Ring Machining

Machining of the rings today out of of a half inch thick sheet of steel. We first cut out a piece of acrylic for the jig on the CNC machine:

During the machining, the support structures were tapped by Andrea and Dan:

In order to begin the machining of the rings, it was suggested that we drill and tap 4 holes into each of the three rings and attach them to the acrylic jig below.this ensures that he rings will not move during machining.

Machining would continue until roughly 7 PM, at which point, the first ring was finished and the inside of the second ring was in progress:

Machining of Stands

Having sent the Creo drawing of the outside stands/housing to Senior Lab Technician Mohamed Haroun, we were ready to machine. Essentially, the files were used in accordance with Mastercam in order to produce the desired G-Code. 

Consulting with Lab Manager Robert Stark, we were able to flatten the surface of two of our 6 bearings in order to easily mount them to the outside stands. This was done on the lathe. 

Adjusting the CNC machine accordingly in order to mount our first piece of stainless steel, our team was ready to begin machining after gathering the required mills/bits:

Initially there were concerns regarding the stability of the support structures. However, as the cutting process was nearing the end, one lab member used a glove to hold onto the freed side of the steel before pulling the piece away from the drill to ensure it did not come loose. The cutting process went smoothly and lasted roughly 2 hours for each side of the housing:

For the first housing piece, the order of the cutting went as follows: inside removal, drilling of holes, then outside material removal. For the second housing, we drilled the holes first, then went for the removal of the inside and outside in order to minimize the changing of the tools. Our final product:

In the meantime, Andrea also went to pickup our oven in New Jersey: