Portal:Service learning/Selected page   

From Appropedia
Jump to: navigation, search
edit  watch  

Selected page (refresh)

Kiva's straw bale greenhouse
Kiva's straw bale greenhouse. Welcome to our straw bale greenhouse. The following page will take you with us on our greenhouse building adventure. We will discuss the process, what worked best and did not work, problems we had, how much time it took to build, and the money spent on the project. Over all we hope that this is a fun and comprehensive look at what we did to make this project come together. The reason that we chose to build a straw bales greenhouse is that both Scott (my building partner) and I would like to get into alternative building as a career and we thought that this would be a good place to start and learn from.

To build a straw bale greenhouse where Kiva can grow chili peppers, tomatoes, and lots of other yummy warm weather plants. The reason we decided to build with straw bale was to gain experience with this material and the great insulative value of it. Scott and I decided to have two of the walls straw bale and the other two wood and glass. Where we live no permits are required for a 10' x 12' greenhouse, so we decided these would be the inside dimensions. To receive optimal year-round sun in our area the glass on the south facing wall is at a 40 degree angle. At the building site there is plenty of morning sun and not much evening sun so we opted to have our east side be glass and our west side be straw bale.

...Archive/Nominations
Show new page

Usage

The layout design for these subpages is at Portal:Service learning/Selected page/Layout.

  1. Add a new highlighted project to the next available subpage.
  2. Update "max" value in expression on this page and random portal component on main portal page.

Selected pages

1 through 20

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/1

Awsome thermal curtains
How to make awesome thermal curtains.

Step 1. Measure the windows to be treated with thermal curtains. Be careful on how you convert your measurements into the fabric yard.

Step 2. Obtain the batting material and decorative fabric material. It is best if you can use recycled or sustainable material. Keep in mind that you want sturdy material that is not going to stretch or rip easily. Twill works best, while jersey is impractical.

Step 3. Wash the decorative fabric material before you fabricate your thermal curtains.

Step 4. Cut the batting material and the fabric out according to the measurements of the window, giving an allowance of 2 inches around the perimeter of the decorative fabric material. Remember, it is better to be a little over than too short.

Step 5. Pin the fabric on to the batting material so that it makes sewing easier. With the Warm Windows batting material, the fabric-side of the batting material must face the decorative-side of the fabric material. (more steps follow)

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/2

The finished greenhouse!
Construction of an Affordable Greenhouse. The capstone project for Queen’s University 4th Year Mechanical Engineering Class,"Engineering for Sustainable Development", is to design and construct an Appropriate Technology with a quantifiable engineering result. This project is to construct a greenhouse, review the heat requirement on the system for the whole year; then, based on the materials and conditions selected, review costs associated with this and build a scaled model.

This project is the first step to easy community greenhouse development - the goal of the affordable greenhouse is to:

  1. Improve greenhose design and awareness for residential application.
  2. Demonstrate the feasibility (i.e costs) of a greenhouse in the winter months and determine the best time to install such a system for optimal crop yield.

Due to the materials selected and the cold Canadian Spring, it is not effective to construct until late April. But with better material selection and innovative greenhouse designs, it is hoped that constructing miniature greenhouses will become common practice.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/3

Covered bike racks at Fabrica La Estrella
Parras transportation gallery. There appear to be hundreds of bicycles hung on a series of covered bike racks at Fabrica La Estrella, just inside the entrance to the fabrica (factory). The bicycles are unlocked. The racks were manufactured in Torreón. Active non-motorized transportation offers benefits to its users' health, the community at large, and earth's climate. Covered bike racks, specifically, offer bicyclists greater status (as people worthy of finding a dry seat when they go to use their bike), and make bicycle parking a more emphasized part of the landscape. Improving the status of bicyclists is particularly important in Parras, as the bicycle is identified as a poor person's vehicle, and they are afforded little respect on the road. Drunk driving is rampant on weekends. It happens that on the morning of 4 June 2006, a bicyclist was run over early in the morning. In such accidents, as in this case, the driver most frequently does not stop. If covered bike racks are to truly improve the status of bicycles, however, they must be installed outside of the factory, as in this location they are intended to serve the the lower-class labor force of the factory exclusively, and are invisible to the greater community. Issues include the factory labor practices, waste water, etc. Long distance travel using bikes can be difficult. Also, bikes require frequent maintenance, whereas cars require less frequent but more costly maintenance.
...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/4

