My project journal started on January 1st 2011. The first thing I wrote in the journal was "This is not a new year's resolution." The purpose was to encourage myself to write, build, research, program or brainstorm every day. Every day. If I missed a day I would leave a blank page with only the date as to remind myself that I failed to be productive. Later, I found out this is commonly called "The Seinfeld Method" since it was popularized by the entertainer.
Titanium whisker in tape
Fresh silicone seal
For me it is important to keep mundane things out of the journal if they're the only thing I did that day. For example, on 2014-05-08 (Th) I bought some steel bearings for use in the ESPeri.Impass project. I didn't make a journal entry for the ESPeri.Impass because just picking up a few ball bearings isn't really progress. Now, if I had attached magnets to the ball bearings and tested their viability as compass spinners I would happily have mentioned that I bought ball bearings and what sizes I picked out, what store I bought them at and how much I paid. Since I didn't get around to that kind of testing I didn't make an entry for it at all.
There are very few days I haven't worked on a project and I'm proud of how I've kept up. If I'm honest, half of those days are excusable. The other half I totally let laziness get the best of me until it was too late. Those days are few and far between and I work hard to keep it that way.
Enough background.
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The compass was tested by spinning and shaking. The bump on the side of the spinner could be
felt through the titanium whisker but the edge of the cork could also be
felt. The tapered shape and shallow
depth of the cork is problematic.
Problems with the short tapered cork
A new design was conceptualized. This design uses a wooden dowel with a magnet
embedded and uses rubber O-rings to constrain the movement but still allow for
easy rotation. Whisker stimulation bumps
will reside halfway up the container rather than near the bottom. The whisker will be attached the same way
with a silicone seal.
Illustration of compass
A new jar was measured at 1 ¾” tall so a hole was made at
7/8” from the edge with a heated soldering iron.
1 3/4" jar
7/8" from the edge
Jar with soldering iron
Another titanium piercing earring was chosen as the
whisker. It was put into slit tape like yesterday
but a smaller piece of tape was used and the ends of the tape were folded over
to make it easier to remove when the silicone is dry. Silicone was applied to the opening.
To do:
- Build spinner from wooden dowel
- Test + evaluate
Journal page
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