LH Spring 2014

January 2014
During 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.