Page 1 of 2

Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2018 11:20 am
by Kaleckian
I'm a professor at Monmouth University (in New Jersey) developing a mechanism for an academic research project. I need some mill work--and ideally someone creative and curious. I'm happy to pay for this work, of course. It won't be very complicated. For example, see the attached photo: I need the sides of this extruded aluminum bare channel milled so the dice sit side-by-side and will not fall back when the front-end of the aluminum piece is raised ~45-degrees. This is the first step, several more to follow. Thank you. Robert

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 2:55 am
by Harold_V
Kaleckian wrote: Wed Mar 07, 2018 11:20 am I need the sides of this extruded aluminum bare channel milled so the dice sit side-by-side and will not fall back when the front-end of the aluminum piece is raised ~45-degrees.
Achieving the fit isn't a big deal, but if the dice aren't perfectly symmetrical, it would be. A few tenths makes a huge difference on fits. You go from a press to a snug slip with just a half thou difference. Might not hurt to specify if the dice are inserted randomly, or always in the same relative position.

Welcome to the board.

H

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 8:37 am
by SteveM
Can you measure the dice and see how consistent they are?

Are the dice pushed out, or will you rely on some other force to eject them (I'm assuming that at some point you want to eject them).

Maybe having a strip of flat spring steel on the side to hold them with a consistent pressure would work.

We might need some more details to give a proper answer.

Steve

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2018 10:18 am
by Kaleckian
The dice are known as perfect (or precision) dice, so they're very consistent. Their size is 0.75" in a near-perfect cube (i.e., hexahedron). The dice will be arranged in the same way each time the experiment is run.

Steve: You are right that the idea is to launch the dice. My idea (but I'm open to suggestions) is a spring-loaded mechanism (like a pinball launcher) that hits the dice near the bottom, which will put backspin on them. I'm going to mount the aluminum piece to a heavy base with a torque hinge, so I can adjust its launch angle. I'm going to use a Phantom high speed camera and Matlab to measure all movements. If anyone has ideas of how to rig a spring-loaded mechanism onto this setup (or something better) I am all ears. Thanks.

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 5:39 pm
by tetramachine
I would be interested in doing this for you. We are just down the rd in Toms River area. If you want some ideas, there are numerous ways to accomplish this.

You can contact me at email tomsmachine at hot mail . co-

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 6:27 pm
by Kaleckian
I'll be in touch soon. Thanks.

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 3:19 pm
by tetramachine
I took up the poster on this project, very interesting. The completed device will be throwing dice for the researchers next month.
Yeah I should post a photo,

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 4:03 pm
by tetramachine
dice launcher.jpg
Turned out nice.

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Sun May 13, 2018 6:57 pm
by SteveM
tetramachine wrote: Fri May 11, 2018 3:19 pm Yeah I should post a photo,
You should post a VIDEO!

Steve

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 12:15 am
by Steggy
tetramachine wrote: Fri May 11, 2018 4:03 pm dice launcher.jpg

Turned out nice.
I think I saw that thing during my last visit to the Orion nebula. :D

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Mon May 14, 2018 7:45 pm
by tetramachine
There will be a video posted of the launcher in action from the research group. Should be super slow motion I believe. I took a slo-mo with my phone, but it was not slow enough. The project will be done on a regulation craps table.
I'll keep you all posted when its available.

Re: Need mill work for academic research project in NJ

Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:08 am
by tetramachine
Its been two years since I built the Dice launcher. The Grad students had completed around 4000 dice toss's. That was July 2018. The next year a draft of results came out. Not surprising, the test showed what most everyone would have guessed. No matter how consistent the toss of the die is, once it hits the table, there is no consistency in the outcome. The House ALWAYS has the odds in their favor.

Never did see the slow motion tape.