Evan and Katelyn: The Potatoes Experiment

Hey guys, we're Evan and Katelyn, and today we're going to be eating potatoes. We're not going to be eating these potatoes, though - we're going to be using them for science. Specifically, we're going to use them to make master molds for our concrete and resin.

Normally, when we're making molds, we use 3D prints because they take a lot of time and work to get it right. Formal 3D printing can be a bit tricky, but potatoes are a great alternative. Potatoes are perfect because we're using a vacuum former, which can shape anything into the desired form. We should be able to carve the shape we want and pour our concrete and resin into it.

As Katelyn noted, it's always best to start from the top down when working with materials like this. This means beginning with the base layer of the mold, rather than trying to cut or shape it later on. Unfortunately, Evan's first attempt at making a mold was not entirely successful - he struggled to get the shape just right.

Katelyn, on the other hand, decided to try something a bit more ambitious. Her design featured a taller and wider shape, which posed some challenges for Evan as he worked on his own project. Despite the initial setbacks, both Evan and Katelyn were excited to see how their creations would turn out.

To get started, they first had to prepare their raw materials. This included placing the potatoes in a suitable location and lifting them into position using a specialized tool. With everything set up, they simply waited for the material to melt and harden - a process that took some time but was ultimately worth it.

As Evan noted, working with this type of material requires a bit of finesse. It's all about achieving the right level of sag or droopiness in the shape you're trying to create. This can be tricky, especially when working with multiple layers or colors. However, with practice and patience, Evan was able to get the hang of it.

Once the material had hardened, Evan and Katelyn were ready to start mixing their concrete and resin colors. They decided to use a variety of different techniques, including layering and combining different materials in unique ways. This approach allowed them to create some truly striking effects, such as the "blood" effect that resulted from adding blues to one of the molds.

Of course, not every experiment is a success - and this was certainly no exception. As Evan noted, his big project quickly got out of hand, with concrete spilling everywhere and making a mess of things. Despite the chaos, Katelyn remained calm and collected, using her experience and expertise to guide Evan through the process.

In the end, it's clear that both Evan and Katelyn were enjoying themselves immensely. They were experimenting with new materials and techniques, pushing themselves outside their comfort zones but having a blast in the process. And as they looked at the final results of their creations, they couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Quikrete Sponsors the Episode

We'd like to extend a huge thank you to Quikrete for sponsoring this episode. We're excited to be working with such a great brand and can't wait to see what other projects we'll be able to tackle in the future. With their support, we're confident that our creativity and imagination will know no bounds.

The Experiment Continues

So, will these creations transform overnight? Only time will tell. For now, let's set this mold down gently and hope for the best. We've learned a lot from this experiment, and we can't wait to see how things turn out in the morning.

Saving the Mold: A Question for Our Readers

We're curious to know - do you have any advice or tips for working with this type of material? How did you achieve the results we saw in our experiment, and what challenges did you face along the way? Share your experiences in the comments below, and let's see if we can learn from each other's successes and failures.

