Some cool surface grinding stainless steel pictures:
Handmade micrometer rig
Image by Bushman.K
My new handmade micrometer rig for focus stacking. Primary components of it are Starret .5" head with .0001" resolution and Chuo-Seiki single axis translation stage. Platform and bracket are milled from a piece of aluminum and bolted together with stainless steel socket screws. Micrometer shaft has threaded finish, so I produced precisely ground plug with front surface perpendicular to its axis of rotation.
Now, I need to make numerous mounting holes in platform to be capable to connect it to table or clamps. Some clamping device for object holding ought to be added also.
I have a plan to play with it for some period, than – to make better a single, employing CNC machine, to be able to adapt the plan for various heads and stages.
contemporary-bespoke-glass-treads-acrylic-treads-staircase-taughened-glass-balustrade-1
Image by Contemporary Staircases
A very uncommon combination of Acrylic, Glass, Stainless Steel and Powder coated mild steel, offers this basement to ground floor staircase a touch of real elegance. Each and every tread is constructed by chemically bonding 20mm thick Acrylic to 10mm toughened Glass, with a screen printed interlayer to hide the screw fixings to the stringers, and a non slip strips applied to the prime surface. The central Balustrade panel is created from 26mm toughened and laminated Glass that perfectly aligns with a Glass panel that projects straight out of the wall to type the prime landing Balustrade.
Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center: Space Shuttle Enterprise (view of principal engines from starboard side)
Image by Chris Devers
See a lot more photographs of this, and the Wikipedia report.
Specifics, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Space Shuttle Enterprise:
Manufacturer:
Rockwell International Corporation
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
General: 57 ft. tall x 122 ft. extended x 78 ft. wing span, 150,000 lb.
(1737.36 x 3718.57 x 2377.44cm, 68039.6kg)
Materials:
Aluminum airframe and body with some fiberglass attributes payload bay doors are graphite epoxy composite thermal tiles are simulated (polyurethane foam) except for test samples of actual tiles and thermal blankets.
The 1st Space Shuttle orbiter, "Enterprise," is a full-scale test vehicle used for flights in the atmosphere and tests on the ground it is not equipped for spaceflight. Even though the airframe and flight handle elements are like those of the Shuttles flown in space, this automobile has no propulsion technique and only simulated thermal tiles due to the fact these attributes have been not needed for atmospheric and ground tests. "Enterprise" was rolled out at Rockwell International’s assembly facility in Palmdale, California, in 1976. In 1977, it entered service for a nine-month-lengthy approach-and-landing test flight program. Thereafter it was employed for vibration tests and match checks at NASA centers, and it also appeared in the 1983 Paris Air Show and the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. In 1985, NASA transferred "Enterprise" to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.
Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• • •
Quoting from Wikipedia | Space Shuttle Enterprise:
The Space Shuttle Enterprise (NASA Orbiter Vehicle Designation: OV-101) was the first Space Shuttle orbiter. It was built for NASA as component of the Space Shuttle program to perform test flights in the atmosphere. It was constructed with no engines or a functional heat shield, and was therefore not capable of spaceflight.
Initially, Enterprise had been intended to be refitted for orbital flight, which would have made it the second space shuttle to fly soon after Columbia. Even so, in the course of the construction of Columbia, information of the final style changed, specifically with regard to the weight of the fuselage and wings. Refitting Enterprise for spaceflight would have involved dismantling the orbiter and returning the sections to subcontractors across the country. As this was an costly proposition, it was determined to be less pricey to construct Challenger about a body frame (STA-099) that had been created as a test post. Similarly, Enterprise was considered for refit to replace Challenger following the latter was destroyed, but Endeavour was built from structural spares alternatively.
Service
Building started on the first orbiter on June 4, 1974. Designated OV-101, it was initially planned to be named Constitution and unveiled on Constitution Day, September 17, 1976. A create-in campaign by Trekkies to President Gerald Ford asked that the orbiter be named following the Starship Enterprise, featured on the television show Star Trek. Even though Ford did not mention the campaign, the president—who in the course of Globe War II had served on the aircraft carrier USS Monterey (CVL-26) that served with USS Enterprise (CV-6)—said that he was "partial to the name" and overrode NASA officials.
The design of OV-101 was not the identical as that planned for OV-102, the initial flight model the tail was constructed differently, and it did not have the interfaces to mount OMS pods. A huge number of subsystems—ranging from main engines to radar equipment—were not installed on this car, but the capacity to add them in the future was retained. Alternatively of a thermal protection method, its surface was mainly fiberglass.
