Machining and Microwave/mmWave Radio experiments. Spy devices. 3D printed antennas.
I design and make parts for experimental radio systems, scientific equipment and talk about unusual and cutting-edge topics related to high frequency electronics, antenna systems, waveguides, combiners, cavities, filters, digital comms, CAD, E-M simulation tools and microwave circuit design.
I hold a licence which lets me transmit between 136 kHz and 1 THz. I carry out experiments including RF, plasma, high voltage, hard vacuum, precision machining, metrology and electrochemistry. I've worked with commercial sponsors to produce collaborative vids on specific products and services within my subject area and welcome business enquiries. I've also appeared on BBC2 TV with Prof Hannah Fry, demonstrating my replica of the Great Seal Bug spying device.
Patreon patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves
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Neil Smith, Yorkshire, UK
AWIN
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brass is not cheep!
Agreed, cheaper than Silver, Platinum, Copper and Titanium though! I bought that piece at a sale for about $15 a few years ago. It was about 14 inches long, so this project was maybe $2 worth. My current buy price for 38 mm CZ121 brass including UK tax is £140 per metre, so 40 mm would cost me £5.60 or $7.15, which isn't cheap, but isn't going to break the bank. Stainless or mild steel would work fine. I used what I had in the "random bits of metal" bin.
@@MachiningandMicrowaves in Australia 38mm brass per meter $400.00
@@donnykiofetzis5775 OUCH!
As 'an engineer' , you should be using mm/sec, not mm/min…
Disagree, mm/min is the predominant usage, like miles per hour or km per hour instead of metres per second. Anyway, it should be metres per second for the feed as well if we are going to be all sciencey about it!
@@MachiningandMicrowaves As engineers, we should do what is correct, not what is popular. It is also correct to use subunits in measurement - so mm is fine. However, values such as 25,000 mm/min should be shown as 25m/min to be consistent. Using the correct scaling factor is kinda basic. No vector on such a machine will take minutes- it will be seconds. Interestingly, when I installed Lightburn the values were already mm/sec, suggesting that it is the default... It is also practical- the vast majority of feeds will be in the 1 - 1000 range, allowing a single scaling factor for all values. So, three good reasons for using mm/sec.
@@Tensquaremetreworkshop Wishing for consistency in a consumer-targeted product is probably never going to happen though.
At least it isn't in feet per minute like many of the CNC tool ratings
I'm from the lost generation who had to deal with the transition from imperial to cgs and then mks and SI, so I'm unit-agnostic and having studied Astrophysics, I'm happy with angstroms, avoirdupois, parsecs, furlongs per fortnight and cups as a volume measure. I'd prefer all measurements to be like 3.45e4 standard form and SI units, but then I'm more a scientist than an engineer, so what do I know!!
This level of technical elegance is oft overlooked in modern times and is absolutely necessary for the next stages in computing. Thank you for sharing this extremely interesting and scientifically _sound_ knowledge!
I love your videos. However, and in my opinion, I believe that they can be improved if you would able to make a more clear context on what you are building. This is because, honestly, in the point of view of machining, this is not a big deal. But, as an RF device, there are a lot going on and I can see that this is your area of expertise. Be able to pick a little of your knowledge would be the most important part on your videos. That is, I would like to see your videos and learn a little about the microwave project you are involved. For example, where this device will be connected, how it was sized, why the waveguide length must be adjusted, was there some EM simulation,.... I have so many questions :).
September 2022 seems like a lifetime ago. There is a new version of the 122GHz radar board appearing soon, so I might do an update that covers the electromagnetics aspects. I guess I was assuming incirrectly that anyone watching would be aware of the very popular Silicon Radar devices and the duplexing cavity approach that is designed to couple the integrated antennas in the 5x5 mm 122GHz system-on-chip full duplex devices. My bad...
@@MachiningandMicrowaves Thank you for your answer. Nop.... not very popular from where I come from :). Since working with frequencies in the microwave spectrum requires high-end, and expensive equiments, it is not common to be exposed to practical applications above a couple of GHz.
Going so well had my interest then came the music so 👎 and exit stage right
Byeeeeee!
Sorry to heae about your loss mate. Jokes about ya chip collection and I will have to buy you frothie, nice cold beer or heaven forbid a cup of tee...not sure how to spell tea, I am allegic, makes me vomit...but beer is what helped me fet through my divorce..
Tea is foul muck. Beer is the nectar of the Gods. Cheers!
Ohhh this video much easier to understand for me 😂❤ love your setup and its impressive how you install all these yourself i assume? And Amy makes me giggle
Hehehe it's a bit like learning history too ☺️
Skip the disclaimers for the math bits! There's no need to excuse a peek under the hood on a tinkering channel. Cheers!