The Power of Potatoes

As we look back on our potato-based experiment, it's clear that this humble ingredient has a lot to offer. Not only are they versatile and easy to work with, but they also provide a unique opportunity for creative expression and experimentation. We're excited to see what other projects we'll be able to tackle in the future, and we hope that you'll join us on this journey of discovery and creativity.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys we're Evan and Katelyn and todaywe're gonna be eating potatoeswe're not gonna be eating these potatoeswe're gonna be using them for sciencesort of sciencewe're gonna be using them to makemaster molds for our concrete and resinso why potatoes we normally do 3d printswhen we're making molds but 3d printstake a lot of time and a lot of work toget it right formal making so...so we're gonna use a potatothe humble potatoso potatoes are gonna be greatbecause we're using a vacuum formerwhich this goes over the form ofanything it could be 3d print it couldbe... a... potatowe should be able to carve the shapewe ultimately want vacuum form over itpour our concrete and resin into it and Ithink it's gonna look really cool andnot like it came from a potato I'm gonnatry to make it look like a gemI can't this is the bottom you can'treally undercut it too much noticeslightly at all verticals bad verticalsbadwell vertical is okay you should alwaysbe like from the top down you should begoing out so this is already ruined iswhat you're sayingcuz this this isn't going did you sliceit like potato surgery is it art yetit's all right so Katelyn went a littlebit ambitious because taller than it iswideyeah I'm gonna make something a littleless ambitiousokay so we're starting with Evansbecause apparently his is more likely towork than mine but first we have to putin the our raw material place this herelift into place and this year potato andthen we just gotta wait for this to meltready yeahyou got too hot I think you see thoselittle ridges right there yeah there'stoo much material it didn't like pulltighten up too much belly oh that'sperfect potato gem yeswork it yes yes my little fierce tothot potato that's just what I wantedit totally looks like a gem it takes alittle bit of practice to get like theexact droopiness like height of thingyou're going aroundI don't know words but these arerecyclable so I don't feel too badlower tray hold down the top you gottaget up bang oh no lift it up all rightyou might need more sag than me wellwe'll see yeah yeah and you don't havetime you can go down gentle it's okaynoises of you grunting in the background butwe do want to thank quikrete forsponsoring this episode we have beenwanting this countertop mix for so long today oh goshoh no we should put on a mask todayevery day concrete is a great materialto experience to experiment with becauseit's really cheapmeelk. it's a meelkshake po tatooh yeah there it is all righty you readyto do some resin oh yeah oh we gotta getthings going it's like literally go timeokay I need to pick some colors I hadreally thought about this almost aremixing resins I'm gonna do like a rubyhow many uh we should man we should havethought about a lot of things I'm justgonna do clear and then I'm gonna dosome alcohol inks oh you crazy so give melike three colors surprise me somethingbold can I get like a light color like Ido so I'm gonna do three things with mythree gems one I am just gonna do resinand I'm gonna layer it on another oneI'm gonna do resin and then right on topof it immediately without waiting I'mgonna do concrete on another one if I'mgoing to mix them merge them and smashthem and it's like I like fuse a littlebit of resin a little splish-splash ofcolor bing-bang one red right therethat's it simple bang bingo-bango thisone's gonna be blue white bingo that'sreally cool watch this all the sinkscool cool again that's crazynow on this one I'm I'm going to startwith concrete and then whoa oh yes yesyeah oh my goshand now oh my gosh whoa whoa whoa Idon't know what I'm doing oh my goshyeah they're like like veining down intothe concretethis looks so freaking cool okaywe gotta go I still have to to mine allright we're going I'm gonna start mixing mycolors I'm gonna give you this cameraI'm gonna take offprimary gloves to reveal secondarygloves you're such a cool person Idon't really know what I'm doing itactually start from mixing in somepigment and I'm already covered in no noI need it like a fourth color and I'mpanicking I want it really pigmented atthe top this little guy is gonna getcookies and cream kinda want the resin to stay on topthat one I'm stopping nownow you just got your big boybig BOY I do want to try a mixedlook but with the pigment because yourswas mixed and only alcohol ink I thinkthat the concrete should act as a littlebit of a heat sink absorbed oh this iswicked cool look at that it looks likeblood huh really good helping your casejust kinda looks like a fleshy colormaybe if I add some bluesblues blues bluesoh whoa oh goshIt's not helping now it's justall brown and blackahahaha this is my big one!don't make me regret youyou're just flinging concrete everywhereI'm panicking!I kinda just have to like keep going I don'tknow what else to do this is still anexperiment this is take one we'd like tohave potatoes yeah we can make more wehave the technology we have the potatoesdon't look at the bottomthis is the most ho t mess creationI have ever madehey you know what it mighttransform overnight let's set this