>>28209 >I wonder if such gels might be feasible for such efforts? Say, contained inside semi/sealed glass vessels for the biomolecules to lay down upon? Funny thing, that's currently being researched right now using alginate hydrogel. I'm moreso focused on making hardware centered around parallelism because i think it would be much less messy (and disgusting) than working with brain tissue samples.

I know the doll board has been referenced before, so at the risk of beating a dead horse, an ideal cottage industry minimum viable [s]waifu[/s] product sounds like it would be a scaled up 3d printed jointed doll like Polaris or something. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3184441 Parts would be kinda big so maybe a high-volume printer like and Ender3NeoMax. Could even print it in flexible filament if you're feeling fancy but you'd need a direct drive 3d printer rather than a bowden and other than the Sovol (which can be kinda hinky) idk. Maybe give put a layer of furniture foam over the 3d print (and since the structure will be hidden you won't have to worry about consistent color except maybe the face) then a rubber "cosplay bodysuit" (fully body rubber suits auto-gynophiles wear). Of course my jam is more the robotic aspect but just an idea.

>>28209 >Do you think that even materials like PLA filament might wear down in such a fashion over time to become ultra-smooth like this I'm not positive about this but it does logically follow. (Sometimes logic doesn't work though in fact). Some of it would depend on the "gumminess" of the material. If it picked up pieces and smeared them instead of wearing or packing down, might not work. I do believe this would not be the case but can't tell as it hasn't been done. The self generated accuracy due to even wear, depends on how the ratio of gears lines up. "IF" they have a very long period before they align up to the same outer race gear, inner gear and inner race gear then you can see that all the gears would almost equally wear on each other. If one spot was high some other spot low, they would over time wear each other the exact same. As they are all rotating and each tooth is being rubbed by all the other teeth I think we have the same effect as the surface plate where the average profile is enforced and they wear equally. Over time they would become more and more accurate. The wear would create a slight space or slack which could be easily taken up the same as wheel bearing slack in a car wheel is. Tighten a little to take up the slack. What's important is you can use less strong materials BUT spread the force over a larger space, WITHOUT creating point source loads like normal ball bearings are. Normal bearing MUST be hard because they need small areas to keep from adding large friction as noted above. You side step that with large hypercycloid gears.

>>4330 >>21161 >Cut-resistant performance of Kevlar and UHMWPE covered yarn fabrics with different structures >Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00405000.2021.1933327 >Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber are widely used in stab-resistant materials at home and abroad. Researches focus on the selection of a single fiber as raw material, but rarely combine the two high-performance fibers for the fabrication of stab-resistant fabrics. Kevlar fiber and UHMWPE fiber were utilized to prepare twelve kinds of covered yarns with different structures in this paper. Tensile performance of the covered yarns and cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics were tested, respectively. The results show that tensile performance of the covered yarns is better than pure Kevlar or UHMWPE yarns with same linear density. Tensile performance of the covered yarns decreases with the increase of twists, and the covered yarns show different failure modes with different twists. The cut-resistant performance of covered yarn fabrics are better than that of pure Kevlar or UHMWPE fabrics; and the cut-resistant effect with Kevlar fibers wrapping around the core fibers is superior than that with UHMWPE fibers. The cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics decreases with the increase of twists of the covered yarns. For the same kind of covered yarn structures, there is a positive correlation between cut-resistant performance of the covered yarn fabrics and tensile strength of the covered yarns. However, no correlation is observed for different covered yarn structures. The results lay a theoretical foundation for the structural optimum of cut-resistant and stab-resistant clothing. Topic via Pete Blank Discord

>>4330 >As a skin for areas that are less likely to be seen or felt synthetic fabrics could save on cost, as the alternative is silicone I'm not buying that. Silicone is gross and sticky. It feels awful. Go and rub on a microfiber sheet. It's like silk. A spandex microfiber mix would likely be the best we could do without going to some sort of silk or super expensive wool. Neither of which would wear anywhere near as good as the synthetics.

