Making bakelite plastic (Part 2) 

I would love to see Nile revisit Bakelite with all the equipment and knowledge he has now.

3:42 Nile pours out the product me: "Wait, wasn't that just 120 C?" Nile, casually : "The flask was still really hot, and I was burning my fingers."

What I have taken away from this series: Almost every step of making Bakelite looks delicious

Looks like you could just do the reaction inside a pressure cooker. They are designed to run at 120C while full of water, so they can definitely take the pressure, you'll just have to control the heat input so it doesn't need to vent to regulate pressure.

I am astonished by how little chemistry I know and how much I love this channel.

Someone really doesn't like hexamine.

Please make the hexamine video hidden and add the link to this description.

A family member told me he had a job at a sugar cane processing plant when he was a young man in the 60’s. Apparently, the plant also made Bakelite products. He said they used cellulose fibers from the sugarcane (after squeezing out the sugar) plus asbestos as strengthening agents. One of his jobs was handling the asbestos, but fortunately he never had any health problems from that. Anyway, he told me that because I was collecting Bakelite radios at the time and he was telling me how they made similar products. This series reminded me of that.

+NileRed Please try to repost the hexamine video with title "How to make fuel tablets for camping gear". Maybe they would then get the idea.

It's a good thing you advertised your shop at the end, I've been watching your content for a while now, and really enjoy it! Those keychains are perfect as gifts and I just ordered two of them! I hope it supports you a bit in making awesome content!

4/21 bakelize it

Hexamine is used in the synthesis of RDX but jeeze who cares. Someone probably thinking he's saving the world when there's a bazillion postings on various forums on how to synthesize the stuff. Must be someone jealous of Nile's videos.

NileRed, the secret to success with Bakelite is the tooling you use. Baekeland, who invented this stuff, was having the same problem as you. On June 18, 1907, he was experimenting with making a wood coating and writes that he had placed in his "horizontal digester" (which was later named the Bakelizer) some blocks of wood, plus an open tube "rammed" with a mixture of asbestos fiber and liquid, and a sealed tube rammed with asbestos fiber and liquid. He heated all of it 4 hours at 140 degrees C. (He refers to "A" and "D" in the next paragraph; he had four different resins and the one he called D was the Bakelite resin that made it to production.) He wrote: "Asbestos + A in sealed tube. I found tube broken perhaps in irregular expansion but the reaction seems to have been satisfactory because the resulting stick was very hard and below where there was some unmixed liquid A there was an end of solidified matter yellowish and hard and entirely similar to the product obtained by simply heating A alone in sealed tube. This looks promising and it will be worth while to determine in how far this mass which I will call D is able to make moulded materials either alone or in conjunction with other solid materials as for instance asbestos, casein, zinc oxid, starch, different inorganic powders and lamp black and thus make a substitute for celluloid and for hard rubber." This is how Bakelite was made in Bakelite factories. First, a steel mold was made. The mold has three pieces. It's got a top and a bottom. The third piece serves as a dam. It wants to be three to four times as deep as the height of the finished piece...so if the part you're making is an inch high, the dam is four inches deep. You apply a lubricant called "release agent" to all the parts of the mold so you can get the part out. Set the dam on top of the bottom and fill it with a mixture of resin powder, catalyst and a filler like wood flour. (The filler makes it stronger. Also cheaper to make.) Put the top on the mold and use hydraulic pressure to compress the resin/filler mix to its final size. Then put the whole thing in an autoclave heated to 300 degrees F and leave it in there until the resin melts and catalyzes. When it cools enough to handle, open the mold and remove your new bakelite object. So...how can we do this when we don't have a factory? Silicone spray will work for a release agent. You could make a really simple mold out of a piece of two-inch black iron pipe and two metal discs that fit nicely inside of it, and use a big C-clamp to press it in place. One disc you can call "bottom mold," the other "top mold." (Alternately, Spray the inside of the pipe and the two molds with silicone spray. You'll need a vise and a C-clamp you can tighten down with a wrench. Since you need 300 degrees F and a pressure cooker will only get you to 250, you'll have to put it in the toaster oven. Leave it there for...oh, thirty minutes will get you started. Make enough resin powder to fill the tube to the depth of 2 inches from the bottom mold. Add wood flour at a 1:1 ratio and mix thoroughly. Dump the resin mix into the tube (there should be 4 inches of mix in there, half wood flour and half resin mix) and put the top mold on. Put the C-clamp on it, pressing the top mold and bottom mold together. Put the C-clamp in the vise, and tighten it until the assembly has been pressed to a quarter of its original size. Then bake it for half an hour, pull it out, put it on a heatproof surface and let it cool. When you can handle it, undo the C-clamp and pop your Bakelite disc out.

you can send it to Cody's lab he has an pressure chamber maybe he can play around with it

The color in the middle one at the end is amazing. I have several late 40s and 50s electronics and a 1949 Ford. I always thought the colors were added in(I'm sure some were) but still really cool

Nile the man strong enough to grind a stir bar into a fine powder.

