Breaking Taps

Dusting off an old hobby! I forgot how Zen it was to put on headphones and just paint for a few hours. Didn't go exactly to plan, but happy enough with how it turned out 😊

I made a video about this! Laser deposition of aluminum, silver, copper, titanium, invar 36, niobium ITO and (sorta) zirconium. Pretty nifty little technique. Not perfect, has some major disadvantages... but easy and reasonably robust! youtu.be/J0NNO91WyXM

Am I west coasting correctly?

This thing is pretty impressive in person 😯

Had a long flight and finally got around to fully reading @benjaminreinhardt.com 's essay on DARPA, why it works, where it struggles, and how it might be replicated: blog.benjaminreinhardt.com/wddw Very thought provoking read. Been on my todo for ages, should have read sooner!

RIP NASA science missions 😢

The optimization field has the best names -Artificial Gorilla Troops Optimizer (GTO) -Remora Optimization Algo (ROA) -Polar Bear Optimization (PBO) -Red Fox Optimization (RFO) -Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) -Marine Predator Algo (MPA) -African Vulture Optimization Algo (AVOA)

Oh hai there, look what I found in the bin of childhood stuff my parents dropped off 👀

Probably the two best things I've ever purchased

Yay done

Shoutout to bad decisions that past BreakingTaps let future BreakingTaps sort out 😑

brb starting a new channel called Breaking Bones

Getting ready for my $5.50/hr reindustrialization sewing job at the textile factory. 👊🇺🇸🔥

Lol futures for S&P, NASDAQ, Dow etc are like a vertical cliff. So much winning! jfc

The annual urge to build a modern letterpress has sidled into my brain yet again. 🙃 Hand-fed platen press, ballscrew/linear rails/servos to actuate press and inking rollers. Resin print the plate. Load cells to automatically tune the printing pressure, etc etc.

Large area deposition ends up being quite easy, but does require a spacer between metal and glass which limits ability to pattern. Ag is great, Cu is tricky (oxidizes easily). Ti, Nb and Invar 36 seem good. Can make TiO2 easily too. Zr seems to oxidize immediately

Playing around with a laser thing today and accidentally found a good set of parameters for transferring aluminum onto glass. Neat!

mood

I own a lot of tripods apparently 😅

🔭 Athena to the Moon Image Credit: Intuitive Machines apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap25022...

Designing hardware for space is, unsurprisingly, hard! Join me for 35 minutes of discussion about all the considerations that go into designing and manufacturing a tiny little hinge.

Have some external deadlines popping up in my life so need to stop messing around and finish a video or two. First up: space hinges! Yell at me if you see me on social media before a video is posted plz k thx 🙏

Academic paper pet peeves: - "Facile" 🤬 - "Wearable" or "Flexible" as justification for importance - "Green process" because it uses a slightly less-bad solvent

Saturday optical alignment vibes

Waiting on a few components, but the rough layout is starting to look like a thing Litho v3 soon, hopefully? 🥺

I'll be at OpenSauce again this year! Had an absolute blast last year, and for some reason they decided to let me come back 😊 Looking forward to seeing all the cool exhibits and chatting with attendees!

If you search each one of those keywords followed by 'starter pack' you should get some results. If you're not familiar with starter packs, they are user curated lists of users of whatever subject you are interested in. Very handy for finding your crowd.

In theory there is also a website for that, like: blueskystarterpack.com/manufacturin...

I want to use bsky more! Who should I follow in: - optics - photonics - semiconductors - material science - manufacturing, machining - space, astronomy Or anything similar. Academic labs, startups, hobbyists, whatever!

hey mom can we have an optical breadboard? mom: no, we have an optical breadboard at home optical breadboard at home:

Today we triaged and repaired some andor deep cooled cameras. This four-stage tec camera was scrapped but we managed to save three cameras

Need to tweak a bunch of dimensions, and adjust some geometry, wind my own double torsion spring... but this little guy just might work. Won't know for sure until torture testing later 😈 (it's a wee little self-latching hinge)

RIP m2 form tap, I hardly knew ya 😢🪦

Curious what the inside of a nylon SLS 3D printer looks like? Or how additive material properties are tested and optimized? I've got good news for you! I filmed a lab tour at Formlabs and they let me poke around engineering, testing, machine shop and chem labs 😊 www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7r7...

If you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery. 😇