elbows deep into some geometry

I am developing some techniques to make big old structures out of individual tiles/structures. It's going ok. I started trying for a diamond sphere, and then Damian suggested using rods with six and five fold symmetry. I still need to make the fives.

MTF

holiday wishes

Twas the night before christmas and all through the house
I was busy building with a three button mouse

The stockings had been extruded and hung out to dry
Made by machines invisible to the eye

The gears were spinning, wrapping diamondiod thread,
While cams spun, positioning tool tip heads

As the feed stock flowed and the cooling plate chilled
Dreams of super toys would soon be fulfilled

When deep inside the fabber there arose such a hiss
Another toy done, to be crossed off the list

I set it aside to cool, its atoms precise
Another wonderful gift at a very low price.

The sides pearlescent, in quantum dot light
But still I wondered, did I infringe on copy right

No matter, the factory untraceable
The data file small and easily erasable

No doubt a great holiday is at foot
Brought by machine phase and not a man covered in soot.

Happy Holidays from Me and all of us at Machine Phase (Me)

new large diamond cam

It's getting easier and easier to carve these parts.

and after all that an inconclusive end

The CNT has been hidden for clarity, and I did a bad job of framing too. There is not a clear stratification of the different molecules (acetylene and N2).

I am not sure if the centrifugal force* can overcome the electrostatic repulsion of all those hydrogens on the acetylenes. Perhaps this is making for a more viscous fluid and harder to stratify? I can up the RPMs, try for a longer sim and see if things sort out, but I'll want to run this on one of my back up sim computers to leave the others free.

*My apologies to Dr. G

selling out on intermittent motion

I still think I'll need to come up with something to stop the Maltese cross from continuing to rotate, but I have some ideas. As always I am open to suggestions too.

Yes, my pin is made out of c60s:

I built a smaller test case of this last night. When the energy is minimized, the slots on the cross had a tendency to close. However the diamond slab is a lot like Jell-O at this scale, so maybe the pin will still slide in.

I am going to have all my pots cooking, simulation wise, over the next couple of weeks, plus finals, just saying.

MTF

intermittent motion back on deck

I have been researching other movements for intermittent motion. I don't think this one is the most practical, or what I'll end up using for a moderately complex system, but it looks pretty sweet.

MTF

if it's not the ice it's the wind

the wind knock out the power last night, centrifuge simulation has to be restarted

and another

I was trying to recreate motion blur.

Centrifuge sim is 60% done.

MTF

added to post at 10:18

artistic rendition of a Respirocyte

Still playing around with Paint Shop. This was heavily inspired by Robert A. Freitas Jr's Respirocyte

It took about a half hour to put together. I know; I'm sure a pro would spend at least twice that long preparing an image for display in a public forum, but I am still learning the software.

The centrifuge is still crunching away; the power stayed on last night.

MTF

some artistic interpretations while we wait -or THE INVASION

There is something of a winter storm taking place here, and while I am waiting for the power to go out again, and updating my Christmas list to include a back up power supply, I thought I would mess around with some image editing software. I am a little hard up for processor cycles right now, so molecular dynamics will have to wait.

I threw the above picture together pretty quick out of stuff I had laying around. If any professional graphic artists see it, be kind. It was really fun to make though.

The restart of the centrifuge is crunching away. I opted for a slightly shorter simulation, but we are still days away from the result.

MTF