I recently attended one of the other events at the Madlab (locksport) and I
spoke to Alex about using the facilities so I could build my own AM radio.
He told me it would be best to come down to HACMan. So I am posting to ask
about what you have in terms of supplies and equipment to help me in my
quest.
I maybe able to get some of these before the next HACMan but if you have
any lying around that would be great, although a blued steel blade might be
a bit hard to get hold of. Getting an antenna might be tricky, the guide
mentioned using a clothes line to pick up the signal, so I guess I will
have to try it at home.
Also if anyone can propose a better design or process to do this I welcome
it! I am using the guide from the first link.
we have the wood screws, wire, safety pin and pencil :)On 22 March 2012 20:17, harvinder atwal harvinder.atwal@gmail.com wrote:
Hi All,
I recently attended one of the other events at the Madlab (locksport) and
I spoke to Alex about using the facilities so I could build my own AM
radio. He told me it would be best to come down to HACMan. So I am posting
to ask about what you have in terms of supplies and equipment to help me in
my quest.
I maybe able to get some of these before the next HACMan but if you have
any lying around that would be great, although a blued steel blade might be
a bit hard to get hold of. Getting an antenna might be tricky, the guide
mentioned using a clothes line to pick up the signal, so I guess I will
have to try it at home.
Also if anyone can propose a better design or process to do this I welcome
it! I am using the guide from the first link.
Antennas are fairly easy to fiddle…a bit of wire is a good start.
The length of wire can become critical…1st thing to do is really
build the circuit and then fiddle with the antenna.
I’ve been thinking about the blue steeled blade. Essentially it is a “point
contact” diode, according to the guide. My knowledge of electronics is
pretty shocking but I guess I can just pick this up? Maplins or somewhere?On Thursday, March 22, 2012 9:08:17 PM UTC, parag0n wrote:
we have the wood screws, wire, safety pin and pencil
I recently attended one of the other events at the Madlab (locksport) and
I spoke to Alex about using the facilities so I could build my own AM
radio. He told me it would be best to come down to HACMan. So I am posting
to ask about what you have in terms of supplies and equipment to help me in
my quest.
I maybe able to get some of these before the next HACMan but if you have
any lying around that would be great, although a blued steel blade might be
a bit hard to get hold of. Getting an antenna might be tricky, the guide
mentioned using a clothes line to pick up the signal, so I guess I will
have to try it at home.
Also if anyone can propose a better design or process to do this I
welcome it! I am using the guide from the first link.
Ok I found this http://www.maplin.co.uk/signal-diodes-19076 ,which in the
spec it say it’s a point contact. So I guess it’s what I need. Any thoughts?On Friday, March 23, 2012 12:54:36 PM UTC, harvinder atwal wrote:
I’ve been thinking about the blue steeled blade. Essentially it is a
"point contact" diode, according to the guide. My knowledge of electronics
is pretty shocking but I guess I can just pick this up? Maplins or
somewhere?
On Thursday, March 22, 2012 9:08:17 PM UTC, parag0n wrote:
we have the wood screws, wire, safety pin and pencil
I recently attended one of the other events at the Madlab (locksport)
and I spoke to Alex about using the facilities so I could build my own AM
radio. He told me it would be best to come down to HACMan. So I am posting
to ask about what you have in terms of supplies and equipment to help me in
my quest.
I maybe able to get some of these before the next HACMan but if you have
any lying around that would be great, although a blued steel blade might be
a bit hard to get hold of. Getting an antenna might be tricky, the guide
mentioned using a clothes line to pick up the signal, so I guess I will
have to try it at home.
Also if anyone can propose a better design or process to do this I
welcome it! I am using the guide from the first link.
First you need an enamelware pot for this (DO NOT USE OTHER MATERIALS) Mix
the dry ingredients and than add enough water to make into a damp paste
before heating (Normally you would add the lye to water rather than water
to lye (otherwise you risk a steam explosion as the lye/water solution gets
extremely hot!) but in this case the potassium nitrate seems to keep the
mix a bit cooler so it’s relatively safe to do it this way in the small
quantities required for a few razor blades. Heat it to between 135 - 150
degrees C (don’t let it go over 155 as it will ruin the mix), When heated
it will turn into soupy liquid. Degrease your steel parts thoroughly,
Simmer your steel parts in this until the blue/black surface is formed;
usually about 20 - 40 minutes for fist sized bits of steel so I’d guess
about 10 - 15 mins for razor blades. Make sure when you suspend the parts
in the solution to use steel wire. After you remove them hang them in
another pot of hot (not boiling) water for ten mins to clean off the
solution and set the finish. As I said before *this is dangerous and needs
A LOT of ventilation (DO NOT BREATHE IN THE FUMES), safety goggles as a
minimum or a full face mask (preferable), heavy gloves etc. *
Lye (sodium hydroxide) is extremely corrosive and can cause very severe
burns and permanent scarring if splashed on skin or permanent blindness if
splashed in the eyes.
For more details just do a Google search for DIY Hot Bluing. Used to give
guns and assorted other items their blue/black (rustproof) finish for more
than 100 years. There are many different bluing recipes but I’ve found the
above to be pretty good and the chemicals easy to get hold of in the UK.
There are also cold bluing chemicals available but I’m not too sure how
good they are, Have used one or two in the past and they seemed ok but not
sure how long they last.
On Friday, March 23, 2012 12:54:36 PM UTC, harvinder atwal wrote:
I’ve been thinking about the blue steeled blade. Essentially it is a
“point contact” diode, according to the guide. My knowledge of electronics
is pretty shocking but I guess I can just pick this up? Maplins or
somewhere?
On Thursday, March 22, 2012 9:08:17 PM UTC, parag0n wrote:
we have the wood screws, wire, safety pin and pencil
I recently attended one of the other events at the Madlab (locksport)
and I spoke to Alex about using the facilities so I could build my own AM
radio. He told me it would be best to come down to HACMan. So I am posting
to ask about what you have in terms of supplies and equipment to help me in
my quest.
I maybe able to get some of these before the next HACMan but if you
have any lying around that would be great, although a blued steel blade
might be a bit hard to get hold of. Getting an antenna might be tricky, the
guide mentioned using a clothes line to pick up the signal, so I guess I
will have to try it at home.
Also if anyone can propose a better design or process to do this I
welcome it! I am using the guide from the first link.
