As the previous week's 3D printed parts had the right dimensions, I just remailed Dr Yoseffi with the last set of part files. Specifically, there asked for 1 cap, 1 pair of vertical clamps, and 3 pairs of horizontal clamps. As he didn't answer, I was worried that the email didn't reach him - but when I talked to him on Wednesday, he already had them finished!
For the Laser Cutter, I spent a lot of time completely remaking the pattern for two sheets. Although this game me a lot more room to place parts, it brought in a lot of challenges due to the required spacing between parts and the laser kerf (diameter). Specifically, I was advised that the minimum spacing required would be 1/8 of an inch and that the laser was between 20 and 25 thousandths of an inch - as such, I made the spacing be 3/16th of an inch and the offset (to compensate for the kerf be 0.02 inch). I realized that the guideway's 6,12 and 18 parts and the required 3 clamps would no longer fit well onto the sheet pattern (leading to a lot of wasted acrylic), so I modified them to be 5, 10 and 15 parts (which would require one more clamp). Despite this, I still had to try different configurations to minimize waste. After a lot of trial and error, I managed to find a configuration that would also allow me to design a new type of clamp that would allow me to attach the upper guide way parts directly to the PVC pipes. Also, I designed an easier way to keep the two sided spaced equally (more on that next week's blog post though).
Figure 1: The old part assembly
Figure 2: the new support and clamp part pattern
Figure 3: the new guide way part pattern
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