>>3058 More on mycelium use cases and background information, especially in regards to flexible materials including something like leather: https://youtu.be/cApVVuuqLFY https://youtu.be/oe3Vwnnp-VA There are plenty of more videos.

MyCera is an interesting material made from sawdust, clay, and mycelium. The mycelium grows on the sawdust and binds the clay together. While we probably won't be using MyCera for robowaifus the idea of using mycelium as binding agent is kind of interesting. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RMdPgJJPOew&pp=ygUGTXljZXJh

>>28878 >printed fungi supporting structures I moved my answer on this to R&D general here >>28907, in case it starts a longer conversation about how to use this. Though, it would also fit into cyborg general since this is used for most biology related topics.

>>28908 We can remove this post for you if you'd like, Noido Dev.

>>29394 >>29414 >>29422 >>29423 Thinking about the idea of silicone body-part sleeves from doll manufacturers discussed in the crosslinks, I realized that many robowaifu builders might use female sex toys replicating anatomy as source material for their projects. I recalled seeing annoying ads for some of these on certain anime/otaku sites and so went to ebay to see what, if anything was available. It turns out there is quite a lot, surprisingly so. In fact so much I'm not sure whether to be happy at the extent of useful material or dismayed at the state of our culture that has made it available in such variety. Oh well, when you find lemons make lemonade. I initially didn't think any female limbs would be on offer, so I searched for "silicone female torso" and got over 1k hits. These covered a wide variety of items, most interestingly the "silicone female bodysuit" selection. These are basically anatomically correct silicone catsuits for trans-whatevers to wear and impersonate women. The ones I have seen listed so far do not have attached hands, feet or heads/masks. They are of interest because being able to get almost the entire body as one piece will reduce the problem of color-matching different body parts. This led me to wonder about the missing parts, so a search for "silicone female glove" turned up silicone female gloves for trans or hiding scars, and solid silicone hands for modeling jewelry. Searching "silicone female foot" yielded silicone mannequin feet and legs, the larger the item the higher the price, generally. I haven't found any hollow silicone feet yet. And a search for "silicone female mask" yielded same. Most of these were not very attractive although some might rival doll-maker's heads. But it should be remembered that these are masks intended for male trans to wear, and so are probably somewhat larger than a normal female head. The same may or may not be true for the gloves. Presumably the items designed to be worn are skin-safe, in fact some of the bodysuits include catheters and other attachments to accommodate various activities. Prices vary greatly with some venders offering a variety of sizes, colors and breast size. As said a very large selection. Now that we know about this possibility for robowaifu skin, the next thing to do is probably to find trans community sites with reviews and recommendations- pricing, quality, realism, useful lifetime, maintenance, repairs, etc., to gleen more information. *nobody said the journey would be easy or pretty- keep the end goal in mind* The picrels are of some examples from ebay, renamed as they were listed. I'm not recommending anything, just showing examples.

>>28909 No, I don't think so.

>>29428 This is some good research, Anon. Thank you. :^)

>>29394 >>29414 >>29422 >>29423 >>29444 The major differences between the doll heads and the tranny masks seem to be: The thickness of the material- doll rubber is much thicker to withstand the action of anon's body when he is "getting" oral, so too difficult for servos to manipulate for facial expressions without shaving down the thickness (from inside). This might make the material susceptible to tearing when trying to stretch it back over the skull. We might need to cut a slit in the rear like the masks to prevent this. On the other hand the additional thickness may allow for seating magnets to engage opposite pole magnets in slots on an animatronic skull, making removal/installation easier. I'm thinking of the scene from Bicentennial Man where Andrew's face is removed and he screams. We briefly see the inner layer of the face studded with 'somethings'. Shave down the area between them? Oral shouldn't be a problem for waifubot using a tranny mask (presumably they are already used for this) as the waifubot will be the one actually moving and "giving head"- less stressful on the face. Doll heads are made to be interchangeable so customers can mix and match them with their preferred body type. They actually screw on. While they don't wobble like a bobble-head doll, there is a gap between the top of the doll's neck and the head where they overlap which annoys some owners. Tranny masks usually have an integral neck and some portion of the shoulders and upper chest (like the Borg queen) so the lower edges of the mask can be hidden by clothing for a more convincing appearance. It depends on the look you want for your waifu. That's about all I can tell without genuine articles to examine.