Such a relief to see someone actually does it the proper way and uses spot drills for pilot holes instead of using center drills!
There are two spot drills loaded in the tool changer on my new SYIL X5 right now. Some big holes, some tiny!
Wow, a lot of new interesting RF stuff! Thx for sharing!
You are a proper KZreadr, but I feel like that's insult..
How to over explain a tin can phone we used as kids
18:20
I worked on SAR imaging and database updates from 1991-2001 for the state dep. with electrically commutated phased array antennas. Would love to have these lenses today. In 1995 we started looking for truck launched icbms in russia based on a known image sample of a real icbm truck that partook in a test launch. In 1996 the state dep dude arrived at my desk and pulled me to our secure conference room - showed me this picture from a Kh-11 optical sat of what looked like a truck launched icbm to me, and then said our computer didn't correctly identify this one. Rather than look at the billions of calculations I just had the computer show me what wasn't consistent with a known icbm, well - the missile rode 75mm too high on the truck chassis. switching frequencies to skin effect penetration, we found the inside hollow - no fuel. I was a young prof eng rf/uW at the time with quite an attitude and a loud voice when I yelled at the state dep guy "My computer is perfect - your stupid humans fell for a decoy on your kh-11 kodak brownie moment sat - deorbit those damn things and learn to use SAR. See this structure - watch as I shoot through the roof and take a look inside - your kodak brownie kh-11 can't do this - but there's a truck with a real icbm inside. You'll miss that one optically. " He left tail between his legs. That system was meant to fight a war with russia and make sure the right people die. My computer has now killed over 1/2 million dead russians. It sends the firing solutions to the M777 digital howitzer and center punches tanks then pops their turret off - 1/2m cep on a 155mm gun. With operators who can't read the manual. Turn wheels until they glow green and pull cord. simple. We figured once russia saw our power they'd pull out, but no they kept sending tanks and we kept blowing them up. I will say in 1991 it didn't look like war with russia would ever happen, but today, I'm glad we made the investment in SAR tech back then.
I've got 3 vernier calipers. A moore and wright. A fractional moore and wright and a mitutoyo. Not only don't they read the same, the difference is not linear. At different diameters the caliper reading the highest could change with no logical pattern to it.
When dimensions are really critical, I use gauge blocks and relative measurements!
As an aside, re the relative losses of bare -v- silver plated copper. Circa 1950s, a couple of Engineers at the Australian Postmaster General's Dept Lab were investigating losses in a HF PA stage anode tank circuit. The particular unit they were working with used bare copper coils, so they made up some really nice silver plated replicas & installed them, expecting to get a measurable improvement in losses. Anti-intuitively, the losses increased! This led them down a far more interesting "rabbit hole" than they had anticipated. They discovered that in earlier times, the purity of copper available was not as high as that available in the 1950s, so silver plating using plating solution as then constituted gave a reduction in losses.Two things had since conspired to reverse that situation:- (1) the purity, & hence resistivity of commercially available copper tubing had improved considerably & (2) Commercial silver plating solution makeup had been "improved" from the point of view of the primary decorative use of such plating with the addition of impurities which improved the lustre & durability of the plating, whilst unfortunately increasing its resistivity. It then became imperative to specify the plating as for electronics work, attracting a higher cost premium.
I make sure that I'm not using any brighteners when I'm doing plating for RF conductivity. There's certainly very little benefit of a simple silver plate with the high conductivity copper I use, although oxidation is reduced and replaced with other silver compounds. I'm often tempted to put half a micrometre of gold on the copper and put up with the eventual migration of the copper through the gold in solid solution, simply to keep the surface finish highly polished to control diffraction losses at mmWave frequencies, but using a nickel barrier means I need 10 to 12 micrometres of pure gold plating to make it worthwhile. That gets expensive very fast.
Thank You For Realising This Video On My Birthday :D 21.March
I find you channel.. today ! Finally.. after years stumbeling around .. I got one thing to ask, because your brain look very smart and also your fingers look like they do, what you tell them to do..: Did you ever thought about a tool to cut parabolic things on a lathe without cnc ? If not, please consider to do so. I am the one who give you the first thumb-up or two.. (thats all ??!?!? sure :-) ) Such a tool didnt exist till now - as far as i know. It would be a great thing to have for cutting light reflector or some type of gears or metal precisely cut to realy fit the home made scrap bin. I tried to do it, but failed, because it had to be small (and also cheap) to cut parabol inside and so it is not stiff and also it cant be to big for home used lathe. And i also dont know if it would be that precise to make it usefull or even if it will work anyway. May be you like that challange or someone who read this.
