I am using parallel discs for this one. As soon as I finish stuffing the tube and wiring it up, I will calculate and then measure the capacitance. Except for the nuts, bolts, and galvanized washers, all materials in these capacitors have been rescued from heading to a landfill. There is something gratifying in that.
Check out the laser action too! I still think that is like magic. Prior to cutting plastic parts, I cut diameter samples out of cardboard in order to check for fit inside the pvc pipe. Using cardboard or paper prior to running “good” material is a cost and time saver (thank you, John Duane!).
Here is a video of the laser re-cutting the discs as the material was a bit too thick for the speed which the head was traveling at. When you see sparking, that is the laser beam striking the Aluminum honeycomb bed below the plastic.[quicktime]http://www.terezakis.org/itp/video/40mm-laser-4-9837.mp4[/quicktime]
Assembly went well. The washers and laser cut discs were a great fit. When I get time I will measure and test.
What started out as a need to be able to store and file 5.25″ media (CDs and DVDs, no floppy or zip disks) turned into the motivation to design something more. The self-imposed design constraints were that it would be easy to assemble, disassemble, require minimal tools, use materials at hand, be aesthetically pleasing, and reconfigurable.
I should probably own up to the fact that I did arrive here by way of at least temporarily shelving the a scaled-down reconstruction of Brancusi’s Endless Column. That project had way too much geometry going on to get right with my current CAM and CNC skill sets.
After doing a lot of thinking and cutting of paper (by hand) I set my design into Illustrator and burned a few permutations in cardboard with the laser to test the fit and geometry of the pieces.
I obsessed on the idea that one section could be used without nails, glue, or other adhesives, and that it would interlock with like pieces to make a final structure. There was something about Malevich’s aesthetic that kept coming around while I thought and worked. The past continues to inform and direct my present….
After cutting the boards, I took them home for Thanksgiving and much to the consternation of my family, spent two days sanding them into submission.
Once cut and sanded the units needed to be finished.
At Eric Hagan‘s suggestion I used paste wax. Unfortunately I forgot that the compound uses petroleum distillates, which meant working outside and leaving the wood to dry out of doors as well. In addition to the leather gloves worn to protect from splinters, I chose to wear plastic gloves as a liner since the leather quickly became saturated with the petroleum compounds.
Like every other college student Thanksgiving 2013 was an opportunity to take school work home. I was fortunate to be able to recruit the love and resources of my brothers Anast and Terry Terezakis to work on two projects.
Now living with his family in Florida, Terry has been my often unwilling assistant since we were children. We rarely get to see each other any more and building this foil and polyethylene capacitor was reminiscent of old times.
Fortunately for the two of us, Anast was still away on a deer hunt, so we were able to work like Victorian gentlemen-scientists – albeit as carefully as though we were handling nuclear materials. Unfortunately, we bored our little nephew Nicholas beyond tears.
Thank you Anast and Terry!
Subscribe to the blog if you would like to be updated to the progress and testing of what these components are going into….
put non-rechargeable batteries in a charger. I know, I know: I should have known better. But after a lifetime of playing it safe, I put a D cell in my charger. About a half hour later it made a sound like a high-speed fan throwing a bearing and leaked steaming electrolyte all over my charger and sprayed material onto a wall three feet away! I was fortunate that the spray just happened to hit the wall. Had the spray hit me in the eyes I have little doubt that I would have been blinded.
I threw the battery out while it was still spewing its leaking innards. Not much there to see except ooze.
Removing insulation from solid or stranded wire with the least amount of damage to the conductor, easily, with repeatability and control is a science (Yes, this post is about wire strippers. What were you thinking?).
The same day my father caught me stripping bell wire with my teeth (he wouldn’t allow me to have a “real tool” as seven years old was “too young”) we went to the hardware store and he bought me my first pair of wire strippers. At the time, I thought they were very expensive ($.49). I remember the feeling that I could make anything happen as long as I had those wire strippers. That was 1960; the year that NASA successfully Echo 1A, a 100-foot inflatable precursor to Telstar and the beginning of John Kennedy‘s presidential campaign. Funny thing about history; you never think about it until later.
Things are a lot easier today as both materials technology and design science have continued to evolve past sharp teeth, your mom’s scissors, or a sharp rock.
I’m putting three of my favorite wire strippers out for review. The basic, cheesy, stamped handled set were the genesis of it all. I kind of hate them, especially for what they cost today.
I don’t know where to buy the simple blue handled adjustable strippers. If you find them please post or send me a note. I think I bought those in Eastern Europe during an exhibition. Due to the cutting tooth geometry and adjustable screw, they work great on just about any wire diameter, solid or stranded.
