Category Archives: 3D

Strippers

December 9, 2013 Peter Terezakis

Removing insulation from solid or stranded wire with the least amount of damage to the conductor, easily, with repeatability and control is a science (Yes, this post is about wire strippers. What were you thinking?).

“Times they are a-changing.”

The same day my father caught me stripping bell wire with my teeth (he wouldn’t allow me to have a “real tool” as seven years old was “too young”) we went to the hardware store and he bought me my first pair of wire strippers. At the time, I thought they were very expensive ($.49). I remember the feeling that I could make anything happen as long as I had those wire strippers. That was 1960; the year that NASA successfully Echo 1A, a 100-foot inflatable precursor to Telstar and the beginning of John Kennedy‘s presidential campaign. Funny thing about history; you never think about it until later.

Things are a lot easier today as both materials technology and design science have continued to evolve past sharp teeth, your mom’s scissors, or a sharp rock.

I’m putting three of my favorite wire strippers out for review. The basic, cheesy, stamped handled set were the genesis of it all. I kind of hate them, especially for what they cost today.

I don’t know where to buy the simple blue handled adjustable strippers. If you find them please post or send me a note. I think I bought those in Eastern Europe during an exhibition. Due to the cutting tooth geometry and adjustable screw, they work great on just about any wire diameter, solid or stranded.

The red-handled black “automatic” wire strippers are good on larger diameter wires – especially #12, 14, 16 solid. You can get a lot done with these and I have used them extensively over the years. I put some “white out” on the business side of the tool that “remains” (the other side pulls insulation off). I’ve replacing the pair in the picture with one made by Irwin Tools (Vice-Grips). Like a lot of things in life, there isn’t much point in using second best if you don’t have to. But I’ve used these older ones in more countries so I am kind of attached to them.

I’ve always had a close relationship to the tools which I use. Chances are you will save money in the long run by not having to purchase replacements of something which you rely upon to help make your thoughts a reality. Buy right the first time if at all possible.

The yellow handled ones are AMAZING-BEST-GREAT for fine wire. To use them you dial in the mm size of the wire, adjust the stop (inside the handle) to control how long of a piece of insulation you want to remove, put the wire in the opening, squeeze the handles like a bicycle grip, and pull. If you have set the cutting depth correctly the wire will slide right off.

Some things you may want to keep in mind are that if you use solid core wire, and nick the conductor at the same spot where you have removed the insulation, you may not realize that you had done this – until you are debugging your circuit wondering why something isn’t working when it looks like it should.

3D, Basic Analog Circuits, pcomp, Physics, Sustainable Energy

Faraday’s spiral

December 7, 2013 Peter Terezakis

Earlier this semester I presented a model based on an Alexander Calder mobile. It was fun to build and, oddly, I learned a lot. During presentation Artist-Professor Eric Hagan made a remark which resonated to what another professor said to me during my first semester at ITP. While I forget exactly what he said, both comments expressed the same thought: “OK that’s great. But I’d like to see you go further.” My immediate reaction was, “further than Calder? Not possible.” But it was still a challenge that preoccupied my semester.

Time in graduate school has given me the space to examine much of what has been an endless source of fascination for me since I was six years old, which is pretty much everything!

Specifically though, just now, the preoccupation is with nuclear forces; the movement of sub-atomic parts/units/fields/packets/waves/quanta of energy (electrons, protons, neutrons, etc.) which I am trying to wrap my consciousness into. This is a world whose architecture would seem to be modeled after a celestial map of creation. Every detail seen, appreciated, and missed, possesses significance. I cannot begin to imagine a world as complex as human society on an atomic, cosmic, human-sized scale: that’s more than my pea brain can comprehend. For now I am trying to understand one tiny phenomenon at a time.

This past year I have been thinking more about magnetic fields and how it is that non-magnetic objects are physically moved through space using otherwise invisible energetic agents.

Wandering the streets of London about ten years ago, I discovered a museum which featured Michael Faraday’s laboratory in the basement of a London townhouse. Seeing his old wooden work bench, the tools which he used, a letter to him from Galvani, and a model of the first toroidal transformer, was an extra-ordinary experience. I couldn’t help but think that his work area looked a lot like mine, except that he had more things made with wood, brass, and style.

Faraday discovered a lot things. Electrolysis and electroplating for one (two?). Another find (besides the dynamo generator) was the movement of electrons through copper wire.

That’s the background, how I arrived at creating sculptural objects from something simple while learning and discovering so much in the process: thank you Erics Rosenthal and Hagan for leading this horse to water.

