[Ground-station] Mechanical prototyping resources available - please add if you are willing and able

[Michelle Thompson]

Greetings all!

This thread is primarily for Scott McGillivray (and other
mechanically-inclined volunteers).

We will be doing more mechanical design going forward. There are resources
available for prototyping. This report outlines some of them.

Video report here:
https://youtu.be/2omYVVKAnhs

Transcript:
Here's a walk through of our mechanical fabrication capabilities in San
Diego. If you have shop capabilities that you can offer for the Phase 4
project, then please file either an issue or a pull request (or write me)
and let's add to the list below!

Link to document in GitHub is:
https://github.com/phase4ground/documents/blob/master/Management/Weekly_Engineering_Reports/20200803_Phase4_weekly_report.txt

1) Voltera V-one circuit printer. https://www.voltera.io/product/specs

This can handle ordinary PCB material up to 3mm thick but can also do
flexible circuits on material like Kapton.

0.2mm minimum trace width, 0402 minimum passive size, and 128mm by 116mm
print area.

It can print, cure, and solder. It can also drill but I do not have that
attachment.

2) Ultimaker 2 that has been upgraded to a 2+. We have done several
microwave feeds and antenna designs including elliptical taper 10GHz horns,
dual band feeds, helical structures, and more.

We metallize using conductive paint and the results have been very good.

Resolution of this printer setup is 0.02mm, which is good enough for 120GHz
multi-reflector systems and beyond.

3) Wood shop with metal brake, grinding wheel, and drill press.

4) For textiles and embroidery, we have a Pfaff creative vision with
embroidery deck and all the hoops. We also have a serger.

5) Multi-purpose machine, air compressors, and a 1929 South Bend Lathe.

6) This Tormach PCNC 440 is a small, light duty 3-axis CNC milling machine
capable of working to accuracies of about a thousandth of an inch (a couple
hundredths of a millimeter) within a work envelope of about 6 by 10 inches
(150 by 250 millimeters). We have a reasonably complete set of ordinary
tooling and work holding accessories for it. We are certainly not expert
machinists, but with these tools we can make prototype runs of a wide
variety of parts in materials like plastic, aluminum, and steel. Not every
shape is easy or even possible to make with a 3-axis mill, but for most
designs we can make a part that will work.

7) We have access to the large laser cutter at colab.org. Use of the
machine is free for non-commercial work.

As we enter into a stage where we will be doing more mechanical design,
these are the resources that are immediately available for early
prototypes.

Thanks everyone!

More soon,

-Michelle W5NYV
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