Water filtration test 3!

Yep, I may be getting carried away with this.  However, the procedure was restarted yet again after another procedure yielded the necessity of a clean up.  After using maybe as much water as the previous test, I decided to see if it was possible to retrieve water yet again from a really filthy source.

The source this time was the next procedure that I mentioned yesterday.  I prepped for the Bentonite test in order to see how my drill would react to it.

Before starting, I noted that the first batch of sand that I bought for the water filtration experiment had gotten very, very hard.  This indicates a lot of clay must be in that batch of sand.  So, I took a drill to it, and sure enough, I managed to drill a hole all the way through the "rock".  Originally, I planned to do 1 part Bentonite to 9 parts sand, but this caused me to change my plans a little.  It is now estimated that the rock, plus a little more I threw in, came to 6 parts.  Thus, the Bentonite's 1 part makes is 1 to 7 ratio Bentonite-sand.

I mixed up the batch into the same pan that I used previously and had just cleaned up.  It wasn't mixing to my satisfaction, so I had to dip into it with my hands.  This left me with a clean up job afterward, as I had this goop all over my hands.  I dipped my hands under the faucet and let it drain back into the mentioned pan, hence the water.

I used two forms.  One was the bottom end of a Dr. Pepper bottle, which allowed me to see the air voids in the mix.  The other form was paper tube I scrounged from work.  I cut it down to size a bit, but it is still too large.  I only managed to get some of the mix in it.  This will not likely be useful, but the other should be.

This procedure gives me valuable experience, as I see now the kind of problems I may have out there in getting cleaned up when there isn't very much water.

All the more reason to take it slowly, as I've been getting a bit cocky lately.

This will be a spin off from the off-the-grid series.  It will link from the post called Digging post holes and be connected under to topic of construction in the Table of Contents.

Update:

As far as the cleanup afterwards, that is, of making the Bentonite-sand mixture, and obtaining water for clean up, I have found that it clogs the filters.  This is not an unexpected development.  However, I keep thinking through the problem, perhaps the best thing would have been to filter it through paper first.  As many times as is practical.  This will use up a lot of paper, but that can be either cleaned up itself, or just burned.

Another idea is just to boil off the water and collect the vapor.  You could use a fresnel lens for that.

To sum up, we have two bricks, one of them may be usable.  We have dirty water to clean up and a new filtration test in the works.

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This post is also being linked from in the water series.  Previous post here.  Next post here.