Climbing Walls With RAINBOWS - DIY Gecko Tape
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- Gecko are amazing creature that have an incredible climbing ability thanks to the use of nano structures on their feet. Scientists have since replicated these structures artificially and made rolls of tape with the same magical sticky properties are a gecko foot. But making these tapes is normally and expensive and difficult undertaking. In this video we explore a simple method to make gecko tape that if made correctly could hold upwards of 100 lbs.
Bens Video: • Making DIY gecko tape ...
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Sticky gecko pads? Black widow silk? Nonvisible EMF detection? You are creating a Spiderman suit.
A theory a FIL.....no
That is exactly what spiderman would say
geckoman
@@jkrollingsheep1463 film theory?
@@jasonsrandomclips3439 r/woooosh film..
Duuuuuuuude this is dope, I've wanted to make gecko tape for years! Gonna have to give this a try. Genius video!
Woah, didn't expect you to be here, what's up?
@@einsteinisawesome9554 whoa!
@@hacksmith so we all watch same guy
@@hacksmith whoaaaa are u working on gecko tape ?
Hacksmith and Allen are here?
Lit!!!
Awesome! I'm so glad you saw success with the diffraction grating. This stuff is a lot of fun. I'm thinking about trying different grating densities.
Haha, I was looking for your comment. I can't wait to see how your results will turn out ^◇^
Maybe try some cd's and such as well to get more of a dimply pattern. One of those old laser disks might work well and be big enough to fit a hand on. As part of the hologram project I'm getting some photoresist. I may at some point try patterning that like how the professionals do it and give this another go down the line if I can figure out an easy way to make tiny lines. Thinking of just setting up an interference pattern with a uv laser and using that to pattern the grooves to the size I want. But if you've got the time and want to try it first, you're welcome to. Got a bazillion other projects on the go, hence why I stopped where I did, as I'm sure you appreciate. Anyway, glad you enjoyed!
Found it. Called Geckskin and worked really well
@@thethoughtemporium put some fabric in the silicone so it doesn't stretch so much. I think that's a component of the failure.
When are all of the scientists of RUclips gonna team up with Elon musk to make catgirls?
Me hunched over hiding in a shed making gecko tape for my whole body so I can scale buildings like spiderman
You'll most likely get covered with the ever-present dirt.
Yikes
Crestfallen Mortal you wouldnt need for whole body just the palm of your hand and the bottom of your feet
@@willraya1791 knees would be smart as well
@@namonaite and back of feet
When I saw Ben's experiments with this I was convinced that casting would never be high enough resolution to get this done and it would require a chemical etching or similar process. Cool to be proved wrong! Great idea with the diffraction filters.
whatever, man
Read your reply just after I posted mine. Micro foaming agent in the silicone, then shave surface off, or a photo cell as the mold. But that might be too fine, need a super low viscosity silicone.
I wish you would revisit this you're so close to perfection
animeknightx YES PLEASE
There are actually a bunch of tutorials on making silicone gecko tape online and apparently micropore tapes work perfectly as moulds... I used the tapes to create the tapes...
@@FlairGinge Any chance you'd be interested in going over the process? I'm currently working on a quite similar project.
@@FlairGinge c
Just commenting to give you an edge on the yt algorithm
Jonas Manuel same.
@@thermophile2106 cool
Yup
just replying to feed the engagement metric
@@officer_baitlyn darkness my old friend (you get it, cuz your name is hello)
The acceleration on that bungee cord when the tape failed was downright scary
The sound it made....
Applied Science is one of the best channels on RUclips, all categories included.
The Thought Emporium is definitely walking on a similar path to great heights!
... or to nanoscale structures, either way it's awesome, keep up the great work!
Ry P applied science has alot more expensive projects
gecko feet have hairs
me:
oh ok
and those hairs have hairs
me:
wait
Hairception
And THOSE hairs have more hairs
God, I love these videos. Such a great channel, I'm happy I found it!
Could make a full skin suit out of it and you could be the rainbow gecko man hahaha
🎶gecko man🎶gecko man🎶your friendly neighborhood gecko man🎶
I need the full song NOW
there are two directional diffraction gratings. maby they create pillars instead of wedges.