It was quite interesting to follow these experiments becoming more complex. Good explanations, too. Keep up the nice work! :)

I second that of contacting Codys Lab. He has large pressure vessel and is not in any way afraid to use it! Could you release the hexamine video for patrions - just as a private video - then at least somebody can see it

The heart with some pink inside it actually turned out pretty beautiful

Wow. You devoted a LOT of time and effort to this series. I learned much about bakelite. _Many_ thanks.

10:03 *DETERMINATION starts playing*

Nice haha I was not expecting you to have a thc keychain but I think I’m gonna get one of each. I love you and Cody’s lab I love how most of Cody’s stuff is more basic practical chemistry and yours are an in depth breakdown of complex chemical interactions keep up the great work man I’ve learned so much from this channel and what your doing is great. God bless brother

There are a number of videos on RU-vid about DIY solder reflow oven conversions from toaster ovens. That would allow you to control temperature curves over the span of hours automatically. Might be something useful over the long term if you have needs for more precise temp control (+/-2-3C).

What about using a pressure cooker to harden it?

Use a pressure cooker with a water bath under it to simulate the higher pressure and temperature regulation of the bakelizer

This video is right in time for my Organic Chemistry class. We will be making some Bakelite in the lab in a couple of hours so this is perfect, i will be ahead of class ! Thank you and greetings from Mexico !

I will now value even more my old bakelite radios...😎❤

Love this channel!

If you do not have the book: K.M. Swezey, Chemistry Magic, McGraw Hill, 1956, you should find a copy. There is an experiment in this book to make a resole. Their C-stage cure is done under a lightbulb. The bulb is spaced such that 50 C is held for 1 hour then 75 C for 2.5 hours. They did not have bubbling problems. Now, I wanted to do this experiment, but as a kid in the 70's, I could only obtain phenol with hypophosphorous acid as a stabiliser. Its thermal decomposition product is phosphine gas which is pyrophoric and I did not want this burning at the top of the reflux condenser used in making the A and B stage resins.

Super excited for the Nylon 6,6 (Zytel) video finally! the wait is almost over :)

From both videos I conclude that you should better never do chemistry when hungry...

Two parts at once? Nice!

You may want to look into a toaster oven reflow controller. It's basically a temperature probe, a relay for controlling the oven power, and a microcontroller. They are mostly used for DIY reflow soldering of electronics, but should be programmable for this task as well. They usually contain a PID loop that can be calibrated against the thermal lag and overshoot of the oven being used. And of course... If there are heat elements on the top, look into covering the mold with something like aluminium foil so it's only heated by the air and not from radiation which could be a source of temperature overshoot.

7:10 Busted out laughing at the "+ etc." here xD

ive watched so many of your videos and now i want to go into chemical engineering 🖤

Shame the hexamine vid is no longer available. As a steam engine hobbyist, making esbit would be very helpful.

you should try using a pressure mold

Awww bless. Good attempt buddy

This is awesome

4:57 he is crushing the stir bar too

I imagine it could be done in a pressure cooker with some agent that removes water and cured at a controlled temperature of 120° in an oven under pressure.

You know somebody is a good youtuber when he sacrifised his finger tips to a good shot of that flask.Nice!

4:48 - tell me, who had ever felt more betrayed than that stirring rod?

OMG HE WAS CRUSHING THE SPINNING THING at 12:31

Worth attempting again, but curing it in a vacuum, can use the same setup as you did for the mercury distilling.

These videos were much more informative and accurate than the Periodic Video edition.

The two on the right at the end are beautiful.

You can control the temperature in your oven by using a variac and hooking it up straight to the heater coils

You know what's funny? I study psychology and have no ideia of what is going on. But it is somehow entertaining!

Might you try a pressure cooker (or instapot) with a belly full of something that has a higher vapor pressure -or boiling point than waster?

A pressure cooker or a autoklav should do the job. If it still isn´t enough maybe a hydrothermal reactor (either a small one or a cheap one build like a pipe bomb) with a small silicone inlay you probably can mold too.

5:03 Interesting video editing there. It looks like you pulverized that stir bar along with the other stuff. 😅

Wow dude those keychains are a great idea, far out bruv

With those starting materials it might be cool to synthesize some calixarenes

YOU do are great!

Well based on your description of the baseline I would suggest a pressure cooker...the old timey ones are far better than the newer ones and the have built in pop off valves that you can actually see...you can also put a calibrated weight on it for the pressure that you want

Very nice demo. There were tears. Seriously. I tried to use ammonia to tie up the hydroxyl groups. I was crying for days…he- he

nice work as usual! one question, could you try to make an aldoxime? and after this the beckmann rearrangement, and then the hofmann rearrangement to yield an amine? =) would be awesome

At first, I was kind of impressed /shocked how you were able to manually crush the magnetic stirring rod.

Congratulations for your videos, they are very interesting! Did you ever try to make galalith? I tried it, but it has a horrendous color.

Great videos! I know nothing about chemistry, but was wondering if perhaps you could cure your bakelite inside of a pressure cooker to cut down on foaming?

5:31 is giving me Scarface vibes lol 😊😊😊😊😊

Maybe try the hydrothermal thingy ? Some steel plumbing pipe & fittings, a bit of water, heat, and a lot of safety precautions.

Im really enjoying chemistry with your videos

AY YO THE STIR BAR

As far as getting rid of the bubbles, cook it down in a pressure cooker. That will keep the bubbles in solution until the bakelite can harden.

Did you consider trying to sure it in a pressure cooker? I'm not sure if that would be hot enough, but it should make sure the bakelite doesn't puff up, since the pressure should be enough to prevent the water in the bakelite from boiling. I guess.

WE GOIN NUTS WE HEARIN VOICES ALL NIGHT, GO AND GRAB THA AK AND LOADIN UP DA BAKELITE

Really cool video. Despite being in like grade 9 and new to chemistry as a subject. I actually enjoy your videos very much. I bet you can't name one video I haven't watched. ;)

Yumm butterscotch.

4:55 the stir bar!!!!

Googling pressure cooker, and a few other things, has probably put me on some watch lists. I still kind of want to make some bakelite though.

gotta love youtube, the only website where someone can repeatedly flag a CHEMISTRY VIDEO and youtube will side with the idiot instead of banning them.

I could see this being an interesting project for chemistry majors

it would be cool if you revisited this! It sounds like all that was missing is a pressure pot.

Dude you crushed the stir bar lol

Just curious, but would a vacuum chamber work to help manage the reaction?

Big camping is keeping Nile down by blocking hexamine vids.

i feel like im the only person watching this even tho i dont understand anything, but cant stop because its so interesting

sick distillation setup, lol

that's actually quite normal that candy and the resins are similar as candy is usually made with some starch polymer, a common starch that is used is potato starch

Maybe use a preasure cooker to cure the polymer? to try to avoid the bubbeling.

1:53 Cool! So that's how I make a face melting bomb!

3:47 If you want to see the moment of soul-baring honesty in this epic adventure.

Hi Nile Red! As you ask for ideas: Did you consider using a water getter as a filler, for example powered zeolite? X13 Zeolite for instance has a quite high desorption temperature so it should not give off much steam

your link to part 1 in the description is a link to edit the video and it just takes me to my homepage..

Psst, hey kid you want a link to the hexamine video?

They honestly look like relics from the stalker series, which feels fitting.

Interesting! This video popped up in my youtube recommendations. As soon as I spotted the maple leaf I thought "oh yeah, a fellow Canadian"! I have math and computer science degrees, a couple of first year chem courses. Lately I have been experimenting with electroplating, and anodizing aluminum. Watching those videos probably tipped off the youtube algorithm. I will now subscribe to NileRed.

2:24 why are the bubbles moving around with the stir bar? Weird

in uni we had classes in material strength and on plastics we cooked some reactoplastics, not sure what it was (you are mechanical engineers, it is not important, or something, so i do not remember writing it down). It was made in a small mold which closed and squished the powdered mixture and then heated. That made the small cylinder exactly to test on machine which crushes material and measures strength of it :)

Have you considered using the heated press you got to both apply pressure and heat? It should create a good result

I was wondering if a sealed mold would work? In other words, a two piece metal mold that you bolt shut. As the bubbling occurs, it would push out into the mold, but be restricted by it. This would increase the pressure, and prevent further bubbling. I am wondering, though, about the escaped of products as gas, and if they effect the end product.

Have you tried making a novolac epoxy from this powder? This would be a very interesting continuation.

PLEASE DO MORE BAKELITE VIDEOS ! :D

love that you made a thc molecule key chain hahahahaha

This video makes me want Nova Lox for some reason. :D

what about heating it enough so it melts, puting it in vacum (with controlled stable temprature) and THEN completely heatblast it?

Can you do a video on how to make colorless/transparent resin mixture

One idea for baking it could be putting the mold in a water bath, and then into the oven on a far lower heat.