The past week or so has been a great breakthrough for my project. I have found and ordered most of my parts, completed the necessary drawings to manufacture any necessary parts, and started to cut glass.
Knowing that creating the glass encasing is going to be the most tedious aspect of this project, it became my top priority. The edges need to be perfectly straight with 90 deg corners or all will fall apart. Thankfully a quick trip to Mcguckins made the cutting of the glass quite simple. They were able to cut my desired 6 pieces of glass in a matter of minutes and met all the criterion. Also, I was able to find some fish tank epoxy sealant in the store which is ideal for my scenario since the bonding of the glass must not be vulnerable to water. The downside is that the epoxy takes a hefty 16 hours to cure… oh well.
Here’s a quick pic of what the encasing looks like so far:
Once the glass case is complete, the ferrofluid and liquid medium solution will be added and sealed. Thereafter, a plethora of experimenting will be underway!
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This was an awesome update! Your fabrication process seems like it would have been a challenge, but it seems you are getting a grasp on it. I am curious to hear how your experimenting went, and have you thought about fastening the glass together with an outside frame for extra rigidity? Sharp corners and glass are recipe for disaster.
Check out this ferrofluid clock: http://www.ferrolic.com/. Many of the same design issues you are having.
Awesome to see the progress that you’ve made thus far! The glass enclosure is looking great, and I’m really excited to see how everything comes together. You mentioned in class that the next step for you is to begin work on the electromagnets: do you have a plan for acquiring or building the electromagnets? Have you done much research into the construction of electromagnets? Ferrofluids are such an interesting material to me, I can’t wait to watch your progress over the coming weeks and to see your project take form.