Toxic products from China (including clothes): https://youtu.be/BxXDHGnOa_E - Don't use Talcum powder for silicone skin - Cloths for dolls or to make a skin-like material could contain poisonous materials - Metal parts could contain high levels of Led or Cadmium - People with children have to be even more careful. - Western chains might check their imports, even if the products are also made in China. Since they could be sued. >>29428 >>29447 Interesting, I'll look into this later.

>>29448 >Toxic products from China (including clothes): https://youtu.be/BxXDHGnOa_E Really glad I don't live in china >Don't use Talcum powder for silicone skin Cornstarch for humans wearing silicone, or wetsuits, etc. I think we want to keep any kind of fine powder away from the works of our waifus.

A reminder that composites are based. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxKlbik4QjM

>>29448 >china

There is a vastly available pretty much free material. Discarded HDPE bottles, jugs, lawn furniture, and pallets. It just winds up thrown in the dump instead of recycled a lot of the time. Could be chopped up, melted down and injection molded. Technically it can be used as a 3D print filament too with some difficulty.

Materials for hair: >>30524 and >>13862

>>30521 Thanks, I'm aware of that. These materials can be shredded and mixed with TPU and a small amount of another plastic which name I forgot, then it can be made into filament. I don't thing this is worth it, until you have many kilos of PLA waste and we find a way to build a cheap shredder using electroplating and maybe pre-heating the plastics to make it soft.

>>30527 It doesnt really have to be shredded that finely from all the videos ive seen on HDPE recycling often they just melt anything as is but in case of large objects they just need broken up for easier handling. At least in case of using it purely as HDPE not mixed with anything else, i know it would need to be more pellet sized to mix otherwise you will get uneven blending.

>>30529 True, but you still need to form it, also while being warm. It's also being used for making things that way because it's has a low melting point, which might be disadvantage in many cases when it comes to make something useful. Especially with motors that create heat. It's also not very strong, just tends to bend and not break, which can be good for security reasons. I always thought it might be interesting to make full body molds for adding the silicone shell. If someone makes a lot of them, then it might be useful to reduce the price of plastics. For normal prototyping work it doesn't really matter, since plastic isn't really that expensive and we don't need that much and other also it's not the right one. Then again, it might be interesting for people in poor countries. You can collect quite some of it over time just by keeping household waste made out of it. If someone would need more, it might be possible to collect it or ask the company collecting it with containers to buy some of it for cheap. Also, please don't do this indoors, however much you may think the dangers of chemicals or fumes are just something activists make up in their minds. 3D printers have a temperature control and only melt small amounts at a time. Trying to melt bigger parts with a less precise device will certainly create even more dangerous fumes.

>>30529 HDPE type IV and type VII plastics are not thermo-reactive: they can be melted down multiple times without emitting many harmful fumes and remain stable (provided you don't burn them). Any other type of HDPE undergo a chemical change upon heating (thermo-reactive) thus their recycling methods are more complex (usually chemical) and ill suited for DIY use. Typically, the type is a number inside the little recycling symbol. I looked into them a little over a decade ago investigating diy vaccu-forming. Gallon milk jugs are the most common source.

>>30532 My thought process was the moderate flex is good for a shell at least but fact it is used for pallets and deck boards it cant be that bad at supporting weight when thick enough. I am seeing different melting points all over but lower ones i can find is 125°C with a max use temp of 120°C which I think means it doesnt become more flexible until that temperature so it doesn't warp till. Different types of plastics release different kind of chemical fumes. TPU releases hydrogen cyanide when heated enough as one example. Im not sure what HDPE produces. Just thinking of ultra cheap materials. here is a thought what about making paper mache and paper mache clay using food safe silicone glue and unbleached paper ? In theory this should create a fire retardant silicone paper structure.

>>30534 I see. I didn't know there were subtypes of HDPE and I can't even find information substantiating this.

