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Improvised Bamboo Salt Water Still Idea

8K views 21 replies 5 participants last post by  saul 
#1 ·
Here is an experimental idea I had for a bamboo water still assuming you end up stranded on a island or jungle place surrounded by mostly saltwater or have a area with allot of bamboo,so here it goes and bear with me on this one.

First off one wants to keep the bamboos internodes intact then cut a small hole at the upper part of the bamboo side and make a smaller hole in the top internode, This is where one will pour the water into the top of the still, one will want to produce a cork to seal the top hole which can be made from anything such as a sliver of bamboo to the sealing materials one is working with, which will later be mentioned.

(if it is an emergency and one messes up and only has one precious piece of bamboo one can use a smooth rock and use it as a seal on the top where water is to be poured in)

Next we must make an impoverished still caparm where there is none (the still caparm is the straw tube that vertically condenses the gas into a liquid more efficiently), also note that you never want to put the caparm or "straw" deep into the still because there is a danger of explosion you want it to just be conjoined at the openings never channel it into the still.

Here are my ideas on how we can make this impoverished caparm because there are more then one way to do it:

Note this should not be used if obviously you have some tubing already of some sort to use, always use practicality.

Method 1; Chinese finger trap as a straw, believe it or not the older Chinese finger traps are made of bamboo slivers we can use this same idea to make an impoverished straw from the materials we are working with, here are instructions of how to make a Chinese finger trap

http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Chinese-Finger-Trap

We can seal around it with anything that can act as a seal but heat will not transfer into the water we wish to purify so we might want to add long strips around it then tree sap or pulverized materials mixed with mud , this would make a rather thick straw but it would work.

Method 2; If you have a knife which I would think you would have to do most of the cutting or puncturing necessary, for this you could cut the curved bamboo along its side carefully and trim out most of the edges starting from bottom and going to the top and scraping away the inside of these internodes as well then conjoin both parts, when looking at the straws front it would look like a oval at its ends and it should be thin as possible.

Note* this wold require the hole we made in the water still part to be larger along the holes edges , one can either twine around this type of straw or seal along the edges with what ever you have.

Now one must attach a still caparm for the hole at the upper part of the bamboo side that we have previously made this can be sealed at the conjoining parts with tree sap or *mud mixed with pulverized fibers which have a high starch content or resins, ratio 2 to 1, 2 parts pulverized fibers with resin with 1 part mud

*note this must be further tested if mud is a good medium.






This idea was inspired by this video of a balloon held over a flame until water boils http://www.liveleak.com/view?c=1&i=fbd_1238947439 which I believe describes the physics of why the bamboo water still would not fail in operation

never try to make a still from aluminum,plastic or rubber when exposed to flame as it will leach toxins into your water even if it doesn't end up melting or you cant see it do so. also the solders they use in buckets or containers made from these materials even if made of stainless steal but not used for food could use lead based solder to join the edges which will cause brain damage if used as a still.
 
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#2 ·
Very cool and definitely looks like it would work.

The only difficulties I can see would be the amount of time it would take to get going, and cooling the 'straw'. Wood doesn't conduct heat very quickly, so once the straw heats up it may quickly get too hot for the water to condense properly in it.

It'd be nice to see how well it'd work though.

One thing I thought of for creating my own emergency still would be the use of any sort of conductor or thin material placed above the opening at the end of the straw, parallel to the ground with a slight angle to control drip direction.

I think the most ideal might be something like a cooking pot. This way rather than relying on the air to keep it cool (a heatsink), you could fill it with cold (non-potable, doesn't matter) water. The steam would come out the end of the straw and as it attempts to go straight up would have to move around the base of the pot. The steam would condense against the cold pot bottom and drip down.

This would be similar to when you are boiling water with a top on your pot - the lid gets covered in condensation.
 
#3 ·
yeah I got the general idea that the small holes in this bamboo finger trap straw would need to be sealed all around the straw by smearing the whole surface of the straw with mud or whatever but figured that would cause a little dirt in the water and be troublesome if one had to reapply it .then again if someone is dying of thirst id doubt they would complain.

it wold probably work better with a copper tube or dropping tiny heated rocks into a larger top hole might work but one would have to work around the larger top hole of it and risk burning ones self with hot water if one put a firm seal by hand on top of it with something like a large smooth rock or a pan top.

A cooking pot you could cut a groove at the top edge of the pot then cut a small slightly vertical groove into the metal straw half way closest to its end so it hangs a little into that pots groove but doesn't conflict with allowing the pots top to be on top of all this then put some sealing material around it and then put a flat top on top of the whole pot, assuming its a worst case scenario with minimal tools

Added image of what im saying by use of knife without drill in a thin metal pot and thin metal tube
 
#4 ·
I think it will work. Trying it has still been on my "to-do" list. This was the design that I came up with:

http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=160847

It is similar to yours but I like the way you have the tube coming up the side and not the top. That would actually work much better, but it is harder to drill the side out of a piece of bamboo than the top node.

Also you might not need to use create a tube though and just use smaller diameter bamboo and punch the nodes out.
 
#5 ·
This is what I'm talking about. The darker water with brown streaks is dirty water. Blue circles are drips of water. The light water is distilled.

The problem with the "straw" is that there is no way to cause it to cool the steam - wood is an insulator. So what I am suggesting is to hang a pot of cold water just above the exit to the straw. Any excess steam should strike the bottom of this pot and be instantly cooled and condensed.

Line Teal Rectangle Parallel Graphic design
 
#8 ·
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The problem with the "straw" is that there is no way to cause it to cool the steam - wood is an insulator. So what I am suggesting is to hang a pot of cold water just above the exit to the straw. Any excess steam should strike the bottom of this pot and be instantly cooled and condensed.

View attachment 53651
One thing about bamboo though is that it has nodes. Even if you punch a hole in it, part of the node ring remains intact. In essence, even though the bamboo "straw" is made, it is actually still a chambered straw with small holes in it. I have a feeling that the steam will build up in these chambers and condense. I there are 2 chambers, even better.
 
#6 ·
To make a straw, you can easily use the same techniques that natives used to use to make flutes.

Cut a piece of wood in two (lengthwise!) - bamboo or something with a soft pith. Scrape out the pith or break the little segmentors. Tie it back together - seal it if you want with some sap or whatever you have.
 
#18 ·
Yea I was thinking the chambers in the bamboo would slow it down enough to cool. If the tube was longer (like 3 feet or something) I think it might work. It did condense at the wrappings though. It was just inefficient.


thanks for tested it, im going to be further testing this later when I get some bamboo as well (not very plentiful around here as most of the species here is to thin) I will try to make it as primitive as possible
Yea I might try again also with a longer stalk, sanded down inside, and better bindings. Maybe even a greener piece.
 
#21 ·
If you don't mind being put to work, would you consider an option?

It would use a charred, hollow bamboo to create a solar still.
Hopefully a picture will say it best, but the water pressure on the submerged tube should force the vapor up to the condenser tube.

It would be slower than fire, but you wouldn't have to tend it. It would only work in good sunlight.
What I'm not sure of is that the water inside the "tank" wouldn't be cooled by the surrounding pool of water or would the water inside the tube get hot enough to evaporate at a useful rate.
 
#19 ·
Awesome work!!! :thumb:

Okay, so the wood is too much of an insulator!

I don't think making it longer will help enough. I think there needs to be something at the end of the tube, just above it where the steam would be going up. Perhaps a pot of cold water so the steam hits the bottom of the pot, as in my diagram.

Or, the cordage getting wet gave me an idea - a heap of frizzled up cordage would work (like a giant ball of cotton). The amount of surface area should keep it cool enough to condense the steam. Not as efficiently as a proper still, but I think it'd work enough.
 
#20 ·
It did seem to create water... just that the wood seemed to have soaked it right back up. That paper I scraped out of the inside had a lot of moisture in it. You squeeze it and drops would come out. But I think your right, that a longer tube would just be all that much more wood to soak up the liquid.
 
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