It isn't simple to make a linkage that can do this, partly because the linkage needs a parallel linkage the runs behind the parabola. The only practical solution I've found is to make a flat plate with a very accurate parabola, then make a follower pin for the cross-slide that's 10 mm diameter and use a 10mm round button insert. It's a lot of work to make the accurate parabola, but it can be made with hand tools if you take a lot of care. Now I have the CNC machine, life is much simpler when making offset parabolas, hyperbolas and laterally-displaced ellipse antenna reflectors
Glad to see my lathe and work area isn't the only one that looks like that.
Sad to say it's all nice and clean these days! Sorry...
Missed you bud! Glad you're back and doing well.
I'm on a steep learning curve with my new SYIL X5 CNC, making the first parts now, so hope to get a few vids out soon showing the staggering depths of my incompetence and the fumbling inadequacies of my Fusion360 CAM work. Should be hilarious.
I learned on BobCAD, it was quite the learning curve for me as well.
Glad to see you back sir. I've recently learned 2 and 3 axis cnc milling. I don't make anything nearly as cool as you do, but it's so rewarding to bring a project from a drawing to a finished product. Doing it on a fancy new machine must feel quite good.
Well, you have some really nice results here.
I cut the first chips on my new Syil X5 CNC today, I'm getting too old to learn all this new-fangled stuff! Actually I'm having huge fun creating g-code macros and enjoying a machine that is 60 years newer than my Bridgeport. The precision is amazing, and the 20k rpm spindle is scary! It's only day three of the learning curve, so it might be a week or two before I'm ready to get a video out. I really want to use the laser to do electroless copper deposition on ceramics, but I have about 50 jobs lined up for the X5 first!
Oh, Man, have I just found a channel featuring the two hobbies where I have almost no clue what I’m doing? Looks like it. But I only have a Taig lathe (plus a very clapped-out ML7), and a KX3 plus a collection of Morse keys and paddles. I liked the video,cand you have a new subscriber.. 73, g0nmd
Watch this space for lots more videos this year! I'm just doing the setup for my new SYIL X5 CNC mill. It's a beast, but it'll mean I can make complex compound curved antenna reflectors and all sorts of microwave goodies. Cheers, Neil G4DBN in sunny East Yorkshire
anyone else try to wipe the schmutz off the DRO at 26:55? no? just me…
A dose of Simple Green Extreme sorted that out! Clean and shiny again now
That is a HUGE gear. I can't believe watchmaker youtube sent me here
The sort of watch that needs a fork-lift truck rather than a strap?
0:29 The shrinking of the small nylon gear leads to increase of the stress around the circumference. It shrinks on the axle, but because of the non shrinking of the axle, the stress in the circumference increases, which leads to the snipping of the gear . This effect is the more, the bigger the inner axle is in relation to the gear. It´s a common design flaw.
They should look at the videos of Pakistan shops. The chips are 5" high by 6* behind the machines on dirt floors . Flip flops long dresses no eye protection. They dont care go tell them you clean fetish.
Those shops are certainly very productive, I love watching those craftsmen at work despite the potential dangers.
Miss Amy did not read your Community posts?
I have firewalls. Have to keep some things secret!
Man, I'm happy I've found your channel again! Subscribed this time! 😃 But yeah, that would be great for so many tools! Even those made out of wood, it would increase the precision a LOT! Anyway, stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I'm finding that I'm making all sorts of jigs and fixtures from plywood and black acrylic. Finger joint boxes, even in quite thick wood, are so easy to make without all the dust and setting up time of my woodworking tools. Silly things like marking up metal sheet to bend and cut and drill while making electronics enclosures, and marking parts with QR codes linked to documentation or software, all convenient and simple.
@MachiningandMicrowaves Absolutely, there are sooo many applications!
Some nice results there. I tried and failed with that brilliance laser ink. I baulked at the price of the minuscule spray can and bought the powder instead. Despite trying multiple speed and power settings with a 50W CO2 and a 22W diode laser, the black marks just rubbed off. Anodised aluminium and the 50W CO2 works best for me.
I was pretty surprised how little power it took to fuse the spray, having tried Cermark previously on a CO2 50 watter. with mixed results. I think the fine satin surface helps, that finishing paper gives an RMS roughness of around 0.2 micrometres, which is about half the wavelength of blue light, so it scatters very well, and that seems to help fuse the material. A CO2 laser has 25 times the wavelength, so it would see the metal finish as being an excellent mirror. The results on brass, aluminium and stainless were almost identical, but then I used the same abrasive paper, with some light oil. I tried on mirror-finish brass and it was much less successful, but mirror-finish stainless worked well. I suspect that's because of some sort of photochemical interaction with the iron/chrome/nickel. I should try a test with multiple materials and surface roughnesses. I have some Titanium sheet and some copper heatspreaders that I'd like to mark up. Grandson Hal has a nice 50 watt CO2 that I can use, but I REALLY want a serious Q-switched/fibre laser to make large resonant arrays of slots and holes.