>>5154 >>15227 >oogoo I found something interesting. Apparently if you use PEG 3350 (you know like Miralax type laxatives) instead of corn starch it makes it a shape memory polymer. Found it in some random student lesson. I suspect the ratio needs adjusting though. https://www.uakron.edu/polymer/agpa-k12outreach/lesson-plans/making-a-shape-memory-polymer-from-silicone-i-caulk-and-miralax Then when I looked into this a bit I came across a paper describing use of PEG 600 with silicone to create an electroactive polymer. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3727/45/48/485303/pdf

>>30535 One of the problems with HDPE is in thinner sections it's a little flimsy. A thought, maybe you could make a mesh of basalt fiber or better, rope, which is super strong then melt the plastic around it. An example, https://basalt-fibertec.ch/index.php/en/basalt-products/tubes-ropes I wonder if you could use Mylar as a film to vacuum form HDPE? Mylar they say, will stay together at 200C. SO you have a plaster ot toher mold with a two sheets of mylar on each side, taped to hold air. Dump HDPE into the mold between the Mylar, heat then draw a vacuum on one side of the mold while heating. It will form to the mold.

>>30584 There may be an interesting line of research...on this sort of thing. Shape memory polymers depend on the strength of the dielectric. So do capacitors. So some of the effects of one should change the same in each. There's this guy called Robert Murray-Smith who has a massive YouTube site with all sorts of good stuff. For the longest he concentrated on capacitors, batteries, graphene, that sort of stuff. He has a should not miss set of videos called, The Strange Capacitor - How To Build It and Improve It Return To The Strange Capacitor I suspect very strongly that this effect in PEG comes from it forming a sort of vesicle. Another name for this is a liposome. It's used in drugs delivery and also in liposomal vitamin c. Usually some sort of fat or protein that make something like a cell wall. It would not surprise me if the same stuff Robert is using in capacitors would help actuators. Another thought. If you had two materials with different responses. One large, one small, then if the two were glued together they would curl or curve like an old fashioned bimetal thermostat.

>>30711 Thanks, interesting idea, but this here is a thread about "Materials", but it drifts more and and more into a general about what can be done with certain materials. We have this general thread exactly for that: >>24152 and >>108 for vacuum forming. >>30716 Dielectric actuators are actuators: >>27021

>>30711 I was thinking mainly of it being a bit on thicker side anyway though that is a lot of material. >>30716 I think it comes from the PEG forming long molecular bonds with itself so it creates a scaffolding that holds it's shape under more tension. PEG also can be used as a solvent of sorts which may be related. >>30725 I had included >>30584 here instead of actuator thread because there is other uses for SMP than an actuator and when making it yourself from chemicals it falls into material science. It can be used for a way to repair dents though im not sure if that is an advantage over more rubbery materials that instantly bounce back. Body temperature activated can be a type of actuator with very limited perhaps for a tiny hand to close on your own so i wouldnt consider that an actuator in the same way something that can be actually controlled, rather it could be more accurate to call it reactive material. Though how to make it in chemical synthesis is a whole other thing above my head.

>>30730 Okay, understood. But please keep in mind that this thread is always in danger to drifting towards becoming another R&D general instead of just covering the materials mentioned in other discussions.

This video, about composites, is one of the best quick videos to get a handle on the properties, cost and usage of different types of fibers for composites. He makes a very complicated subject very plain to see the differences. His background is race cars and how the different fibers are used. Specifically good is how he covers cost which I appreciate as most of the time people ignore that. This video while on these specific materials will also give a feel for other materials and their properties. Carbon Fiber vs Kevlar vs Fiberglass - Which one is right for YOU? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHXVf0SaJpA Attempt to upload a graph that shows the properties of a lot of materials and you can see in the video how these different materials in the graph fall in comparison. Fail Here's a link that has a download chart that has bone in it. Useful to determine what other materials might take the place of bone. A good reference is Ashley's charts of various strength-density-etc https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Guillaume_Lamour/publication/314132031/figure/download/fig1/AS:468862996094989@1488797057726/Material-property-charts-for-amyloid-materials-A-Flexural-rigidity-plotted-against-the.png

I ran across what appears to be a super, super useful material for prototyping. I wonder why I've never heard of it? A trade name is ShapeLock. Also called polycaprolactone plastic, Meltable Polymorph, Polyshape Polymorph Hand moldable Plastic, Moldable Plastic Thermoplastic, etc. Anyways here's a quote, "..Unleash your creativity with our premium grade Polymorph Plastic Pellets. This revolutionary material is designed to give life to your wildest ideas. This unique thermoplastic polymer has a low melting point of just 142°F. When immersed in hot water, these pellets become as moldable as clay, allowing you to shape, sculpt, and create to your heart's content. Once cooled, they solidify into a strong, durable material that's similar in strength to nylon. Reheat them, and they return to their malleable state, ready for your next project. Ideal for hobbyists, crafters, inventors, or anyone interested in DIY projects..." So this stuff only uses hot water to get it to flow then hardens to something close to the properties of nylon. Nylon, as noted earlier, is really strong stuff. They use nylon for intake manifolds for cars and all sorts of car parts. I could also see you making rough shapes then use a heat gun to further mold and shape. They say you can mold and melt it over and over like most plastics but the low temperature makes it easy to use and it's supposedly nontoxic. Cost I've seen are roughly $17 US a pound. About the same as 3D printer filament and since it can be reused you could use it to make molds for one part, melt again and make molds for different parts. On ebay I've seen it for .99 for 50gr so roughly $11 a pound. I wonder what it would take to make filament out of it? With it's low temperature it might be easy to make a machine to feed this through a hole and make filament that is reusable. So you could 3D print things and reuse the filament over and over. I suspect with it's very low temp melting point that if extruded in a 3D printer you could make accurate parts because it could be printed very liquid, at low temp. Since the temp is low the amount of heat in the material is also low so it's likely just a cooling fan would solidify it in place fast. Here's a link at Make on this stuff https://makezine.com/article/workshop/the-many-uses-of-shapelock/ Here's another link where I heard of it first and there's a good bit of info on it. BTW this guy has an interesting site. https://dercuano.github.io/notes/polycaprolactone.html

So I find people are suing it as filament. https://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/2008/03/chalk-and-cheese.html

Some wild ass speculation, "...Polycaprolactone (PCL) is na ultra-high molecular weight (UHMW) non-toxic polyester thermoplastic.." I've talked about the making of graphene relatively inexpensively here and how it turns plastic into super materials far stronger than steel. Very strong. Bulletproof strong. I wonder if this stuff could be mixed with graphene to make super strong stuff for waifus with low temp processing. Now let's go even further. This is a thermoplastic. Could it be made into a thermoset. Thermosets are not remoldable but are generally stronger and higher temperature. The reason I say this is the above material is a UHMW plastic. So is spectra or dynema which is maybe 100 times stronger than steel per weight. My understanding is the bonds between the very long chains are not so strong but that there are so many of them it makes for a super strong material. It's just like spaghetti. You cook it in water and it slides all around easy but drain the water and let it set up in a pot and it becomes a hard sticky mess. A very good way to visualize how plastics work. Could we not do something similar by reprocessing the above in some way? Some additive that sticks the various strings together? I don't know. I bring this up as it's something to be aware of and maybe you might run across some data that points a way to do this.

Using Shapelock to make motor connectors, knobs and couplings https://www.robotroom.com/Prototype-Plastic-2.html

Thanks for all the great inputs ITT, Grommet! Cheers. :^)

I found a good page. It has a lot of advice on casting various high precision gears and parts. He uses small CNC machines, makes molds with silicon and then cast plastic parts. It has specifics which is good and covers what type materials he uses. His focus is on robots. Guerrilla guide to CNC and resin casting https://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/gcnc/full/ I wonder if you could pour the before mentioned shapelock into these molds. I'm not sure the shapelock plastic liquefies enough to do so. Possibly you could put this in an oven with a sprue filled with shapelock, melt down to run into mold, then when you pull it out add a small vacuum for a bit. Likely that would get all entrained air out.