Assuming the structure of these is also wedge shaped, they wouldn't form pillars, but instead they'd make pyramid shapes.
Xander Vice yeah pyramid shapes would mean less SA, so they’re probably worse
@@justadummy8076 If it makes it conform to the surface better (which it might) it could end up with more effective surface area, only real way to know is to try it.
@@justadummy8076 No, a bunch of pyramids = more surface area than a single wedge
I think he should try it
I've strapped a paintball gun to my CNC, but never a tattoo gun! Great demonstration of material properties, reminds me of my old job where I did a lot of silicone prototyping, although never for anything this fun! Loved seeing your revision process in action, and was impressed by the ingenuity.
Would fibers or a fine mesh of metal inside the silicone stop it from streching?
If the mesh is flexible and can take the force maybe the tape would form around the material it is sitting on, while still not stretching too much.
exactly what i was thinking!
Window screen material would be a very good candidate, I think. You can get fairly large rolls at your local hardware store.
I suspect the right implementation of this sort of reinforcement would be the most helpful thing for improving this while sticking with the easily accessible diffraction grating
Or a fiberglass mat.
gaffer tape mesh
So if I’m only about 100 lbs
And I cover my entire body in it-
How to make your young kids the terrors of the whole town at Halloween...
Time to hit the gym..
Then imagine trying to get out of your bed sheets
Dude I'm less than 90lbs. I would love to try this, haha
I am 38kg.
i still can't believe you aren't more popular considering your science videos are orders of magnitude better in content than pretty much everything else on RUclips
A lot of people seem to prefer 2 minute junk
Phwelp you know... Mindless enternaintment doesn't require thinking.
I feel like I just entered a chat full of geniuses. But this is still cool as hell tho!
A really simple way to make the defraction grading flat when you cast the silicon on it, you could just use some spray adhesive to hold it to the glass. If you cast it in a vacuum chamber, you would also probably get sharper wedges. Especially if you let the air back in when the silicone is all spread out, to push it into the smallest cracks.
If you were to press a flexible, but not stretchy, material into the silicone while it was wet, you could probably make the pads work really well. I’m thinking of fiberglass embedded into the silicone to give it strength, without compromising flexibility.
The second pad you tested failed by having the silicone stretch and peel off, so only the bottom half inch or so of contact had any sort of grip. Preventing the pad from stretching would probably fix this.
Thermophile He should really see this.
Yo dude that is straight up genius
And the acrylic backing could be put on top at the same time to make the whole finished pad flatter.
*💿Holo Gecko Tape💿*
(for all my Simply Nailogical fans)
I never could have guessed there was enough of an overlap of the viewers to find comments like this...
@@Call-me-Al either way nice pfp
Holo!
Me: *see the thumbnail*
Me: Cristine will like this
they are here
I wonder if embedding some strong mesh in the silicone would improve the results by removing most of the stretch.
Cast it onto fibre glas.
Use the mesh, with small standoffs to attach to a handle. Use a thin layer of spongy material (like foam rubber) between the handle and the silicone. That would make it so that more of the surface area would be in contact, as well as make the silicone sturdy enough to avoid stretching. It could very easily double or triple the weight capacity of it.
I was searching for the 2nd part, but then realized that it was published today. !!
5:10 I was getting excited and started wondering what this material could be. When you revealed that it was a diffraction grating I literally smacked myself on the forehead lmao. You are a fcking genius, man!
The flamingsword lol right!
Bro this is BADASS. However you NEED to try this again, but instead of the acrylic backing, use graphine enhanced resin, and cure it in a sort of mesh. I don’t know what shape will be optimal, but it’ll keep the gripper from stretching/deforming too much, since it looked like the breaking point of holding your weight wasn’t the grip force, but just the material getting out of shape.
There’s a RUclips video about how to make graphine relatively easily, using a glass tube, a vacuum chamber, and some *very* strong electromagnets. It’s dangerous, but knowing you, it’d be right up your alley.
