Reflection

Finalization & Presentation

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Original DIY Practice Faceting Machine Drawing

Looking back the one regret I can say I have is that I didn't start building my machine soon enough which meant I couldn't give myself more time to get more into the small details and intricacies (even if I intended it to be DIY). I do wish I could have made an articulating arm rather than the O'Brien, but for this I aimed for more simplicity based off my experience with my attempted robotic hand project and how high I set the bar on that one only to not reach it. I want to move more into actually working with smaller motors and automations like the 3d printing machines. (I plan on building my own this summer.)

For Arts & Tech night I did my best to make my display interactive, even though I deemed my machine unsafe for the general public to just be playing around with, I tried to get them involved by other means. I brought in my books on faceting and had them turned to varying pages talking about the machine I worked on but also pages based on the art of Faceting to hopefully interest passerby's. I left notes on certain pages and told the audience that they were free to flip through them to their hearts desire. Included this was two individual Instagram accounts pulled up on my computer that served as perfect examples of home faceters and the results that they can achieve on a daily basis. Images of both unfinished and finished gems were shown in combination with my demonstration of the basics behind faceting. Outside of the machine I really felt confident having people approach me and ask me what I had done or what I was doing. I explained how I had built my machine and the structural concepts behind it. Yet what was always most intriguing to the observers were the results that my faceting machine produced. I felt people engaged in my demonstrations and that I was able to answer most all questions posed or refer them to a reading or source I knew of that could.

I really enjoyed working on this project and I feel that more than even in my school career I'm learning something that drives me to dig deeper. Although I was hesitant this semester to get completely involved electronically I anticipate the knowledge in the future. 

Creation, Assembly & Design Realization

Preparation, Box Creation, & Testing 

[Below are the assembly progress pictures with appropriate descriptions and explanations for design choices]

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Cutting & Creating The Box -- Finishing the Platform Design

I want to acknowledge my dad in this post. With his help and availability I was able to 

allocate the correct parts & wood for my project.

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Figure 1 : The Pieces

Using 3/4 inch plywood I determined an appropriate size for a box intended to hold the faceting machine. The outside dimensions are as follows: X = 17in , Y = 15in , Z = 8in . I made it this size with intentions to be economic when it comes to my supplies while also creating a big enough box to comfortably work on-top of/with. In retrospect, I could have made the box much shorter, maybe even down to 10in for the Y, as long as the bolt can still reach or extend through a bearing at an interior stabilization point (the inner-box).

Figure 2 : Fixed Sides

In Figure 1 you can see that I cut out and mitered at exactly 45 degrees the 6 sides (with the two inside sides) and arranged them in order of size with the altered faces on top. The farthest to the right we see the back side resting on top of the identical front. The back has holes to provide a surface for the motor to be screwed, secured, and adjusted horizontally along with a single hole for the plug to fit through the back. To the left of those are the bottom and top faces of the box. The top has a centered hole to provide clearance for the bolt that will pass through giving power to the sanding lap. Adjacent to them are the left and right sides of the box which are just slightly smaller than the top and bottom. The bottom and right side both have notches cut into them so that the final two pieces at the left of the picture can be slotted into for the inside box. I will bind and glue them all together ( placing the back and front on last) and then use the metal angle supports I have to reinforce the structure so it doesn't fall to pieces when I turn on the motor.

Figure 3 : Inner Box & Bearings

Putting the box frame together, shown in Figure 2, was used using wood glue held together with tape and then afterwards additional support was added through screwed in metal corner bracers. (Through some slight misjudgments and poor craftsmanship when it comes to drilling & my corners didn't meet perfectly but through some effort managed to be quite close.) You can see examples of gaps and overlaps that may exist when fixing the sides together in both Figure 2 & 3. Although the bracers may have slightly misaligned the box I feel that sacrificing some visual appeal for an ultra stable box is definitely worth it. After the frame I put the inner box sides together and then into place after determining that the bolt would stick and stay into the bearings seen in Figure 3. For the top of the box I used a square 5/8ths flange to brace the lap against the tabletop and lock it into place. For reference, considering the size of my box, my 10 inch 5/8ths bolt just reaches and rests in the flange bearing (i could have made it shorter). Once I made sure that it was a straight shot I placed my die pulley on and marked the correct hight so that I can fasten it tightly and know where exactly I had it when I come back to final assembly.

Figure 4 : First Assembly

Figure 5 : Motor Motor

Figure 6 : Motor & Pulley

After making sure the shaft/bolt was set straight, would work and was the correct length I moved on to fixing the back onto the box and making it so you could adjust the motor to make the belt taunt and functional. If you look back and take a look at my materials blog post, the motor has four slots in the back that are intended for this purpose specifically. I cut out long oval like shapes on the back side (see Figure 1) and also drilled holes through another individual large wooden block for the screws to tighten against, Figure 5. This allows me to be more accurate when it comes to tautness and is the simplest way to affix the motor to the box. Looking at the top of the box, containing the sanding disk, is what would be the lap on a normal faceting machine. I used a 4.5 in hook and loop sanding disk and glued and clamped it to the 4.5 in depressed center rubber panel with the bolt sandwiched tightly in-between. The bottom of the rubber panel is pulled down and fixed securely into place by the taps' in the flange bearings. Below in Figure 7 you can see that after glueing and clamping the rubber and velcro disks together I can attach and replace different sanding grits on top and when I tested it, it actually worked great with the insulating foam.

Figurer 7 : Foam Testing

After confirming that the set up that I created for the motor assembly worked and actually sanded the foam at a reasonable pace I moved on to adding the platform that I would need to emulate an O'Brien faceting machine. But first I'd like to say thanks to Calvin Rupnow for letting me use his wood stain, It was very dark and gave the wood a lot more personality.

In the three pictures below from left to right are: a close up of the stain on top of the box, The staff for the platform to to fixed to that I created out of the corner rails, and then the platform itself I created using some rail and wood including bolts for fastening to the rails.

 

Additionally, In order for this to be an O'Brien faceting machine I need to have a quill or pen that can have replaceable shapes, normally its just 5, 6 & 8 sides but I decided to include a few unusual ones like a triangle and square. One side of the pen has a screw and the other has a small bolt that the 2 nuts fit to. The side with the screw is representative of the glue that would hold the stone to the pen would this be a real faceting machine. 

And lastly, below was the final version of my 

DIY Practice Faceting Machine

My next and final blog post will be my reflection for this project.