More materials links. This guy makes bedsheets into waterproof and sturdy tarps with silicon. Could be good for the silicon fetish folk. Recycled Bedsheets Make The Best Waterproof Tarps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_R0gEDZhAI He got the silicon treatment from a guy who does all sorts of material, casting, glue type experiments. He has some interesting stuff. Here's a video of him making low cost pourable silicon for making things or molds that dries in an hour or so. DIY POURABLE SILICONE for mold making. Thin silicone w/Naphtha, fast cure w/cornstarch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_IOqxds130 There is a problem with this, they are banning Naphtha some places. Likely too damn useful for the powers that be, so he has a video with alternatives. Thinning Silicone: NAPHTHA is being BANNED. Now what? What can you use instead? SURPRISING RESULTS!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaUbqgMzMR0 Some are suggesting in the comments that coleman fuel is Naphtha "...look for 'white gas' also called Coleman fuel for stoves and lanterns..." Wikipedia says this is so but that it does have additives in it. Experimentation would be required to see if it functions the same. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coleman_fuel If you notice casting interest me a lot. I think it's one of the quickest and cheapest ways to make all sorts of intricate structures including waifus.

>>6943 This week I'll be making some galinistan. It's not a country, it's a eutectic alloy of 3 low melting point metals. It's completely safe and non-toxic, and one order of magnitude less conductive than copper. It's going to get injected into silicone channels using the zero-volume air chamber method (http://www.kevincgalloway.com/portfolio/zero-volume-air-chambers/) and used with a teensy LC in a touch-capacitance circuit. This liquid metal can deform with the silicone and has all the benefits of being a conductive material for sensing deformation (change in resistance) and body proximity (change in capacitance). This type of sensor is very common in the literature, and I have high expectations for it in waifubotics.

>>31107 >low melting point plastics therobotstudio YT channel guy made his older robots out of that. There are some workflows pointed out in these videos, which are also linked in the thread for humanoid robot project videos. The downside of it, is of course that it is harder to replicate for mass production, and 50ºC would melt these parts, which isn't much.

>>31224 Made the Galinstan: https://files.catbox.moe/gvmgx0.mp4 Here are examples of what I want to put on the robot: https://www-x-huyuechen-x-com.img.addlink.cn/uploadfile/202208/f939a7684551c04.mp4 http://www.huyuechen.com/index.php?c=category&id=3

>>31271 Wow, that was fast. How did you weigh the different metals? Is there a tutorial on how to make this?

>>31224 That is very cool and that zero volume air chamber idea is really innovative. I started looking up galinstan and found this link, Small robots made of ‘galinstan’ can run faster than a (miniature) leopard https://www.devhardware.com/small-robots-made-of-galinstan-can-run-faster-than-a-miniature-leopard/ This thing is unbelievably fast if you compare body lengths(it's very small), but comparing body lengths a cheetah is 23 BL/sec(body lengths per second) but this thing moves at 70 BL/s. I wonder could this sort of speed translate into larger sizes??? Of so it would be a good way to get a fast actuator. One drawback, gallium is expensive, but if you could prototype it fast it might make up for that in time savings. quick search Gallium Liquid Metal 100 Grams, 99.99% Pure Melting Gallium - 100g for Kids and $69.99

>>31280 >DIY instructions Firstly, Galinstan is a non-toxic and relatively harmless alternative to mercury in thermometers. I'll probably have enough for life with this small amount I made here. I don't think it will ever go bad as long as the plastic vials I have stay closed. Don't buy glass vials in case it freezes and expands. It leaves a black residue on anything, so wear gloves and wash your hands if it gets on you. Obviously, don't drink it or do anything stupid with it. >Composition 68.5% Ga, 21.5% In, 10% Sn To find how much indium and tin for 50g Gallium, use the following formula: indium weight = (((gallium weight - 2 grams)/68.5)*21.5) tin weight = (((gallium weight - 2 grams)/68.5)*10) The subtraction of 2 is to account for the oxidized gallium that won't react with the indium and tin. I accounted for 1 gram in my experiment and had an excess of solid metals left over >Breakdown by price buying metal from amazon Indium 20g x2: 16.94 x2$ Gallium 100g (save 30$ on 2 50g vials): 69.99$ Tin 8oz 99.99% pure: 22.99$ Galinstan 144g: 126.86$ >Galinstan pre-alloyed from the same store Galinistan 25g: 129$ >Uses Conductive, flexible, deformable, it does it all. Can be used for a stretchable touch sensor and a heating coil. What more would you need?

I've been watching a bunch of videos lately about people making their own "geopolymers" which is just a fancy way of saying cement. By changing the recipes by adding different ingredients and changing the ratios the properties change. This might not be the right thread to ask, but I'm sure there is some way software could be used to help simplify the experimentation to reduce the amount of trial and error done testing a large number of different materials that could be added to the mix so I could create a cement that has all the physical properties I'm looking for?

>>31322 "geopolymers" Don't wish to be too annoying but cement is normally portland cement. Produced by heating limestone and clay minerals. Geopolymers are not the same thing at all, other than they both are hard and look like stone. I don't want people to confuse the two as they are very different. Geopolymers, "...They are mainly produced by a chemical reaction between a chemically reactive aluminosilicate powder (e.g. metakaolin or other clay-derived powders, natural pozzolan, or suitable glasses), and an aqueous solution (alkaline or acidic) that causes this powder to react and re-form into a solid monolith..." They are somewhat like polymers, hence the name. I wish I had a good cheap formula for making them. If you know one please link it. They are complicated and I can't think of any software that would help. I would say, according to others and common sense that a good proportion of the pyramids in Egypt are made of geopolymers. The casing and the upper levels, mostly.

>>31326 >Geopolymers are not the same thing at all, other than they both are hard and look like stone. I don't want people to confuse the two as they are very different. The two seem nearly identical to me. Not all cements are Portland cement, so as far as I'm concerned "geopolymer" is just a synonym. Supposedly the cement used by the Romans had volcanic ash and used salt water instead of fresh water, and probably some other differences, which is why it lasts so much longer. https://youtu.be/znQk_yBHre4 https://youtu.be/rUYWiVVuc_w https://youtu.be/sESzPUei3os https://youtu.be/kUBB3wNae1s The recipe in the description of the last video: 1 part salt water (1 cup tap water with 1 tablespoon of salt) 1 part Sodium Silicate (Waterglass) mixed into the above saltwater 1 part Sodium Carbonate white powder mixed in fully 1 part Calcium Carbonate white powder mixed in fully 1 part Crushed powdered limestone mixed in fully And then there's these attempts at recreating Maurice Ward's Starlite for fireproofing, which isn't "geopolymer" in any traditional sense, but an intumescent material made using borax, baking soda, cornstarch, powdered sugar, flour and water: https://youtu.be/aqR4_UoBIzY https://youtu.be/0IbWampaEcM But of course, the more ingredients I could possibly test in a geopolymer the better chance I have of making something with the properties I want, but the harder it would be to determine with brute force trial and error. I figured some kind of genetic algorithm would be the best way of doing it, since I seem to have an ever-growing list of ingredients I want to test. And materials I want to make. >>5154 I thought this sounded familiar. Years ago I saw this modified version of Oogoo that's just food-grade silicone mixed with cornstarch: https://youtu.be/7fwytA5r2Mw

>>31333 "...Not all cements are Portland cement..." Yes you are correct. I made an assumption because so much of what is called "cement" is Portland. Most people are talking about Portland when they say cement. There are magnesium cements, all sorts. The above recipe is not geopolymer. It appears to me to just be binding all this stuff with Sodium Silicate. Not the same. Geopolymers, by the definition of the guy who invented them, Joseph Davidovits, are aluminosilicates. They make chains like plastics. Plastics have normally a carbon backed chain, these are based on aluminium-silicon. Here's Joseph Davidovits site. https://www.geopolymer.org/ https://www.geopolymer.org/archaeology/roman-cement/high-performance-roman-cement-and-concrete-high-durable-buildings/

>>31338 >the guy who invented them Actually, invented the name and reinvented some of the processes to make them, They have been around thousands of years with the recopies lost in time.