“…. the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible ….” – Albert Einstein

Watching the wire repeat an eccentric orbit without gears, flywheels, pulleys, or sails is fascinating. Magnet + Electrochemical Cell (source of electrons) + Conductive metal (non-magnetic wire) + correct arrangement = Motion.

When I worked on repeating Faraday’s experiment, I learned more than I ever did through reading about him and his work. Experimenting with varying strengths of magnets and cells as well as the diameter of the wire, and how these variables with affect the speed and strength of movement is very interesting.

The demonstration on this page would have been cause for burning at the stake in 1693 — The demonstrations on this page would have been cause to be burned at the stake in 1693

Putting these experiments in an historical context is interesting for other reasons.

The Wonders of the Invisible World:
The misguided at Salem’s Witch Trials missed the mark. Real magic occurs at the subatomic level. It is a realm where forces which would otherwise remain invisible are made manifest through intensive research, theory, and experimentation.

Every technology which we interact with has beginnings which are no less inspiring now than when they were first discovered.

Without these discoveries, Duracell batteries (cells), copper wire, and magnets would not be the common objects which they are today, as well as the foundations of still developing machines which are fundamental to the world which we inhabit.

Three simple items and you can repeat one of Michael Faraday’s discoveries!

Bend a point into the wire. This is where the wire will sit.

Power source. I whacked the top with a blunt nail. Your experience may vary…

Ready to go!

Bend the wire with loops at bottom.

https://www.terezakis.me/video/homopolar-a_9850.mov

https://www.terezakis.me/video/homopolar-3volt_9854.mov

3D, Materials, NYU, pcomp, Physical Computing, Technology

DIY 3D printer

November 26, 2013 Peter Terezakis

I was researching parts to build a stepper controlled coil winder and came across an interesting listing on eBay:

StepStick Stepper motor driver A4988 A4983 3D Printer driver module Reprap Prus

A little more research and I came across the site for a DIY 3D printer. Don’t know if it will work or how well it will work. From the photograph, it certainly looks good. But then again I have also seen photos of aliens on the internet and videos of politicians promising things would be different.

The video looks great. Especially the part about being able to print electrically conductive material. I’m a sucker: The dispersion of this technology represents change I can believe in. Especially if it can be scaled up and use materials which have or have not yet been invented.

Decimal – Fraction conversions

November 26, 2013 Peter Terezakis

3D, Basic Analog Circuits, pcomp, Physical Computing

Printed Circuit Boards: 1903 – 2013

November 17, 2013 Peter Terezakis

A quick on-line search and I found out that the ubiquitous circuit board had its start in 1903 thanks to German inventor, Albert Hanson.

It looks as though a hundred and ten years later the technology might be catching up with our desktops:

The process uses an inkjet printer whose hacked cartridges lay out an ink of conductive silver (for the time being). As a side note, a recent field trip to NYU’s Advanced Media Services revealed that one of the rapid prototyping machines uses HP inkjet cartridges to print rock-hard objects using what may have been gypsum as the binder.

In the same way that the hand-drafting of printable wiring diagrams was replaced by CAD, this printable technology would be welcomed by anyone who has ever had to figure out how to best dispose of the toxic sludge which always results from the chemical milling of copper-clad circuit boards.

Like using whale oil for lighting, some technologies should be retired.

There is a kickstarter for a promising project… heck, I want one too.

Peter Terezakis
ITP Master’s Candidate
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.itpme.info
http://www.terezakis.com

3D printing, revisited

November 16, 2013 Peter Terezakis

The possibilities for rapid prototyping technologies (based on the successful execution of repetitive tasks with suprahuman accuracy) for the service of mankind were recently fodder for science fiction writers and the lunatic fringe.

In Sam Rami’s 1990 production of Darkman, Liam Neeson plays a mad scientist who 3d prints synthetic flesh:

Computer Numeric Control (CNC) has matured from punch card to paper tape, from the tool room floor to dispensing increasingly complex organic compounds serving the most intimate of human needs, an unimagined future is unfolding: proof that reality is far more unpredictable than any fantasy.

A Stratasys promotional video features their technology used in a Parisian fashion show. Given the success of the technology (and the money spent on producing original work) useless frivolity is forgiven:

Bright, shiny things aside, I am much more impressed by the use of the 3D printing technology to build a hand for a child:

and what this still developing technology might mean to a lot of other human beings.

A once burgeoning technology is finally trickling down to children with birth defects, veterans, accident victims, and cancer survivors.

