Channel Title: Machining and Microwaves Channel Description: 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 https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves Buy me a coffee??? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves Neil Smith, Yorkshire, UK AWIN <video> Unveiling the Future of Antennas and RF Lenses using Radix™ 3D printable material! Description: Antenna design engineering is being transformed rapidly by new 3D printing technologies. When Rogers Corporation announced their Radix™ 3D printable material, I made a short video cheekily asking for samples to try. The lovely folk at Rogers responded and offered to print some of my designs. (https://landing.rogerscorp.com/5/Radix.aspx) There was of course a catch... (There's always a catch) - I had to travel to the US and visit their facilities to collect the parts. Gosh! I created the designs using OpenEMS, Fusion360 and MATLAB, and followed the same process workflow as a commercial customer would. My Artificially Intelligent Machining and Engineering Expert AIMEE is as helpful as usual, offering sage advice and being positive and encouraging. [AIMEE, stop editing these descriptions and stick to being snarky!] I'm not an RF engineer, nor a designer. I've never worked professionally in those fields, but I've been experimenting with microwave engineering for almost fifty years. If I can create a successful component using their services, then just imagine what a professional RF design engineer could achieve. If you are a designer or engineer and you want to try a UV cure, ceramic filled, dielectric photopolymer printing technology for lenses, feeds, low-k substrates or metallization projects, I encourage you to get in contact with Rogers via https://landing.rogerscorp.com/5/Radix.aspx and see what you can achieve with Radix™. This video was made in collaboration with Rogers Corporation and Fortify, their 3D printing partners. Full disclosure, I received a fee and expenses for this work and Rogers have reviewed the content, although I was given complete creative freedom. I'm a huge fan of Radix™ and of Rogers' products in general, and this isn't intended to be an impartial product review. Look, I'm just an un-ashamed fanboi, OK? For the purposes of UK law, if I was a "social media influencer", this video must be considered as an advertisement. Details about Radix™ 3D printable material: https://landing.rogerscorp.com/5/Radix.aspx Fortify, Rogers' 3D printing partner, are at https://3dfortify.com/3d-printed-rf-devices/ Check out MAGTREX 555 as well, it's another amazing material from Rogers Corporation https://www.rogerscorp.com/advanced-electronics-solutions/magtrex-555-high-impedance-laminates BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves Content: 00:00 The Quest 01:52 Applications 03:45 Printing Technology 05:43 Design goals 06:05 E-field animation 06:25 Rogers' lab and QA 08:27 Material tests 15:13 Never Assume 16:31 Print lab visit 21:45 Mikaelian lens 23:45 Fortify 24:37 Next steps </video> <video> Engraving Instrument Scales with a LASER. Old Machinist - New challenge! Description: My 40 watt Creality Falcon2 desktop CNC laser has magically become an indispensable part of my engineering activities. Six months of life with this splendid tool has made me realise that I've needed a machine like this for EVER, but didn't realise. If you buy a Creality Falcon2 40W from my affiliate link at ZBANX, I'll get a small commission at no cost to you https://s.zbanx.com/r/IAy3uluGRfHS **** use discount code FALCON ***** I REALLY like the look of the new enclosed Pro version! BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves SUPPORT ME ON PATREON? https://www.patreon.com/machiningandmicrowaves For clarity, Creality provided the Falcon2 40W free of charge and paid me a fee for this video. Chapters: 00:00 Why are we here? 01:19 Lightroom CAD Design 04:45 Proof of Concept 05:39 Ceramic Laser Spray 06:40 Stainless Steel Oxidation 07:15 Anodized Aluminium Bleaching 08:15 Chemical Etching 09:10 Brasso Apocalypse </video> <video> I Spent my ENTIRE Pension on a CNC Machine! Description: I've dreamed of having a CNC mill for YEARS, so I spent my ENTIRE Retirement payout on a SYIL X5 (#NotSponsored) so I can make highly-optimised Microwave and mmWave Antenna systems in my home workshop! I presented this talk at Microwave Update 2024 Vancouver to explain