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Fabrication

Fabrication 

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Operatinga Lathe and Mill

Operating a Lathe and Mill to Manually Machined an Aluminum Widget

I had the opportunity to use UC Berkeley's machine shop to learn the basics of using a lathe, mill, and drill press. 

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Skills Learned

  • Using a Lathe​

  • Using a Mill

  • Using a Drill Press

  • Learning safety habits for soft and hard metals

  • Finding an edge with an edge finder

  • Manually zeroing my coordinate system 

  • Cleaning the environment for the next person

 

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Fab Thing I learned Experience

Things I Learned By Experience | Creating furniture, a shed, and more DIY 

The following lists all the habits, safety procedures, and skills I learned by creating stuff. 

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Many of the things I listed are from working on DIY projects with my dad: creating furniture, a shed, repairing rotten wood for a deck, building scaffolding to repair the sidings of our house, etc.

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(See Personal Project Section)

Using Power Tools and Traditional Construction Tools

  • considering the thickness of a saw blade

  • pushing in the screwdriver or drill bit into a screw to prevent destroying of the bit hole

  • considering the kickback of a saw blade as you cut a 2 by 4 piece of wood, and holding the wood with your hand to prevent this

  • Also allowing the saw blade to have full motion when cutting the wood instead of having the blade stop in the middle, inducing kick back

  • having eye protection to avoid overblinking if saw dust flies in my eyes 

  • having a vaccuum to clear away saw dust or having to blow away the saw dust

  • using push blocks when dealing with saws to avoid getting my fingers chopped up

  • being aware of the direction a manual saw is designed to cut in


Assembling 

  • Attaching all of the objects loosely first to be able to adjust pieces if necessary. Then, tightening pieces together

  • Pushing in screw driver or powerdrill into the drill hole to prevent jumping of the drill bit


Using 3D Printers and Laser Cutters

  • considering the flatness of a 3D printer bed and calibration

  • considering the mm thickness of the filament

  • considering the size of the baseplate and the height the printer provides

  • considering the time saved when using vector lines instead of raster lines for laser cutting


Machining Metals

  • when machining tough metals, using a lower gear ratio

  • when machining metal, oiling the metal to have a cleaner tap


Soldering 

  • tinning the soldering iron to have better heat transfer, leading to circuits not being microscopically burned. Also to prevent oxidation on the tip

  • Pulling the solder first, then the iron to prevent the solder from being stuck

  • Allowing the solder to geep between the connection point of the component

  • using a putty or plado to hold the wires flat on the table

  • using a fan to prevent fumes from going in my lungs

  • when stripping whires, using a wire stripper

  • wrapping wires around each other to cancel out magnetic fields comeing about wires

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