In no small part aided by President George (“The Decider”) Bush’s positively medieval comprehension of science, technology, and bereft of any concept of “tomorrow” (too involved with rapturous fantasies?), scientists in China have successfully 3D printed living kidneys.

While entrepreneurs have been quick to commercialize this technology, we would have been nearly a decade further along with this – and related stem cell research – had President Bush had not placed a misguided moratorium on this research.

Peter Terezakis
ITP, Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.terezakis.com

3D, NYU

Advanced Media Services

November 9, 2013 Peter Terezakis 1 Comment

Artist and Professor Eric Hagan (check out the Make Magazine article on Eric) brought our class to New York University’s Advance Media Services Department (AMS) for a tour of both existing machinery and resources which are available to ITP students – as well as the rest of New York University (NYU).

Some things haven’t changed that much in twenty years. Parts produced using stereolithographic techniques are still crumbly, yet possess amazing resolution. Powder deposition machining/sintering has become incredibly refined, as has the Stratasys photo-polymer rapid prototyping technology.

In addition to the incredible detail and off-the-machine surface finish of parts, there has been the addition of colors and the ability for some machines to actually blend polymers used in fabrication to print parts possessing different Shore properties than discrete compounds. This means that you can have parts as floppy as a rubber band to “rock” hard within the same 3D printed part.

The addition of optional conductive materials is the burgeoning technology. When these are introduced, it will be possible to print multilayer and three-dimensional circuit artwork (non-boards), wiring harnesses, electrical connects, and resistor networks as part of the rapid prototyping operation. Add a pick-and-place rotary head and entire finished functional electrically operated models will be able to be manufactured.

As the technology stands of this writing, flexible tubing may be integrated into an articulating object, with both being printed during the same operation.

When I first spoke about the technologies of CAD and CAM more often than not I was rewarded with looks reserved for the parents of challenged children. An exception to this was the reception by Bruce Wands, (then chair of the BFA Computer Art program, now chair MFA Computer Art Program) at New York City’s School of Visual Arts. Bruce funded the first classes in CAD CAM for artists in New York City which we called Digital Sculpture We had several seats of AutoCAD and were able to run .dxf drawings on a 2.5 D machine. Our CNC machine was kept in a utility closet where hands-on classes were held. Our end of the hallway, next to the fire escape, didn’t have heat. Hah! Those were the days!

Shelly J. Smith and Bill of AMS

Professor Eric Hagan with his class

Zhenzhen Qi, Shelly and Bill

This articulating structure multi-part structure was created as one assembled model

Detail of articulating model

Color printing

Scanned and printed

Printed clear lens array

AMS’s laser.

Some 3D parts require secondary operations to remove support structures put in place during printing.

Cabinet for blast cleaning.

Fun things to do with a laser. Mouse ears have probably already been made.

With the patience of a saint, Bill answered every question.

Bill explaining parts

Bill explaining the $300,000 Stratasys

Stratasys in action

Bill discuses water-tigtht models

Photopolymerization with multiple Shore properties.

Stereolithography bed

Detail of monochromatic STL part

Polychromatic model detail

Student work stations with Maker Bots and 3D scanners

Peter Terezakis
ITP Master’s Candidate
Tisch School of the Arts
http://www.itpme.info
http://www.terezakis.com

Brancusi, 3D Rhino + MakerBOT + Nadine Coleman

November 7, 2013 Peter Terezakis 1 Comment

So Nadine hammered out a great little model of Brancusi’s Endless Column. We printed it out using a MakerBOT last night using white ABS material. It is light in weight and took about two hours to make a 100mm high model – not including adjusting the machine.

Preparing MakerBOT with printing material

Bed/base/substrate must be clean and pre-heated in order for material to stay in place

OK then. You have to rotate images BEFORE they hit WP.

See previous caption.

Le Menu

File lives on SD card. Reader built into MakerBOT

Endless Column in ThingMaker software

which translates file into mBOT language

Stuff: card reader and ABS on spool

In the translation software, temperature of spinaret and table must be set prior to initiating build. This information accompanies the file.

Insert SD card and the machine thinks… in ellipsis..

Somehow this text seems wrong to me.

As a living breathing I (as of this writing) the current trend of anthropomorphism with user interfaces is at once disturbing and infuriating.

Might as well include annoying, too.

This was about an hour in to the build

Menu keeps track of file name, elapsed time, and temperatures. This MakerBot has two extrusion heads (spinarets). Only one is used.

Getting closer

Woo-hoo!

Happiness!

