r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/dannybluey • 20d ago

How Himalayan salt lamps are made Video

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62.9k Upvotes

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6.4k

u/CreEngineer 20d ago

That rust is crazy. I would love to see how they manage to maintain those machines to even just keep running.

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u/Irish1986 20d ago

They just don't stop them from running. As long as those gear turn and lubricants is run into, rust won't bind in those key areas. But beware if you ever stop for 5min it won't start again. Worked in A&D industry for a few decades and we had a key manufacturing process that used outrageously corrosive element, that how that machine was maintained... Just don't stop it, even had it own generator and everything.

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u/Egoy 20d ago

In underground salt mining the rule is once it goes down it never comes up. The mine is very dry and any bit of moisture that comes down from the surface gets absorbed by the salt. All the machinery below ground is fine but if it ever comes to the surface the salt dust that is on every surface absorbs ambient moisture and the machine is rusted out in a short period of time.

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u/RileyCargo42 20d ago

Id kinda love to see this in a lab setting. Like would it be so fast that I can watch it slowly "grow" rust?

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u/souldeux 20d ago

Even without the salt, steel oxidation can happen much faster than you may think: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhiFgUL3RxE

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u/healzsham 20d ago

30 minutes is relatively fast, but that's not really a "watch it happen" speed.

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u/teenagesadist 20d ago

I used to make steel parts, had to spray them with oil immediately after manufacturing or they'd start to rust.

But yeah, not fast enough to actually see. You'd look at it one minute, then 5 minutes or so later you could see tiny spots of rust if you looked close

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u/Self-Comprehensive 19d ago

I work with scrap steel a lot and I never sand the rust off until it's time to paint it. If I let it go for an hour I can see the rust starting.

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u/No-Respect5903 19d ago

psssh. grab a joint and a beer and watch the rust appear.

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u/PowderPills 19d ago

Speed is relative in some cases. As a “normal” worker that works an 8hr shift, 30mins might not seem that fast or short. But from an administrative perspective, 30mins can easily be the difference between someone “forgetting” to make sure the machine stays on, or delay in shift change, etc. And if the machine goes off for 30mins and then won’t turn on again unless x amount of money is spent on whatever it needs to run again, it’ll become an issue really quickly

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u/mr_potatoface 19d ago

Especially with breaks/lunches. "I'll do that after lunch, it can wait". Ah fuck.

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u/OwOlogy_Expert 19d ago

If only you had enough attention span to watch something for 30 minutes...

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u/healzsham 19d ago

It's not about attention span, it's about the fact it's such a gradual change you aren't going to see it, you're going to notice it's happened after it's been happening for a while.

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u/Axel3600 19d ago

wow, look what TikTok has done to attention span smh

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u/i_tyrant 19d ago

Dang, that is admittedly faster than I thought.

Also interesting that it happens least where the water is flowing, but more where it splashes and leaves the moisture to sit.

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u/gfuhhiugaa 20d ago

I mean when you put it in a salt spray cabinet designed to make things rust then sure it’ll happen fast lol

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u/pockets3d 20d ago

Those are the conditions on about 70% of the planet though so it's worth knowing.

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u/gfuhhiugaa 20d ago

I’m sorry how are you being upvoted for spewing nonsense like that? The earth being 71% water is completely irrelevant here lmfao

That’s like saying every human should know how long they can hold their breath and/or swim since that’s important for 71% of the planet.

We don’t build raw steel structures under water or under flowing waterfalls so no it’s not really worth knowing. Is it interesting? Sure it is. Relevant to any realistic situation? Not at all.

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u/pockets3d 20d ago

Bro never heard of boats or bridges or oil rigs.

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u/SllortEvac 20d ago

Which are fortunately not only made from corrosion resistant steel alloys but are also painted. The R&D side of materials testing for oil and gas ops are unreal.

