@chaschuky999
RIP the dream of Nigel owning a “nugsmasher pro” would’ve been a truly legendary piece of lab equipment.
@timothygregg8504
Hey Nile! I used to work as a Materials Engineer in body armor manufacturing, and what you've experimentally found are some of the core principles of the materials science behind high-performance ballistic armor! Towards the end you mention that you could likely make something half the thickness and still stop a 9mm; take a look at the construction of NIJ level II or level IIIA soft armors: what you'll find is that they are remarkably thin. Turns out, high tensile strength is pretty much the number one reason that poly-aramids (Kevlar and the like) are such great armor materials. What I think your pressed-wood plates would serve a better function as is as an up-armor for level II or level IIIA soft armors. This is usually done with a ceramic plate that provides the compressive strength to the initial impact zone that the fibrous soft armor is able to absorb as tensile load, but the densified wood could serve as a great substitute! If you want to get really deep into the armor classification side of things, you can also take a look at "back-face deformation" tests that are done to classify/test armors. Drop me an email if you'd like and I can answer any questions! I'm not in the armor space any more but I have a ton of knowledge built up from the time when I was, and I would love to put it to good use somewhere :P Edit: Someone made the great point that my email isn't super obviously available; it's on my channel (or here: timothy.mgregg@gmail.com) if anyone wants to reach out. I can't promise a prompt response, but I'll try! Also someone pointed out I should have said "Level IIIA soft armor" not "Level III", thanks for the correction, I've edited above!
@mpb_rip
As a carpenter from Germany, I appreciate the detailed look into wood hardening here. Wood swells differently in each direction—tangential, radial, and longitudinal—so pressing it causes more expansion at the sides. For instance, Fichte (spruce) swells 0.33 tangentially, 0.16 radially, and only 0.01 longitudinally, which is why pressing has little effect longitudinally but shows more tangentially and radially. This compresses the spaces between fibers and increases hardness. When you mention the unpredictability of size after treatment, it makes sense since it depends on where the wood was cut from the log. Pieces closer to the center respond differently compared to those from the edges due to the varied structure across the log. A recommendation: using thinner wood, around 5–10mm thick, could improve the process. After pressing, this would yield hardened sheets around 0.5–1mm thick, which is similar to what’s used in multiplex wood. By layering these, you could create a hardened multiplex with increased strength without excessive thickness. Additionally, I’d suggest avoiding U-shaped grain patterns in planks, as seen in the video. This grain orientation can introduce internal stress because, as the wood dries, the grain tends to flatten. That’s one reason why round cross-sections of logs often split horizontally—they relieve internal stress as they dry. Thanks for sharing this process!
@leojennings2438
Nile: spends $5000 on a press Also Nile: "WE GOT PINE BECAUSE IT WAS THE CHEAPEST"
@pace_18
He started this project almost 4 years ago! That's insane. People underestimate how long these chemistry videos take
@lewistaylor863
If you fancy revisiting this, try carrying out the first chemical wash step under vacuum. The wood contains lots of air, and the presence of the air within the cells prevents the chemicals penetrating through the whole cross section of the piece (thats why the centre looked dry). When pulling a vacuum, most of that air is removed. The vacuum can then be realased forcing the chemicals deep into the piece. In order to remove the chemicals, you can then place the treated piece under vacuum again to help draw out excess chemicals before washing. This is basically how they pressure treat timber with wood preservatives.
@puggles5744
What I really like about this channel is that you don't only just display you successful attempts. But the progress and failed attempts that brought you to your final conclusion. Its entertaining and scientific about it.
@mercylessplayer
Code Buullet doing literally anything besides being productive is hilarious to me, love the vibes of that man
@timothymiller6426
An hr long NileRed video? Best Halloween ever.
@miomip
Finally, we know what Code Bullet has been doing, shooting wood in the woods with Nilered.
@shashankreddymallepally5736
Don’t know how excited I was to see this video when it popped on my feed because guess what i worked on this project in my undergrad in 2023, really happy to see the same thing that i worked on, it bought a smile on my face while watching the all the steps because of the struggles that we faced at that time. Thanks Nile❤ If anyone wants to see our project report, you can mail me
@spudhead169
You used a 9x19 carbine. The longer barrel will allow the bullet more velocity than a pistol, so the wood stopping it was even more impressive seeing as most armor ratings for 9x19 is based on hand-gun velocities.
@nexdemise4182
So here's the thing. This is something you will see with weaves like carbon fiber or kevlar where a single layer will splinter, a double perpendicular will hold. You could significantly improve this by using thinner pieces and just stacking a bunch of them together because the impact has to keep changing direction instead of just cleaving through lines that line up behind it. So if you ever want to revisit this project, take a bunch of thin boards (the thinner the better, like you can break it by looking at it wrong thin), treat them all, stack them in your press going horizontal, vertical, horizontal, vertical, squish them all together, cook them, and try shooting it. Squish them all together to basically make them stick together on force alone. L3 plates are like 1.5 inch thick which is basically what you should be aiming for as the higher bound on thickness, and who knows, maybe it'll work. Another thing you should do with the bigger blocks you've treated is to take a hammer and chisel and break one of them apart before crush/cook (or you can shoot it with your pellet gun to make a hole down) and see if it's actually wet inside, there's a lot of different non-water liquids that can still stay behind in wood and judging from the dark color you might've been pushing out resin especially in pine that's known for holding a lot of it and crackling in fire because of it. If that's the case you didn't really have treated wood, you just had a weird hotpocket of treated wood with filling of compressed wood.
@lucam8758
I'm happy you tested a control experiment with normal wood, it really puts the strength of dense wood into perspective
@0leg0101
Shoutout to this guy for taking 3 years to make this video
@karet2490
i like how his script always makes him sound like hes reading off a chemistry procedure paper this will be the most thorough explanation of opening a box you will hear in your life
@Eihei
I can't believe this video was almost 1 hour long. It felt like 15-20 minutes. Never felt bored at any point.
@TheReKinn
I love how in chemistry there seem to be so many moments where you proceed in the experiment based on "Color changed. Things happened. ONWARD"
@Ymir._
The reason why the water used to soak the wood is dark brown, is probably because of tannins that get removed from the wood when you soak it.
@AidanXavier1