After more than 14 years in the museum field, I have done everything from firing a cannon dressed as a Civil War soldier to extracting sodium polyacrylate from disposable diapers for chemistry demos. Working at smaller institutions has fostered my desire to create exhibit components inexpensively. I hope you find the Cheapbooks useful, and you'll be encouraged to submit your ideas for the next volume due out this fall. Enjoy, and don't forget to check back here often to learn about more cheap exhibit ideas. This mesmerizing component comes from experiments in Acton with a turntable and a bottle of cooking oil.
Cooking oil has a perfect clarity and viscosity to create a neat paraboloid.
Procedure Fill a plastic container about half full with your chosen liquid. Now, completely seal the container with epoxy and let dry. Find the center point of both the turntable and the bottom of the surface of your container and clearly mark them. Finally, epoxy the container to the turntable , making sure the center points are aligned. Notes 2-ton Epoxy seems to provide the best results.