You may want to bring your own pancake turner.

We were told that we had the option of boiling acetone in a pot and pass the model through fumes to smooth out the surface. Note: this is something you simply cannot do if you value your health, safety, and general well-being.

3D, Materials, pcomp, Physical Computing

Glass Beads

October 31, 2013 Peter Terezakis

Hollow and solid glass microspheres and beads have been used in consumer and industrial products for decades.

My first purchases of glass spheres was from Golden West Manufacturing during the mid-1980s. In those days something called “Thomas Register” was the Google go-to for manufacturing research. It was also where I looked for an inert material to use as an extender-filler in silicon mold making. I later used glass beads when manufacturing luminous jewelry. Goldenwest still sells glass beads:
During a 1994 studio visit with Dennis Oppenheim I suggested that he use glass beads as an additive to polyester castings for his Rabbit Factory series.

Clicking on the Goldenwest images above or those below will open links to purchasing glass beads.

“Properties of polymers are often modified by quasi-spherical mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate or by highly anisotropic glass fibres for an efficient reinforcement or by foaming to reduce their density. Solid or hollow glass beads partly combine the advantages and also the drawbacks of those techniques allowing to modify mechanical, optical and thermal properties, density and cost of nearly all the polymers. Their adhesion to the polymer matrix can be optimized by sizing with coupling agents. Moreover, glass beads have unique optical properties and can be modified by surface treatments to obtain electrical conductivity. Consequently their application field covers a broad domain comprising polymer enhancement or lightening with hollow glass beads having a low density, syntactic foams used for buoyancy, reflective products for signs and marking, electrical conductivity for metal coated glass beads used in electronics. Solid glass beads have a density of 2.5 g/cc, a high crush strength and a Moh hardness of approximately 6.” SpecialChem, 2006

Solvent bonding of Acrylic

October 25, 2013 Peter Terezakis

Solvent bonding of acrylic – in spite of its hazards to health – is another kind of magic. Solvent bonds are really solvent welds. If the surfaces have been prepared correctly, a solvent weld is often stronger than the original material.

Like all magic, there is another aspect to keep in mind when handling polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), which you may have purchased under the brand name of Acrylite, Plexiglas, Lucite, Perspex, Crystallite, and or some other market name.

If you read the MSDS sheets for the material, it reads like a wonder drug: all good, no downside – except for a little skin reaction. That’s kind of appalling. From Wikipedia:

The compound is manufactured by several methods, the principal one being the acetone cyanohydrin (ACH) route, using acetone and hydrogen cyanide as raw materials. The intermediate cyanohydrin is converted with sulfuric acid to a sulfate ester of the methacrylamide, methanolysis of which gives ammonium bisulfate and MMA. Although widely used, the ACH route coproduces substantial amounts of ammonium sulfate. Some producers start with an isobutylene or, equivalently, tert-butanol, which is sequentially oxidized first to methacrolein and then to methacrylic acid, which is then esterified with methanol. Propene can be carbonylated in the presence of acids to isobutyric acid, which undergoes subsequent dehydrogenation.^[1] The combined technologies afford more than 3 billion kilograms per year. MMA can also be prepared from methyl propionate and formaldehyde.^[2]

As an artist who will be working with this (and other) materials to produce work, you need to know what you are dealing with. Eva Hesse died of cancer not long after producing her signature works which were fabricated with polyester resin.

Friend, mentor, and extraordinarily important and underrepresented artist Lillian Schwartz woke up one morning with a tumor during a period when she was working with casting resins.

Max Gold and Fred-whose-last-name-I-have-forgotten were owners of Canal Street’s famous Industrial Plastics where Eva Hesse purchased her resins. Both gentlemen died of cancer. I often wonder what happened to their long-term employees (like Gil, their manager and Mrs. Gold who did the bookkeeping). Their huge shop reeked of odors associated with plastics – especially when they were machining /laser cutting materials.

I use blocks of Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWP or UHMWPE) to aid in the fixturing of parts for gluing. Teflon blocks are also good, but the material has other issues and it is more expensive than UHMWP.

UHDWP blocks are non-stick. Teflon is king.

The great thing about these materials is that most adhesives will not adhere to them. UHDWP is the same material that industrial quantities of cyanoacrylate adhesives are packaged in. The material is so inert that it is now being used as an implantable material for joint replacements.

For the relatively mundane miracle of successful solvent bonding, plenty of moving air, flatness , right angles, and creative fixturing are keys to assembly. Captions in this slide show should help explain a safe way to work.