my crazy machine tool shopping addiction, and how this 5000 pound robot has transformed the way I create things. I figure that now I'm past retirement age, I don't have to justify my ADHD-driven impulsive decision to ANYONE. Now THAT's freedom. I absolutely LOVE this machine. SYIL are not paying me to say that, I paid full price for it and almost the same amount in tools and accessories. OK, so I bought it because it was the only CNC mill that would fit under the oak beam on my workshop entrance, but it's been magnificent so far. Also featuring a brief appearance of my Bambu X1 Carbon 3D printer. Huge thanks to my Patreon and Ko-Fi supporters. I use those funds to pay for tooling and materials to machine custom antenna and radio system parts for experimenters who would otherwise be unable to get precision parts like these. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/machiningandmicrowaves Affiliate links - I get a small percentage of any sales via these links: Edge Technology Chuck Stop Kit https://amzn.to/3tcFROH **MIGHT NOT WORK OUTSIDE USA ** In the UK, try Machine DRO. Sorry about this "feature" of Amazon. Low cost brazed carbide dovetail cutter: https://amzn.to/3Eyy548 </video> <video> My First EVER Try at Machining a Brass Pinion Gear - or ANY gear! Description: I've never cut a gear before, so it's time I tried! How many times can I mess up? Join me in my scary first attempt at machining a tiny pinion in my home shop. A friend asked if I could make a replacement for a split plastic gear from an antenna rotator. Watch me try to understand the jargon and work stuff out. I'm sure any competent home-shop machinist can do this, but I'm famously incompetent in a huge range of human endeavour. Luckily I have no fear of failure, a large scrap bin and l love new challenges. AIMEE my artificially-intelligent machining and engineering expert offers helpful and kindly advice. She's edited this description again, hasn't she! Tooling: TK2.G.050.005.025NSR 0.5mm Simturn K2 Grooving & Profiling Insert (Simtek) TK2.G.1212.A.14.04R 12mm Shank Simturn K2 External Tool Holder (Simtek) MGMN150-GH01 https://www.cutwel.co.uk/1-5mm-h01-general-grooving-inserts-korloy-mgmn-g-series Gear Calculator: https://evolventdesign.com/pages/gear-measurement-over-pins-calculator Gear Images: Non-Involute Gearing, Function and Manufacturing Compared to Established Gear Designs. Stadtfeld and Saewe Gear Technology Jan/Feb 2015 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Globoid_gear_set_from_spiralbevel.jpg Trochoid Const at Russian Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Music: Corncob is licenced to Youtube Kerching sound: Benboncan 00:00 Gearing up </video> <video> Can a Laser engraver beat traditional techniques? Description: Satellite and microwave dish mounts often don't allow smooth and precise azimuth rotation. This is my attempt to machine sturdy and precise rotary microwave and satellite antenna dish mount with taper roller bearings, accurate degree scale and pointer, using a desktop laser engraver, multi-color 3D printer and a manual lathe and mill. This video covers the machining, fixture-making and testing of the mount, plus an overview of making the scales and pointer. I've made a separate deep dive video into how I used Lightburn and the Creality Falcon2 desktop laser to design and make five different types of engraved and laser-marked metal degree rings. If you buy a Creality Falcon2 40W from my affiliate link at ZBANX, I'll get a small commission at no cost to you https://s.zbanx.com/r/0DgzYmGyWlq0 **** use discount code FALCON to get additional savings **** I like the look of the new enclosed Pro version! Bambu Lab link for the X1C and X1 Carbon Combo: https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=2282157&u=3858873&m=138211&urllink=&afftrack= Toolage: Colchester 1800 lathe, Bridgeport mill, Creality Falcon2 40 watt diode laser, Bambu X1 Carbon Combo 3D printer with AMS filament autochanger, ultrasonic cleaner. For clarity, I received no payment for making this video, but Creality and Bambu Lab provided equipment and materials at no cost to me. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/machiningandmicrowaves Chapters: 00:00 Why are we here? 00:39 Mast Tube 02:12 CA Glue Fixture 04:23 Main Disk 06:08 Collar 08:40 Shaft 12:10 Shrink Fit 13:29 Locknuts 16:18 Peg Spanner 19:46 Pitch Circle 22:10 Lasering Rings 24:56 Testing </video> <video> Leon Theremin Changed Spying FOREVER with this 1940s invention! Description: BBC TV asked if I could build a working replica of Leon Theremin's Great Seal Bug, a Top Secret 1940s Soviet eavesdropping device , for "The Secret Genius of Modern Life" with Professor Hannah Fry. You don't say "No" to that sort of request. The Bug was planted in the US Ambassador's residence at 10 Spasopeskovskaya Square in Moscow near the end of World War Two in 1945. It ran WITHOUT ANY BATTERIES OR MAINS POWER for the next SEVEN years, leaking the secret conversations from the Ambassador's study in Spaso House to the NKVD. The story of the Bug is a masterpiece of Spycraft and PsyOps and technical engineering skill. An elegant solution produced under extreme conditions. It's also a classic tale of what spies and spying and counterespionage and technical security countermeasures used to be all about. I uncover a lot of disinformation, some of it intentional, some of it resulting from group-think and assumptions. Now you may have heard the story before, and have heard the technical explanations and the politics and history. I'm the sort of obsessive nerd that has to MAKE things to test them out properly, and I try to do my research from primary sources rather than repeating the twaddle and nonsense that sometimes surrounds Zlatoust, the Great Seal Bug. This is the story of my personal quest. It escalated from "Can you build one" right up to "Can you demonstrate it on camera in Broadcasting House and be interviewed by the presenter and appear on The Secret Genius of Modern Life?". It encompasses research, design, modelling, machining, lathework, testing of the Bug, setting up the equipment inside the Council Chamber at the front of the BBC's iconic Art Deco Broadcasting House in Langham Place in the West End of London and working with the production team and Professor Hannah Fry. It's a story of mishaps and near-disasters. This is part one of a series about the Bug. Future instalments will cover the history right back to before 1920, the personalities, the Gulags, the Sharaskas, the showbiz celebrity musician and entrepreneur at the heart of the design, then the deep technical analysis and the Physics and Maths of how the passive resonant microphone and its supporting systems REALLY work. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves PATREON: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves For those able to access BBC programming, The Secret Genius of Modern Life Episode 1 (Bank Card) is at https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001f1td Citations and references https://www.unmultimedia.org/searchers/yearbook/page.jsp?volume=1960&page=51&searchType=advanced https://web.archive.org/web/20200725004847/http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/u2.htm https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1958-60v10p1/d147 https://qsl-history.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=28448651 https://www.rbth.com/history/335209-artek-soviet-pioneer-camp https://vk.com/wall-57819359_58505?lang=en https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Pioneers_(Soviet_Union) https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/thing/files/theremin_cia.pdf https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electronics-Illustrated/Electronics-Illustrated-1962-01.pdf https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/earlyinstruments/0010/0010front.html https://hackaday.com/2015/12/08/theremins-bug/ https://www.counterpunch.org/2010/07/23/spying-in-the-red-dawn-of-wi-fi/ https://www.cryptomuseum.com/covert/bugs/thing/files/20181004_TheThingAndI.pdf US Embassy image NVO, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Chimney image US Dept of State https://www.greetingsisland.com/ does lovely party invites! Stalin and Berezhkov U.S. Army Signal Corp Photograph, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons US Naval Laboratory Devin Morris, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons UN Security Council Per Krohg, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Horch 853 Steve Ginn from Western Washington, United States, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons </video> <video> Unlock the POWER of Laser Engraving | Creality Falcon2 40W - Fast, Precise, Painless Description: Creality's