Our intention for the coffee table is to successful replicate a module, based on Evan Douglis’s Displaycase Membrane. We were looking at how a hot wire could excavate foam without milling. We didn’t want a long insubstantial mass, so we looked at how we could provide variety to the table top. This is that exploration. Moving forward, I think we could move from a radial hot wire – to a linear hot wire cutter that can take a profile and stretch it out.

The problem with chemical dispersants is that they only eliminate the visual presence of the oil on the surface, while distributing the oil through the water column.

Watch step by step as WPI Chemical Engineer Marco Kaltofen performs an experiment using actual crude oil from the BP well and Corexit 9500A, the oil dispersant used by BP in the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Mr. Kaltofen demonstrates how Corexit suspends the most toxic hydrocarbons in the water column by a factor of about 35X more than absorbtion from crude oil alone, which floats to the surface in its natural form. BP used close to 2M gallons of this dispersant at the base of the blown out oil well and at the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, allowing this substance to mix into 5000 feet worth of water from the base of the well.

I intend on making one that can go right below this one. Have fun getting it down muhahaha.

Thanks Michael Velentzas! LOL

This is a mockup of the radial hot wire attachment. There is a lot of shake in the wire. I am not too concerned about the shake, because the wire gauge used is 5x thinner than the final wire. I do have concerns about the stepper motor. At slow speeds stepper motors notch to a position rather than a smooth transition.

There is a video coming soon.

This hot wire exploration implores the robotic arm to reach behind the material to extract material, rather than a perpendicular excavation of material.

Mike came over yesterday and casted some plaster molds for his studio. There are images below.