BW August 2018

8/1: Since the 1000 grit sandpaper finally arrived today, I resumed polishing a sci-fi bundle. I did one end with 1 micron grit and I have to polish the other end with that grit tomorrow.

8/2: Tomorrow I should make sure the bag of sci-fis I just polished is labeled. It should not be mixed up with other sci-fis that we will not use.

8/7: I swept the lab and got coffee stirrers from Up N Atom today. I cut one stirrer to put at the top of the fiber bundles for testing. It should hold down the middle fiber.

In the meeting today, Dr. Jones and I agreed that I will identify the thickest fuses in every bundle and try removing wings. Then I will test the fibers with wings removed.

I will collect the thick fibers and use a unique colored strap to identify them. I think I will use a white strap.

8/16: This week Jim pointed out that pressing too hard on a fiber to force it through a chimney might damage the backplane or other parts of the dark box. I should hold the bracket to balance the force as I push on the fiber.

If a fiber is too thick, turning it 90 degrees might get it through the chimney.

We should not sand fibers in the dark box because depositing dust there could alter results. I have to hold the fiber outside the dark box, sand it, then wipe it with a lint-free cloth before putting it through a chimney.

8/17: I started work on removing bundle 401 from the bending box too soon, before Jim was ready to take it out. He was going to look at it before loosening anything. I should ask now before doing anything to the bending unit.

8/21: We will need to be more careful about placing bent bundles in the storage box. We should not have the fabric or anything else in the same compartment with them. They should not be laid where there would be too much force on the bent part.

8/22: Today I started opening the dark box while the electronics were plugged in. I pulled the door open a little, then immediately shut it when I realized the mistake. I unplugged the cable and opened the door again. We will see if the dark box is destroyed.

This was at the end of the day. I let myself get into a rush to prepare for testing another bundle. It was just after I had been working on the rather difficult task of putting fiber width measurements into the right spreadsheet, so I was distracted. Suddenly going from one thing to another like that can get me in trouble. I need to slow down and have those around me help me to slow down when I need to.

8/30: I went to the stockroom and wrote the wrong date. I was sure it was 8/29!