i was thinking recently about how you might recreate the pyramids

i was thinking about how you might use junk to create a pyramid

you could use old aluminium cans to do it

what could be better could be polystyrene??

its light weight, has high compressive strength and exists in huge quantities

sure you could destroy it using acetone but as a concept a huge polystyrene pyramid seems possible

what say you?

wookiemeister said:

i was thinking recently about how you might recreate the pyramids

i was thinking about how you might use junk to create a pyramid

you could use old aluminium cans to do it

what could be better could be polystyrene??

its light weight, has high compressive strength and exists in huge quantities

sure you could destroy it using acetone but as a concept a huge polystyrene pyramid seems possible

what say you?

the real question is…

Can it produce water?

:P

Make it inflatable.
Much easier to move around that way as well.

Spiny Norman said:

Make it inflatable.
Much easier to move around that way as well.

well you could make one from alumium tubing i guess using a geodesic dome that supports it

the dome would be built then the pyramidal shape built on it.

unless

you build a tubular structure and then fill the outside with polysytrene

wookiemeister said:

Spiny Norman said:

Make it inflatable.
Much easier to move around that way as well.

well you could make one from alumium tubing i guess using a geodesic dome that supports it

the dome would be built then the pyramidal shape built on it.

Nah just plain inflatable. The structure would have to be pretty strong to hold just itself up, so don’t have one.

But if you wanted to make it a solid thing then yeah cans or blocks of foam would be fine I reckon.

as a point of interest

it seems the best way to make a cheap polystyrene cutter is by using a battery charger and nichrome wire

simple and cheap

if you’re going to build a whole pyramid, better to make the blocks to a standardised shape and size in the factory. Any trimming on site can be done by hand with sandpaper. I’ve made model boats out of the stuff, sandpaper is very quick and easy. Wouldn’t bother with cutting rough blocks to shapes with not wire – not on that scale.

party_pants said:

if you’re going to build a whole pyramid, better to make the blocks to a standardised shape and size in the factory. Any trimming on site can be done by hand with sandpaper. I’ve made model boats out of the stuff, sandpaper is very quick and easy. Wouldn’t bother with cutting rough blocks to shapes with not wire – not on that scale.

yes i agree, i was just making mention of something i put in chat about polystyrene cutters

i might see if someones selling one second hand in the local rag.

i’ll have a look at how polystyrene is made

Anubis

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-almost-any-3d-shape-into-a-real-object/

Glance Fleeting said:

Anubis

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-almost-any-3d-shape-into-a-real-object/

yeah i was just looking at polystyrene again just then

so many things made from it

cd cases, razor blade holders

Glance Fleeting said:

Anubis

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-almost-any-3d-shape-into-a-real-object/

how about this for an idea

you make a huge model of one of those ramses statues at abu simbal

cover it with fibreglass , paint it in a snadstone colour and hey presto something to last the ages?

yes , yes

you can make decent aerofoils from polystyrene if you use a hotwire cnc

you could probably make one without it though using a wooden guide at both ends and cutting through the polystyrene

you could make a polystyrene pyramid then paint it with a waterbased paint

then

you could harden it by pouring and painting liquid polystyrene on the top

the liquid poly is just poly dissolved in acetone

i bet that this would last the ages, unless someone decided to drill a hole through it.

i wonder if it would be classified as a fire hazard?

i’ll be experimenting with polystyrene in acetone this weekend to see how hard it can get and whether it could be used structurally

you could make a polystyrene pyramid then paint it with a waterbased paint

then

you could harden it by pouring and painting liquid polystyrene on the top

the liquid poly is just poly dissolved in acetone

i bet that this would last the ages, unless someone decided to drill a hole through it.

i wonder if it would be classified as a fire hazard?

i’ll be experimenting with polystyrene in acetone this weekend to see how hard it can get and whether it could be used structurally

got my acetone, paintbrush

just need to make sure its in a ventilated area

Two of my sisters, with the help of my brother, have established a new shop in Hobart called Petit Marché. It was supposed to open today but they weren’t quite ready so it will open tomorrow.

I blame FNDC for the fact that my last post ended up here.

