Very exciting discovery in Velasco Labs right now!

People keep sending me links to that German feminist hacker collective that made wild clay PCBs, and while i think that's pretty cool, the way they applied the conductive traces felt a little like a cheat to me because they were sort of painted on.

Last night after someone linked me to it again, i suddenly remembered my experiments with adding copper powder to ceramics glazes, and how, by smothering the red-hot ceramics in sawdust, i was able to reduce the copper oxides into something that looked like metallic copper. That got me pondering.

So, i applied some tinning flux meant for plumbing to a small spot on this test piece from last year and hit it with my soldering iron. Sure enough, it tinned the copper, and with that, i was able to solder a piece of wire to it.

Your eyes to not deceive you. This is copper wire soldered to a piece of ceramic pottery and it is firmly attached.

@MLE_online here's some inspiration. You could totally build this amplifier on a ceramic circuit board. Of course, the components would be just as small, but it still might be kind of fun. I'm sure you'll come up with some functional circuit board though.
https://youtu.be/nMrNFcf7FtE?si=1cRgGQgWI9zzRdhq

Very exciting discovery in Velasco Labs right now!

People keep sending me links to that German feminist hacker collective that made wild clay PCBs, and while i think that's pretty cool, the way they applied the conductive traces felt a little like a cheat to me because they were sort of painted on.

Last night after someone linked me to it again, i suddenly remembered my experiments with adding copper powder to ceramics glazes, and how, by smothering the red-hot ceramics in sawdust, i was able to reduce the copper oxides into something that looked like metallic copper. That got me pondering.

So, i applied some tinning flux meant for plumbing to a small spot on this test piece from last year and hit it with my soldering iron. Sure enough, it tinned the copper, and with that, i was able to solder a piece of wire to it.

Your eyes to not deceive you. This is copper wire soldered to a piece of ceramic pottery and it is firmly attached.

@MLE_online nearly a smart mug

@HackAWeek I'm thinking an astable multivibrator. It' a simple circuit without too many components, and the blinking LEDs show you it's working.

I am going to make a 3D printed stamp that creates depressed traces in a slab of clay. That way I can pour copper powder into the traces and let it do its thing where it chemically melds with the glaze, but without flowing anywhere

So, now what? Well, I am now compelled to try making a ceramic PCB with integrated copper traces in the ceramics studio

@MLE_online
Start simple: make a capacitor.

@MLE_online I think the glass acts as a flux.

@RueNahcMohr I'm not sure what you mean