> 50¢/m² is 50¢/kWp in a solar concentrator, or 0.05¢/Wp, which is noticeably cheaper than photovoltaic cells, currently around 18¢/Wp, 360 times more expensive. A photovoltaic cell is a solar panel, and a piece of aluminium does nothing, am I missing something here?
Aluminum foil (2021)
31–40 of 148 posts
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#32This made me wonder about a 3D printer alternative that builds things by folding a thin sheet of metal into arbitrary shapes instead of extruding filament.
They do this. This is the coolest one IMO:
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#33This made me wonder about a 3D printer alternative that builds things by folding a thin sheet of metal into arbitrary shapes instead of extruding filament.
I made an artwork in 2013-ish, where I attached an aluminum foil to a good DC motor. I mounted it from the ceiling with 2 stepper motors to control height and one orthogonal axis. The motor would unwind the foil by accelerating quickly in either direction (CW/CCW). By changing directions it would also create folds and stabilize the emerging shape: https://imgur.com/a/gaRKGtQ I always imagined an additional stepper mo…
Imgur is not working anymore in UK :(
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#34It's non-toxic and food safe, and yet a significant number of people on the internet still act like it's poison that will give you Alzheimer's. I wonder how many of those people touch their lips to the lid of an aluminum beverage can. Or how they might bake a lasagna at home.
1) all of them
2) glass dish
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#35>Robert Lang recommends laminating tissue paper on one or both sides of kitchen aluminum foil to make “tissue foil”, which for years he considered the ideal origami material.
The sculptor Kim Beaton likes to champion foil as a "metal clay" for sculpting. Keep it full of air pockets and it's easy to shape. You can use hot glue to put parts together, and then cover it in other clays for fine details and coloring. She does quick demos for tour groups at Weta Workshop in New Zealand.
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#36It's non-toxic and food safe, and yet a significant number of people on the internet still act like it's poison that will give you Alzheimer's. I wonder how many of those people touch their lips to the lid of an aluminum beverage can. Or how they might bake a lasagna at home.
I've only seen people concerned with it in antiperspirants, where it's a salt. (And to be clear, I think it's BS.)
As with NaCl, it's at least possible that the salt and the pure-ish variant aren't quite the same thing.
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
You sound like someone who hasn't explored the upper limits of what aluminum foil can solve!
Read this guy's ramblings and give me one cool application that he has found. Lots of "maybe it could do this!" and "it can do !"
Aluminum foil makes a great, cheap light bounce for photography on the fly. Your photos will instantly look better either reflecting to the back of their head 180 from shot, or as a fill for their face.
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#38Aluminum is honestly a miracle material that has no business being as inexpensive as it is (of course, this is only since the invention of the Hall–Héroult process, before which aluminum was one of the most expensive metals known despite making up ~8% of the crust).
Yup. The very tip of the Washington Monument was made of aluminium, which made it faaaaaancy. Two years later, not so much.
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#39This made me wonder about a 3D printer alternative that builds things by folding a thin sheet of metal into arbitrary shapes instead of extruding filament.
They do this. This is the coolest one IMO: https://mantle3d.com/
That's not how mantle3d works. It's 3d printed metal alternating with CNC machining after several layers for precision:
https://mantle3d.com/how-it-works/
This is optionally followed by a pressurized furnace for sintering.
Re: Aluminum foil (2021)
#40It's non-toxic and food safe, and yet a significant number of people on the internet still act like it's poison that will give you Alzheimer's. I wonder how many of those people touch their lips to the lid of an aluminum beverage can. Or how they might bake a lasagna at home.
i heard aluminum food containers are often coated with toxic liners, like plastics, bpa, and pfas.
If Alzheimers isnt a risk with pure aluminum metal, id say those liners are a huge risk.
Are kitchen foils coated? Im pretty sure cans are most of the time.