Bubble Car said:

Two of my sisters, with the help of my brother, have established a new shop in Hobart called Petit Marché. It was supposed to open today but they weren’t quite ready so it will open tomorrow.

don’t worry

i regularly lay these kinds of ambush on this forum, waiting for the unwary to fall into them and then be devoured

In regard to the OP topic, if you were building pyramids you’d want them to last as long as the pyramids. Polystyrene will weather away very quickly.

wookiemeister said:

yes , yes

you can make decent aerofoils from polystyrene if you use a hotwire cnc

you could probably make one without it though using a wooden guide at both ends and cutting through the polystyrene

Easy peasy

Bubble Car said:

I blame FNDC for the fact that my last post ended up here.

Lets face it, you are a sucker for pyramid schemes.

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

yes , yes

you can make decent aerofoils from polystyrene if you use a hotwire cnc

you could probably make one without it though using a wooden guide at both ends and cutting through the polystyrene

Easy peasy

yes i’m making tentative steps to doing this

time and expense

the favoured method is a spring tensioned nichrome wire hooked up to a 10A battery charger

this seems to make traditionally difficult 3d shapes very easy.

once you’ve fibreglassed the 3d shape in poly you can dig it out

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

yes , yes

you can make decent aerofoils from polystyrene if you use a hotwire cnc

you could probably make one without it though using a wooden guide at both ends and cutting through the polystyrene

Easy peasy

yes i’m making tentative steps to doing this

time and expense

the favoured method is a spring tensioned nichrome wire hooked up to a 10A battery charger

this seems to make traditionally difficult 3d shapes very easy.

once you’ve fibreglassed the 3d shape in poly you can dig it out

Just buy a bloody cutter! Cheap as chips.

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

Easy peasy

yes i’m making tentative steps to doing this

time and expense

the favoured method is a spring tensioned nichrome wire hooked up to a 10A battery charger

this seems to make traditionally difficult 3d shapes very easy.

once you’ve fibreglassed the 3d shape in poly you can dig it out

Just buy a bloody cutter! Cheap as chips.

These days, I make shapes like this with the CNC router, by cutting sheets of chipboard, laminating, and sanding. You can cast off that easily.

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

Easy peasy

yes i’m making tentative steps to doing this

time and expense

the favoured method is a spring tensioned nichrome wire hooked up to a 10A battery charger

this seems to make traditionally difficult 3d shapes very easy.

once you’ve fibreglassed the 3d shape in poly you can dig it out

Just buy a bloody cutter! Cheap as chips.

150 bucks

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

yes i’m making tentative steps to doing this

time and expense

the favoured method is a spring tensioned nichrome wire hooked up to a 10A battery charger

this seems to make traditionally difficult 3d shapes very easy.

once you’ve fibreglassed the 3d shape in poly you can dig it out

Just buy a bloody cutter! Cheap as chips.

150 bucks

Ipso facto

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

Just buy a bloody cutter! Cheap as chips.

150 bucks

Ipso facto

hand held and a small cutting edge

you can’t just dissolve polystyrene in acetone and paint anything with it

it just coagulates into a stringy mass, not a smooth liquid

wookiemeister said:

you can’t just dissolve polystyrene in acetone and paint anything with it

it just coagulates into a stringy mass, not a smooth liquid

Yep. You might be able to persuade it to form inside a mould. I reduce the volume of my scrap polystyrene by dissolving it in acetone. It ends up as a hard cake.

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

you can’t just dissolve polystyrene in acetone and paint anything with it

it just coagulates into a stringy mass, not a smooth liquid

Yep. You might be able to persuade it to form inside a mould. I reduce the volume of my scrap polystyrene by dissolving it in acetone. It ends up as a hard cake.

Anyway, forget about a polystyrene pyramid. Think: salt.
Pump up water from a hypersaline resource into a shallow bunded area of perhaps an acre in area. Allow the water to evaporate, depositing the salt as hard crystals, while you continue to add hypersaline water. Continue the process until you have reached the appropriate thickness. Now start another layer of smaller area on top of it. Continue the process….until you reach the peak.

The result; an enormous glistening white pyramid in the middle of the desert, as hard as rock. Rain will have minimal effect on it.

morrie said:

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

you can’t just dissolve polystyrene in acetone and paint anything with it

it just coagulates into a stringy mass, not a smooth liquid

Yep. You might be able to persuade it to form inside a mould. I reduce the volume of my scrap polystyrene by dissolving it in acetone. It ends up as a hard cake.

Anyway, forget about a polystyrene pyramid. Think: salt.
Pump up water from a hypersaline resource into a shallow bunded area of perhaps an acre in area. Allow the water to evaporate, depositing the salt as hard crystals, while you continue to add hypersaline water. Continue the process until you have reached the appropriate thickness. Now start another layer of smaller area on top of it. Continue the process….until you reach the peak.

The result; an enormous glistening white pyramid in the middle of the desert, as hard as rock. Rain will have minimal effect on it.

right

what you could do is have a mould that contains the water until it evaporates, you could pump small amount in and then wait till that layer dries then pump the next water into it.

you then build that level up until the rockhard salt is filled to the top of the wooden mould

you then create a smaller mould 1 meter smaller from the edge of the other block and as you said then build that level up.

that would be fairly solid

any ideas what area you could build it??

the land would be dirt cheap i reckon in the middle of nowhere.

you could have an arduino module control the water inflow to the mould, after a number of months you’d turn up and res set the mould to the next level

maybe for cheapness instead of using plywood you could use waste polystyrene to act as the mould?

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

morrie said:

Yep. You might be able to persuade it to form inside a mould. I reduce the volume of my scrap polystyrene by dissolving it in acetone. It ends up as a hard cake.

Anyway, forget about a polystyrene pyramid. Think: salt.
Pump up water from a hypersaline resource into a shallow bunded area of perhaps an acre in area. Allow the water to evaporate, depositing the salt as hard crystals, while you continue to add hypersaline water. Continue the process until you have reached the appropriate thickness. Now start another layer of smaller area on top of it. Continue the process….until you reach the peak.

The result; an enormous glistening white pyramid in the middle of the desert, as hard as rock. Rain will have minimal effect on it.

right

what you could do is have a mould that contains the water until it evaporates, you could pump small amount in and then wait till that layer dries then pump the next water into it.

you then build that level up until the rockhard salt is filled to the top of the wooden mould

you then create a smaller mould 1 meter smaller from the edge of the other block and as you said then build that level up.

that would be fairly solid

any ideas what area you could build it??

the land would be dirt cheap i reckon in the middle of nowhere.

you could have an arduino module control the water inflow to the mould, after a number of months you’d turn up and res set the mould to the next level

Salt affected land somewhere like marginal SW WA.

No need to let the salt dry out. It is better to keep the brine deep. That way the crystals grow to a large size and interlock. I have seen this stuff so hard that it was breaking the tynes on a ripper on the back of a dozer.

You could make the initial walls by pushing up dirt to form a shallow dam.

morrie said:

You could make the initial walls by pushing up dirt to form a shallow dam.

yeah but theres a good chance that if i did it i couldn’t afford to bring machinery in

polystyrene on the other hand is available and increbily light (though bulky)

once i had brough the first load of polystyrene to act as the mould , it would take successivley less material to build the thing

yes i was wondering about leaving it slightly wet

this salt pyramid could be my final resting place perhaps?

you’d get people turning up and breaking bits of it off as a souvenir

bastards

or maybe it would end up as a gigantic cow lick

wookiemeister said:

or maybe it would end up as a gigantic cow lick

I lived in an old farmhouse near Wagga. Cows over a long long time had licked away parts of the brickwork.

wookiemeister said:

or maybe it would end up as a gigantic cow lick

or camel lick?

ok whos with me to build a gigantic salt pyramid?

wookiemeister said:

ok whos with me to build a gigantic salt pyramid?

I’m in. It will cost a bit to set up the bore in the first place though. And the solar pump. And the land.

Actually, hang on, its my idea! Where is my patent attorney?

the land would be cheap, as would rates be (a pittance)

once the mould was assembled water could be slowly released , you could control this release via a web cam link ie a pump, control valve. the pump could be solar powered.

you wouldn’t need to be there all the time just when the time came to build the next layer.

you could build a pyramid TO RIVAL the egyptian pyramids and people would travel to see the salt pyramid over here, the locals would love you as it would bring money into the area

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

ok whos with me to build a gigantic salt pyramid?

I’m in. It will cost a bit to set up the bore in the first place though. And the solar pump. And the land.

Actually, hang on, its my idea! Where is my patent attorney?

how much for the bore??

wookiemeister said:

morrie said:

wookiemeister said:

ok whos with me to build a gigantic salt pyramid?

I’m in. It will cost a bit to set up the bore in the first place though. And the solar pump. And the land.

Actually, hang on, its my idea! Where is my patent attorney?

how much for the bore??

Not sure. But my solar pump made a big hole in $10,000. Rates for the next 3000 years could build up too.

polystyrene reinforced with sprayed cement.

brett said:

polystyrene reinforced with sprayed cement.

that would work as well