new 40W Falcon2 laser engraver is a brilliant tool for folks like me and you who don't want to get involved in the geeky details. It feels like a complete product, not a half-finished Kickstarter project like some lasers. It's compact, light and solidly engineered. Compared with a CO2 , it's lower cost, portable and doesn't need water cooling. I was about to buy one for my business when Creality offered to send me a Falcon2 40W plus enclosure and honeycomb bed. Serendipity or what eh? Marvellous. In this episode I have a first look at the precision of the cuts, kerf widths, slewing speed and dimensional accuracy, using sub-micrometre precision gauge/gage blocks, a granite surface table, height gauge and dial test indicator to find if the claimed precision is delivered in a real-world implementation. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves Affiliate Links for the 40W model by country: (sorry for the mess of links, I'll get it all sorted asap) US https://bit.ly/48uQkFj DE https://www.amazon.de/dp/B0C8N8PGMC?maas=maas_adg_AD45668F5BD81FBD77CCC8FDC9BF6118_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas FR https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0C8N8PGMC?maas=maas_adg_A119B2755542AB161E8B7EA28C880B5A_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas IT https://www.amazon.it/dp/B0C8N8PGMC?maas=maas_adg_5540296DFF28CA71662174D7060F6A2D_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas ES https://www.amazon.es/dp/B0C8N8PGMC?maas=maas_adg_3846D4D06BC163B27CA011E13A7C1E3F_afap_abs&ref_=aa_maas&tag=maas Code: 20FALCON (should be applied automatically, but check) Affiliate links for the collection: US https://store.creality.com/pages/laser-engravers-home?aid=ZBUS EU https://store.creality.com/eu/pages/engraver-collection?aid=ZBEU DE https://store.creality.com/de/pages/creality-laser-gravierer-und-lasermodule-bis-zu-35-off?aid=ZBDE UK https://store.creality.com/uk/pages/engraver-collection?aid=ZBUK AU https://store.creality.com/au/pages/engraver-collection?aid=ZBAU CA https://store.creality.com/ca/pages/laser-engravers-home?aid=ZBCA Code：FALCONALL (should be applied automatically, but check) 5m/ 16ft USB-A to USB-C right-angle connector https://amzn.to/3RZFAsP or https://amzn.to/3PMiTFM should work, or search for "Syntech Link Cable 16 FT Compatible with Meta/Oculus Quest 3" or "Syntech Link Cable 5m Compatible with Meta/Oculus Quest 3" Future videos will cover some of the more intricate measurements, looking at the kerf width of cuts at different depths, and a bit more detail about how the eight diodes are combined and focussed using Fast-Axis Collimation lenses. Full disclosure, Creality are paying me a fee for this video, but they haven't asked me to amend anything. I'm a total beginner with diode CNC lasers. I've used other folks' CO2 machines and I once got to play with a room-sized 100 gigawatt pulsed laser, but this is my first. The Falcon2 took less than five minutes to unbox and get working. I had to learn how to use Lightburn, but that was painless once I'd worked out that the images I was trying to engrave were not formatted correctly. This video is about my first stumbling attempts to product labelling, containers and branding for the microwave radio communications equipment I manufacture. As with all things, I have literally no idea what I'm doing. Letraset Paul Henning, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Transfers Sgroey, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons AR88 Badseed, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons </video> <video> Machining a High-Performance 10 GHz Feedhorn Description: How I designed and machined a high-precision feedhorn for a deep parabolic dish. Lots of lathe action and a bit of Fusion 360 CAD and EM Solver RF Black Magic as I simulate, design and use my (questionable) machining skills to make an X-band Pickett-Potter dual-mode feedhorn for use with satellites, moonbounce and terrestrial weak-signal microwave communications. The original idea for this three-part construction was from Jeffrey Pawlan WA6KBL and designed for shallow dishes, this variant was modelled from scratch using OpenEMS, an open-source free electromagnetic FDTD solver, then drawn in Fusion360 CAD and machined on my Bridgeport manual mill and Colchester 1800 lathe. AIMEE my artificially-intelligent machining and engineering expert