Optics Museum Project Construction Day 5

Today we were able to glue in the main pieces to our Optics Museum Project. We included the small plane mirror illusion box, and two mirrors. Originally, we wanted to create a concave mirror illusion, where the mirrors' reflections would seemingly project an image above; however, because the delivered concave mirrors were not deep enough, this was not an option. When we ordered the mirrors, we were not expecting for them to be reflective on both sides. This meant that we now had both concave and convex mirrors. We decided to use the surprise to our benefit. We mounted two mirrors on the sides of the box walls. The concave side facing outwards for one of the mirrors, and the convex side facing outwards for the other mirror. This new exhibit will demonstrate the difference between the two. 

Exhibit progress for today

Because of multiple changes in our original project plan, we were required to redesign our orthographic and isometric sketches. Sketches of the new design will be featured in our Purchase List document in place of the old designs. 

Top view of Optics Museum Project

Our next class will be the last day to work on our projects before they are due. We have printed all of our 3D pieces, so it is likely that our next day will be mainly organizing all our material. 

Optics Museum Project Construction Day 4

Today I was able to print the first four small plastic pieces we planned on using in our exhibit. The first few days of trying to print the pieces were relatively difficult. The printer would not warm up to the correct temperature in order to create the pieces. It took over two classes to get to printer to cooperate. 

3D printer in GBS makerspace

When we finally were able to fix the printer, we began by printing two of the four sample pieces to see if everything was on scale. 

3D printer in action

Below are the final four pieces. They are all less than 2 cm in length. For the next class, we plan on printing multiples of these pieces in case they are lost during the exhibit. 

Final pieces

Nanotechnology - 3D Printing Lab

Today we built our own 3D Printers. Based on research, I read that a projector provides enough UV light to cause a photochemical reaction and harden the polymer. We placed the polymer into a beaker and used a mirror to reflect the projector light onto it. The projector was connected to a laptop which had the image we wanted to printed. Below includes pictures of the set up we had. 

Side view

Side view (with polymer)

Front view

By the end of the class, an object was created. We used the platform placed on the bottom of the beaker to remove the created object from the rest of the polymer. The picture under shows the Lincoln Memorial we created. 

Final product