Fiber and Facet

These are autoclavable storage boxes for the hospital that keep delicate surgery tools safe. I reverse engineered a larger box that had been made 20 years ago, modeled it in Fusion360 and replicated two smaller versions of the original.

PTFE, Acrylic, Polycarbonate, ABS, GFRP, Nylon, PEEK

I was asked by an HCI Doctor to add micro etching to this .05 inch diameter hypodermic tubing. The solution was building a fixture to spin the part in the CO2 laser and a making a program to graduate every 2mm.

This was the final project for my Tool and Die Making degree in May 2019. I executed all stages of work for all the components save for the pin stock. From concept, drawings, EDM electrode creation to precision surface grinding and final inspection of the finish molded part in conformance to original prints.

I built this tool in Fall 2018 for my Tool and Die Making degree. I made all components save for the lead pins and bushings. All cutting components were made from hardened A2. The quality of the tool build was dependent on the stamped part it created.

I made this tool in Fall 2018 for my Tool and Die Making degree. I made all components save for the lead pins, bushings and springs. All cutting parts were made from hardened A2.

These were both made for a custom bicycle builder I know in Salt Lake City, UT. They are both unique and both were challenging. He only needed one of each, so the bulk of the time went to planning, fixtures and setups. He actually even won an award for a bicycle that one of these went on. He provided me the CAD models and prints and I machined the parts. After planning my workflow, I started by programming and waterjetting a machining blank from plate. I used this approach many times before with good results. Its an efficient technique as you can get to 90% of the finished exterior of a part with minimal waste. I then proceeded to use manual machines and techniques for the remainder of the part. Some fixture making, a couple tool room lathe setups, a couple knee mill setups and a rotary table setup on the mill. These were challenging but fun parts to make, it was a good experience.

This was a project for an HCI researcher. I integrated blue light LEDs into a provided incubator with internal stir plate capability.

This is the most complicated set of jobs I have had to do. It involved water-jet machining CFRP aircraft fuselage rib sections to ±.3 mm (approx. ±.012 inch). This is fairly challenging as the parts ranged from approximately 4’ to as long as 12’ and flexible. Once the profile features were machined, many parts required tooling and fastening holes. The positional tolerance of these holes exceeded the capability of the router I needed to use. Parts were mounted on the same verified fixture used on the water-jet. The solution was to measure the programmed path of the router and position of the part with the FARO laser tracker and correct the routers program. The hole positions could be spotted and then verified with the tracker. Drilled and reamed holes could then be measured on the machine.

These parts are the notable examples of my engine lathe class in college. I think the projects represented a very good exposure to all the main work holding applications including 3-jaw, 4-jaw, between centers and mandrel. I had extensive experience with collets from a previous job. They also represent the typical features that need to be machined in the real world. ID and OD tapers, ID and OD grooves, ID and OD shoulders and close tolerance ID and OD surfaces for bearings and other required functions. All features had to comply with real world tolerances and we had all typical metrology tools at our disposal. The most demanding of the features is of course the single point ID and OD threads. All the treads required were at least 2A or 2B in specification, with a couple requiring 1A or 1B. I was very fortunate to have a good instructor who allowed me to explore all the variability in cutting and measuring single point cut threads. I identified five main configurations for cutting, compiled through research on the internet and reading. I was able to test them all out, all being viable. There are pro’s and con’s to each, but I would not hesitate to use any one of them in the future. I was also able to explore the three main ways to measure an A thread (OD). Pitch micrometer, thread gage and thread pins with OD micrometer. Even though thread pins are not widely used, they are accurate and very adaptable.

I made these are two sets of lapping plates last year while in Milwaukee. One is hardened steel for wet lapping and the other set is an aluminum body with copper tiles which are epoxied in place. The copper face will be charged with very fine diamond. The sets were flattened with the three plate method. The next step in the project it to make a spherometer with a 50 millions indicator and acquire an optical flat. These were used on my Tool and Die Making degree projects. The parts came out closer than I could effectively check with normal analog tools.

These parts were from my first job out of high school. These were scrap parts because the web features needed to be held to +/-.0005 . I would setup and run a HAAS VF-1 to make these.

These were one of my machining and grinding projects for college. The often recreated 1X2X3 blocks. I had spent a descent amount of time working on dry and wet lapping for the several months before I was required to grind these. My plan was to incorporate a lapping operation with the surface grinder to see how correct I could get my parts. These turned out within .0002 of dimension, flatness and perpendicularity with a very good surface finish. Agreed, not that great in the grand scheme of things but I was satisfied with them as a starting point. It proved to me that working in “tenths” is pretty challenging.

I made this square comparator to measure perpendicularity. The base is surface ground and lapped. There is no flexure fine adjustment, as I had issues previously with the stability of the commercially made tools. This tool works well once setup. It isolates a vertical point from the base to the indicator tip.

These were requested as an addition to some existing units. No prints existed so I needed to reverse engineer and model a manufacturing design. I performed all work apart from the anodizing.