I really like the idea of cute tiny lizards running around ceilings. You should focus on that a bit more.
FULL CONTACT IDEA: the gecko feet are segmented, maybe the diversity in linear angles help with the grip. You could recreate this by maybe making a silicone mold of your hand and fit the pieces to a lightweight skintight glove, with your rainbow tape layered to mimic the segments on your fingers and folds in the hand
A cloth backing would make it more flexible. Maybe Kevlar or something else strong.
or carbon fibre
William osman x this channel = the best colab that could ever be
Imagine using vantablack for this...
Oh shit
@J•Erik vantablack is a paint that absorbs almost all light, making it appear very, very dark, since it almost doesn't reflect any light. You should look up some pictures of it, it's amazing
@J•Erik It absorbs almost all light but still has the pattern that made it look like a rainbow. I'm guessing this is where they wear going with that.
@@moonandstars1677 But vantablack absorbs all light, so how would the rainbow reflection be visible is the light is absorbed
Very late response, but I'm guessing they were referring about the fine nanostructures of vantablack rather than the colour.
That guy climbing the wall is my professor. He fixed the contact issue by dividing the tape surface into several small segments and connecting each to a frame via springs so that each small segment could be individually held in contact with the surface.
I did think that was the reason he did that when I saw the pad he was using. Nice to know you have actually confirmed this!
8:37 the sudden realization that you did indeed capture that on video
Such a welcome break from religious idiocy, pandemics, war etc to just watch videos like yours that arent just mindless things to pass the time, but actually likely more benevolent than just being interesting and trying to answer sometimes seemingly bizarre questions!
“One of my favorite things are geckos, or rather their sticky feet”
My Leopard Gecko: “am I a joke to you?”
Orion watching this with my leopard gecko and I think she’s jealous of others
Pretty sweet!
FYI you should try doing smaller needles and do a very fast stab, then very violent pullout, and just as it is all in the air formed, BAM! insta freeze it then use plasma to metal coat it then cast it.. My thoughts are if you can get a fast entry and have little disturbance (all the way to the bottom) and a violent withdraw, this will help carry the heavier portions up and then smaller, and smaller etc.. then fast freeze it at the very second in time it is all at its maximum before falling victim to gravity
TIL: diffraction grating sheets are super cheap. Found a 5ft x 6in one for 20€, amazing.
Radiochemistry.org states that "Regular grade silicon (99%) costs about $0.50/g. Silicon 99.9% pure costs about $50/lb; hyperpure silicon may cost as much as $100/oz." Although a quick google search revealed 99.9% more around 120$ for 1 lb. If you look at Alibaba they sell it by the ton. shipping and storage will probably be a doozy but some cost 1800$ raw
In terms of rtv mold silicon I found 3 lbs for 30$.
Can you post your list of supplies. @TheThoughtEmporium
To everyone wondering what silicone he used, seeing as he doesn’t respond to people about this question… He is using: Illuseffects high strength Silicone RTV mold making compound.
You can confirm this in the video at 6:28
let's make that video stick to the youtube front page !
Yeah lets gooo
8:30 That reaction, priceless :'D Nice research tho!!
Gecko-man Gecko-man does everything a gecko can
Ricardo Saltos
Climbs a tree, any height,
Keeps the scientists up all night...
2019: fly paper
2021: human paper
Just take a few gecko foot cells and make a few clones engineered to culture actual gecko feet skin :b
TheLiasas The cells would die and the hairs would break
I think a few issues might be that geckos feet are in a shape that also helps, each toe at the end has a much larger surface, like if at the end of your own fingers were circles with even more gecko tape. I think it helps add more surface area in a way that helps that, that and when they walk their toes must curl upwards or else they wouldn’t be able to walk.
I see you are gaining subscriber! Wish you luck on your great channel!
Not only did you make the thing, but you also made it beautiful
One easy way I see to make a better pad is to cast the silicone on the diffraction grating with the acrylic pad on the back as it cures. The problem was that the acrylic pad and the acrylic wall you were sticking to were booth flat, but the silicone was not. Letting the silicone dry between the acrylic pad and the diffraction grating will ensure it is a flat surface that can make ideal contact with a smooth surface.
