asciilifeform: you must also vent (or burn) the H and the O
asciilifeform: but should be clear to the alert reader that such things cannot be overlooked.
asciilifeform: prominently missing from the napkin sketch is a number of necessaries (means for cooling the electrolyte, scrubbing metal out of it, positioning of the head, etc)
asciilifeform: but for desktop machining - perfect. so long as you aren't in a hurry.
asciilifeform: because it has piss-poor ROI in ordinary industry (unless you're the ussr)
asciilifeform: if clever, emplace a magnetic field of the appropriate geometry around the fluid intake/return channels, so it is propelled entirely electrically. if even more clever, emplace a system in the reservoir to re-separate the metal from the electrolyte.
asciilifeform: incidentally, for anyone who actually wants to try electrochemical machining, here is how NOT to do it:
asciilifeform: (summary of paper: monkey is taught to solve a puzzle which unlocks a dispenser of tasty food. is placed in a cage of 'uneducated' monkeys. is then reliably beaten into dispensing the food for the 'bosses.')
asciilifeform: decimation: usefulness - and malleability.
asciilifeform: when and where did 'producers' inhabit anywhere but the 'bottom' ?
asciilifeform: * 'second tour of duty' in undergrad --- ochem << missing punctuation matters
asciilifeform: decimation: they could have, in principle, decreed two sets of chemistry courses, one for med-muppetry, one for would-be chemists. but this did not happen.
asciilifeform did a 'second tour of duty' in undergrad ochem, as adult. and saw this alive.
asciilifeform: with little-to-none attention to principles
asciilifeform: the students are asked to simply memorize the book of, e.g, organic reactions.
asciilifeform: decimation: aside from the unremarkable decay across the board of all things u.s., there is a specific phenomenon at work on chemists. in most u.s. schools, they do not actually teach chemistry. instead, they carry out an eleborate 'hazing ritual' for would-be med school applicants.
asciilifeform: Ti is pyrophoric but machineable if you must.
asciilifeform: sintering is only used in 'real life', generally, when there is no other choice (ceramics, and metals that really don't behave well in a mill like tungsten)
asciilifeform: e.g., their only public suggestion thus far for metalwork is laser sintering - cribbed straight from ordinary industry
asciilifeform: the '3d printer' folks are still, by and large, thinking like 'normal' engineers.
asciilifeform: i bring up electrolytic machining to explore a point - that tech meant for 'jungle conditions' is a very different field from what is presently dealt with by 'sane' engineers.☟︎
asciilifeform: the computer has no idea what, if anything, was actually cut - and hwo
asciilifeform: (even those are often absent from small machines)
asciilifeform: turing-complete << this brings up another interesting observation - none of today's machine tools give the computer any feedback, beyond slide end-stop sensors
asciilifeform: decimation: g-code << it's just simple coordinate motions, with some commands to specify tool changes, splines, etc. what would you have them use?
asciilifeform: try this with an ordinary drill! (without annealing to destroy knife's temper)
asciilifeform: article suggests a useful 'household' application for the demo - poke a hole in a hardened steel knife where the handle fell off, to bolt on new handle.
