After making some enquiries at the Derby Makers discussion group a while back, Martin Raynsford got in touch and kindly offered his assistance in fabricating some parts for my Enigma machine project.
Martin has a lot of experience with using laser cutters, which is the topic for his blog.
So I threw together some quick CAD drawings for him and today the prototypes arrived!
The parts are 4 pieces of perspex of sandwiched together and held in place with a pair of M3 screws. 2 different patterns were used, the centre two pieces have a small hole in the middle to house a ball bearing that allows the brass shaft to run through it centrally. The outer two pieces have a large hole and allow clearance for the rotors and their fixings. The whole thing is 16mm thick and looks absolutely awesome.
Here's a few pictures...
![SAM_1263]()
A) The perspex sandwich alongside one of the rotors.
B) Edge-on view of the perspex parts with the electrically conductive parts fitted.
C) Perspex and rotor in approximate alignment.
D) Close up of holes and rotor conductors.
E) Illuminating the perspex with 8 high intensity red LEDs. Looks better in real life actually.
I'm very pleased with this prototype - it's even better than I had hoped for and looks rather professional I think.
Huge thanks to Martin for making this design far better than I could have managed on my own - everyone should go and have a look at his recently completed "365 laser-cut designs" project on his site (see the link at the top of this post). You can even buy some of his designs from him directly!
Awesome.
Martin has a lot of experience with using laser cutters, which is the topic for his blog.
So I threw together some quick CAD drawings for him and today the prototypes arrived!
The parts are 4 pieces of perspex of sandwiched together and held in place with a pair of M3 screws. 2 different patterns were used, the centre two pieces have a small hole in the middle to house a ball bearing that allows the brass shaft to run through it centrally. The outer two pieces have a large hole and allow clearance for the rotors and their fixings. The whole thing is 16mm thick and looks absolutely awesome.
Here's a few pictures...
A) The perspex sandwich alongside one of the rotors.
B) Edge-on view of the perspex parts with the electrically conductive parts fitted.
C) Perspex and rotor in approximate alignment.
D) Close up of holes and rotor conductors.
E) Illuminating the perspex with 8 high intensity red LEDs. Looks better in real life actually.
I'm very pleased with this prototype - it's even better than I had hoped for and looks rather professional I think.
Huge thanks to Martin for making this design far better than I could have managed on my own - everyone should go and have a look at his recently completed "365 laser-cut designs" project on his site (see the link at the top of this post). You can even buy some of his designs from him directly!
Awesome.