The red-handled black “automatic” wire strippers are good on larger diameter wires – especially #12, 14, 16 solid. You can get a lot done with these and I have used them extensively over the years. I put some “white out” on the business side of the tool that “remains” (the other side pulls insulation off). I’ve replacing the pair in the picture with one made by Irwin Tools (Vice-Grips). Like a lot of things in life, there isn’t much point in using second best if you don’t have to. But I’ve used these older ones in more countries so I am kind of attached to them.
I’ve always had a close relationship to the tools which I use. Chances are you will save money in the long run by not having to purchase replacements of something which you rely upon to help make your thoughts a reality. Buy right the first time if at all possible.
The yellow handled ones are AMAZING-BEST-GREAT for fine wire. To use them you dial in the mm size of the wire, adjust the stop (inside the handle) to control how long of a piece of insulation you want to remove, put the wire in the opening, squeeze the handles like a bicycle grip, and pull. If you have set the cutting depth correctly the wire will slide right off.
Some things you may want to keep in mind are that if you use solid core wire, and nick the conductor at the same spot where you have removed the insulation, you may not realize that you had done this – until you are debugging your circuit wondering why something isn’t working when it looks like it should.
Earlier this semester I presented a model based on an Alexander Calder mobile. It was fun to build and, oddly, I learned a lot. During presentation Artist-Professor Eric Hagan made a remark which resonated to what another professor said to me during my first semester at ITP. While I forget exactly what he said, both comments expressed the same thought: “OK that’s great. But I’d like to see you go further.” My immediate reaction was, “further than Calder? Not possible.” But it was still a challenge that preoccupied my semester.
Time in graduate school has given me the space to examine much of what has been an endless source of fascination for me since I was six years old, which is pretty much everything!
Specifically though, just now, the preoccupation is with nuclear forces; the movement of sub-atomic parts/units/fields/packets/waves/quanta of energy (electrons, protons, neutrons, etc.) which I am trying to wrap my consciousness into. This is a world whose architecture would seem to be modeled after a celestial map of creation. Every detail seen, appreciated, and missed, possesses significance. I cannot begin to imagine a world as complex as human society on an atomic, cosmic, human-sized scale: that’s more than my pea brain can comprehend. For now I am trying to understand one tiny phenomenon at a time.
This past year I have been thinking more about magnetic fields and how it is that non-magnetic objects are physically moved through space using otherwise invisible energetic agents.
Wandering the streets of London about ten years ago, I discovered a museum which featured Michael Faraday’s laboratory in the basement of a London townhouse. Seeing his old wooden work bench, the tools which he used, a letter to him from Galvani, and a model of the first toroidal transformer, was an extra-ordinary experience. I couldn’t help but think that his work area looked a lot like mine, except that he had more things made with wood, brass, and style.
Faraday discovered a lot things. Electrolysis and electroplating for one (two?). Another find (besides the dynamo generator) was the movement of electrons through copper wire.
That’s the background, how I arrived at creating sculptural objects from something simple while learning and discovering so much in the process: thank you Erics Rosenthal and Hagan for leading this horse to water.
“…. the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible ….” – Albert Einstein
Watching the wire repeat an eccentric orbit without gears, flywheels, pulleys, or sails is fascinating. Magnet + Electrochemical Cell (source of electrons) + Conductive metal (non-magnetic wire) + correct arrangement = Motion.
When I worked on repeating Faraday’s experiment, I learned more than I ever did through reading about him and his work. Experimenting with varying strengths of magnets and cells as well as the diameter of the wire, and how these variables with affect the speed and strength of movement is very interesting.
The demonstrations on this page would have been cause to be burned at the stake in 1693
Putting these experiments in an historical context is interesting for other reasons.
The Wonders of the Invisible World:
The misguided at Salem’s Witch Trials missed the mark. Real magic occurs at the subatomic level. It is a realm where forces which would otherwise remain invisible are made manifest through intensive research, theory, and experimentation.
Every technology which we interact with has beginnings which are no less inspiring now than when they were first discovered.
Without these discoveries, Duracell batteries (cells), copper wire, and magnets would not be the common objects which they are today, as well as the foundations of still developing machines which are fundamental to the world which we inhabit.
Three simple items and you can repeat one of Michael Faraday’s discoveries!
Bend a point into the wire. This is where the wire will sit.