downgently let's drop it oh my gosh notworth it okay okay I think this is endof stage one well let this cure a lot ofthings learned we learned a lot ofthings I think we're done for nowyeah we'll see how this turns out in themorning oh boy who do I get to go firstsince you have the camera here's thequestion can you save the mold hmm veryhelpful people in the comments saying\"you guys should use mold release\"say a word for this moldgoodbye mold you worked I guess that'sone benefit to these plastic moldsthough you know they're not as preciousas the silicone it's coming slow oh mygod the surface finish whoaso on this side it's super smooth allthe way up but right here when I wasripping it off I ripped off a thin layerof epoxy and it exposed a rougher thestraight concrete you feel that it'ssuper smoothjust in case heating it up helps Ohmaybe puts a sad music on the same cuz Ifeel like that's gonna happen to all ofthese the Big Kahuna your beautifulfleshy creation don't call it thatok I have a theory I think we'regonna have to do things this way wherewe pour a layer let it fully cure beforewe pour the next thing whether that'sanother resin or another concrete andthat will be cool it will be cool but Ihappen to give it up I will beat my headagainst all and I want to figuresomething out I feel like there's likesome way to mix them and merge themmaybe we wait until the epoxy ispartially cured before we mix in theconcrete and then that way it's thickerthere's ideas in here that are happeningokaythis is very importanttime to mix things up their goldalcohol ink I'm gonna see what happens if Ipour a little bit of extra on top I'm goingtone-on-tone I think I've four distinctas I can for youmy goshso jeez I really wanted to see thisalrightso end of day two yeah I thought yourcontinuing oh I'm just pretty excited Icannot wait till the reveal tomorrowI've been trying to behave and not peekno you have not tomorrow's we'll findout how they all look yeah camera it'sthe next day and we're about to open upthese second molds hopefully we won'tneed these oh my god see the moldrelease were cool where you can see theconcrete through the resins so this isone where they poured the concrete intothe resin and kind of sunk in becausethe resin was only half set this one isthe exact opposite where everythingfully cured oh that's kind of cooloh this one doesn't have mold releasewhat the heck Oh see this one comes outmore usually it's a bad timenot enough mold release or something wejust noticed something just from thesame mold look at that look at the topsthis one melted it melted the plasticthis is never coming off what those arehappenlet me recreate this for youI hope that yours work looks good thatlooks really good look at that alrightguys I'm looking through my threeremaining ones this guy I can tell hemelted the plastic this one I think youcan get it on the coolest one - there'sa lot of cool things going on I meanit's a little bit I think we need to doam lessons learned using it sit down anddrop some of our hard-earned knowledgecan you grab me a towel yeah I touchedsomething something sticky alright guys solessons learned potatoes make goodmoldsit's a rule one if you're gonna do resinand concrete mixing do resin first letit start to harden and then once it'shardening then do the concretefully intermix with the resin becausewhen that happened we got these reallythin sheets of resin on the outside ofthe concreterule number two I would say is whenyou're pouring the resin don't get tooambitious with the pour see how thickthis was that melted the plastic no nothis is good come in here with a caveatwe got two different materials that wecan use with the vacuum forming one wasa lower temperature material which wasclear and I thought that'd be reallycool yeah this is higher temperatureit's like thicker and sturdier well thatcuz I wanted to be clear I wanted to seeit while we went and made sense in mymind but if you're gonna do thick resinpores resin has an exothermic reactionwhich generates a lot of heatwe saw it melting deforming try to usesomething that can withstand highertemperatures are just poor thinner layersor does poor thinner layerslesson three mold release it does help Ithink good does help a little bitare those all the lessons are you guyslearned up we also have a bunch ofgeneral resin lessons on another videowe'll link to that cover is like thematerials that we use pigments thealcoholic inks in general I really like thewhite concrete though I'm really excitedto do some white concrete projects whichone is your favorite this was myfavorite just because of that like clearcrazy thing going on there my favoriteis my least favorite on that long toneyeah it's very subtlesome of these look a little crazyi might not put them up on a shelf to behonest with you guys these didn't turnout exactly as we envisioned in ourheads but we're still happy with howthey turned out we still ended up withcool things but I think the mostvaluable end result of this video and ofthis project is the knowledge we gainedon vacuum forming and resins andconcrete you know everythingindividually worked perfectly but youknow we're still learning how to mix andmatch things together so thank you forbeing patient with us as we go on theselittle adventures and we're excited toroll the knowledge that we gained inthis project into future projects I likebananas and I like pasta to maybe putbananas on my pasta dough mix red inwith white red red in I know using resinI rock and roll all day long sweet Susie\n"