Sunday, January 23, 2011

More work on the dome sensor mount

Post number 300!

I wasn't completely satisfied with the circular piece of Lexan I had cut out last time.  The inner hole was sloppy and I knew I could do better.

Once again, a trip to my local Lowe's.  This time I bought a PVC/Metal hole cutter, which has a much less aggressive cutting tooth than a regular hole cutter has.  The inner diameter is 1 inch and at a cost of $7, it was one of my cheaper trips to Lowe's in quite sometime.

After making another 3 inch circle in Lexan using the Dremel, I clamped the piece into the drill press and using the circle cutter.  Since the circle cutter has a drill bit in the middle, it lines up on the center hole used to cut the circle, making the job quite easy.

It took me a long time to decide what I wanted to mount the lexan piece onto.  Another piece of plexi?  A thick piece of aluminum?  I opted for aluminum since I had a small scrap piece I think will do the job.

Going very slowly and with a generous amount of WD-40 to lubricate the hole cutter, I drilled a perfect 1 inch hole into the aluminum.

Here's what I have...

Electrical Slip Ring, Aluminum mount and Lexan Softpot mount


 The slip ring, has to fit through the center since it will be mounted above this assembly.





As you can see, the slip ring will fit with a bit of room to spare.  Excellent.

Next up is trimming the aluminum piece a pit, mounting the lexan onto it, then the block onto the frame.  Once that is in, we can fine tune the installation of the stylus.