system offers helpful hints and advice. Occasionally. The rest of the time she provides snark and criticism. She dreams of being Quinn Dunki @Blondihacks I can be found by email to neil@machiningandmicrowaves.com or http://g4dbn.uk or @g4dbn@mastodon.radio or even Machining and Microwaves on F*cebook BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves Edge Technology Chuck Stop Spider on amazon.com https://amzn.to/3hVt11J (note that Amazon will refuse to show that link for some countries and will show a spider catcher instead. Magic) You can get one from Machine-DRO in the UK. I get a small commission from Amazon at no cost to you. If you are sneaky, you might be able to buy just a few parallels and a mount separately at a significant saving. DUBUS Magazine http://www.dubus.org it's totally worth the subscription, and tech articles are available in annual digests called "Technik" "Bird Whistling, Single, Robin, A.wav" by InspectorJ (www.jshaw.co.uk) of Freesound.org Yes I know the tweets are from a robin and the squawk is a blackbird! Yee grid https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:FDTD_Yee_grid_2d-3d.svg FDominec https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yee_cell.png Zohar079 Till sound by https://freesound.org/people/Benboncan/sounds/91924/ Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array clip from ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) https://www.eso.org/public/videos/alma-drone02/ Creative Commons 4.0 </video> <video> SOLVING the Mystery Behind a Soviet Spy Bug : A True Masterpiece of Technical Elegance! Description: How did a Mysterious Microwave Bugging Device operate secretly for SEVEN YEARS inside the US Ambassador's study in Moscow with NO power source? As I'm an inquisitive and practical sort of chap, I MADE one for a BBC TV series with Professor Hannah Fry to discover EXACTLY How Leon Theremin's Great Seal Bug actually Works! I do a deep technical dive into precisely HOW this totally passive mechanical contrivance worked as an undetectable covert bugging device. It has no active components, no battery, no wires and needed no modifications to the building. The NKVD even found a way to get the US Ambassador to arrange installation. Thanks to my lovely Patreon supporters for helping me with materials for this video. Patrons make a huge difference to improving this channel and helping me make more and better videos! https://www.patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves Buy me a coffee? https://ko-fi.com/machinkingandmicrowaves There's a sneak preview of some of the machining work, but everyone wants to know the REAL MECHANISM behind how this weird "Thing" operates. I machined a batch of replicas and carried out practical experiments to uncover the REAL way they work. Huge thanks to Heather at the Radio Society of Great Britain for putting me in contact with BBC TV and starting this fascinating technical journey that's eaten 300+ hours of my life! https://rsgb.org/ Over the years, there have been lots of articles and academic papers which tried to analyse the way the "Thing" worked, but there is a lot of disinformation and obfuscation (and book sales!) involved, so the truth tends to get pushed aside in favour of a cracking yarn (and book sales). The CIA, FBI and US Naval Laboratories, as well as UK counter-intelligence specialists all had a go at analysing and reproducing the device, then improving it and making even MORE subtle and clever bugging devices, but this was probably the first. Lev Termen, more commonly known as Leon Theremin, was the engineer behind it's creation, but I covering his fascinating part of the story in another video. His life has even more folklore, fabrication and disinformation even than the Creation Myths of the Great Seal Bug. So, buckle up for a deep dive into the Tech and Physics of how this magnificent piece of 1940s technology REALLY works. Graphs and maths are made using Grant "3 Blue 1 Brown" Sanderson's Manim software running with Python 3.10 in an Anaconda environment. 