The Wizard of Zephyrhills
I have been doing chemistry on my own for the past 8yr. I've been interested in it since I was 12 or 13, but no one could teach me at the time, so I turned to YouTube and wikipedia. Fast forward 4yr and I had taught myself enough to start reading old public domain chem textbooks and research papers. I slowly built up from dissolving pennies to crafting unique organic reactions. Lately I don't have much time, so my videos are simple topics for now, but I have a lot of big projects planned.
I'm just here to document my unique hobby to hopefully inspire the next amateur chemists just like the ones who came before me...
Disclaimer: This channel is not a guide, and all actions shown may be harmful without missing context. Any content seemingly depicting a procedure should be interpreted as a private record which may be unlisted or removed upon request. This channel serves primarily to document my journey after my mental health struggles.
The Wizard of Zephyrhills
Survey says: 4.445kg (9lb 12.8oz)
Technically this is my first time obtaining lead after nearly a decade studying chemistry, but unfortunately I had just spent about $20 on a 5lb chunk at the hardware store about a month ago because I wasn't ever finding any. The lesson is be patient and the scrap gods giveth, but THEY WONT LET ME THROW THAT AWAY I MIGHT USE IT NEXT TIME.
1 month ago | [YT] | 4
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The Wizard of Zephyrhills
I ordered some Pd last week off Ebay surprisingly (it was the only real listing), and it cost about $47 including priority shipping and tax. Spot price is currently $33.12 when you buy an oz (troy = 31.105g), so not far off the fees the big brokers charge anyway before tax and shipping. I think I was on AMPEX and saw basically the same 1g bar for $56. So I'm happy with this source, but I may buy a 5g or ¼oz (7.78g) bar in the near future. I believe that these precious metals will, in fact, hold their value mostly pegged to inflation.
I'm not buying it to hold my money, though. I'm going to dissolve every last mg of it (1.019g = 9.575mmol) with a slow Chlorine gas flow through 15% HCl at an excess. I'll distill that down and vacuum dessicate to get about 1.666g of PdCl2. That's enough to produce about 20.38g 5% Pd/C worth nearly $2k when purchased on Ebay. It's ludicrously priced when there's only $2.35 of Pd in a gram of 5% catalyst. I'll make a video on it eventually. I also have a small roll of Pt wire coming from China eventually for making electrodes out of. I'm going to actually start up the electrolysis series for real and get a power supply later this year.
I also just received a Vevor propane forge so I will melt down the nearly 40lb of aluminium cans I have saved and the ~10lb copper wire I dig up at work into denser metal droplets that I can purify further to then crush, ballmill, and then hopefully sell online at a fair price.
10 months ago | [YT] | 7
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The Wizard of Zephyrhills
I currently have $15k saved, and my goal is to hit $35k by Jan '26. I do need an inert gas supply, and this is the most economically viable option. I can wait a little while to think it through, but dropping over half a paycheck at once is never an easy decision, especially considering I was right about what will probably happen to the economy. I warned everyone what tarriffs would do, and they just denied he would bring us into a trade war. I remember last time when we spent every penny made on them just subsidizing farmers all for the ridiculous shadow boxing trump was doing with himself... and here we go again. So far, I'm only on track to hit like 28k. I really want to be prepared for near total collapse, just in case.
10 months ago | [YT] | 6
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The Wizard of Zephyrhills
Some people flex their expensive watches, fancy cars, or big houses. I'll probably never have any of that, but I do have something money can't buy.
2.25kg of methylamine hydrochloride.
11 months ago (edited) | [YT] | 6
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The Wizard of Zephyrhills
I'm going live on Instagram @Bharatiye_shaasak
I'm going to be doing some glass blowing and fixing broken funnels. I will go live on YouTube after to clean up the mess pictured below from the acetamide overpressurization
1 year ago | [YT] | 0
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