Iron Produced by Thermite

Attached are a few pictures of some iron that was produced from the Thermite reaction


This is the totally out of character and totally the wrong way to light Thermite. I had a way too short piece of magnesium ribbon and was very lucky that all i got was a slightly burned little finger. Safety is important and i should have lit a long taper and stood well back. If in doubt dont do it at all. I was lucky to get awaywithout getting seriously burned.

Marble Lifter using an Archimedes' screw

A prototype of a marble lifter I have built using the principles of the Archimedes' screw to move the marbles up to the upper level.
Its a bit rough and ready but a good morning experimenting.

Adam Savage's 10 Commandments of Making

I love this guy, he inspires me and thought this was worth sharing

Nettle Omelette

Here is my simple recipe for Nettle Omelette

Its totally yummy and I tested it out on my son who said it was ok so thumbs up there :)

Ingredients:
2 large Eggs.
1 small Onion.
hand full of fresh young nettle tips. Ensure they are picked up from high up away from where dogs do their business.
Butter or Margarine.
2 mugs of Water.
Salt and Pepper to taste.

Equipment:
frying pan
fish slice

Method:

1. Wash the nettle leaves thoroughly. 
2.  Boil the nettle leaves for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Drain off the water and drink as a refreshing nettle tea, add honey to sweeten if required.
4. Chop the cooked nettle leaves.
5. Heat a knob of Butter or Margarine in the frying pan and fry the Onions till they soften.
6.  Beat the 2 Eggs and add a splash of Milk.
7. Pour the beaten mixture over the Onions in the frying pan and agitate to mix the Onions into the egg.
8. Add the chopped Nettles by sprinkling over the top of the egg.
9. Cook as a normal Omelette turning when required.
10. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
Enjoy :)
Note: You can boil the Nettles for about 10 minutes but i prefer longer so I can use the leaves as a refreshing tea.

Boil the Nettles:

Ingredients:

Softening the onion:

 
Final Result

The Magic of Nettles

Nettle is a brilliant plant and can be used for cooking and as a herbal drink. Here are some of the benefits from their consumption:-

• Nettle stimulates the lymph system to boost immunity
• Nettle relieves arthritis symptoms
• Nettle promotes a release from uric acid from joints
• Helps to support the adrenals
• It helps with diabetes mellitus
• Strengthens the fetus in pregnant women
• Promotes milk production in lactating women
• Relieves menopausal symptoms
• Helps with menstrual cramps and bloating
• Helps break down kidney stones
• Reduces hypertension
• Helps with respiratory tract disease
• Supports the kidneys
• Helps asthma sufferers
• Stops bleeding
• Reduces inflammation
• Reduces incident of prostate cancer
• Minimizes skin problems
• Eliminates allergic rhinitis
•  Lessens nausea
• Cures the common cold
• Helps with osteoarthritis
• Alleviates diarrhea
• Helps with gastrointestinal disease, IBS, and constipation
• Reduces gingivitis and prevents plaque when used as a mouth wash.
• Has been shown to be helpful to in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease
• Relieves neurological disorders like MS, ALS and sciatica
• Destroys intestinal worms or parasites
• Supports the endocrine health by helping the thyroid, spleen and pancreas

Garden tool shed from recycled materials

Here is a tool shed I made for my mother inlaw.

I made the shed totally from recycling, apart form the padlock, scavenging wood from pallets and old fence panels and hardware from my junk drawers.

Coffee Creamer Fireballs

Heres a tutorial video on how to make fireballs with coffee creamer.

Coffee creamer contains sodium aluminosilicate, an ingredient added to keep powdered creamer from caking together. It can become flammable When mixed with oxygen and ignited produces some nice sized fireballs.

Heres How to make them

Model Volcano For Science Project

Here is my quick video tutorial for making a model volcano that I made with my son for his science project. Its really simple and can be made with items around the home.

Materials:
cardboard
paper
small plastic bottle
yogurt pot
masking tape
PVA glue
water
grey, green, brown, orange and red poster paints

Tools:
scissors
paintbrushes

Installing Canon Printer Drivers on Ubuntu

It took me a while to find out how to do this so i thought i would share the information.

I recently bought a Canon MG3200 all in one printer and wanted to install the printing element of the device onto my wife 32 bit Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. It should work on newer versions of Ubuntu as well.

I had a poke around on the internet and found the following information

open command window and run the following commands agreeing to everything it asks, It may ask for the administrators password.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:michael-gruz/canon-stable
Then

sudo apt-get update

And finally the following command to add install the printer. you need to
replace the printer name you are installing with the one you own.

sudo apt-get install cnijfilter-mg3200series

The above command will install the driver for an mg3200 printer if you had an ip4900 you would execute the following command.

sudo apt-get install cnijfilter-ip4900series 

This should now plug and play the printer driver when you connect it.

This doesn't work for all the canon printers but hopefully yours is one of the supported ones,

Hope this helps
Good Luck