The endmills in chucks debate usually lacks the nuance of what you're doing with it; straight down into aluminum is much different to cutting sideways, in tougher materials or both.
Also it makes a difference if the chuck has a drawbar and if there's a Jacobs taper or something solid. I wouldn't try it with a 3/4" end mill in a drill press with a Morse taper and no drawbar. Although it might make for a decent video
Out of curiosity, did you type the subtitles or are they automatically generated? Korloy is in there - correctly - and I'd be impressed if the automatic caption system recognized that somewhat niche term.
I generated them in Davinci Resolve, then did a manual edit to remove some awkward line splits. It generated Corloy and Hawley instead of Korloy and Horley, and made a mess of a few other phrases, but it's remarkably good compared with the YT cloud service
Interesting. I was considering getting a fiber laser to do this sort of thing, they are a bit spendy though.
The lower-power versions of the desktop LED lasers are certainly capable of most of these techniques, but a nice Q-switched kilowatt machine would be a useful tool to have around.
Nice. I'd like to get one of these sometime, if only for doodling on biscuits and toast.
Superb Neil. I just noticed your CEE mug. The other machining channel I love. 😊
Now I just need a clone of Karen to do my camera ops and editing. Hoof GP as well of course. I must get some merch sorting!
Might it help to: (two SEPARATE suggestions): 1) Print a pointer in the diametrically opposite direction too (on the moving inner circle), perhaps with a different icon. This helps to eliminate error coming from axial misalignment 2) Print a vernier scale on the inner ring *simultaneously* while printing the outer ring. Any errors (from quirks in the engraver) shall be identical on the tro parts, and shall tend to cancel out. Obviously, two vernier-scales too one at the "pointer" and one at the 6 o'clock.
I thought I'd replied to this earlier, must have failed to press enter. It's certainly useful to have two pointers because the reverse beam direction for the other station to reach me is approximately 180° different at this latitude, so if they don't have a computer or other way of finding the correct path to me that gives a very quick approximate heading. i'm not sure if there's any advantage of simultaneous printing because the stepper motors are very repeatable at least within a single session and getting the gap between them to be accurate without any overlap would be rather tough. Any small misalignment of the Vernia, he's only going to cause mechanical problems, I think from my first calculations that a lateral offset of the Vernier has such a small impact on the overall precision that it is not really worth taking special measures. I really should do a model of this and work out what the actual error is at any point around the circle, if the Vernier is offset laterally or is at a slight angle to the main scale. Interesting question thanks
@@MachiningandMicrowaves Dan Gelbart (UBC) has a masterclass, where he talks about this and other tricks to improve the precision of theodolites and such.
The legend is back❤❤❤❤
Maestro of Microwaves 👋; Have you tried doing a vernier scale? A 10:1 is useful, i guess that a 60:1 would require very fine "ticks", and a magnifier...I guess, with the precision you seem to have, you could put the ticks with a hairline at the base, for all of them, and the "normal" ticks about 2 mm offset? As one says: "it's just a thought.."
Definitely going to try making a vernier, although getting better than 0.2 degrees is going to depend on the resolution of the steppers at 256 per inch
@MachiningandMicrowaves; Thanks, sir... Right, I guess that the laser positioning is a limitation...the bigger the "dial", the less effect(methinks), and the more readable a vernier. Nice work! (BTW, I found a site that can make PDFs of almost any kind of polar plot that you want...I used it last year to prototype a dial for a dividing head... I'll try to find it, in case anyone is interested)
Rite Microwave Dude, I had to watch a few times to understand what you were trying to do. If you make another circle in the center of the big circle then when you create the array you tick the box "use last selected object position as center" it will then rotate the lines around the center of the circle in the center of your big circle. Hope that makes sense! TFS, GB :)
I kinda worked it out after a few tries, but I hadn't got it clear enough in my head to attempt to explain it to anyone else. Also it was 3am local time and I hadn't slept for 36 hours at that point and had WAAAAAAY too much coffee in me. Makes total sense now, Ta v much!
Nice light work! xD
I must say, I consider myself a very stupid individual. And I have no idea of the technical words you use. I'm a bit lost to be honest. But I did enjoy watching this video very much. Thank you for taking the time to make it!
👍👍😎👍👍
I ain't bovvered!
Good to see you back, hope you've shaken the dreaded lurgy!
I'm mot going to have hysterics over counterboring with an end mill, since I'm the sort of Philistine who occasionally does it with a Pilot-Point drill bit. 😜
Well played Sir!
Finding it funny, even when you use the French system of measurements, it's still SAE just in decimal wrong
Love it
Nibbler Power! 😂 #Futurama
I have 2 usb 3 cables and it only has 4.4-4.6v even some powered USB hubs don't even like dealing with the lower voltage or attenuation.