The National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 was passed by the House last night and the president is expected to sign it into law.

Forbes has a good article on the threat this law poses to civil liberties in the United States.

This law allows the US  government to indefinitely detain US citizens without trial.

If the government doesn’t like you… they can brand you a terrorist and make you disappear.

This makes every US citizens vulnerable to unjust prosecution.

PROTEST!

I will be at Zuccotti Park  40 Foley Square NYC protesting today.

UPDATE:

Information on the NDAA has been tough to find with lots of confusion on the internet.

Lawfare has a great FAQ that gets into the subtleties of the NDAA.

UPDATE: President Obama has signed the National Defense Authorization Act into law.

Today I did another test of the CRT based electron gun in the vacuum chamber.

Spoiler alert: I didn’t see an electron beam.

This time I put a grounded piece of phosphor right in front of the beam path:

Here is a closeup of the grounding wire:

I printed the phosphor holder with 1% infill so it’s basically hollow, then I drilled it with holes to allow gas to escape:

The vacuum reached 1.66 millitorr which is not amazing, but good enough for this run.

I tested the wiring with the unbroken CRT, and it looked good:

Then I wired the power supply to the vacuum chamber feedthrough:

The I fired it up, you can see the hot cathode working:

But no beam.

:(

Previously I tested out the electron gun and I didn’t see a beam on the phosphor. I wanted to rule out the possibility that there WAS a beam, but it wasn’t hitting the phosphor screen. By moving the screen closer I can see the beam no matter where it is pointed.

So I designed and printed this sweet phosphor holder:

I have a small piece of broken phosphor glass from the CRT. I used the excellent OpenSCAD polygon editor to make a form fitting mount:

In real life:

That was easy!

Today I used the MakerBot to print an armature mount for the vacuum chamber.

The ring is larger than the build platform, so I made four pieces that dovetail together.

I used Jag’s dovetail library.

The MakerBot makes it ok to fail. I went through five designs before I arrived at this one that works. But that’s ok!

At this point my MakerBot TOM is finely tuned and making beautiful prints.

Here are all the upgrades I have installed:

Y-Axis Idler Support Bracket for Thing-O-Matic: This stabilizes the Y-axis idler.

Easy Install Thing-O-Matic Universal X & Y Axis Belt Tensioner: This is the single most important upgrade. The belt must be correctly tensioned for good prints!

HBP Quick Leveler Redux: Another essential upgrade to easily level the build platform.

Thing-O-Matic Electronics Side-Mount: At some point you will need to tweak the electronics. This mod makes it easier.

Thingomatic y-axis Endcaps: These endcaps make it easier to remove the Y-axis rods.

MakerBot Cable Clip: Nice clips for cable management.

Simple Tool Holder: Organize all the hex wrenches that come with your MakerBot.

I purchase two upgrades from MakerBot that are well worth it:

Aluminum Build Surface: This gives you nice flat and level prints. Seems like this should be included with the Thing-O-Matic!

MakerBot® Gen 4 Interface Board Kit v1.1: This allows you to run your MakerBot without a computer attached.

Here is an example print:

Richard is an awesome dude… very knowledgeable and great stories of EE insanity.

I’ve learned much about the history of electronics just from his inventory. The vacuum tube era was a whole nother way of doing things.

NYT: Leeds Radio.

So man this MakerBot TOM is fun!

I’ve been printing up a storm.

When you start using a MakerBot, you quickly realize you need a filament spooling solution. My starter filament became a tangled mess quickly.

I tried this filament spool but it had too much friction and would stop the extruder sometimes.

So I tried this frictionless design:

It works beautifully.

Next I printed this test lead organizer I really needed:

For fun I made this hyperboloid pencil holder:

I printed a lid from Polywell design I made a while back:

Then I realized MakerBot can print it’s own upgrades! So amazing.

I made these removable endcaps, this strain relief cable holder,  this Y-Axis Idler Support Bracket.

And last night I made this amazing diamond lattice model:

You can follow all my builds from my thingiverse profile.

The Makerbot is up and running. It was fun to put together.

I was able to do a few test prints:

Years ago I looked into Prometal’s 3D metal printing process. The results were impressive but the stainless steel is magnetic:

This disqualified them as magnet holders!

Recently Prometal let me know about an experimental bronze process they are developing. Bronze is totally non-magnetic. BINGO!

Prometal donated a test part to see if I could make an airtight braze with a TIG welder:

The part was to be brazed to a Swagelok VCR fitting like this:

Prometal is still adjusting the process. This test part is a bit oversize so it was difficult to braze, but we got something:

The bronze attaches to the stainless nicely.

I was excited to put it in the chamber like this:

But I screwed up. I welded on the wrong VCR cajon. This one is two short to catch the male thread once the gasket is added.

Dammit.

I had the right part here all along; shown on the left:

So no vaccum check for now. But it looks like the 3D printed bronze parts braze nicely.

I count that as a win. Think of the parts I can make with 3D printed bronze + brazing.

Since then I’ve been following the impressive progress of the reprap and then MakerBot. All along I’ve been using 3D printing services like shapeways, with a 2 week turn around. That’s a painfully long time to wait only to discover your design doesn’t work.

So I have purchased the latest Makerbot Thing-O-Matic with MK7 extruder. It should arrive in 4 weeks. Can’t wait!

Along the way I discovered OpenSCAD, an open source solid modeling program for programmers. I like it. It’s easier than the ruby + BRL-CAD I’ve been using. Additionally there is broad community support.

I’m rebuilding my polywell models in OpenSCAD now. I’ve gotten this far: