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Taking out the trash

  • Mar. 8th, 2008 at 7:08 AM
cat - after teo rus, bad post!, sleepy goth, crossroads, money, mikage: go deeper, treason and plot, raahhhr!, O RLY? YS RLY!, asuka, bitch please, Angry Young Meredith, fat bob's novel, rose window, space hog!, sup fruits, oh really?, gunpowder, me!, doom, needs head!, native habitat, brave, dehydrated water, serious
If you have a whole lot of VHS (or Beta, or 3/4", or cassette, whatever, just has to be magnetic) tapes you're not ever going to use again, and would like to get rid of them, please speak up. I need a metric asston of them for an upcoming project, and will be glad to take them off your hands.
  • Mood: creative

Comments

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[info]deifire wrote:
Mar. 8th, 2008 03:25 pm (UTC)
Yes! As a matter of fact, I do. Just let me know where to send them, and they are yours.
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Mar. 8th, 2008 03:36 pm (UTC)
Thanks! Emailed to your @livejournal.com account, as the last one I have for you is several years old and I don't think you work there anymore.
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[info]blue_estro wrote:
Mar. 8th, 2008 05:56 pm (UTC)
Mine are all SAE
I might be able to dig some up. Do you want the whole cassette or just the tape? (ie would it save you effort by removing the casing first?)
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Mar. 8th, 2008 06:18 pm (UTC)
Re: Mine are all SAE
Yeah, we just need the magnetic-tape bit, so if you want to pull it apart, that would be great. (I also need to figure out a sensible way of disposing of the outer plastic shell and the reels, though keeping the tape on a reel is easiest for storage for the time being; I won't have time to actually start this project till I get back from next week's trip. I am planning to hit Death Guild on the 17th, so could pick them up from you there if you'll be there.)
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[info]blue_estro wrote:
Mar. 14th, 2008 08:44 am (UTC)
Re: Mine are all SAE
I don't do St. Patrick's day if I can avoid it.

MEAT is next Thursday at the DNA...or we can dress up in trench coats and meet in some back alley for a hand-off.

(*And by this I mean I don't do the gratuitous American drinking day.)
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[info]neoliminal wrote:
Mar. 8th, 2008 07:26 pm (UTC)
Is this some kind of ... magnetic toilet papering project? Something where you'll stream magnetic tape over a metal building or house roof? I mean that's pretty cool...

What are you going to do with this stuff? You can send me email and I wont tell anyone else but I'm dying to know.
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Mar. 8th, 2008 07:31 pm (UTC)
A friend and I want to make ferrofluid, and it occurred to us that magnetic tape would be a good source of very small magnetised particles that could be removed from the tape by dissolving the tape (with acetone or something similar). The next trick will be getting the magnetic particles out of the acetone-polymer sludge, but we have a few ideas about that as well.
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[info]neoliminal wrote:
Mar. 8th, 2008 09:59 pm (UTC)
"The next trick will be getting the magnetic particles out of the acetone-polymer sludge, but we have a few ideas about that as well."

That seems almost trivial with the cost of VERY STRONG MAGNETS these days. You don't even need a cyclotron.
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 12:45 am (UTC)
VERY STRONG MAGNETS were in fact exactly the route we had in mind. *grin*
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[info]enochsmiles wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 04:24 am (UTC)
And yes, that's the approach that I've seen used for the dollar bill trick. ;)
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[info]ilcylic wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 12:50 pm (UTC)
Presumably, VERY STRONG MAGNETS on the outside of the container, so you don't then have to get the particles off the magnets somehow.
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[info]enochsmiles wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 05:02 pm (UTC)
A plastic bag around the magnet, dripped in the slurry.
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[info]enochsmiles wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 04:23 am (UTC)
I don't know why she's using VHS tapes. Dollar bills are easier to come by, and cheaper. ;)
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[info]ilcylic wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 12:50 pm (UTC)
Dollars aren't worth much, but they're still worth more than "free".
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[info]enochsmiles wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 05:01 pm (UTC)
Well, sure. But how much are VHS tapes? How many dollars does it take to get an equal amount of ferrofluid as from the VHS tapes? Someone needs to do their homework. ;)
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[info]ilcylic wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 05:50 pm (UTC)
Well, the operating assumption there was that the VHS tapes were free. So, the only cost from the VHS tapes is the harvesting materials, and labor.

You can probably buy VHS tapes from Goodwill for $1 per hundred or something, these days.
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 08:13 pm (UTC)
The point of this little exercise is actually to practice chemistry lab techniques, such as liquid-liquid extraction. This won't be a traditional liquid-liquid extraction, as the magnetic particles will actually be in suspension, but the plan is to take the magnetic-particles-in-plastic-and-acetone-sludge, add a solvent immiscible with acetone and denser than the plastic-dissolved-in-acetone, and end up with magnetic-particles-in-solvent. Probably using magnets on the outside of the sep funnel to aid in the separation.
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[info]enochsmiles wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 11:13 pm (UTC)
So, it's a different extraction process when dealing with dollar bill sludge, but still, they both work.
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 04:29 am (UTC)
How do you suggest dissolving paper, though? I can't think of a way to do it that wouldn't also oxidize the iron.
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[info]enochsmiles wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 07:25 am (UTC)
Water. Blender. High.
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[info]barbarienne wrote:
Mar. 9th, 2008 07:25 am (UTC)
As it happens, I am relocating and don't necessarily need to drag all my old videotapes with me. Send me your addy and I'll ship 'em out!
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[info]maradydd wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 04:29 am (UTC)
Email sent! Thanks muchly.
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[info]eric_williamson wrote:
Mar. 10th, 2008 10:36 pm (UTC)
So my guess is that disk platters are a no go? I have several I want to get rid of. *shrug*

I have tons of tapes (cassette, VHS, and SVHS) but am not sure about the shipping from VA. I'd be happy to disassemble and send as many reels as would fit in one of the USPS "don't care about the weight as long as it fits" flat-rate shipping boxes.
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[info]halax wrote:
Mar. 31st, 2008 10:55 pm (UTC)
A day late...
Well, actually, more like a week or two late. Or, in fact, not late at all...
I have started packing up my apartment and have been moving stuff into a storage unit in anticipation of my finally finishing at Caltech.
As part of this process, I've been trying to replace as much VHS as I can with DVD. Some things, like my MST3K, are unavailable on the newer format. But I've gotten rid of something like 30 VHS tapes in the last three weeks.

If I'd only read you post when it was first created, I'd have saved them for you. When do you need the tape by? I might be able to scrounge up some more.

Troy (a.k.a. the now-defunct Halax
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