In mid-1976, the orbiter was utilized for ground vibration tests, allowing engineers to compare data from an actual flight automobile with theoretical models.
On September 17, 1976, Enterprise was rolled out of Rockwell’s plant at Palmdale, California. In recognition of its fictional namesake, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and most of the principal cast of the original series of Star Trek have been on hand at the dedication ceremony.
Approach and landing tests (ALT)
Major article: Strategy and Landing Tests
On January 31, 1977, it was taken by road to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, to start operational testing.
While at NASA Dryden, Enterprise was employed by NASA for a selection of ground and flight tests intended to validate aspects of the shuttle program. The initial nine-month testing period was referred to by the acronym ALT, for "Approach and Landing Test". These tests integrated a maiden "flight" on February 18, 1977 atop a Boeing 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) to measure structural loads and ground handling and braking qualities of the mated method. Ground tests of all orbiter subsystems have been carried out to verify functionality prior to atmospheric flight.
The mated Enterprise/SCA combination was then subjected to five test flights with Enterprise unmanned and unactivated. The purpose of these test flights was to measure the flight qualities of the mated combination. These tests were followed with three test flights with Enterprise manned to test the shuttle flight handle systems.
Enterprise underwent five free of charge flights exactly where the craft separated from the SCA and was landed beneath astronaut control. These tests verified the flight qualities of the orbiter style and have been carried out beneath several aerodynamic and weight configurations. On the fifth and final glider flight, pilot-induced oscillation issues were revealed, which had to be addressed prior to the very first orbital launch occurred.
On August 12, 1977, the space shuttle Enterprise flew on its own for the initial time.
Preparation for STS-1
Following the ALT plan, Enterprise was ferried among several NASA facilities to configure the craft for vibration testing. In June 1979, it was mated with an external tank and strong rocket boosters (recognized as a boilerplate configuration) and tested in a launch configuration at Kennedy Space Center Launch Pad 39A.
Retirement
With the completion of critical testing, Enterprise was partially disassembled to enable particular components to be reused in other shuttles, then underwent an international tour visiting France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the U.S. states of California, Alabama, and Louisiana (during the 1984 Louisiana Globe Exposition). It was also used to fit-verify the by no means-employed shuttle launch pad at Vandenberg AFB, California. Lastly, on November 18, 1985, Enterprise was ferried to Washington, D.C., exactly where it became property of the Smithsonian Institution.
Post-Challenger
Following the Challenger disaster, NASA regarded using Enterprise as a replacement. Even so refitting the shuttle with all of the needed equipment necessary for it to be employed in space was deemed, but alternatively it was decided to use spares constructed at the same time as Discovery and Atlantis to construct Endeavour.
Post-Columbia
In 2003, after the breakup of Columbia in the course of re-entry, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board conducted tests at Southwest Investigation Institute, which utilised an air gun to shoot foam blocks of similar size, mass and speed to that which struck Columbia at a test structure which mechanically replicated the orbiter wing major edge. They removed a fiberglass panel from Enterprise’s wing to carry out analysis of the material and attached it to the test structure, then shot a foam block at it. While the panel was not broken as a outcome of the test, the effect was adequate to permanently deform a seal. As the reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panel on Columbia was 2.five instances weaker, this recommended that the RCC major edge would have been shattered. Extra tests on the fiberglass have been canceled in order not to danger damaging the test apparatus, and a panel from Discovery was tested to determine the effects of the foam on a similarly-aged RCC major edge. On July 7, 2003, a foam effect test produced a hole 41 cm by 42.5 cm (16.1 inches by 16.7 inches) in the protective RCC panel. The tests clearly demonstrated that a foam effect of the type Columbia sustained could seriously breach the protective RCC panels on the wing major edge.
The board determined that the probable cause of the accident was that the foam impact brought on a breach of a reinforced carbon-carbon panel along the major edge of Columbia’s left wing, enabling hot gases generated during re-entry to enter the wing and trigger structural collapse. This brought on Columbia to spin out of control, breaking up with the loss of the complete crew.
Museum exhibit
Enterprise was stored at the Smithsonian’s hangar at Washington Dulles International Airport just before it was restored and moved to the newly constructed Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum‘s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport, exactly where it has been the centerpiece of the space collection. On April 12, 2011, NASA announced that Space Shuttle Discovery, the most traveled orbiter in the fleet, will be added to the collection when the Shuttle fleet is retired. When that occurs, Enterprise will be moved to the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum in New York City, to a newly constructed hangar adjacent to the museum. In preparation for the anticipated relocation, engineers evaluated the vehicle in early 2010 and determined that it was protected to fly on the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft after once again.