Applied Science Reading

It's a well kept secret that most of applied science is just reading and writing reports. This collection from 1974 is a good example of why writing down the various techniques used in a lab can have long distance effects. Many of the techniques described are still applicable today, and although refined and superseded, they provide valuable insight into how the approaches were developed and how they can be reproduced. Combined with modern micro-controllers, some can be rival more expensive machines. In any case, reading these sorts of works provides valuable motivation and inspiration.

Assorted watch parts

The Ugly Truth Of Aluminium Etching

I did some experiments with Ferric Chloride on 3mm and 1mm aluminium (6063-T5). It's a good thing I did it outside.



This is the same stuff they use for PCB etching, and I've gotten most of the information from there too. I'm hoping to try some photoresist techniques and watching the epoxy melt into an even bigger mess than this. Another idea I have is to continually wash the etching solution away and reapply, automated of course.

In other news, I got another drill today. This time attached to a bit of extruded slotted aluminium and jokingly called a mini-lathe. I don't really think it's gunna be good for much, but it was cheap.

Solenoid-based Gripper

I had this pretty simple concept in mind for a gripper. The idea is to pick up components that have "handles" that have been designed for the gripper, so it doesn't have to be very good. This little prototype seems to work, but it needs a stronger return spring. 12V supply. Turns out superglue is a pretty useful way to join aluminium and steel :)

Floppy wireform

This wire-form model shows the problem of stiffness. The materials have sufficient stiffness but the joints have too many degrees of freedom.

Main wire: 1.57mm galvanised steel.
Binding wire: 0.8mm.
Holes: 3 x 1mm.

The base needs to be bigger, and the platform needs to be smaller.

Laser Engraving

My el-cheapo INSMA 2000mW USB laser engraver came today. I'm hoping to make some masks for chemical etching with it. But first:

and here's what the top of Snoopy's ear looks like under the microscope:

After some experimentation, I found that 4x4 pixels are about the limit of the printing resolution with each pixel being approximately 10 micron. Different materials, laser power and "depth" settings may yield better results. This is sufficient for my purposes.

Jewellery Making

AJS Product Catalogue 2018/2019

Jewellery making is this super-accessible field of alternative manufacturing.

I'm thinking it's a treasure trove of techniques waiting to be automated.

Synthetic jewels and machining them... drool. Watch parts are some of the most well crafted components in the world. Surely we can make more than watches out of them.

Work in progress

I recently started doing some experimentation with alternate manufacturing techniques (commonly called "crafting") with a view to making small components for robotics. Not shown is the 3D printer that I have borrowed from a friend a few times, with which I made this 25-x scale model of a Stewart platform concept that I'm pursing.

The joints on this hexapod manipulator are an interesting form of universal joint called a revolute joint. It's mostly held together with M3 bolts. If you look at the bottom right corner of my messy workbench you'll see an attempt at a much smaller wire form. It's supposed to look at bit like this:

Drilling a 1 mm hole through 1.57 mm wire by hand was a pretty fruitless experiment, but I thought I'd give it a go. As this microscope shot shows, I have a long way to go.

This is, essentially, jewellery making, and I am no jeweller. My second attempt was better:

It looks good, but it's very off-center - in this photo the hole should be further to the bottom-right. Hopefully my mini-lathe will show up this month. It should make this work a lot more precise.