Greetings all!

Well, it’s another Sunday evening and I have progress with a side of humor to report.

First, the board for the electrical components arrived on Tuesday of last week; I guess the third time is the charm. Cameron cut it to size but then got a little stumped by how exactly to arrange all of the components so they would fit in the space and also operate properly. He said he spent a few hours playing Tetris with the components until he was able to finalize an arrangement.

You’re looking at 294 wire ports for 187 wires to be run/installed next weekend. As you’d imagine, the wiring schematics are not derived willynilly. Luckily, Cameron is used to planning complex maneuvers. Below is a photo of his thought process that includes a sketch of the layout for the electrical panel.

Okay so it’s not the best photo; he took it as an afterthought but I wanted to include it to not only show how he approached the planning but to ask if anyone else on earth writes this small?!? If you claim to not know anyone who writes three lines of sentences between two blue lines on notebook paper you can no longer make that claim. When ever Cameron writes something down for me on paper (a rarity) I always have to ask him to write it big enough to be seen by the naked eye. He can write a paragraph on a Post-It.

For anyone who enjoys counting, the green things, the orange things, the gold things, and the silver things are all ports for wires. I counted 294. He says a few may remain empty but that most will have wires in them. And oh does he have wires.

The build is about 60% done now so he’s over the hump. I thought this would be a good juncture to ask him a few questions in retrospect about the path so far.

Dana: What has been the most challenging aspect of the build so far?

Cameron: I can’t say it’s any one thing. It’s a large build with thousands of parts and decisions to make. I’m reminded of something I heard while building the airplane which was “you eat the elephant one bite at a time.” In order to make progress you take on one aspect of the build at a time but you can never lose sight of the “whole” because in the end, all of the pieces have to work together. What may not be clear is that while I am following Jonathan’s design this is not a kit. It’s a custom build.

Dana: What has been the most fun or satisfying part for you?

Cameron: Getting to know some of the people on the forum who are in the process of building their lasers. The community is both generous and engaged. Also, getting to use so many of my skills on one project. I’ve had to use so many different modalities over the course of the build; it’s fun to see them coalesce.

Dana: What, if anything, surprised you?

Cameron: Sorting the electrical panel out took a lot longer than I expected it would. There are a lot of details to consider and you have to make sure you’re not creating a problem for yourself farther down the line.

Dana: Looking forward, what do you think will be the next big challenges in the build?

Cameron: Wiring is the most complex thing that is left but I also have to design the switch panel and the panels for the external connections. I’ll 3D print the switch panel but I haven’t decided how I’ll fabricate the external connections panel. The laser alignment can be difficult but that will pretty much be the last thing that gets done.

Cameron asked me how I thought the build was going. I don’t have any reference point for how fast or slow it is nor any technical context to assess the methodology so I didn’t know how to answer that other than to say that after 17 years of being together he still stuns me with the breadth and depth of his skills and experience. He’s eating the elephant one bite at a time; I’m just an occasional visitor of the jungle.

Be good out there, and if you can’t be good, be careful!