Sugar Sugar FINAL Results

 Here are some of the final images of the destroyed cube and project.

 The fountain pump worked fine after a bit of a kick start!

 Here is a view of the tinted (green) water taking it's toll on the cube!

 Awkward sideways view of the final project.

 Destruction of the cube. Was very neat that the icing sugar held up against the water destruction! It formed like a honey comb effect. I think it would be interesting to apply this to future projects and see what an awesome effect it could have.

And last  we have a close up view of the cube.

In the end the project would have taken a lot more time and patience than I thought it would. I should have followed the suggestion of just using a string instead of tubing for the output sugars. Perhaps I will modify Sugar Sugar to see if it will make the process quicker and more efficient.

Creation of the Cube for Sugar Sugar

 If you look back at my November 23rd post on  how to glue sugar cubes together. The mixture is:
1 egg white
1/8 tsp of cream of tartar
and a cup of icing sugar or powder sugar

Beginning the Build

 I decided, after measuring in the previous process, that the cube would need to be 8 x 8 x 8 sugar cubes to fit nicely within the tin. So I used the mixture of egg and sugar as a kind of mortar to keep the sugar cubes together. The cream of tartar helps prevent the sugar cubes from dissolving when being stuck together.

 Here is the finished cube. It weighs a ton (not really) but it's quite heavy and ready to be eroded.

 Here is the cube within its holder and is ready to be 'melted' down into sugar water.

 Here is what the project might look like over time.

The cube is ready for its doom!

Creation from Erosion: The Rock Candy Process

So to create Rock Candy it's a really simple process. However, it takes a long time. For my final showing of Sugar Sugar I wanted to have an example. I found out the hard way that Rock Candy actually takes weeks to settle, instead of thinking it would only take a couple of days.

I had originally thought that if I had made an attempt at the rock candy that it would be ready for the presentation, but apparently it takes a lot longer than a week.

  The materials needed to make rock candy are...

2 cups of sugar
1 cup of water
optional: food colouring
String
a paper clip/weight for the string
pencil

Basically you boil the water, toss the sugar in and mix until dissolved. Then you poor the mixture into a jar. Secure the paper clip to the end of the string, measure the jar length and cut the string and attach the paper clip then tie the string to a pencil and place the string in the sugar mixture for a few seconds. Then after saturating, remove the string and coat it lightly in granulated sugar and replace into the sugar/water mixture.

 I used red and blue food colouring in the sugar/water mixture to create a purple rock candy.

After a week it still looks similar to this, however small crystals have began to grow off of the string. Hopefully when I return from holidays the crystals will be better developed.

Process and Testing for Sugar Sugar

 The first thing I did to create Sugar Sugar was melt and cut a notch in to the blue bin so that the fountain's wire would bend nicely over the edge of the bucket. 

 This is a picture of the fountain pump without the hose attached.

 The masonite helped me to position the pieces and prepare them to be glued into place.

 Attaching the wooden dowels to hold the sugar tin.

 After I attached the sugar tin.

 Attaching the support to the sugar tin, so it will be able to hold the 8x8 sugar cube cube.

 Figuring out how many sugar cubes will nicely fit into the cookie tin.

 Drilled a hole into the sugar tin for the output sugar to go.

 Everything positioned together and glued

 Where the beaker will go.

 After attaching the hose to the cookie tin for the output to drain into the beaker.

 Testing the fountain pump. Here comes the trouble. Apparently the fountain pump didn't enjoy trying to pump the water quite so vertically so I figured the water source needed to be heightened in order for the pump to pump properly. So after an improve fix, Sugar Sugar still manages to keep it's DIY look with a styrofoam base - which is actually a good thing, because it's easier and lighter to carry.

 Here is the side view, nice styrofoam base. Though not attractive, IT WORKS!

 In fact, it worked so well that I flooded the bathroom floor... Oops.

 The pump, my foot.. WORKING. Haven't yet created the sugar cube, will post that later.

To stop a massive flow from coming out the hose I decided to stick a piece of the tube foam in the end of it - which creates a nice drip.


Next will be the post on how the sugar cube cube was created.

Gluing sugar cubes together. A recipe

This is the website I found the information to glue sugar cubes together. I hope it works.

Recipe for sugar cube mortar here!


On another note:
Today I've created a rock candy sample for the presentation next week... as the time it would take to really create a rock candy would take weeks and wouldn't be much to show in a ten minute presentation.
I will post pictures of it or update this post when my card reader is found.

Recipe for Sugar Crystals/Rock Candy

This is basically what I'm creating, just a lot... less edible and a lot more complicated and experiment-looking. From erosion to creation.  Sugar Sugar

Follow this Link to Make Rock Candy

The Makings of 'Sugar Sugar' part 2

These are the materials I used to make Sugar Sugar.

One plastic garbage can. 

Roll of neon pink duct tape.

6 boxes of sugar cubes.

A cookie tin.

A 600 ml beaker.

White draw ties.

Two wooden dowels.

A foam tube.

A masonite board. 18''x24'' 

 6 Boxes of sugar cubes I used to create the giant sugar block. The sugar block is held together by a mixture of egg white and cream of tartar. The cream of tartar prevented the dissolving of the cubes as I stuck them together. 

 The 600 ml beaker used to collect the sugar water mixture to create the crystals.

 Could not resist the neon pink duct tape.. will be useful in future projects.

The white ties were to keep the tubing in place

This is the original plan on the masonite board. It evolved into different shapes as the project progressed and as it became more self supportive.

Next post will be the process and failures of building Sugar Sugar.