Journeys for Knowledge

The past few posts have been focused on things I have been building in my time at Cambridge, but these have all been simple playthings to amuse myself. Unfortunately, my research is still stuck within the realm of simulation, so to make better use of my time last week, I set up a massive set of simulation that would take many days to finish, and took a class on machining at the lab’s student workshop. Machining, unlike my previous forays into building shown here, is truly starting with a few blocks of material and shaping them into something amazing.

Over the course of the four day class I learned the finer points of use of the CNC mill (for complicated linear cuts and shaping), the manual mill (for simpler linear cuts), and the lathe (for radial cuts). While I have plenty of experience with all of these machines from my time in Berkeley, having proper instruction and guidance taught me a level of finesse I didn’t know I was capable of. I realized it is not enough to be able to design a piece on paper and just walk into the machine shop to make it, one must have a good understanding of how the machines operate to choose the best tools and work order.

Luckily I have been given simple tasks in my undergraduate career, but this class challenged me to create something with far more precision, as shown below. Of course all this focus can be exhausting, so I would leave the machine shop each day completely exhausted mentally and physically. Yet somehow I would find the energy each morning to bounce back to quickly get back to work. This flywheel may look like a simple useless trinket, and in all honesty it does serve no true purpose, but if I was imprecise on the dimensions of the axles or the holes by even a hundredth of a millimeter, it would not spin as easily and freely as it does on my desk. That is success enough in my books.

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