With the sudden occurrence of the sink hole outside of LVL1 I thought this would be a great time to make my first post updating you all on what I've been doing this semester.
I am working with Dr. Harnett on the Salamander Sensor Project. I am developing a water proof housing that will be easier to produce and use than the current one. The entire process of how the current housing is produced is very difficult for the temperature sensors because it can involve a lot of gluing and requires some very precise laser cutting. To eliminate this I have been developing a housing that will be one solid piece with a slit for the temperature sensor to stick out of.
So far this semester I have spent time developing this part with the assistance of LVL1's Makerbot Cupcake CNC in order to quickly acquire real physical parts from the designs on the computer. I have spent time learning the ins and out of this machine as well ReplicatorG in order to improve the quality of the parts I was producing. At first the parts I was getting were not very consistent in size compared to the models I was making on the computer, but I have managed to figure out different settings that help produce much higher quality parts. With the arrival of the new replicator I hope to be able to produce even better pieces.
Here are some of the parts that I printed using the Cupcake:
  
As you probably are able to tell just by looking at these two pictures, the Cupcake does not produce the most consistent of parts. Â Just looking at the region containing the helix there is quite a significant difference between the one on the left and the one on the right.