Now that the basic's are covered and I know the machine works pretty much as expected, it's time to kick this up a notch and start to show WHY I think this is important.

While I have a lot of interesting things to try, my favorite has to be graphene and carbon nanotubes. The promise in these is HUGE. With a machine to experiment with in the limited amount of time this contest runs I'm going to have to pick an area or two that best shows what I'm aiming for. I choose graphene and carbon nano tubes.

There are many hobbyist out there playing with them, and many things being tried. I in particular like the videos being made by Robert Murray-Smith. () The trouble with many of those types of experiments is the quality that is being made is just not there. Thickness of the final material is not uniform, or even in the right orientation to use the material to it's best advantage.

But lets suppose that after you got your graphene or carbon nanotubes made, there was a way to take advantage of the materials. Should we, as hobbyists, leave it for the big guys or should we jump in and make our own advances? Trick question: if you're still reading this you already know what the answer is.

I don't have room here to talk about everything going on in the field, but I'll point to two reasons you should care. One is the strength of nanotubes. Much, much stronger than steel. The second is the electrical properties. I've listed some links in the bar to the left, and you can follow them at your leisure.

It all comes down to orientation. Can whatever method you are using get the nanotubes in the proper orientation in relation of one another, and at the proper size?

A common way to produce tubes is vapor deposition. But the product is not necessarily usable to it's full advantage. Here I'm going to ask you to follow this link, (http://users.monash.edu.au/~lyeo/Dr_Leslie_Yeo/Electrospraying_files/Yeo_Friend_JEN_1_177_2006.pdf) and go down to the images on page 181.

(A) is showing us the difference between a commercially produced carbon fiber, and one electrospun. (B) is the rats nest made by vapor deposition. In (C) you will find the electrospun ones.

Which group do you think would have the best and most consistent mechanical and electrical properties? That's not even a trick question. The answer is obvious.

As soon as we can get all this sorted out and working for those of us working at the hobby level, the sooner we can start to enjoy the benefits in our projects.

So that's where I'm going to start. Being a holiday here, not much is getting moving. But the order is in for the materials I need to get this started. As soon as it's here I'll get us started on it, and maybe even get a few of you interested enough to try it. :)

Oh, and meanwhile I'm still working on getting the project files in order and up of github. It's going to take more work than it really should, given my sloppy habits the many files involved, but I AM working on it....