Science
In reply to the discussion: Quantum Entanglement, Dark Counts, Coincidence Detection [View all]mindwalker_i
(4,407 posts)Ebay had it for ~$150, 2' x 3' or so. I got a set of the poles to mount on it and to mound stuff on, and some things to adjust position in one dimension. I think that there are some resonant vibrational modes with the long poles and breadboard, so vibrations of certain frequencies show up in the scans. Isolation is difficult, especially since there's a busy street outside.
For mounts, I need X and Z adjustment plus rotation, and I can keep using some sets of two aluminum plates, with three bolts and springs. I haven't seen mount with the two axes and rotation, but if they exist, they'd probably be around $500. for ~15 of them, it would hurt. Also, I need to make other things like the masks to limit what light gets to the detectors. I did something earlier that really sucked: a flat piece of plastic with a slot cut in it, then there were pieces of plastic that could slide in or out to widen or narrow a slit between them. Also did something like that for the height of the slit. It sort of worked, but I can do a much better job with a better design.
And there will undoubtedly be other things I need to build. So putting some effort into learning how to machine the mounts will pay off in terms of having a useful skill to build more stuff. About two years ago, I bould a milling machine from Sherline, so there's already some investment. That thing is cool Now I'm learning about lubrication and adjustments and stuff. I have a friend at work - old salt, kind of - who knows a bit about this, and he and I talk about machines. He gave me a really nice drill press, just because he has a better one and limited garage space
Another good reason to get a blog up would be that I could post some of these designs, and possibly get feedback on them. I could at least link to them from here.