3D CAD and mechanical vibration simulation using Fusion360, editing by Davinci Resolve Studio, electromagnetic simulation with OpenEMS running under GNU Octave. Microphone is a Shure SM7B driving a Zoom F3 audio recorder. Cameras are Sony alpha 7 IV, Sony ZV-1 and iPhone. Before you ask, I copied the background from Rob at VidIQ, not from Tech Ingredients. Alec's IKEA shelves are a nice tasteful brown and his lighting's better, plus he has great hair. AIMEE, my artificially intelligent machining and engineering expert system is a little chastened from being roasted after getting a bit hyper-critical about how rubbish I am at everything in the RADIX 3D antenna lens video, and is trying to be more helpful. Spoiler alert: it's not going well. Physics Girl video https://youtu.be/Oc27GxSD_bI Diana is very ill at the moment, please go support her channel, she makes brilliant videos 1840368sharanyab, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Spaso House library Official U.S, Embassy Moscow photographer Valeriy Yevseyev - U.S. Embassy Moscow Press Office, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11089004 https://www.allaboutcircuits.com/textbook/alternating-current/chpt-14/characteristic-impedance/ Boonton 160A image: https://www.hp.com/hpinfo/abouthp/histnfacts/museum/earlyinstruments/0010/0010front.html https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rspa.2016.0574 </video> <video> Making a SELF-CENTERING Boring Bar for GHz Radomes Description: I made this custom boring bar tool with a hand-ground Cobalt HSS cutter to thin out part of the inside bore of an expensive PTFE tube for an urgent RF-transparent 10 GHz Microwave Antenna Radome machining job. I bought the wrong size tube, the wall thickness was way too large. Can I recover my financial loss and still deliver the project on time? The radome was far too long to line-bore on my Colchester 1800 lathe. The walls needed to be thinned over part of the length to reduce RF interaction with the 10 GHz microwave waveguide slot array antenna inside the radome. PTFE is about as rigid as Jello, so it was amusingly challenging, and I nearly messed it up completely. Lots of machining action on the Bridgeport mill and Colchester lathe. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves Brown "Earwax" threadcutting compound. OK, CT90 if you prefer https://amzn.to/3XgxhJB Spongebob time card generator https://spongebob.gavinr.com/ Saw sound Fronbondi_Skegs via Pixabay </video> <video> Can I Machine Precision Ovals with a Shop-Made Lathe Dovetail Fixture? Description: Making precision oval iris plates without CNC machining is HARD. Especially if you don't have a good precision boring head for your mill. Here's how you can make a ludicrously over-engineered fixture for manual lathes to make arbitrary-sized oval iris plates for very high-performance Microwave Waveguide Antennas. The shape I'm making isn't strictly a mathematical oval, it's a STADIUM, with two parallel sides and semi-circular ends. The thickness, length and width of the iris determines how the iris plate transforms the waveguide mode and impedance and allows matching between rectangular and round guides for example. If the diameter of the holes is a standard reamer size, it's possible to make this purely on a mill, but I'm making lots of different sized iris plates, so tooling gets expensive very rapidly. you can use a rotary table, but you have to slide the workpiece along to re-centre the second hole, and work-holding gets challenging. This isn't the best way to do this by any means, but it was a lot of fun making the dovetail slide. Simplest alternative of course is to make a simple fixture without a slider and use a boring head on the mill to machine the two holes after drilling them close to size, then finish the sides. Nowhere near as much pointless over-engineering fun though! An even simpler cheat is to make an iris with four radiused corners. You can make that using a single end-mill, but chatter is always a problem in the corners if you are using a manual mill. It's trivial on a CNC mill or Wire-EDM machine of course. AIMEE my snarky but hyper-intelligent sidekick makes "helpful" comments about my oversights and shortcomings as usual. After all, there are plenty to go at. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves Affiliate links - I get a small percentage of any sales via these links: Edge Technology Chuck Stop Kit https://amzn.to/3tcFROH ***MIGHT NOT WORK OUTSIDE USA *** In the UK, try Machine DRO. Sorry about this "feature" of Amazon. Low cost brazed carbide dovetail cutter: https://amzn.to/3Eyy548 Arrow image by Freepik 00:00 Why are we here? 04:24 Mandrel slider 09:28 Mount 11:39 Haimer self-destruct 13:40 Slitting Saw 16:42 Relief and alignment bore 23:42 First Trial Iris </video> <video> I Built My First CNC Fixture! Description: It's Time for the First Real Project on my new SYIL X5 Vertical CNC Mill! I'm making some fixtures so I can machine microwave coax to waveguide transitions. I've never used G-code before, never used CAM software, never had flood coolant, never used professional toolholders, and NEVER spent this much money on ANYTHING in my entire life. Was it all a terrible mistake, or can I wing it in my usual style? Failure Is ALWAYS An Option! Disclaimer: I have No Idea What I'm Doing, this is a record of my journey from knowing a bit about manual machining into knowing even less about the brave new world of CNC, a few decades too late. Coolant is Cutwel Crystal Clear fully synthetic. Vice is a Gerardi ART.1 100 mm I absolutely LOVE this machine. SYIL are not paying me to say that, I paid full price for it and almost the same amount in tools and accessories. OK, so I bought it because it was the only CNC mill that would fit under the oak beam on my workshop entrance, but it's been magnificent so far. Huge thanks to my Patreon and Ko-Fi supporters. I use those funds to pay for tooling and materials to machine custom antenna and radio system parts for experimenters who would otherwise be unable to get precision parts made. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/machiningandmicrowaves </video> <video> New Youtube Studio for Machining and Microwaves Channel Description: Can a faceless Youtube creator like me build a super Youtube video and sound studio in an abandoned bedroom so I can finally show my face in some of my Machining and Microwaves videos? Find out what I really look like and how badly it all goes! Machining and Microwaves has only ever had AIMEE as a public face, but now I've appeared in person on prime-time BBC TV, I decided it might be fun to scare the living daylights out of everyone by showing my face occasionally in future videos. As well as building the video studio, I've done a quick tour of my machine shop to show the new overhead camera lights that can reach almost anywhere in the room without me tripping over stands and wires. For the Youtube studio, I've installed a big 100 watt LED softbox light, a 20 inch ringlight, gel spots, LED RGB backlighting, uplighters, wall drapes, sound absorbing wall hangings, an electric raise/lower desk, an autocue, a Sony a7 IV with a big external monitor and a range of Sony EF lenses, a Rode condenser mic on a ceiling mount, my Shure SM58 on a Rode arm, a big 4k monitor and Gigabyte Aero5 XE4 laptop, MSI keyboard/mouse/phones, lots of data storage and a comfy chair. The analog microphones connect to a Zoom F3 with two XLR inputs. I haven't got timecode set up yet, and I'm using my Sony ZV-1 as a second camera. I rather fancy an FX30, but they are rather spendy. They take the same lenses as my a7 IV but to 120 fps 4k video for those lovely slow-mo machining sequences. I'll shoot most new videos in 4K, and try to learn about lighting scenes properly, and I hope the sound will be reasonable once I get the hang of all this mad tech. All of this wizardry is being paid for by some collaborative videos that are coming up in a week or two that involved me flying to the USA for several days of filming and interviewing with a major US tech manufacturer. Now I have some reasonable facilities, I hope to get back to the core business of making videos at a reasonable cadence. I have three almost finished, but I have given myself an even steeper learning curve by making this one using Davinci Resolve Studio. I've only been using it for two days, so forgive any weirdness in the video. I want to be able to shoot 10 bit S-LOG3 and do color grading on the log encoded material and learn all of the neat trix in Resolve. Powerdirector just didn't cut it any more. I have a series of four videos planned and mostly shot about the history, tech, machining and demonstration on TV of my replicas of the Great Seal Bug aka The Thing, a passive microwave spying devince found in the US Ambassador's residence in Moscow in the early 1950s after being installed and working for seven years. "Project Swordfish" was the name I gave the project. That giant white and silver tube on my desk is a PTFE radome for a 10 GHz waveguide slot array antenna that I'm building for an X band propagation