BW July 2018

7/13: Yesterday I did some practice fuses and then fused four productions fibers in bundle 404 using a piece of sponge gasket to keep the clamps from bottoming out. The work was slow because it took me a long time to remove wings.

Today Jim said Andrew was getting very good results from fusing. He suggested that Andrew should take over as primary fusing technician. That may be a good idea since Andrew seems to be quicker at removing wings.

While Andrew was learning to fuse scrap fibers with the sponge gasket, I cut more short fibers. Later I cleaned a bundle of shorts scraps and started polishing a new one.

7/18: The piece of sponge gasket for gripping fibers was missing today. I may have lost it while cleaning up the fusing work station today. Andrew made a new one.

7/19: Sci-Fi bundle 6 was left out of the storage box overnight one night this week. We need to avoid repeating this mistake.

7/20: On Monday I need to put the bundle 404 tests in the testing logbook. They should go there as well as in my spreadsheet.

7/24: I measured bundle 401 on the popsicle stick. Bundle positions 16 to 30 are 6.81 mm wide including the Kapton. Measuring at positions 1 to 15, the bundle is 12.43 mm wide including the Kapton. The bundle is around 10 mm high, as it should be.

When I put bundle 401 in the dark box, I noticed a strip of paper between the fibers and the Kapton. That might have affected the width measurements.

7/25: Because the tests on bundle 401 after fusing were significantly lower than before fusing, I inspected the fibers whose transmission dropped the most. I did not see any signs of damage or poor fuse quality, however.

7/30: For answering the questions from Richard and Jim, see the All Tests sheet in 401 Stage 2 Tests 1.