This video is an awesome recap of your experimentation! Your voice reminds me of 8 bit keys.
I never thought that just casting a diffraction grating could get gecko tape. I would have used a rope instead of a bungee cord though. Stored energy that can't release safely puts me on edge
Maybe use some foamy backing instead so it's pressed everywhere against and not just on a small part
Yeah, small layer of foam and a slight bulge out so when force is applied it flattens and forces air from between.
that jumpscare you got when the gecko pad gave in while youre textin was glorious!
8:36
damn that fell down faster than how my life went downhill after people on my school found out I was a furry...
In order to get full surface contact, it seems like the pad cannot have a hard backing. But in your second test it looked like one of the points of failure was the tape stretching, thus loosing the surface contact. If you perhaps attached cords of rope to the back of the pad which are parallel to the force you are applying, that would give it the flexibility to come in with full contact with the glass, while having the strength in the direction you are applying force so it does not stretch off the glass.
I think this is still one of my favorite videos you've made, just because you can climb the walls-- or at least suspend a bucket of water-- with RAINBOWS (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ And if that's not real-world magic I dunno what is
a few thoughts: glue the film to a flat surface before casting. vibrate the surface during casting to help the silicon get down into the ridges of the film. mount the finish product to a flexible but tough material, something that will flex but not stretch. as the force is applied its deforming the ridges . also maybe you would get better adhesion on a larger scale with rings instead of ridges. if you could find a Fresnel lens with super narrow groove spacing .
I'm gecko tape to your uploads
you sir just got yourself another subscriber, this was super easy to follow but went in depth enough to explain what was going on, with links to more relevent content. thank you, have a great day.
Hmmm, so surface contact is the issue? Maybe something that curves out in the middle might work.
Brilliant. Self critical. Honest.
Love it.
8:04 that step was so dangerous.. wear a helmet next time :D
What are you even talking about? There was no realistic danger there... The bucket will not go up, the smooth sheet will not go down (look at how many anchor points he put on!), and the gecko pad is, well, soft!
Went kinda viral talking about blue jays and refractive color on tumblr so im linking this to talk more about it! Thanks for teaching me about how color can sometimes be a texture!
His reaction made me laugh so hard it hurts now 😂😂😂😂
I'd say that the air is getting in your way. having a grid of smaller pads or even something like a tire pattern will mean more silicone contact.
Amazing work. I like the way you work in your videos. Keep it up.
But could you please use metric?
To help with contact area, your tape should be thicker, or you should use a thin flexible gap pad between the acrylic and tape. That will allow the gecko surface to conform better since the acrylic pieces aren't perfectly flat.
I wonder if you could take am impression of microfiber cloth and make it from that.
Microfiber cloth wouldn't be smaller than what he used. It'd be thicker than the tungsten needles even.
@@DarkestDeeds what about mirafiber
I've been waiting for gecko gloves my whole life
8:35 That got me laughing good!
You need to do silicon degassing. That would significantly decrease the likelyhood of there being imperfections in the grating and greatly improve it's quality. You might also want to consider a stronger silicon material as the gecko is only putting its own small respective weight on its arms and legs. It might be better to do surface tests too, like testing on a hard rock surface, walling material, etc...
I know your not revisiting, but what do you think about making a diffraction grating (or close to one) out of shrink film? make it deep enough, and the cast will wind up being insanely detailed once you shrink it.
this is so cool, and also after youtube recommend me the applied science video it recommended your so your doing a great job
I bet that by cutting small holes at regular intervals you could provide a place for air trapped under the pad to go, increasing the contact.
Thats what i thought!
Man, I hope you get recommend to a lot of people!
Just a thought if you were to try this again, could you create some activated carbon to cast on to. Use a sheet of wood, carbonize it in a custom container, then activate it per codyslab process, thus creating a surface with very tiny holes creating lots of hairs in different directions when you pour onto it. To remove the carbon, just heat the silicone and burn off the carbon.
