Do tools to make working on tiny things easier exist? (multi-DOF motion reduction?)

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Jan 11, 2022, 04:58 PM
Elizabeth Greene

Do tools to make working on tiny things easier exist? (multi-DOF motion reduction?)

I need a tool to make working on tiny things easier and I don't know if it exists. Search engines aren't great at finding obscure gizmo when you don't know the proper name so I thought I'd ask here before I go invent one.

I need to carefully position an iPad home button connector (0.25-inch x 0.125-inch rectangle) with <0.01-inch positional accuracy and hold it in place. Complicating that, I have hand tremors. It's normally a manageable condition but working at this scale is extremely difficult.

Is there a device that will reduce my motion inputs by some multiplier to allow careful positioning of parts at microscopic or near-microscopic scales?

Thanks
Jan 11, 2022, 07:04 PM
WmRMeyers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elizabeth Greene

I need a tool to make working on tiny things easier and I don't know if it exists. Search engines aren't great at finding obscure gizmo when you don't know the proper name so I thought I'd ask here before I go invent one.

I need to carefully position an iPad home button connector (0.25-inch x 0.125-inch rectangle) with <0.01-inch positional accuracy and hold it in place. Complicating that, I have hand tremors. It's normally a manageable condition but working at this scale is extremely difficult.

Is there a device that will reduce my motion inputs by some multiplier to allow careful positioning of parts at microscopic or near-microscopic scales?

Thanks

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_manipulator

also called a Waldo, or a robotic arm. Described by Robert A. Heinlein in 1942: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldo_(short_story)

I'm getting interested in this, myself. My dad spent the last decade or so of his life with Parkinson's, and my hands are doing a bit of shaking, and have been for a few years now. Could be the caffeine intake, could be Parkinson's' starting up. I can't seem to do without caffeine long enough to get a clue, and the last time I came close to making it seems to be when the shaking started for me. Note that the first wiki article mentions hydraulic power, and that (or perhaps pneumatic power) might be a way to dampen some of the shake.

Bill
Jan 11, 2022, 09:25 PM
Frank S

I was thinking you might be asking about a Motorized Force-Sensing Micro-Forceps with Tremor Cancelling and Controlled Micro-Vibrations
Jan 12, 2022, 07:29 AM
Elizabeth Greene

Thank you both for the replies. Digging into these (and the patents behind them) I think I'm on the right track. One more search keyword for posterity is "Micro-manipulator".

From what I've seen so far all are fairly complex and expensive. I'm going to have a go at making a cheap and simple 3d printable alternative. Wish me luck!
Jan 12, 2022, 08:36 AM
WmRMeyers

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elizabeth Greene

Thank you both for the replies. Digging into these (and the patents behind them) I think I'm on the right track. One more search keyword for posterity is "Micro-manipulator".

From what I've seen so far all are fairly complex and expensive. I'm going to have a go at making a cheap and simple 3d printable alternative. Wish me luck!

Take a look at Thingiverse.com, and the other 3d printer repositories. GrabCad might be a good one, also. Seems to me OnShape has open access to everyone's designs as part of the TOS for using their software, too.

And of course, report back here! ;)

Bill
Jan 12, 2022, 08:59 AM
mklotz

During a two week hiatus at Bell Labs I used a micro-manipulator to weld thin gold wires to power transistor elements and the case leads.

Basically, it was a three dimensional pantograph with a fractional motion ratio such that a relatively large hand motion produced a minute probe movement. You might want to experiment with a 2D version first; should be able to construct a trial version fairly quickly.

Or, if you're rolling in money, there's always the professionals...

https://micromanipulator.com/

https://www.wpiinc.com/applications/...n/manipulators
Jan 12, 2022, 09:23 AM
WmRMeyers

Quote:

Originally Posted by mklotz

During a two week hiatus at Bell Labs I used a micro-manipulator to weld thin gold wires to power transistor elements and the case leads.

Basically, it was a three dimensional pantograph with a fractional motion ratio such that a relatively large hand motion produced a minute probe movement. You might want to experiment with a 2D version first; should be able to construct a trial version fairly quickly.

Or, if you're rolling in money, there's always the professionals...

https://micromanipulator.com/

https://www.wpiinc.com/applications/...n/manipulators

the guy with the giant furnace on the front page of the group, Rob Bonifacio has a 2D pantograph build on his website, might be worth looking at. https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...cio+pantograph His design is set to do one-to-one copies of patterns with a plasma cutter, but it might give you some ideas on how to build what you need. And he sells a kit. I don't expect too many people who hang out on a homemade tool website can afford commercial special purpose tools. I know I sure can't. I mostly buy broken stuff and try to fix it, myself. Of course, I'm also a cheap bastrich. ;)

Bill
Jan 12, 2022, 10:37 AM
mklotz

Quote:

Originally Posted by WmRMeyers

... I don't expect too many people who hang out on a homemade tool website can afford commercial special purpose tools. ...

