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3/15: I talked with Jim about polishing today. He said that if you change the twisting even at the end with finer grits, it can present a much different surface area to the paper than previously. If the fibers are twisted consistently and then changed, there may be a much smaller area of contact and therefore a much higher pressure than before. The higher pressure may melt the fibers. Also, it is not good to blow on the fibers because of the moisture in breath. It is better to use canned air to dust the fibers.
3/15: I talked with Jim about polishing today. He said that if you change the twisting even at the end with finer grits, it can present a much different surface area to the paper than previously. If the fibers are twisted consistently and then changed, there may be a much smaller area of contact and therefore a much higher pressure than before. The higher pressure may melt the fibers. Also, it is not good to blow on the fibers because of the moisture in breath. It is better to use canned air to dust the fibers.
3/19: I went back to polishing the first bundle of sci-fis that I did on 3/6/18 because it did not look good enough yet. I started with 1000 grit, and I hope that will smooth it out enough that the paper will reach all the fibers and polish all of them. That seems to be one of the problems with my previous polishing. Not all the fibers were polished.
I polished what I had previously chosen as the fused end, then switched to the free end, but there I ran into trouble. There are three fibers on that end that may be recessed a little. The 1000 grit does not seem able to reach them. Instead, dust builds up on them. Maybe I should try 400 grit on them again, but then I may run out of polishing room. If so, I might use a little paper or cardboard behind the collar to increase the amount I can polish away. I don't like that but may have to do it.
For now, though, I will polish the second bundle. After finishing that one, I could start a third on 400 grit and also give Bundle 1 a little time on 400 grit.
The end that would need 400 grit is the one that would take the screw on the right as you face the wheel. So the screw-hole in the collar would be on the right. I needed to note this orientation because I blew away the dust from the bundle before putting it in the storage bag.
Andrew and I worked on mounting bundle 401 on the popsicle stick in Configuration 5. After several failed attempts to align the fibers, I taped a box to the desk in a position to resemble the dark box. Maybe that will help us get the fibers into the right alignment.
3/20: Andrew and I polished Sci-Fi Bundle 1 from 3/6/2018. I had him working on the wrong end, however. I was thinking about giving that end some more time with 400 grit, but I had Andrew polish it with 5 micron grit. I turned it around after he left and polished the end I want fused all the way down to copier paper.
So for Bundle 1, the end that would be polished with the screw on the left is finished. The end that would be polished with the screw on the right is not finished.
I asked Dr. Jones about Bundle 2, which has two fibers that are not getting polished. He said it looks good. I should finish polishing it with the fine grits and not worry about the less polished fibers until later, if at all. I might polish them individually, but that would be after fusing.
I plan to polish the end with the less polished fibers as the free end. That end is the one with the screw on the right as it is polished.
3/22: I labeled the plastic snack bags for Sci-Fi bundles 1 and 2. I polished Sci-Fi bundle 2 and completed it with copier paper, and I tapped another sci-fi collar to use for the next bundle.
In the afternoon I made some charts for the normalization project and practiced fusing.
3/28: This week Andrew and I have worked on normalization calculations and plots.
I also need to set up Dr. Jones' classroom for classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday while he is away. I will need to turn on the heat with a switch on top of something that looks like a car battery, and I need to set the thermostat to 68 degrees F and the air conditioning to Cool. That switch for the heat should go to the left to turn it on and the right to turn it off. But I need to keep my hand away from moving parts.
3/29: I finished polishing sci-fi Bundle 3.
3/30: This morning I got some fairly good photos of Sci-Fi bundle 1 with the Carson camera. The big problem with using that camera is glare that obscures surface features of the fibers. It seems that glare is reduced if I point the camera more level, but completely level doesn't really work. There is still some glare, especially at the bottom of the bundle.
Andrew and I worked on preparing light guide bundle 405 for testing, but some of the fibers were too thick to fit easily in the chimneys. While waiting to hear from Dr. Jones about that problem, I started putting another sci-fi bundle in a new collar. When I was ready to align the fibers, I tried to put the collar on the sci-fi guide, but it wouldn't fit. I fetched another collar and tried that one, but it didn't fit either. After that I started sanding the first collar to see if it would fit if I made it narrower. Today seems to be the time for things to be too wide or thick!