Maybe?
I feel like the diffraction grating idea is better because a uniform detailing in one direction is best
You are so impressive. Smart, talented and able to teach. I really enjoy your channel. Thanks !
Amazing video I love it... but as an scientist it would be good to say measures in metric or at least display text showing weight in kg, but anyway gecko diffraction grating! Awesome!
Martin Brada 1kg is 2.2 pounds
Martin Brada A n
that is the most beautiful tape i've ever seen.
My mommy senses were tingling when I first saw you up on the chair, lol!
Feel like I'm missing out by not having geckos crawling on my ceiling
Just commenting to give you an edge on the yt algorithm
yeet
Here's a reply
whoop
Oof
If you used a more flexible silicone and used more of it (2/3 inch thick)
You'd get more contact area and maby give it some vent holes for the air to escape
If it had weaved backing it wouldn't stretch and probably hold better
You could try a similar method using CD's and blue ray disks to play around with a different sized nano gradient. Also, perhaps casting silicone on a combination of an intermediate grid structure like a window screen on top of the diffraction grading film could improve the results.
I would try to achieve this by using an UV laser, a tiny slit and photosensitive resin.
We would create an interference pattern orders of magnitude smaller than what you achieved in this video.
The intensity, row depth and material flexibility could all be controlled.
Could it work ?
10:15
this would be really cool as reusable command strips
8:37
Hiiiyaahhh!
It's very nice seeing your failed atempts. It adds a lot to your videos.
Wait, what happens if you just poured the silicone on Gecko Tape?
Could it just become a negative of that pattern?
Some of the ones shown would be incapable of being removed without damage, others would likely be extremely difficult if possible at all
@@garret1930 maybe you could remove the original by dissolving it with something. But then if you cast something into that mold you probably won´t get it out either.
Holy crap that flower timelapse was gorgeous!
How about make gloves and shoes with this? ;)
Your reaction to the bucket dropping was amazingly relatable
Any chance you can do this with a DVD or CD? Perhaps first removing whatever protective film is on the front.
@@dageekoftheweek They might. My issue with that is if the grooves get too small, it will become relatively impossible to cast in them.
The holes of a disk are completely internal, you can't excess them
@@ipodhty If you rip off the film which the DVD / CD cover design is on, the data is actually on the opposite side of that film.
That jump scare hahaha nice science bubba
just buy a gecko and take a silicon cast then make a positive and then cast you gecko tape 😂😂
wayne wayo aveyard
Times a few hundred per pad haha
@@thepepchannel7940 yeah, but after the first few batch you could just put them all together and make a bigger cast 😂 i dont know why but i just heard jesse from breaking bad shout "yeah science, b*tch"
wayne wayo aveyard
🤔 this is the kind of thinking we need. Not in problems but in solutions
@@thepepchannel7940 gofundme page coming up!
Just let a couple of geckos run over a extremely thin film of silicon, cast a negative and there you go. Might be working or at least fun trying :D
As a casting surface, you might be able to get a highly porous surface by using acid to etch a metal. It would be highly disorganised, but also likely a far higher surface area.
Alternatively, if you laid a powder over the surface (or two layers of powder of different particle sizes), set the casting and then remove the powder from the casting by exploiting some property of the powder (eg if it was sugar, just use water to dissolve it. If it was something with a lower boiling point than silicone, burn it off)
Just cut of a gecko’s foot and cast that
Just wait til’ it’s dead tho
Sweet. I'm going to try this out immediately. I don't remember if you mentioned it, but for others who may try this an easy way to determine which side of your diffraction grating has the grooves is to put some mineral oil on it, the matching index of refraction between the oil and the plastic will cause the diffraction effect to disappear when it is on the grooved side but not on the other. Same optical effect that causes some things to seem to disappear in certain liquids. You may need to change the liquid depending on exactly which material your gratings are. Mineral oil worked for my cheap ones.
Flex tape would like to know your location
This video deserves WAY more attention
That diffraction grating is so beautiful
Commenting in the hopes this channel gains more momentum
your reaction to the loud noise was absolutely priceless!