysorbate-80 gives nanoparticles, not really thickening?
GMO:Tween80 ratios ranging 6:1 to 3:1 worked well, 3:1 gave larger particle size
Total surfactant 7-8%
Another study used Ewax (cetearyl alcohol & tween60) & GMO at different ratios; 3:7, 5:5 and 7:3, plus tween80. No info on concentrations or viscosity, but 3:7 Ewax:GMO gave the largest nanoparticle size
Lipid nanoparticles may be too stable. You can dry them and resuspend them, so perhaps they will not disperse in hair?
Conclusion: don’t try to make an LGN with GMO as the LGN promotor. Just use cetyl alcohol. Or use something else to thicken, HEC?
Do I even need GMO? It’s a refatting agent, but I don’t use harsh surfactants. Probably better to use conditioning polymers instead?
Dropping the glyceryl oleate, putting the coco-caprylate back
0.8% BTMC (emulsifier, conditioner)
1.5% Cetyl alcohol (emollient, thickener)
2.0% Coco-caprylate (light oil-like emollient)
6.0% L-arginine HCl (emollient, humectant, provides some hold)
1.0% Geogard
0.2% fragrance/essential oils
acid to pH 4.5-5.0
Process behind the ratios
I looked on specialchem.com and found that Coco-caprylate (or the very similar Coco-caprylate/Caprate) is typically used at 2% in leave-in hair care formulations.
I read into emulsions. The 2% Coco-caprylate that I want to emulsify requires a HLB of 9.3, Cetyl alcohol requires a HLB of 15.5. If I want a total HLB to match with the HLB of BTMC which is 12, I calculated that I need 1.5% Cetyl alcohol.
I want to thicken my conditioner using LGN, so I read into LGNs. If I understand it right, for high viscosity, the molar ratio of surfactant to LGN promotor should be between 1:3 and 1:6 for high viscosity. I calculated that I need about 0.8% BTMC to get to a 1:3 ratio.
I cheched with some light leave-in conditioner formulations I could find if the BTMC and fatty alcohol values are in the right ballpark. Humblebeeandme has 4 light leave-in conditioner formulations, 2 of which use BTMC. The first uses 0.5% BTMC and 1% cetearyl alcohol, but they also use 0.3% cationic guar gum to help stabilise the emulsion and don’t recommend leaving it out. However that formulation has a larger oily fraction (5.5% vs 2.25%), so I might still get away with leaving it out. Also, the L-arginine might help stabilise the emulsion? Their second formulation uses 1% BTMC and 1% cetearyl alcohol, but it doesn’t have to emulsify any oil other than 0.5% fragrance oils. So I think I’m in the right ballpark with 0.8% BTMC and 1.5% Cetyl alcohol.
I read that Arginine at 5-8% has nice fixative properties. I’m starting with 6% L-Arginine HCl which equals about 5% Arginine. I thought about getting the free base instead, but then I’d have to add the acid anyway to get the pH down to 4.5-5. This way I can avoid using strong acids.
Forum post titled “Can Arginine function as a fixative in a leave-in conditioner?”
I want to make a leave-in conditioner for personal use. I want it to be a good wet detangler, provide some clumping/hold for wavy/curly hair without weighing it down too much, and I want it to not build up on repeated use without shampooing. Because of the latter, I’ve settled on trying to formulate a conditioner that mostly works by penetrating hair fibres, instead of creating a film.
I’ve set my eyes on Coco-Caprylate as a lightweight emollient, and I want to try Arginine for its emollient, humectant and supposed fixative properties. For my formulation I took 2% Coco-caprylate as a starting point, calculated that I need 1.5% Cetyl alcohol to get the HLB to 12 (same as BTMC), then calculated that I need about 0.8% BTMC to get to a 1:3 molar surfactant to fatty alcohol ratio for high viscosity LGN. I hope I understand the emulsifier & LGN theory right and this will create a nice consistency, perhaps with a little experimentation.
0.8% BTMC
1.5% Cetyl alcohol
2.0% Coco-caprylate
6.0% L-arginine HCl
1.0% Geogard
0.2% fragrance/essential oils
pH to 4.5-5.0
My questions:
Am I using Arginine correctly in this formulation? I could only find the recommendation by @vitalys on this forum that it has “excellent fixative properties” and “5-8% will already bring nice fixation, especially in hair sprays”. I did find formulations using Arginine but they were all <0.5%.
How can an amino acid like Arginine have fixate properties? Does it polymerise, or maybe remodel disulfide bonds? Is it an interaction with other molecules taking advantage of Arginine’s affinity for hair protein and its cationic charge at pH<9?
Will this formulation work well for what I want, or does “fixative” for instance necessarily mean that it won’t be a good wet detangler?
Thanks for any help!
