Week 6: July 17 - July 21

This week, I pursued the idea I had had for making the stenosis model. I did everything from designing the 3D model to prepping the silicone to casting the metal core. Rafael figured it would be a good learning opportunity for me to handle everything myself. Going through the whole process with little assistance was a new experience as I had previously always had someone to guide me and I made sure to take notes on the whole process.

Working with SolidWorks

I got more practice with SolidWorks through designing the core for constructing the silicone mold. I used the core mold file Luis had made to create a solid stenosis core part, and then attached it to a base. I figured that it would be easier to just 3D-print the core attached to a base rather than have to glue the 3D-printed core onto a piece of acrylic when making a box for the silicone. While it ended up being a relatively simple design, I felt that I had developed more facility for using SolidWorks afterwards through having to rely on my memory for certain functions. Once the design was complete, I printed the model using one of the FormLabs printers and smoothed out the sides with sand paper.

The Silicone Mold

After constructing the box, pouring in silicone, and leaving it to cure overnight on Tuesday, I removed the walls of the box and cut the 3D-printed core out to yield two halves of the silicone mold for making the metal stenosis core. Unfortunately, the silicone had not completely cured, and the faces that were in contact with the 3D-printed part were not completely smooth. I went through with the casting process anyways and used a dremel to smooth down the resulting metal core. I then constructed the box for the silicone model using a combination of acrylic, 3D-printed walls, the metal core, and tube connectors. I designed walls in SolidWorks to 3D-print because it allowed me to put in holes for the tube connectors to fit in on the ends. The purpose of the tube connectors was so that the resulting silicone model would have ends with the negative of the tube connectors so that it could easily be hooked up to the PIV setup. On Friday, I prepped the silicone and poured it in to the box to cure over the weekend.

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