Power source. I whacked the top with a blunt nail. Your experience may vary…
On Sunday, December 1, 2013 at 17:30 UTC (12:30 EST) a Chinese Long March 3B or Chang-Zheng 3B (CZ-3B) lifted off from the Xichang Space Center, China carrying the first mission to make a “soft landing” (non-impact) on the Moon since the Soviet lander Luna-24 (August 22, 1976). The overall mission is called Chang’e 3 with the lunar rover mission called Yutu or “Jade Rabbit.” Landing of Chang’e 3 will be taking place on approximately December 16, 2013 and the scheduled landing zone is Sinus Iridum (Bay of Rainbows). Chang’e 3 is the third in the Chang’e series with the first two being lunar orbiters. “Yutu is a symbol of kindness, purity and agility, and is identical to the moon rover in both outlook and connotation. Yutu also reflects China’s peaceful use of space,” – Li Benzheng, deputy commander-in-chief of China’s lunar program. Uh-huh. Forget Tibet, human rights, environmental destruction, etc. There is also this traditional wisdom:
“All armies prefer high ground to low and sunny places to dark.”
– Sun Tzu, 544 -496 B.C.
The cost of the Apollo program which safely placed and returned the first men to the moon cost the citizens the United States $25.4 billion 1969 dollars ($161.64 billion dollars in 2013 metrics) of research and development. It is unfortunate that the return on taxpayer investment will not benefit the American people.
As of the writing of this post, the current thinking in Washington is that NASA should not be looking to develop bases on the moon. The thought is that enterprises of lunar and near space exploitation will be successfully undertaken by private industry. While this may be true, the unforseen exception will be that the heralded private industry will be China in the form of the Chinese government.
Economic success is traditionally measured by positive increases in growth. The United States economy isn’t any different. Economists report on the numbers of new jobs, sales of durable goods, auto sales, houses built and sold, and more. All of these economic signifiers are reported in percentages. The higher the value of these positive percentages, the better things look.
The Washington-based forecast for 2015 is a “sustainable” economic growth rate of the United States economy between 2.4% and 3% per cent per year. A rate of 3% means that our economy will double in twenty-four years. This certainly sounds good, but as Faust would have you know, there is a price tag for everything.
If the phrase “sustainable growth” has always sounded like slick, political double-speak, Physics Professor Albert Bartlett’s lecture will confirm that your reptile brain’s survival response continues to work correctly.
Albert A. Bartlett Los Alamos wartime security badge (c. 1944)
The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” – Prof. Albert Bartlett, 1923 – 2013
According to a Wikipedia entry, Professor Albert Allen Bartlett gave the lecture “Arithmetic, Population, and Energy” 1,742 times.
In this lecture Professor Bartlett examines the simple arithmetic of steady growth, continued over modest periods of time, within a finite environment. The concept is applied to populations as well as to fossil fuel.
World human population (est.) 10,000 BC–2000 AD.
“Can you think of any problem in any area of human endeavor on any scale, from microscopic to global,
whose long-term solution is in any demonstrable way aided, assisted, or advanced by further increases in population, locally, nationally, or globally?”
– Prof. Albert Bartlett
Oil prices adjusted for inflation 1861 – 2006
Populations effect an impact on environments and resources. Unchecked population growth amplifies these effects. On a cellular level, unchecked continuous growth(cancer) will destroy the host organism. The corollary here is that unrestricted influxes of people into any location will effect change upon the environment and resources.
Gaylord Nelson, originator of Earth Day, had this to say about human populations and the environment:
“The link between population growth and environmental degradation is made often in retrospective studies, which is why they aren’t really considered valid, but clearly more people living better lives is the hallmark of progress. Activists worried about the environment don’t want better lives unless it means fewer lives too. More people means more cars, trucks and buses, more air pollution, more parking lots and less green spaces. In their progressive dystopian future, there are more chemicals, more trash and more runoff cascading down super sewers into our streams, lakes and oceans means more damage to California’s biodiversity hot spots. Plus, more people means more pressure on declining water supplies.“3
Issues regarding energy aside, unchecked growth of any population will degrade the environment and its resources until the colony fails. One way to understand the impact of population on the environment is through an equation which was developed by ecologists in the 1970s.
“The IPAT equation, though phrased mathematically, is a simple conceptual expression of the factors that create environmental impact. IPAT is an accounting identity stating that environmental impact (I) is the product of three terms: 1) population (P); 2) affluence (A); and 3) technology (T). It is stated I = P x A x T or I=PAT.”2
I was researching parts to build a stepper controlled coil winder and came across an interesting listing on eBay:
StepStick Stepper motor driver A4988 A4983 3D Printer driver module Reprap Prus
A little more research and I came across the site for a DIY 3D printer. Don’t know if it will work or how well it will work. From the photograph, it certainly looks good. But then again I have also seen photos of aliens on the internet and videos of politicians promising things would be different.
RepRap
The video looks great. Especially the part about being able to print electrically conductive material. I’m a sucker: The dispersion of this technology represents change I can believe in. Especially if it can be scaled up and use materials which have or have not yet been invented.
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