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The paper wrapped around the fiber prevented the clamps from moving at all except when I pushed hard enough to make them move suddenly. Sudden motion is not acceptable. The clamps should move steadily and gradually as the heating light is on. With the paper I got fuses that broke at 850 grams. When I switched to lint-free cloth, some of the fuses held 850 grams. However, the clamps still moved to the right spontaneously during some fusing attempts.
The paper wrapped around the fiber prevented the clamps from moving at all except when I pushed hard enough to make them move suddenly. Sudden motion is not acceptable. The clamps should move steadily and gradually as the heating light is on. With the paper I got fuses that broke at 850 grams. When I switched to lint-free cloth, some of the fuses held 850 grams. However, the clamps still moved to the right spontaneously during some fusing attempts.
Today Andrew and I tried removing lips from some fibers. He used 1000 grit and I used 5 micron grit. I fused some of mine and weight tested them. Two broke at 850 and one broke at 1000.
Even with 5 micron grit it is easy to remove some of the core while removing a lip. 1 micron grit and copier paper don't seem very effective, though.
6/20/2018
If the clamps seem to be moving too fast, I sometimes push the top ferrule and clamp down to try to slow the clamps. Sometimes this seems to work. I am not sure if it is better just to let the clamps move or to slow them down that way.
I want to find a better way to remove lips. The problem is that, as with polishing, the fibers may not be aligned correctly as we use sandpaper. They easily tilt as they slide across the paper.
7/13/2018
Jim said today that we should try to avoid wings. If the sponge gasket is too thick, we might try electrical tape to prevent the clamps from bottoming out while fusing thin fibers.
He was concerned that if the light guides hang off the table during fusing, they could twist and cause problems. We could clamp a wide board to the table so the fibers will not hang off during fusing. We should put the black cloth from the dark box over the board, and even without a board we should cover the the area with the cloth. However, we will need to avoid snagging the end of the fiber on the cloth and possibly damaging the cladding.
Jim looked at one of my fuses from yesterday. He noticed that the line around the fuse site was faint on two sides but more pronounced on the other two. He said the fuse was incomplete somewhere, maybe at a corner. That may have been because some cladding was missing from one of the fibers. I am not sure whether he said the fuse was incomplete only at the cladding level or if some of the core was not fused either.