Feedback: BTMC to 1% active, ratio to 1:4, maybe more emollients
I managed to fit the small inductor into the other dimmer. It fits, but only just.
Please don’t look at my shoddy soldering job. Also, I did tape it up to be safer.
This definitely lessened the chopping noise from my speakers, but unlike with the other dimmer, the noise is not gone entirely. I guess it’s because I tested the specific inductor with the other dimmer and lights, and because this dimmer runs right next to the amplifier.
Still, the noise is much less than before and only noticeable because I know it’s there, and even then I can only hear it when I turn the volume way down. I might revisit this in the future, but for now, problem solved :)
I dug out my box of random inductors and tried to quieten one of the LED dimmers today. Contrary to what I thought in my previous post, the coils actually worked best when installed in series between the dimmer and the LED load. Almost all the inductors I tried helped quieten the chopping noise heard on my headphone amp. One interestingly completely stopped the noise when dimmed at 0%/50%/100%, but was still slightly audible at the in-between settings:
Two of the inductors were able to completely remove the noise. This one, and a very similar looking one:
Yay, I can listen to my headphones and dim my lights at the same time now! I love simple solutions :)
The other inductor that removed all the noise looks very similar but it’s slightly smaller. I might actually be able to fit it into the other dimmer module, to solve the noise on my speaker amp.
I used to have an RSS reader a long time ago. Now I manually check a dozen websites daily.
I want to go back to RSS.
Update: installed Feedbro extension for Firefox. Had to use Proxygram for Instagram posts, Politepol for one website, I think I’ve got most of it working now.
Couldn’t get automatic post updates from my Facebook group using Zapier though, despite connecting my account and adding the app to my group. Meh
Update: I think I got the Zapier integration to work after fiddling with a test group for a bit. :) The problem was a hidden permission setting somewhere with Facebook
Update after 2 weeks: very happy with my feed reader, I should’ve done this way earlier. I mostly got rid of my routine of cycling through websites to see if I missed any updates, and my internet browsing has gotten less passive. I just check my feed reader a few times per day, so I can browse what I find interesting, instead of mostly what algorithms think I find interesting.
We have several Edmund Bühler VKS75 orbital shakers at our lab, at least one of them is older than I am. They are very large capacity (up to 75 kg depending on rpm) shakers, and we have them as single, double and triple platform ones. They are very sturdy machines that are supposed to last nearly forever, but lately they have been breaking down at an alarming rate.
At first I thought it was because they were overloaded; one of our students was loading a lot of them full of 500 mL square bottles. But I checked and no, this was well within the machine’s capacity. I checked with Edmund Bühler and they confirmed, the weight shouldn’t be a problem. But the machines were shaking on their feet, making noise, and sometimes they tended to shake themselves across the room. And they were breaking down more often than they should.
I checked if the machines were installed level. Turns out, the floor in the room they’re in is far from level. My predecessor, whom I inherited responsibility over the machines from, had apparently attempted to solve this by levelling the machines with rubber pads. Or perhaps those were intended to prevent the shakers from walking around the room? I now think that this extra rubber was a big part of the problem; the shaking motion compressed the rubber, magnifying the movement of the entire machine. This was mainly a problem with the tall 3-story ones. The machines already come with rubber feet, I suppose they are specifically sized to dampen the movements and any extra rubber probably makes things worse.
Anyway, the machines’ feet are not height adjustable, so I bought some 50×50 mm plastic levelling tiles in different thicknesses to replace the rubber pads. The floor is really wonky. With some machines, there was up to 7 mm difference from one foot to another to get the machine level, but I only had tiles up to 5 mm thick. I levelled them as best as I could and it was a big improvement over the rubber pads. The machines were no longer making ominous noises, and compared to with the rubber pads they were barely moving any more.
But one of the shakers still managed to shake itself off its little levelling tiles the day after I levelled it, so back to the drawing board..
I designed a simple levelling tile holding foot, and had a set of them 3D printed with 100% infill. It’s a round puck, with a square recess for the tiles such that you can easily get them out by the corners. It’s tall enough that I can stack multiple tiles to make up the 7 mm floor difference without the shaker shaking itself off, but low enough that you don’t have to lift the machine very far to put the feet under.
So far, it seems to work really well! I love simple solutions :)
Dyeing polyester is a chore. Maybe I can just paint them instead, using acrylic paint.
I could make my own fabric medium (for thinning down acrylic paint) using glycerin, vinegar and water. I have some old glycerin that I wanted to throw out anyway.
This video looks very similar to what I want to try. They came out a bit blotchy but I think that’s a cool look, if I didn’t want that I could wet the fabric beforehand to make the paint stick more evenly.
Would need a hot iron to completely cure the acrylic onto the fibres. Or perhaps an oven, or a blow dryer.
