Tempering & Hardening Mild Steel

Note: This is not what I wrote. I copied it from the net and put it up here for reference.

How to Harden & Temper Mild Steel

Hardening steel is an essential part of any blade-making process. When exposed to heat, carbon molecules in steel realign themselves in a harder, stronger pattern, allowing a blade to hold an edge. Two processes are necessary to harden steel: the initial hardening, or heat treating, and tempering.

Things you need:

1095-grade steel, blade thickness

Charcoal grill or gas torch

Lighter

Motor oil

Pliers or calipers

Steel wool

Leather gloves

Eye protection

Kitchen oven

Instructions:

1. Light charcoal or a torch. Use pliers to insert your steel blank into the center of the coals or torch flame. Allow the steel to become a deep cherry red and remove it from the heat. Do not let the steel become bright red or orange.
2. Poor motor oil into a shallow pan. Quench the steel in the oil. Dip the blank vertically, since rapid cooling on one side can cause the steel to warp. Slide the steel into the oil until the blank is covered, and hold for five seconds. Remove the steel and set aside to cool completely. The steel is now heat-treated.
3. Clean off the oil when the steel is cool to the touch, and use steel wool to remove corrosion on the surface. The steel should be bright and reflective.
4. Place the steel in a preheated oven at 204 degrees Cor 15 to 20 minutes. Remove and allow to cool. This will temper the steel. To temper steel without an oven, place the cleaned blank back in the heat source you used for Step 1. Watch closely and remove the steel as soon as you see discoloration on the surface. Normally, the steel shows yellow striations. Allow the steel to cool at room temperature.

Make a Screwdriver [ DIY Project ]

Introduction:

Many a times it is difficult to find the screw driver of the right size. Some of us have our favorite size we use most often and do wish we had one more of the same. To our dismay, despite a rigorous search across many a shops we might still fail to find it. If you have been in this or a similar situation, here is an easy way out, make one for yourself following these simple steps.

Construction:

Here is what you would ideally need. If you don't have the exact same stuff you can improvise and may come out with an even better idea.

• A screw of the required size. [ Temper it by making it red hot over a stove and then dropping it in  cold vegetable oil]
• A wooden piece.
• Superglue.
• Grinding wheel or File.
• Angle Grinder or Hacksaw blade.

For more details on tempering click here. First of all take the screw driver you wish to replicate and measure. The idea is to drill a hole in the wood and screw the screw in. Once screwed in the length of the screw + wood should match the total length of the existing screw driver. Mark a point adding the extra length for the screw inside the wood.

Once this is done cut the wood and proceed to drill the hole at the exact center of the wood. Make sure that you use the right size drill bit and ensure that you drill the hole exactly perpendicular to the surface of the wood. 

Now proceed to screw the screw into the hole that you drilled. Make a mark on the screw at the depth you should stop or tie a string at the point so that you know exactly where to stop driving the screw in.

Add a drop of superglue at the point where the screw enters the wood. This will strengthen the wood as the glue penetrates into the wood and also aid in fastening the screw securely. Once the screw is secured properly, use a file or cutting wheel to cut off the screw's head.

Now proceed to form the tip of the screw driver. You can use a file or a motorized grinding wheel to shape the tip according to your required size.

Occasionally compare the tip with your existing screw driver for width, slope and thickness at the tip. The thickness at the tip is very crucial to get the correct grip on the screw.

One you are happy with the result proceed to finish and paint the screw driver. For ease of painting, storage of paint and quick drying I highly recommend using the compressed can of paint that you get to buy in most hardware stores. 

Hope you found this interesting and useful.

Regards,

Joseph

Bio Electric System | Part -1

IMPORTANT: These are some of my views and research findings. Time may prove them right or wrong. Some of it may seem very unorthodox. I put it up here so that it may be useful for some and interesting to others and may some day benefit mankind.

Life energy as I see it:

Life energy I believe is a charge much like energy in a battery. The very essence of our body and every other living organism is electric in nature. This is the same reason that most of the equipment used in modern medicine to diagnose and treat us rely on electric charge of our body. ECG, EEG, pace makers and physio therapy equipment are examples from a huge list.

Homeostasis as we know is the body's nature to stabilize itself to an optimum state. When there is a depletion of energy in the body, it tries to balance itself by taking energy from the store, in our case mostly 'fat' cells. Every living organism has its means of storing excess energy for emergencies and day today activities. The depleted storage is topped up processing the food we eat. The bigger life forms much like the humans and other animals are multicellular where as there are microscopic ones that are unicellular.

What ever the  size of the organism from a single cell to a collection of cells most of the communication and energy transfer happens as an electric charge. Our entire nervous system works on electric charge being transmitted across the system. It is a bio chemical reaction that produces the energy and then transmits and uses it. So much like a generator and battery, the living being has the ability to produce and store energy that can be converted to the electric potential as and when required and in the required quantity.

Let us consider homeostasis again. When there is a change in the system, the system tries to neutralize the change and bring it to say, a base state ,a state of comfort so to speak. Here is the interesting part, this is what happens in a battery too. A healthy battery much like the human body, likes to maintain its healthy state.

