Monday, January 6, 2014

The Mason Jar Vacuum Chamber

The following is actually a piece to a larger project of mine, but that one's ongoing and requires more tweaks and research. The important thing here is that I needed a vacuum chamber, and on an exceedingly low budget. Thus began my quest! For the pump, I used a refrigerator compressor, Mother Earth News has a nice page about that here.

The few vacuum chambers that I found online were good, and in some cases better than mine, in terms of size and ease of use, but were still just outside my budget. Time was of the essence, what with spring semester looming, so I ended up with a mason jar vacuum chamber.

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Hello, World!

Hello, world!  I am Colton Bailey, and this is my blog.

I'd like to introduce myself, so here are a few things:

 - I'm a mechanical engineering student in the Midwest, and I'm fairly enthusiastic about it.  I wasn't in love with my first major in college, so having one suddenly fit so well has been a gratifying, though challenging, experience.
- I've been a beneficiary of the great compendium of knowledge we know and love as the Internet for many years now, and am finally making good on my urge to create content after enjoying so much created by others.
- I never "turn off" the things I learn at school, and have been constantly working to apply things I know and push myself to reach a deeper understanding of the things I learn in school.  This is typically in the form of me attempting and ultimately being, at the very least, slightly unsuccessful.  This blog could be one of those projects.

Finally, I intend to fill this with things having to do with engineering, math, or science.  These could come in the form of a project I've done that seems of note, an analysis of something that caught my interest, or even a rant on a pet peeve(I promise to only post those founded in reason).

There's a project to come soon, so stay tuned!

 - Colton