

Solar Sinter - 3D Printing with the sun, fusing sand into glass - ChuckMcM
http://www.markuskayser.com/work/solarsinter/

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ChuckMcM
This is something I found particularly interesting. I once attempted to build
an aluminum can smelter with my kids. The idea being a giant Fresnel lens
(scavanged for free from a dead rear-screen projection TV) focused on the
bottom of a feed tube, empty cans put into the top drop into the focal point,
get melted and drip into a bucket of water below converting hard to transport
mostly smashed aluminum cans into easy to carry aluminum BBs (small spherical
balls).

The downside is that you can't melt aluminum this way, it gets hot enough but
it oxidizes so quickly you end up with black aluminum oxide dust rather than
small balls of aluminum. (You could turn it into sandpaper though)

Sand on the otherhand seems to glassify nicely. Although I don't think he
needed to drive into the middle of the Sahara :-).

