How to dissolve cotton fibers?
- Thread starter Oleg Volk
- Start date
What is the enzyme that ruminants use to digest cellulose? Can you get ahold of a small quantity of it, perhaps from someone who works at a university, and try to soak the offending fibers with a solution of it? Don't need to completely dissolve them, just degrade them enough to allow disassembly. Don't hardware stores sell an enzyme preparation to hasten composting? It might work.
dear Santa:
http://www.blackanddecker.com/productguide/productdetail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=2657
you could afix the vice to a 2x6 3 feet long, and plant yer duppa on it fer mass
http://www.blackanddecker.com/productguide/productdetail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=2657
you could afix the vice to a 2x6 3 feet long, and plant yer duppa on it fer mass
Golgo-13 - Actually, it's the microbes in the rumen that breakdown cellulose, but yours is a really a pretty good suggestion if Oleg wants to play chemist a bit. The enzyme is cellulase (actually it's a complex of enzymes), and it should be available from the big scientific supply places (VWR, Fisher, Worthington, etc.) You can read about cellulase here:
http://www.worthington-biochem.com/manual/C/CEL.html
And probably purchase it here:
http://www.worthington-biochem.com/priceList/C/CEL.html#CELF
The guy in the office next to me is a wood scientist, and he suggests an enzymatic method like cellulase if you can't get a flame to work. Avoid strong acids, and strong bases may not work very well on cellulose anyway. A warning that using enzymes will be kind of a pain and time consuming. You'll have to mind temperature pretty carefully. I've done a fair amount of enzyme work in a lab environment, and personally I'd try burning and picking it out 1st.
http://www.worthington-biochem.com/manual/C/CEL.html
And probably purchase it here:
http://www.worthington-biochem.com/priceList/C/CEL.html#CELF
The guy in the office next to me is a wood scientist, and he suggests an enzymatic method like cellulase if you can't get a flame to work. Avoid strong acids, and strong bases may not work very well on cellulose anyway. A warning that using enzymes will be kind of a pain and time consuming. You'll have to mind temperature pretty carefully. I've done a fair amount of enzyme work in a lab environment, and personally I'd try burning and picking it out 1st.
Haven't even a clue what your rifle looks like, or how to take it apart, Oleg, but howz about two padded jaw ViseGrips? One to hold, the other in opposition.
Go high tech & bolt a vise to a wooden deck or just lag the thing into a goodly sized tree if you don't have a bench.
Doubtful that "unscrewing" your bolt face (?) will do anything other than tear apart the cotton fibers. Seemingly, if the bolt would be damaged by "breaking cotton," it couldn't be safe to fire in the first place.
Beats me, but if it screwed together over the cotton, it would surely unscrew as well.
Go high tech & bolt a vise to a wooden deck or just lag the thing into a goodly sized tree if you don't have a bench.
Doubtful that "unscrewing" your bolt face (?) will do anything other than tear apart the cotton fibers. Seemingly, if the bolt would be damaged by "breaking cotton," it couldn't be safe to fire in the first place.
Beats me, but if it screwed together over the cotton, it would surely unscrew as well.
Freedom in theSkies
New member
I concur with Labgrade. The cotton is not nearly as tough as the steel of your bolt. Yep, there's only so much it will compress, but if it's stuck in the threads, it will not do any damage.
You could maybe try a bit of hydrochloric acid (battery acid). Have you ever gotten some on your jeans? presto... Grunge Rocker!
Best o' luck...
You could maybe try a bit of hydrochloric acid (battery acid). Have you ever gotten some on your jeans? presto... Grunge Rocker!
Best o' luck...
Battery acid is sulphuric acid, and will etch that bolt in no time flat. Bad news.
Hydrochloric acid is used by dirt bike racers to clean aluminum out of engine cylinders. When they lunch an engine, they often wind up with some aluminum piston fragments welded to the (steel) cylinder wall.
A slosh of muriatic (hydrochloric) acid and the aluminum is history pretty quickly, but the cylinder is not harmed at all.
That's the good news. The bad news is that it isn't particularly agresssive in disolving cellulose. That's why we don't eat wood. We can't digest it with our hydrochloric acid digestive juices.
Hydrochloric acid is used by dirt bike racers to clean aluminum out of engine cylinders. When they lunch an engine, they often wind up with some aluminum piston fragments welded to the (steel) cylinder wall.
A slosh of muriatic (hydrochloric) acid and the aluminum is history pretty quickly, but the cylinder is not harmed at all.
That's the good news. The bad news is that it isn't particularly agresssive in disolving cellulose. That's why we don't eat wood. We can't digest it with our hydrochloric acid digestive juices.
Jim Watson
New member
I would go with the Kroil soak and a big wrench.
I worked in a project to hydrolyze wood and other cellulosics to produce fermentable sugars and chemicals. We used sulfuric acid to decompose cellulose (the main constituent of cotton). It takes HOT acid to do it fast. Few acids are kind to mild steel. Our equipment was made out of zirconium. Strange as it might sound, a more concentrated acid will attack the cellulose faster and the metal slower. But it takes very concentrated acid to matter. Like 98% sulfuric. Which is more dangerous to the user. Cellulase enzymes are pretty slow, even if you can get good contact. Which would be difficult inside an oily bolt. Bleaches attack cellulose by oxidation, which you don't want to do to your bolt. You can define chemicals and conditions that will attack the cellulose and not hurt the metal, but you don't have to stray far from the right mix, concentration, and temperature for corrosion to start.
Caustics (bases, alkalis, lye) do not attack cellulose at all. Paper mills use alkaline liquors to dissolve the lignin and other wood components, leaving nothing behind but cellulose.
I worked in a project to hydrolyze wood and other cellulosics to produce fermentable sugars and chemicals. We used sulfuric acid to decompose cellulose (the main constituent of cotton). It takes HOT acid to do it fast. Few acids are kind to mild steel. Our equipment was made out of zirconium. Strange as it might sound, a more concentrated acid will attack the cellulose faster and the metal slower. But it takes very concentrated acid to matter. Like 98% sulfuric. Which is more dangerous to the user. Cellulase enzymes are pretty slow, even if you can get good contact. Which would be difficult inside an oily bolt. Bleaches attack cellulose by oxidation, which you don't want to do to your bolt. You can define chemicals and conditions that will attack the cellulose and not hurt the metal, but you don't have to stray far from the right mix, concentration, and temperature for corrosion to start.
Caustics (bases, alkalis, lye) do not attack cellulose at all. Paper mills use alkaline liquors to dissolve the lignin and other wood components, leaving nothing behind but cellulose.