During the downtime when the 3D printer is taking its good sweet time to finish a print, or my wife decides she needs to see my face for a while, I've been doing some more digging around trying to see exactly where we all stand on making the promises of carbon nano tubes a reality. The more I dig, the more progress I see, but also how far we have to go.

I'm a firm believer in moving things to the lowest level we can, in this case down to the makers and the hackers. The large institutions are working hard on ways to make carbon nanotubes in massive amounts. As well they might, when then can get several hundred dollars PER GRAM for it. But that puts it outside the range where the average maker can experiment with it. It also leaves us out in the cold as far they are concerned. We are so far beneath their radar they don't even know we exist.

I intend to help change that.

Carbon is everywhere. Just step outside and look at a tree. There you go, raw material. It's in the processing to make it conduct electricity better than copper does, or in long threads that are many times stronger than steel, that we need to see improvements.

This project is only a first step toward the goal of making all this come down to the level where the makers and the hackers can do their thing with it, and that's where we will see things change.

This project will get me to the point I can make use of carbon nano tubes that I buy, as well as play around with other materials. The next step will be to make a step by step process that anyone can follow to make the tubes from scratch. In small amounts, sure. But in a form and at a cost that the small guy can make use of it. And do it safely! That's important at any time, but it has to be kept in mind here. Most of the methods of producing and processing nano tubes involve nasty chemicals, gases or other hazards. Getting through that jungle won't be easy.

I'm working on a list of reference material, research papers and other links dealing with the state of carbon nano tube production and processing. With any luck I'll get that posted here shortly. The stack of printed out material I have now is about seven inches tall, and growing daily. Now I need to find time to dig into it in depth. Mostly that means times when I'm otherwise torn away from my work. (Sure, I read in the bathroom. Don't you? Lol.)