Re: Question fro Jon Elson

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@y..., Jon Elson <elson@p...> wrote:

> mdickey@b... wrote:
>
> > Hi Jon,
> >
> > I was perusing your website this morning and have a question.

What,

> > in layman's terms, does the equip. in the "Nuclear

Instrumentation"

> > section do? If the CIA has to send out a guy in dark glasses

with a

> > silenced pistol to greet me tonite after you explain it to me,

that's

> > OK, don't tell me, my family needs me to hang around a while yet!
>
> This is stuff I design at my "day job" at Washington University.

At night,

> I
> make copies of this gear for other universities' researchers who

are doing

> similar work in the field on basic nuclear science. That is the

area still

> doping out what holds the neutrons and protons together in atoms,

the stuff

> that the "real physicists" abandoned 30 years ago to go hunting for

quarks.

>
> What I have done is build some very compact gear that processes

signals

> from nuclear detectors in these experiments that are done at the

national

> labs like Lawrence Berkeley (national) Lab, Argonne, Oak Ridge, etc.
> They all handle 16 signal channels per module, and have

preamplifiers,

> signal shapers, etc. to prepare the signals for being digitized by

an analog

> to
> digital converter.
>
> > Your Mini EDM blew me away! Being a new car dealer svc. manager,
> > I've had to deal with my share of broken, seized studs in

aluminium

> > (uhhh, aluminum, I do British cars) and an EDM system would be
> > awesome. I wonder if a hex shaped path could be programmed to

cut a

> > hole through the stud for an allen wrench to extract it. I've

heard

> > the story about the CNC laser that was used to burn a 6mm hex

shaped

> > hole in a cyl. head stud buried deep in the bowels of some rare

old

> > Ferrari engine. I can only dream!
>
> You could just burn a perfect hex hole using an old allen wrench as

the

> electrode. I'll have to try that sometime! The problem with the

allen

> wrench
> is it puts a lot of expanding force on the bolt head, and so it has

to be

> hardened. If you tried this in a soft material it would probably

expand the

>
> stud when you applied torque, maybe jamming it tighter. A square or
> Torx-like pattern might do better for extraction. (Of course, these
> so-called
> EZ-out gadgets REALLY expand the stud, too.)
>
> Jon

I KNEW IT! I was thinking you had to be a rocket scientist or
Nukelar (that's how us'n down here in the south pronounce it)
Scientist or something exotic like that!

Thanks a bunch for the occupation info and the EDM stuff.

Milton