The new and improved Marsh
AEF greywater. For our final project we rebuilt a greywater system at the CSA, Arcata Educational Farm. Greywater consists of all used water produced at a particular site, except for water coming from the toilet, which is known as blackwater. When building a greywater system you first separate the greywater from the blackwater and send the greywater through a separate treatment system. Ideally, after the greywater passes through the purification process it will then be able to be reused. Greywater systems are an appropriate use of technology for many reasons. Some of them being: they reduce the use of fresh water, there is less stress on existing more conventional septic tanks, it is a highly effective purification process, and there is less chemical and energy use required. In our case the majority of water used on the farm is to water vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruits, and the source of greywater comes from the outdoor kitchen, used by the farmers and volunteers to cook and wash vegetables or dishes.
...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/5

Aerial view of the marsh.
Arcata Marsh overview. The Arcata Wastewater Treatment Plant is responsible for the treatment of the sewage for the city of Arcata. The Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary is a part of the system that cleans our waste in preparation to be released back into the water cycle. The system as a whole is the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The Arcata Wastewater Treatment Plant personnel maintain 11 wastewater pump stations as well as all of the equipment, motors, and pumps associated with the plant. They also are responsible for the operation and maintenance, of the 55 acres of oxidation ponds and 154 acres of treatment and enhancement marshes. The Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary is a constructed wetland and is part of the Arcata Wastewater Treatment Plant. This use of constructed wetlands is what separates the Arcata Wastewater Treatment Plant from other Wastewater Treatment Plants. The first treatment plant was built in 1946 and discharged unchlorinated primary treated wastewater into the bay.
...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/6

Sarah the hardest worker who is always chuggin' away.
CCAT yurt rainwater catchment. The long history of rainwater collection, can be traced (in recorded history) as far back as ancient times some 3,000 years ago (850 BC) if not even farther. The need for water is a basic human essential for maintaining life, without it, no civilization could have prospered. Rainwater collection in ancient Constantinople is one of the last megalithic structures of its kind.

The CCAT Rainwater Catchment Group consists of: Sean Colley, Matt de Young, Jessica Radtkey, Sarah Shimizu, and Tiesha Whittaker. Our project for ENGR 114 was to build a rainwater catchment system around the yurt at CCAT on campus at Humboldt State University. The purpose of the rainwater catchment system is to capture and store rainwater in a large storage drum for use to water plants on the CCAT grounds. Water is a resource that is always present around us but not always in an immediately useful form. Therefore, it is necessary that we use innovative and appropriate techniques to capture and transform the water that we have into a useful form of water for our needs.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/7

Kiva's straw bale greenhouse
Kiva's straw bale greenhouse. Welcome to our straw bale greenhouse. The following page will take you with us on our greenhouse building adventure. We will discuss the process, what worked best and did not work, problems we had, how much time it took to build, and the money spent on the project. Over all we hope that this is a fun and comprehensive look at what we did to make this project come together. The reason that we chose to build a straw bales greenhouse is that both Scott (my building partner) and I would like to get into alternative building as a career and we thought that this would be a good place to start and learn from.

To build a straw bale greenhouse where Kiva can grow chili peppers, tomatoes, and lots of other yummy warm weather plants. The reason we decided to build with straw bale was to gain experience with this material and the great insulative value of it. Scott and I decided to have two of the walls straw bale and the other two wood and glass. Where we live no permits are required for a 10' x 12' greenhouse, so we decided these would be the inside dimensions. To receive optimal year-round sun in our area the glass on the south facing wall is at a 40 degree angle. At the building site there is plenty of morning sun and not much evening sun so we opted to have our east side be glass and our west side be straw bale.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/8

Solar hot water system for a hotel in Parras de la Fuente, Mexico
Hotel Perote solar pool heating system. Parras de la Fuente is a desert oasis town of about 44,000 residents located in the south of the Mexican state of Coahuila. Along with textile manufacturing, tourism is one of the main industries in Parras. Tourism has become increasingly emphasized after Parras's designation as the "primer pueblo mágico del Norte de México." Parras is warm in the summer, and cooler in the winter, but temperatures rarely fall below freezing, snow falls once every several years.

Antiqua Hacienda de Perote is a hotel, restaurant, nuez (pecan) ranch, vineyard, and winery. It sits on about 500 acres on the western-most edge of Parras. According to Igancio (Nacho) Chacon, Perote's owner, Perote's hotel business has been growing rapidly, and in 2006, the hotel was constructing rooms to meet demand.

Parras Program students Heather Kuoppamaki and Rowan Steele built a rooftop solar hot water system for Hotel Perote in the summer of 2005. Intended as prototype for a larger system to heat a spring-fed swimming pool (alberca), then being constructed, the system was sized to provide heated water for a single hotel bathroom. The 2005 system is no longer located at Perote, and has been moved to the residence of someone afiliated with the local city government. Igancio has requested a system to keep the pool at 28° centigrade from October to March. The design problem revolves on this performance parameter and several state variables.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/9

Appropriate Technology Engineering 305 class
Parabolic basket and tin can solar cooker. The objective of this project is to create a solar cooker out of local invasive species and waste materials. We want to create a device that can pasteurize water and be an alternative to the use of fossil fuels for cooking food. Our criteria for evaluating the appropriateness of technology are: use of local materials, efficiency, durability, ease of use, ease of construction, cost, impact on environment, impact on culture/lifestyle, education or expertise needed for construction.

Overall this was a successful project. We were able to meet our goal of pasteurizing water. The solar basket can pasteurize water in a quart container in about an hour with optimal conditions. If we were to make the solar basket version 2.0, here are some changes we would make: 1. double up the blackberry runners so that the ribs of the basket are stronger; 2. use another material instead of pampas grass because it causes lumps on the basket's surface, maybe something softer; 3. use all large can lids, of the shiniest quality; and 4.construct the rings that hold the parabolic shape out of a less flexible material than the aluminum and wire that we found.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/10

The Earthen Ox Oven at the Blue Ox Mill
Blue ox earthen oven. The earthen oven at the Blue Ox Millworks in Eureka, California was constructed in 2004 by Appropriate Technology (Engr305) students at Humboldt State University. The project took four, three-hour work sessions to complete over a total of four weeks. As of 2007 it is still standing, is in immaculate condition and retains nearly the same heating efficiency as when it was first constructed. This page includes information on the construction of the Blue Ox earthen oven and information and updates on its current condition.

Earthen Ovens have been used for thousands of years by cultures all over the world and they are still built today by people all over. Earthen ovens are made up of just that, EARTH! Sand, clay and straw are used in building these versatile ovens.

An earthen oven can be used to cook the same things cooked in a normal household oven, so long as you can fit it through the door! Often Earthen Ovens are somewhat unique from other ovens in that they don’t have a fire burning continuously to cook with. The oven is heated before any cooking is going to take place. Generally Earthen Ovens are fired for a few hours and the hot coals are then scraped out of the interior. Once the coals are scraped out, the oven is ready to cook in.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/11

CCAT natural paint project
CCAT natural paint project. The Campus Center for Appropriate Technology (CCAT) at Humboldt State University in Arcata, CaliforniaW is completely remodeling the inside of their building. When all of the construction is finished the entire interior of the house will need to be painted. As an ENGR 305 project, Spring 2007, Andrea Lanctot and Jill Anderson have decided to make all the interior paints from scratch using safe natural ingredients.

The project has four main goals. The first is to research natural paint ingredients, recipes, and techniques. The second is to make several of the recipes and test the paints for color, durability, and texture. The third is to choose paints from the tests for the new CCAT house and apply them to the interior. The last goal is to test the final application with the test of time. See natural paint basics for background research on ingredients, types and advantages/disadvantages of natural paint.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/12

Homemade ethanol still to compare ethanol from local organic sugar beets and from imported refined cane sugar
Ethanol from organic sugar beets versus refined cane sugar. The purpose of my project is to determine the cost inputs and energy outputs of small scale ethanol production from local and conventional sources. I decided to use local grown organic sugar beets farmed with bio-fueled agricultural equipment. In comparison to the costs of a local source, I also used conventional sugar transported from Mexico and sold at a local restaurant supply company. In addition, I made Amal's ethanol still to do the testing.

