Msg: 6958 *Conference*

03-10-97 15:13:53

From: RON WIESEN

To : RICHARD HANSON

Subj: REPLY TO MSG #6938 (CYBERLIFE)

Steins eh?  Not my cup of tea but I'm still game as long as it holds coffee.
Probably not possible but if they are "serialized" then in the future low
numbered ones take on "collector premiem".

Been working on a present for the mother-in-law lately.  A sun clock with an
annual rainbow display on her birthday.  Got the tough sun clock drawings done
in detail... the easier rainbow display drawings aren't started yet but the
display stuff is all internal to the base so there's little precision needed.
Experimented with the critical part of the sun clock which is a brass tube
where four "long funny S-shaped" slits of 0.012 width and appx 2.63 length are
cut to 0.01 accuracy.  Except for "the starting hole" of each slit, the cuts by
hand meet the required accuracy.  Can't get a drill bit of 0.012 diam so will
have to grind down a larger one so "starting holes" can be controlled.  Other
major problems are: annealing brass tube so residual forces of extrusion (not
relieved by supplier) don't "sproing-out" the tube wall along curves of the
cuts as exhibited in the experimental tube; plating the parts to survive 20
years outdoors without binding up (bird droppings, acid rain, etc.) or
requiring cleaning.  Think boiling cooking oil (appx 400 deg F) will anneal the
brass tube without making hot-spots - will try next week-end.  Know 24K (pure)
gold electroplate will last forever but hope a cheaper (maybe 14K) alloy will
do assuming the non-gold contribution is near noble enough for 20 years - so
far jewlers and gold smiths contacted have no idea and all say there equipment
can't handle size over 4 by 6 by 6.  May have to do the electroplate myself but
don't relish inhaling cyanide fumes.

Naturally, the Model 102 did all the astonomical mathemeatics I needed.  Just
for fun, plotted the "curve cutting template" on the LCD.  Of course the LCD is
too granular but it "looked right" and had the right maximum dimensions.  Just
did LPRINT USING of X-Y coordinates for 366 points (times 4 slits is 1464 X-Y
coordinates) to 0.001 accuracy.  Spent several lunch hours typing the
coordinates into Designer drawing programs array generator which replicated
"bulls-eye" targets and "threw them" to the coordinates.  One more lunch hour
of "connect the targets" with the mouse and the curve cutting template was
done.  Took a few days to find a laser printer that didn't keystone, expand, or
contract the image and "ta da... the template emerged".

Will use the Model 102, Designer, and laser printer in like fashion for the
hyperbolic curve template that is the annual display "day" slit of the base.
Fortunately, it needs few X-Y coordinates and is a plane template rather than a
cyclindrical projection to a plane.

Got till late May to get it all designed, fabricated, and plated.  Come June
vacation I go the "north country" and install and align it at mother-in-law's
home.  She then will have received a "plated artifact" like the other females
in the family and can no longer complain.