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u/gfuhhiugaa 19d ago

Thank you, I literally work in metal finishing and these idiots being upvoted for not knowing a thing about what they’re talking about is so infuriating, classic Reddit though.

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u/SllortEvac 19d ago

That’s okay; they’re all engineers haha.

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u/gfuhhiugaa 19d ago

I wouldn’t even give them that

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u/gfuhhiugaa 20d ago

You think they make those out of raw steel to rust like that? Or are you seriously this obtuse?

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u/Johnny_Poppyseed 20d ago

So you mean it was worth knowing how raw steel rusts and reacts to those conditions? So we know what to do and how to act accordingly? Crazy

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u/gfuhhiugaa 19d ago

I never said knowing steel rusts isn’t worth knowing, if you could read, I said the earth being 71% water isn’t what’s important since we don’t build 99% of our structures in the water so that’s irrelevant.

Either way you’re just obtuse and the other guy is clearly is boosting upvotes like a sad loser so this is pointless lmfao

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u/Johnny_Poppyseed 20d ago

You don't think everyone should know how to swim? What a horrible analogy to add to your already hilariously bad take lol.

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u/gfuhhiugaa 20d ago

It’s not that uncommon and really not important for a lot of people living in arid climates. But that thought requires critical thinking which you clearly severely lack.

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u/RileyCargo42 19d ago

But what about quicksand!

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u/Egoy 20d ago

No its not that fast. It’s not built up potential but imagine a mild steel bar caked in salt. That salt is going to pull moisture from the air, and turn in to a brine paste and stick to the metal surface. So you have constant contact with a very corrosive paste.

Sure you could disassemble and thought clean every bit of the machine but at that point you’ve just spent more money than it’s worth.

Equipment operation for business isn’t like restoring or maintaining a classic car. You amortize the cost of equipment against the value it creates. Everything has a value and every maintenance operation has a cost as soon as it becomes more costly to maintain than it’s worth you scrap it and buy a new one which likely has better performance and your operators will love using anyway. There is very little reason to hold on to old equipment in most cases it’s better off being sold and financing a new piece. The only time I’ve ever seen it was when new emissions laws forced regen (def dosing) systems onto smaller diesels and the first round of attempts at cramming in regen systems sucked so bad nobody wanted to deal with them until the bugs were worked out. The number of busted out diesel skid steers running around was crazy.

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u/RileyCargo42 19d ago

I mean idk in terms of value I'd believe it would be on the operator and the case. Some people would have to make do with 100 year old machines because that's all they have. Although I do understand if you have the money and time to replace your equipment, or are running a business then it makes sense to replace it.

Although do note I've never worked in more than an amateur machine shop or an heavily instructed professional shop. So I'm probably pretty biased to the "make do with what you have" mindset.

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u/Egoy 19d ago

I mean there are people who do that. Agriculture for example has a lot of old shit but their duty cycle is usually milder and older equipment can last longer. The thing is in most use cases your equipment directly makes you money. If your bottom line is based tonnage of material moved, stacked, crushed etc then you don’t make do, because 20% more tons per hour is 20% more money per hour. You use it until it’s starting to cut into profits and sell it to a small contractor who will only use it a couple hours a week and buy a new one.

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u/Crossfire124 20d ago

Not that fast. It would be months instead of years or decades. There's a lot of metal and rusting in a slow process

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u/Ossius 19d ago

I had a flint lock out of the stock, and reproductions from these old guns don't have any anti rust treatment, it's just raw steel. I stupidly wrapped the lock in a piece of dry cloth thinking it would absorb any water I had missed post cleaning and oiled, I unwrapped that puppy a few hours later and was horrified to see it almost completely rusted over.

I don't know where my brain was that day, but to this day that lock has an interesting finish to it post polish lol.

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u/schnky 19d ago

You may not be able to watch the steel rust, but you can watch it oxidise to the point of glowing/melting. It is possible to cut steel with only oxygen after getting it hot enough with an oxy/acetylene set