Ethanol is a grain alcohol that can be used as fuel in most four cycle spark ignition engines. The process of making ethanol begins by extracting the sugars from a sugar crop such as sugar beets, or converting the starches of crops such as corn or potatoes to sugars. Crops used for ethanol production are titled "feed stocks". Starch and sugar crops both have their benefits depending on the region that they are produced in. The benefit of sugar crops is that they require less energy input since no starches need to be converted. The benefit of corn is that it can store much longer than sugar beets before rotting. I am using sugar beets since they were the most appropriate crop for the season and region. The sugars are extracted by juicing the beets and boiling with water. Now the solution is called "mash" and it can be fermented and then distilled to extract the ethanol.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/13

M2-B2 Rocket Stove
Concept Art of The WaterPod (thewaterpod.org)
WaterPod Rocket Stove. The M2-B2 Rocket Stove promotes sustainability through demonstration and education while on the WaterPod in New York City. The stove is designed to provide a reliable and sustainable means of cooking by minimizing fuel use and optimizing efficiency.

The WaterPod is a project being put together by a group of artists and engineers. This project is going to take place in New York City, in which a group of artists are going to live on a barge for six months traveling down the Hudson River promoting sustainability. The WaterPod will stop off in the five boroughs of New York and allow the public to tour the barge. The WaterPod has worked with the Engineering 215 - Intro to Design class at Humboldt State University to create sustainable projects for the WaterPod. Team Mel Brooks was assigned the task of creating an efficient means of cooking that can be utilized for the duration of the project. Team Mel Brooks created a rocket stove, which will optimize biomass as a fuel source to cook for The WaterPod.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/14

Finished Vermicomposting System
CCAT's Vermicomposting Bin. I am very excited to be posting directions for building your very own home vermiculture bin! The methods employed will produce a bin appropriate for a household of 3-5 people and should last a number of years if constructed properly. There of course are many types of bin designs out there and I wanted the creative opportunity to design my own. In looking for ideas in a gardening magazine, I noticed a pentagon shaped planter for gardens whose shape I really liked. A pentagon is also practical because compost is less likely to get stuck in the corners as often happens in normal square shaped boxes, preventing the organic materials from cycling properly. I decided to make a two-part stackable bin so that using the finished compost would be easier. Once the compost is processed it is easy to take off the top section, dump the compost in the garden, and put it on top to be filled again. The partitioned design is also improves aeration to speed up the composting process. Aeration is also provided by the holes drilled in the sides of the bin. The bottom of each bin section is finished with wire mesh to keep the compost in place. The holes of the wire mesh are large enough to allow worms and microbes to enter the system and speed up decomposition. The top is simple plywood cut to size with a brass handle and L-brackets to keep the lid in place. The bin was lastly finished with natural organic linseed oil as a sealer for endurance in the elements and general durability. I hope you enjoy!
...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/15

Prototype of Nutsy
FBP Nutsy. The Full Belly Project (FBP), has designed a Universal Nut Sheller (UNS) that are distributing throughout West Africa and Haiti. The UNS shells large amounts of nuts in a fraction of the time that it would take a single person.

Our Engr215 Introduction to Design class from Humboldt State University was divided into seven teams, each consisting of four members. Each team was given one of three assignments:

  • Create a smaller version of the UNS to be marketed in the US in order to fund FBP's efforts abroad.
  • Find a way to make a UNS out of cheaper, lighter and more sustainable materials for the countries of West Africa.
  • Find a way to make molds out of recycled plastic bags for the working parts of the UNS using extremely limited resources in Haiti.

Our team worked on the first of these assignments by redesigning the UNS to be marketable in the United States.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/16

Wild Chick Farm
Wild Chick Farm. In the fall of 2005 Sarah Brunner and Shail Pec-Crouse, started a commercial pastured chicken operation in Arcata, California. The first four months see update of business were spent learning from other successful models, experimenting with different equipment, suffering through trials and tribulations, getting our hands bloody and planning improvements to our system. Throughout it all we have been guided by our core values of humane husbandry and sustainability.

