LH Spring 2014

Winter Intersession (Jan 1-Jan 21)
I worked on production. I have continued straightening, polishing and fusing. Still no bending and therefore no painting. Besides production, I also had to figure out how to modfiy the shipping boxes to pass through a single door. Ann Marie and I also created a cloth divider for the dark box to shield the electronics from the light.

Polishing: As discussed in a meeting, we no longer have to polish the second side of SciFis when the black grit gets beneath the cladding. The polishing for all the SciFis were completed on Jan 15th.

Straightening: On January 13th we started using an aluminum rod to straighten fibers. The straightening 5x6 collars were all sanded/wire brushed and the entire set up was put into the PVC. This is in hopes that the rust will no longer be an issue in straightening.

Fusing: Fusing has been going well. There was an issue with the fuser one day where the pressures were not high enough but luckily Brendan was in the lab to fix it. It has since run as it was before. Strength tests have proven that most fuses withstand up to 1000g. Alex did a preliminary test for light transmission and said it was an acceptable amount. On the rare occasion that a fuse goes wrong, we take a spare light guide, cut it to length, polish, and fuse.

Ann Marie also looked up how to drain the air compressor of water. We are now going to be draining the compressor regularly to keep the fusing unit working properly.

Shipping: The boxed ordered from Uline were too big to fit through a single door. If a 6" cut is made around the top of each box, they can fit about 10 bundles and fit through a door.

Spring Semester 2014 (After Jan 21)
Jan 21 - Today I fused half of Bundle 15. I performed one strength test and it broke at 1000g.

Jan 27 - Today I finished fusing the last third of Bundle 17 and began fusing Bundle 18. I also spent a few minutes helping Ann Marie measure the lengths of Bundles 19 and 20 and also polished a few single light guides of Bundle 21. (4 hours)

Jan 28 - Today I finished fusing Bundle 18 (1.5 hours)

Jan 30 - Today I measured the SciFi's for Bundle 19 and began fusing. I made the extra effort of keeping track of the orientation of the fuse site measurements I took, so that the first fuse site width is side A and the second is side B. This should help Ann Marie in organizing the fibers by size and creating bundles with a consistent average. (1.5 hours) I also came back at the end of the day to attend the end of the weekly meeting.

Note about fusing: We have recently been emptying the air compressor each night of the condensation. In order to do this, just open the valve on the bottom of the compressor each night- this will make a large sound as the air pressure is released and the condensed water will be released. Before fusing, make sure this valve is closed and continue the procedure as normal.

February 2014
Feb 3 - Today I finished fusing Bundle 19. Afterwards I measured the SciFi's and some of the light guides for Bundle 20. (4 hours)

Feb 4 - Today I helped Ann Marie put Bundle 9 in the bending unit and began fusing Bundle 20. I completed 11 fuses and performed 1 strength test. (2.25 hours)

Feb 6 - Today I worked on fusing Bundle 20. I have only 6 fibers left in 20. I also conducted a strength test - the test fuse broke at 1,250 g. Then I started measuring the SciFi's for Bundle 21 because the bending of Bundle 9 was going on. (1.75 hours) Also I attended the end of the weekly meeting.

Feb 10 - Today I worked with Ann Marie to prepare Bundle 8 for bending which included putting the fibers in the collar, offsetting them by an inch, placing them in the chimneys as well as cleaning the tank and filling it with water to place the bending unit. I also learned the most current painting procedure with Kenny and Ann Marie and cleaned up the lab at the end of the day. (4 hours)

Feb 11- Today I cut some styrofoam for the storage unit. We've bought 1"x96"x36" boards and so if we cut 40"x30", we can get 3 slides per board which will fit into the boxes and we'll have 21 total from the 7 boards purchased. They will be spaced by blocks of 2" styrofoam and placed into the boxes for storage and shipment. (1.5 hours)

Feb 13- Didn't work because of the snow storm.

Feb 17- Prepared Bundle E(5) for bending (same procedure as Feb 10) I also spent about an hour mixing paint and painting a few fibers. I erroneously put the fibers in Bundle 5 in the wrong matrix for the bending procedure, but the measurements were checked and the positioning I had put them in was still in spec. I'll have to work on how to properly put the fibers in the right matrix.(4 hours)

'Feb 18 - Didn't work because of a snow storm.

Feb 20 - (2 hours) Today I mixed paint and painted fibers. I could only get about 8 done. They take a while.

Feb 24  - (3 hours) Today I prepared a bundle for bending. I also painted epoxied all the styrofoam boards that Jim had previously cut.

Feb 25 - (2.5 hours) Today I cut 9 more styrofoam boards but did not epoxy 6 of them because we need to check that we have enough glue.

Feb 27 - Today I cleaned and dried Bundle 8 and helped Alex remove a bundle from the tank. (1.5 hours)