How to
Colonize an Asteroid
How to
Colonize an Asteroid
The projectiles used in this experiment are not really nails, just small pieces of them embedded in sections of wooden dowell.
To construct the projectiles, find a wooden dowell (available from your local hobby shop or hardware store) which will fit smoothly inside your accelerator tube. Lightly sand the dowell with #200 sandpaper, then cut several 10mm (a little less than 1/2 inch) long pieces. Find a good ferrous finishing nail, and from it cut several pieces which are a hair shorter than the dowell. Test the nail for iron content with a magnet, the more magnetic attraction the greater the iron content, and the better it will work. The best (and the most safe) method of cutting the nail is to clamp it in a bench vise and use a hack saw.
Carefully clamp the short pieces of dowell vertically into a vice. Try not to crush the sides. Try wrapping pieces of paper towel around the sections of dowell to prevent damage from the sides of the vise. Using a drill bit the same diameter as the finishing nail, drill a hole down through the center of each dowell section.
Using a pair of needle nosed pliers, test fit the pieces of nail into the pieces of dowell. They should fit fairly tight, but you must be able to insert he nail most of the way into the hole in the dowell. Remove the nails from the dowell sections.
Mix up a small batch of epoxy. Using a toothpick, put a tiny amount of epoxy into the hole in one of the dowell sections. You don't have to get it too deep. Push one of the nail sections into the hole in the dowell. Inserting the nail will spread the epoxy you stuck in there with the toothpick. Push the nail section in until it is even with, or just below, the surface of the dowell. Make sure that none of the nail is sticking out either end of the wooden dowell. Use your toothpick to center the nail section in the dowell. Again using the toothpick, place a small blob of epoxy on each end of the assembly to fill the hole. Be careful not to get epoxy on the outside of the dowell! Set the whole assembly aside on a piece of waxed paper for an hour or two until the epoxy has set well. For the best bond, let them sit for 24 hours before using them.
After the epoxy has set, check the outside of the dowell sections for small blobs of epoxy. If you find any, try slicing them off with a razor knife or sanding them down with very fine sandpaper. The projectiles must be able to slide freely through whatever you have chosen as your accelerator tube.
Your projectiles are now ready for use!