We began with a very small flock of 175 birds and decided to try two different models of raising them on pasture to see which model worked the best for our situation. We compared the two models by looking at efficiency, loss to predators, land impact cost, fossil fuel use and mobility which strongly effects efficiency, land impact and fossil fuel use. After working with both models for a couple of months we came to the conclusion that the Chicken Tractor (CT) model is most appropriate for raising meat chickens and the Hoop House (HH) model is more appropriate for raising laying hens. The CT is better for meat production because it is more cost effective and mobile and there is less predation. The CT is also important for pasturing laying hens for their first few months since there are less predator risks. The Hoop House is better for egg production because it accommodates nest boxes and roosts.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/17

Building a very hot parabolic solar cooker using pedal power tools.
Notice how the focus is the same for the various parabolas.
Aleiha's parabolic solar cooker. The paraboloid is an interesting shape with some amazing qualities. It has the power to concentrate light, electronic waves, sound, etc. to its focus at the center. To find the focal point of a paraboloid, one must use the formula, y = p * x2, where p is a constant. The variable y is the depth of the dish, and x measures the distance from the center axis to the maximum circumference of the dish. You have to pretend that there is an x axis going through the center of the base of the dish and a perpendicular y-axis passing from the center of the base of the dish to the focal point. The two numbers, x and y, represent a point on the paraboloid, and from that, you are able to determine where the focus is.

Parabolic cookers have been used for centuries now. The idea to concentrate light using curved mirrors was developed by the Greeks, Aztecs, Incas, Romans and Chinese. The Incas used bronze and gold for their mirrors and they built structures that were several stories high. This technology seems to have appeared around the same time for each of the civilizations. It is thought that Archimedes harnessed the technologyW to defend Syracuse from invading Roman fleets in 212 BC.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/18

Project leads: Mark Ambrosino, Lauren Lamet, and Daniel Colman.
RFVB large.jpg
Photovoltaic vaccine refrigeration at Centro De Salud. This photovoltaic system was designed to power a DC Vaccine Refrigerator at the hospital Centro De Salud in Parras, Mexico. Centro De Salud had a list of items that needed to be purchased at their hospital. Among these was a new vaccine refrigerator. After learning of this, the project group members set out to design a PV system for the hospital that could fulfill this need.

PV systems are well suited for vaccine refrigeration for a few reasons. PV arrays are becoming an increasingly popular alternative to gas generators for supplying energy to off-grid vaccine refrigeration because of their ability to create reliable energy that requires little system maintenance. LINK PDF According to the World Health Organization, PV refrigeration systems are much more efficient at maintaining internal temperatures in refrigerators than gas generators. This creates for an overall greater reliability of the refrigerator system. In the case of Centro De Salud, having a PV powered vaccine refrigerator could prevent vaccine spoilage due to grid power outages, which can be very costly.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/19

Solar Charged Lawnmower
Solar Charged Lawnmower. An electric lawnmower that utilizes solar power as an energy source will address a number of issues that standard internal combustion engine mowers do not. An electric lawnmower with a solar charger will be easier to use. There is no messy dangerous gasoline to deal with. It will eliminate those pesky trips to the gas station for fill-ups. Just plug the mower into the charging station when not in use and it will be charged and ready for your next mow! Most importantly it eliminates the emissions of an internal combustion mower.

The basic idea is to convert an older non-working gas mower into an electric powered mower by replacing the gas engine with an electric motor that runs from a 12 volt battery. This battery will be charged using photovoltaic panel (A.K.A. - solar panel). I chose to convert an old gas mower rather than just starting with an electric mower due to cost and so I could design the power output. I also planned on using as many used materials as I can. This will help to save these materials from ending up in our already over filled landfills.

I would like to claim that I came up with this solar charged electric mower idea on my own but the truth is I came across an article about one in a "Home Power" magazine (Issue 107) a while back and have wanted to build one ever since. When the opportunity arose to use it as a project in my Engineering 305 class at Humboldt State University I jumped at the chance.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/20

The CCAT Wash n' Flush
Painstakingly photoshopped diagram of the Wash n' Flush
CCAT Wash n Flush. The Wash n' Flush is a Humboldt State University environmental science 410 senior project implemented by Jeffrey Steuben, Annie Welbes and Tim Dower which is located in the downstairs bathroom at CCAT. This is a toilet modification that allows users to save water by utilizing the wastewater from handwashing to flush the Toilet.

If you think of this project as a way of doing a DIY version of an Aqus Toilet, you'd be mostly right. These are also commercially popular in Japan.

The goals of our project were: conserve drinkable water by eliminating the use of clean, potable water to flush toilets; break down social stigma around toilet water pre-use; build awareness of creative water conservation; make toilet modification replicable, accessible, and affordable to low income households; and conserve water at CCAT.

