10 Aug Vito Zampini Davies, Materials Testing Lab, Last week.

Hello everyone!

What a way to end my internship! This last week has been packed with some very exciting internship work and crazy new experiences that didn’t even happen in Santa Barbara! 

Monday- I have no pictures unfortunately, but I will put my imagery to work. My camera stage which got mounted onto the optical table on Friday needed some serious adjustment, kinda. The load stage needed to be aligned to the camera stage. For it to be aligned the testing area that holds the material ( Material: a little dog bone piece of 7075 AL) needs to be in full view of the camera above. Luckily Matt had connected the camera to a monitor and I could see if the dog bone aligned to the camera. After the load stage was fully aligned Nate solicited some help from me. Remember the doors and ends to his really big laser enclosure they needed some more love, the doors are pretty heavy and we’re bending the rail track and in turn not being as flush as they could be to the end panels. So we installed a new bracket right in the middle and the doors now sit really flush with the end panels. That’s a wrap for Monday 🙂 

heres a picture of the ocean right outside my building to make up for the lack of pictures

Tuesday- Vilma (the Swedish Microscopy intern) and I were tasked with reading a wiring diagram from no experience and connecting all of the stages. So both the camera stage and load stage and feeding them all the way down to the Siglents and Korads. They are really technical power supplies and connect to the computer and do stuff I do not know too well. It turned out a lot better than we originally thought because my mentor was stepping out for a while and while explaining the wiring diagram to us says “I can do this before I have to step out if it’s easier?” He was leaving in 15 minutes and we said no because Vilma and I needed to learn how to do this. Very proud of Vilma and I because it only took us 25 more minutes than it would’ve taken him 😉 All the motors passed the inspection and tests too!

Wednesday- I walked in and Matt had just crashed the camera stage because the limit switches had failed and the mounts moved before they swicthes triggered. So I had two things for the day. Re-do the limit switches and print another top hat(piece that connected the motor with sliding boom arm). So while a new top hat printed I got to solidworking and designed a very beautiful limit switch holder. Then I waited for that stuff to print, installed it and went home. 

Thursday- I helped Matt out with some cable management. Then Nate asked me if I could figure out how to wire another type of limit switch (image below) and these will go on the doors of his enclosure and if they are not touching the laser will not turn on. After figuring that out my family surprised me by showing up to UCSB, they said they wouldn’t make it until Friday! So I left around 3. Later that evening since my family got a hotel in carpinteria I went golfing with another coworker called Ryan, super fun.

Friday- I showed up just for the morning because I had a train at 12:45 to LA! But I said goodbye to everyone and went to the train with Akira. In LA we had to take the subway which was a pretty eye-opening experience and one that maybe will drive me away from wanting to go to college in LA haha. Then we went and saw Rufus du Sol and had a blast. When we sat down at our seats Nate and Ryan were right in front of us, Crazy coincidence seeing half the Begley lab 2 and a half hours away from the Begley lab.

(akira and I on the train!)

Saturday and Sunday I spent camping and disconnecting from the real world which is why I just managed to post this blog!

I had an amazing summer and thanks to all that made it possible! See you guys on the 22nd of September!!