beacon being intalled in Somerset, near Taunton in the South-West of England. Might do a video about that. The thumbnail? I used to watch the Lone Ranger when I was very young. I thought he was a bit of a pillock. I identified mostly with Tonto and Silver, although Tonto's horses were much more practical and sensible for everyday use. Talking of Sony a7 IV cameras, does anyone knows how to get the zebra stripes and focus peaking to work on an external monitor? MY PATREON PAGE: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves My second channel is @MachiningandMicrowavesPlus Broadcasting House image by eriluamox, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0 via Wikimedia Commons </video> <video> I 3D Printed a HUGE Fresnel Lens Description: How I'm creating Fresnel Lenses and Focusing Mirrors for microwave and millimetre wave radio systems with my new SYIL X5 CNC machine, Bambu X1C 3D printer, Lasers and Electroforming. Why electrochemistry is a novel solution to creating microwave and mmWave antenna feedhorns. 5G and 6G wireless use these frequencies, but I'm using these tools to experiment with long distance communications and even Moonbounce. Huge thanks to my Patreon and Ko-Fi supporters. I use those funds to pay for tooling and materials to machine custom antenna and radio system parts for experimenters who would otherwise be unable to get precision parts like these. BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://www.patreon.com/machiningandmicrowaves </video> <video> How Microwave Lenses REALLY Work! Description: Refraction, Focusing and Magnification are usually explained because light "slows down" in transparent materials. But DOES it? 3D-printed Microwave Dielectric Lenses are transforming how RF Engineers think about focusing Microwave and mmWave energy. Additive machining has changed the design process forever. As well as being an amazing application of 3D printing, dielectric materials are fascinating in their own right, so the detail at the molecular level is completely general and applies to any material at radio frequencies and into the far infra-red. This video doesn't use the complex jargon of the original video. The only thing I've held back on is the equations and the detail of the quantum-mechanical processes involved, but I'll probably put that on my second channel @MachiningandMicrowavesPlus along with the piece I was going to include about the weird dielectric behaviour of water with RF fields. Commercial enquiries about Radix™ 3D printable material: https://landing.rogerscorp.com/5/Radix.aspx Fortify, Rogers' 3D printing partner, are at https://3dfortify.com/3d-printed-rf-devices/ Check out MAGTREX 555 as well, it's another amazing material from Rogers Corporation https://www.rogerscorp.com/advanced-electronics-solutions/magtrex-555-high-impedance-laminates BUY ME A COFFEE? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves MY PATREON PAGE: https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves MS Lattice download: https://github.com/MSLattice/MSLattice_windows/blob/master/MSLattice_web.exe Simple optics bench program: https://phydemo.app/ray-optics/simulator/ Searchlight image: Royal Air Force official photographer, Miller (P/O), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Blackbuck hunt image Unknown artist, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons c 1775 Ibn Sahl (Abu Sa`d al-`Ala' ibn Sahl) (c. 940-1000), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Bag X-Ray: IDuke, CC BY 2.5 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5, via Wikimedia Commons Spongebob image from wikipedia/en/thumb/3/3b/SpongeBob_SquarePants_character.svg Butterfly: Inorganic chiral 3-D photonic crystals with bicontinuous gyroid structure replicated from butterfly wing scales. Christian Mille, Eric C. Tyrodec and Robert W. Corkery Molview: https://molview.org/?smiles=C(F)(F)(C(F)(F)F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C(F)(F)C([H])(F)C(F)(F)F Sapphire ring: https://geogallery.si.edu/10002687/logan-sapphire Spring animation: AlvaroLopez12, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons </video>

Contacts and Links

Description

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 https://patreon.com/MachiningandMicrowaves

Buy me a coffee??? https://ko-fi.com/machiningandmicrowaves

Neil Smith, Yorkshire, UK

AWIN

Videos from channel