The golden standard is Applied Science channel, of course, but there are some smaller channels with similar vibe.
- https://www.youtube.com/@primitivetechnology9550 - Primitive Technology, with John Plant. Non-narrated, but subtitled, videos of him building houses & other useful things with just clay, wood & stone. It's not a recreation of how people lived, but of what people might have done - he does research and tries to apply what he's learned to the materials available.
- https://www.youtube.com/@TechnologyConnections - Technology Connections. Less making, and more explaining, this has deep dives into (usually) older technology. There's something like six hours explaining how a particular pinball machine works, and I think his most recent video about VHS-C has already made it to the top of HN earlier this week.
https://www.youtube.com/@Blondihacks - A (primarily) model engineering channel with a focus on hobby / home precision machining
https://www.youtube.com/@daliborfarny - A guy working to keep the art of nixie tube manufacturing alive
https://www.youtube.com/@StuffMadeHere - Silly / improbable projects mostly for fun (e.g. basketball hoop that you can't miss a shot)
Here's the channels I like, in no particular order:
- https://www.youtube.com/@TechIngredients Thumbnails and titles are clickbaity, but don't let that fool you. One of the most thorough channels. Polymath like Applied Science.
- https://www.youtube.com/@HuygensOptics Optical Systems and connected topics from a veteran of the field
- https://www.youtube.com/@Borgedesigns Designing 3d-printed tools
- https://www.youtube.com/@Nighthawkinlight Like Applied Science, but trying to do stuff with easily acquirable materials
- https://www.youtube.com/@AdvancedTinkering Chemistry and vacuum tech
- https://www.youtube.com/@ExcessiveOverkill Hardware projects, one of the biggest is controlling an industrial robot arm, but others are cool too
- https://www.youtube.com/@SamZeloof Reached home-made semiconductors
- https://www.youtube.com/@projectsinflight Trying to reach home-made semiconductors
- https://www.youtube.com/@christopherhelmke Building industrial 3d-printed parts sorting system
- https://www.youtube.com/@MariusHornberger Most thorough woodworker
- https://www.youtube.com/@BreakingTaps Like Applied Science, but with more free time
- https://www.youtube.com/@benmakeseverything Cool hardware projects
- https://www.youtube.com/@ancientjames Holograms
- https://www.youtube.com/@NileRed More entertaining than educational, but a prominent chemistry channel
- https://www.youtube.com/@BenEater Classic: made computer on a breadboard
- https://www.youtube.com/@theCodyReeder Like Applied Science, but more outdoors type; builds a Martian-like base
- https://www.youtube.com/@colinfurze A welding guy with extremely high energy, builds underground garage
- https://www.youtube.com/tomstantonengineering Hardware projects mostly about flying stuff
- https://www.youtube.com/@mymechanics Machining guy restoring things; currently restores a car by individually handling every nut and bolt (yes)
- https://www.youtube.com/@HyperspacePirate Hardware / Chemistry projects, made liquid nitrogen with disassembled AC units in a long-running series of attempts
He gets surprisingly close to viable storage media. Nicely done =3
First line: "[YouTuber] PolyMatt"
The article just advertises the video. This post could be just the video.
Are we mostly l33t developers here, in love with CLI and Vim? Ha!
:wq
1. dissolve a bunch of rust in hardware-store hydrochloric acid,
2. dilute it in a lot of water,
3. into a similar quantity of water, mix an large excess of baking soda to neutralize the acid,
4. rapidly mix the two solutions together to precipitate a very fine iron hydroxide powder,
5. decant the powder and/or filter it with coffee filters,
6. rinse it to remove the remaining salt and sodium carbonate,
7. heat it to convert it to Fe₂O₃, and
8. heat the Fe₂O₃ in a sealed container with enough carbon to reduce it to Fe₃O₄.
I don't know if this would actually work, because my entire education in chemistry consists of watching NileRed videos in which the primary lesson is that nothing works the way you think it will. Wikipedia has some more-promising-sounding approaches that require materials I don't have: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron(II,III)_oxide#Preparation
> use ammonia to promote chemical co-precipitation from the iron chlorides: first mix solutions of 0.1 M FeCl₃·6H₂O and FeCl₂·4H₂O with vigorous stirring at about 2000 rpm. The molar ratio of the FeCl₃:FeCl₂ should be about 2:1. Heat the mix to 70 °C, then raise the speed of stirring to about 7500 rpm and quickly add a solution of NH₄OH (10 volume %). A dark precipitate of nanoparticles of magnetite forms immediately.[9]
You can also buy it as a pottery pigment or as a black "ferrite" pigment for mixing into whitewash to make black paint, but if the particles are too coarse, you probably can't mechanically grind them down to be small enough.
You can get ferrous sulfate from the garden store as a fertilizer, and if you get it wet it likes to oxidize to ferric sulfate with the air. Or you can encourage it with hydrogen peroxide. I wouldn't be surprised if that would work as a replacement for the ferrous and ferric chloride mix in the Wikipedia recipe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_mill
but yes, you can certainly just buy fine Fe3O4
smokel•5h ago
Thanks for sharing!
Edit: sigh, I should probably run my comments through ChatGPT to avoid being downvoted. I like this, I share my enthusiasm. I like the uselessness of it, meaning the uselessness of making a floppy disk in 2025, not the lack of educational value. Sheesh.
MrGilbert•5h ago
jadamson•5h ago
ant6n•5h ago
bitwize•14m ago
isoprophlex•5h ago
why even bother
__d•5h ago
Mine and refine iron ore to make hub. Mine and refine zinc(?) to plate it.
Drill for and refine oil to make PET for disk and casing. Injection mold casing. Make film for actual disc.
Etc, etc.
I’d be ok using tools that weren’t made from scratch as well, but that’d be bonus ooints.
smokel•5h ago
In a way it is somewhat similar to people writing demos for old computers using emulators. Still great fun, but using these tools it doesn't take a village to make one floppy disk. With modern hardware you are apparently able to pull this off on your own. That would have been almost impossible in the 1980s, when these floppy disks were popular.
I probably worded it badly, but I really enjoy these efforts, and I would never be able to do this myself, even if I had a shed with all those tools!
cluckindan•5h ago
How can someone call themselves a programmer when they don’t even mine for silicon!
debesyla•3h ago
et-al•3h ago
orthoxerox•2h ago
the_other_mac•2h ago
rbanffy•1h ago
Knowing how to design a CPU is quite helpful.
dotancohen•1h ago
bitwize•13m ago
zootboy•9m ago
cluckindan•3m ago
hnlmorg•2h ago
If someone was to say “make a pasta source from scratch” then that wouldn’t mean refining your own copper to make your source pans.
The problem is creating the floppy disk. Not the tooling to create the floppy disk.
ghurtado•2h ago
Like pretty much everyone responding, I disagree.
That's it, that's all a downvote means. Don't be afraid of them, it's not worth it.