Probably true but it's still worth checking their equipment for DIY ideas.
Jan 12, 2022, 11:00 AM
WmRMeyers

Quote:

Originally Posted by mklotz

Probably true but it's still worth checking their equipment for DIY ideas.

No argument there! I recently acquired a couple of Unimat lathes, and I've been haunting Ebay for photos of the stuff I want, since I can't afford most of it. If you know what an object is in the photo, you can scale the parts off of it, and figure out how to make it without ever actually laying hands on it. If you have an idea how something works, and the object it fits on, you can probably figure out how to do what to you need to make something fit it. Won't say I'm great at this, but I am starting to get a clue. And sometimes, it really does make sense to just buy the stinking thing, too.

Bill
Jan 12, 2022, 11:18 AM
mklotz

Quote:

Originally Posted by WmRMeyers

... I recently acquired a couple of Unimat lathes, and I've been haunting Ebay for photos of the stuff I want, since I can't afford most of it. ...

The Unimat is a wonderful little machine. It's been a starting point for many aspiring amateur machinists.

Here...

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...g-unimat-27367

are shown some of the improvements I made to mine.

But the real king of Unimat improvements and modifications is Paul Jones. The easiest way to view his work is to use the forum's "advanced search" function and search on the word "unimat" with his name in the user name window. Take a lunch :-)
Jan 12, 2022, 12:24 PM
WmRMeyers

Quote:

Originally Posted by mklotz

The Unimat is a wonderful little machine. It's been a starting point for many aspiring amateur machinists.

Here...

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/...g-unimat-27367

are shown some of the improvements I made to mine.

But the real king of Unimat improvements and modifications is Paul Jones. The easiest way to view his work is to use the forum's "advanced search" function and search on the word "unimat" with his name in the user name window. Take a lunch :-)

I had been drooling over the Unimats in the back of Popular Mechanics, as well as the Atlas & South Bend lathes since my middle teens. Took a high school machine shop class my senior year, just before the end of the year, and wasn't smart enough to take another class, despite having loved that one. Got to use a South Bend 9" lathe and shaper, and wanted one of each really bad.

Read everything I could lay hands on from then until late in 2008, when I went out and bought the only lathe I'd been able to find at the same time I had the ability to purchase it. HF 93212 7x10 Mini-Lathe. Had troubles with it, couldn't get anything useful out of it, and griped about for years. Late in 2014, SWMBO said I should quit griping and take a class again.

So I did. Started in February 2015. Been attending very part time ever since. Learned to mill and lathe, and figured out what my problem was with the mini-lathe. Wasn't the lathe. Was my inability to get accurate measurements with the dial caliper and micrometers we use. I had a Helios vernier caliper that I couldn't figure out how to read, and a 1" mike that I picked up for $1 when I was a teenager, when I got the 7x10. Started using their mikes and my new dial caliper, and their Grade A Johannsen block set to measure stuff that I knew was accurate. Eventually learned the feel necessary to get it right. Took about 1-1/2 class periods.

Since them I've also picked up some odds and sods of measuring equipment, like one of each of everything they taught us to use in the class. Most of my measuring stuff is imports, but I've been checking it against the gauge block set and so far it's all more accurate than I am. ;) I've also acquired a usable Atlas TH42, and a restoration project SB Heavy 10L toolroom lathe, both 1940's vintage. Also a Lewis Shaper, an Atlas MF horizontal mill, a couple of drill presses, chop saw, couple of bandsaws, and a Smithy CB1220XL that my brother bought for me. I think it's a hint he wants me to make some stuff for him. :) It's in the process of being restored, since it was in much better shape than the 10L.

The Smithy has only been sitting for 24 years or so, in a climate controlled building. The 10L spent five years in a leaky barn before my friend who bought it to restore realized he wouldn't live long enough to do it. I'm not sure I will, either, but about a third of has had the rust stripped off it, and I have the tank to do the bed built, but not sealed or set on it's cart yet. Winter got here a bit too soon for me. One of the Unimats is also undergoing restoration. I traded the 7x10 to the guy who had it, and since it was rusty, and I had a 5-gallon bucket of EvapoRust just sitting here, in it went. He was happy enough with the 7x10 and the accessories that went with it that he also gave me enough cash to buy another one that was all there, and running, but not in best of shape, though it did have the original box. I've bought a 4-jaw India-made chuck for it, and will be modifying an ER25 collet holder to become a collet chuck. The first one is going to be a milling machine. I've started making the face plates, and milling tables (one will be t-slotted, the other drilled and tapped like a fixture plate) centers, and some small stuff. Still need to rebuild the spindle, but have the bearings and such needed, and all new belts for both machines. And been collecting photos from Ebay. I know the lathe doesn't NEED a lantern tool post, but I want it to have one. There are things a QCTP can do that a lantern post can't, and vise versa. I will have both. And the little milling vise is SO CUTE! :)

I think I should be able to stay busy until they nail the box shut on me. They may need to whack me with a hammer to get me to lay down....

Bill (AKA Bill in OKC on the Yahoo and former Yahoo groups now on groups.io)