We thought about the fact that clean, drinkable water is being used to flush human waste down the toilet. We consider this to be environmentally and socially irresponsible. Therefore, we took action.

...Archive/Nominations

21 through 40

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/21

An LED traffic light
LED traffic light FAQ. Here are a number of frequently asked questions concerning retrofitting street lights with LEDs. For full information see LED.

What does an LED traffic light look like? An LED traffic light looks very similar to a regular traffic light. It still gets the job done and is actually brighter. An LED is actually very small and therefore the traffic light is made up of a bunch of smaller lights, this is apparent when you look closely. The color of the light depends on the exact composition inside the bulb.
Who Invented the LED? It all began when Oleg Vladimirovich created the first LED in 1927. There was no practical use for it until 1962 when it was discovered that the infrared LED could be changed into a visible red LED.
How does an LED work? An LED is basically a tiny light bulb with a semiconductor diode in place of a filament. Inside the diode, there are positively and negatively charged areas. When a voltage is applied to the diode with the positive end hooked up to the negative area and the negative end hooked up to the positive area the electrons inside become excited and jump from the positively charged to negatively charged areas. This interaction produces light.
What is a diode? A diode is a component that restricts the directional flow of charge carriers. Also a diode allows an electric current to flow in one direction, but blocks it in the opposite direction.

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/22

Sustain to the music!  :-)
Environmental songs. Below is a list of Songs with and Environmental Theme - something to listen to while you are working on Appropedia:

Blues: Global Warming Blues

Country: Jimmy Buffet - Wheather with YOU · Jimmy Buffet- Volcano · Jimmy Buffet - A salty Piece of LAnd

Folk Rock: Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell · Politik by Coldplay · Hagen - Mother Nature · Dave Matthews Band - Too Much · Antarctica by Joanne Rand · Fire and Rain by James Taylor · Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer · Hearts And Hands by Stele Ely · On The Clothesline by Stele Ely

Funk: Jamiroquai - Emergency on Planet Earth

Heavy metal: Biotech is Godzilla by Sepultura · Steel Prophet- Environmental Revolt · Sepultura - Old Earth

Hip hop: New World Water by Mos Def · Atmosphere · Michael Franti & Spearhead - Is It Love Enough? · Ozomatli- Coming War · Earth Song by Michael Jackson · Ice MC - Look After Nature

Ja: Spirit- "Fresh Garbage"

Indie: Lay Me on the Water by Gavin DeGraw, from the indie album "Gavin Live" · Nature Anthem

...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/23

Dremelfuge
Open source 3-D printing of OSAT. There have been a number of open source 3D printers, such as the RepRap developed. The basic idea for this project is to use them as tools to create OSAT in the field to help the goals of sustainable development. Prices on 3D printers are dropping rapidly.

An example of how these 3D printers can be used to meet these goals is the DremelFuge. The Dremelfuge is brilliant Open Source Hardware project developed by Cathal Garvey in Ireland. The DremelFuge is a printable rotor for centrifuging standard microcentrifuge tubes and miniprep columns. It is at least 10 times less expensive than a standard centrifuge and can be used by field workers in doing things like blood tests, but also by DYI biologists and educators. It requires industry standard 1.5ml/2ml Eppendorf/Microcentrifuge tubes.

  • Used with a drill at 3000 RPM, the Dremelfuge will deliver over 400g, enough to comfortably spin down Miniprep samples (proven personally). It will likely achieve acceptable results at lower speeds, too.
  • Used at 10krpm, on a Rotary tool for instance, a Dremelfuge should deliver over 4400g, more than enough to spin down bacterial cells.
  • At 16krpm, Dremelfuge matches commercial centrifuges.
  • On a Dremel 300, a maximum speed of 33krpm equates to a force of over 50,000 times earth's gravity, which puts it into so-called "Ultracentrifuge" territory. The latest version (as printed by Shapeways) has successfully spun tubes at this speed.
...Archive/Nominations

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/24


...Archive/Nominations

[[|Read more...]]

Portal:Service learning/Selected page/25


...Archive/Nominations

[[|Read more...]]

Retrieved from "http://www.appropedia.org/Portal:Service_learning/Selected_page"
Personal tools
Collaborators