Looking at the battery from the human bodies point of view:

I found it interesting to look at it this way. The battery like the human body discharges its energy to do useful work.When there is a drop in energy and the battery uses its stored energy to meet the demand. When it gets depleted, it takes external charge to replenish itself much like the food we eat.

So if there is a means of taping the energy stored in a living organism and then to give it enough energy to replenish itself as and when required, we have a wonderful organic system supplying us electric power......

contd........ 

OWL - Organic Waste Liquidator [ PART 1 ]

OWL - Organic Waste Liquidator

FEEL FREE TO USE THIS DESIGN AND PROCEDURE FOR NON COMMERCIAL APPLICATION

I have christened the device the OWL.

Kitchen waste disposal is often a problem. There are methods of making compost out of the organic waste which could become a really messy affair and requires substantial amount of space. This is of course an excellent method of producing organic fertilizer but is not always ideal for small spaces. So I thought I would develop something that could be used in urban homes without the mess and the smell.

Caution: do not add citrus waste into the liquidator [ lemon, orange etc..]

If you want to skip the literature and head straight for the construction head for the title : Construction

The evolution of the idea:

I have an aquaponic  system [ growing fish in tanks and pumping the water into vegetable growing beds above and draining it back into the fish tank ] where I grow my vegetables. About a year ago I had introduced  an organic waste digestion system  into this. This was a rather simple technique. One of the growing bed's had a container with holes drilled at the bottom. The container had gravel to about 1.5 inch, covering the height of the hole ; the height of the container was 1 ft. Every day the lid was opened and kitchen waste was dumped into this container. The aquaponic system is an ebb and flow system which means that the growing bed fills with water from the fish farm and is flushed out according to a pre-programmed cycle. So each time this happens the container fills with water and flushes out filtering the liquid through the gravel. I noticed amazing improvement in the growth rate of vegetables and a substantial improvement in output and taste. 

In an aquaponic system bacteria like Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter convert the ammonia produced by the fish into useful nitrate through the nitrogen cycle, which is manure for the plants. These bacteria develop in the growing media naturally over a period of six months to one year. 

I noticed that the rate of decomposition in my test container was so rapid that even after a period of six months the container was only 3/4 full and stayed that way. When organic waste decays a percentage of ammonia is also produced, the quantity is more in anaerobic systems. So I reckoned there were two primary groups of bacteria , one the bacteria responsible for the nitrogen cycle [ producing nitrates in the container ] and the other group, similar to the ones in bio-gas units, was responsible for the decomposition of the solid mass into fluid. The primary difference here was that the bio-gas was an anaerobic where as here it is mostly aerobic.

Taking it out of the Aquaponic System:
I thought it would be good if I could replicate the same outside the system as a stand alone device. Since the system was going well in the aquaponic medium it was a safe bet to assume that the bacterial action has stabilised/matured to a degree of perfection. So I prepared a container outside the system, this time a regular container without holes at the bottom. I then added vegetable waste from the kitchen into the container and then the key ingredient, a portion of the content from the container placed in the aquaponic system. I went for a 50/50 propotion of kitchen waste to the aquaponic container mass. More waste was added on a daily basis and to my delight the container was not filling up beyond a certain level. I noticed a substantial amount of liquid form at the bottom of the container. So I strained a little out, leaving some , making sure not to dry the container. The strained liquid was then used on a test batch of potted plants. I had five pots that was observed with and without the liquid treatment. Over a period of two weeks the pots with the liquid treatment showed rapid growth and darker , bigger green leaves.

Delighted with the results I set out to construct the OWL - Organic Waste Liquidator.

Construction:

These are the key points that I considered :

• A moderately sized container with a lid.
• A tap that can be fixed near the base of the container.
• Gravel to act as a filter.
• Maintaining safe liquid level after filtering out the liquid.

It is important not to drain out the entire liquid from the chamber as it contains the bacteria that aids the process. So the tap is fixed at a height of 2 inches from the base.

Select a contained based on your requirement. For a family of four a container of 15 inch height and 12 inch diameter would suffice. 

Use a drill to drill a hole as per your taps diameter.

The hole should be about 2 inches above the base of the container.

Use an appropriate coupling to fasten the tap.

Wait for the glue to dry. Check for leaks  by pouring  8 inches of water. 

Clean the container for dust, dry it and  paint it. I used a spray can of matte black.

An old U bend was used to prevent liquid from  entering  directly into the tap  after filtration through the gravel.

The U is positioned  and not fixed. It can be removed for future cleaning if the need arises.

Cleaned and washed gravel is added to  a height of 3.5 inches. This acts as a filter medium and also aids undisturbed bacterial growth. 

Construct a stand to your required height or  get a ready-made one. 

Here is the construction plan with dimensions.

Hope you find this useful. Feel free to share it with your friends for free non commercial use. I hold the rights to the design so do not under any circumstance use it for commercial purposes.

Click the link for the test results in PART 2 : Click Here

Regards,

Joseph