Methuen, MA - January 2015.

#machineShop #machining #smallParts #smallBatch #blackAndWhite #photography

Molly Gordon to Direct ‘Small Parts’ for Searchlight Pictures
#Variety #News #AllieLevitan #MollyGordon #SmallParts

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/molly-gordon-small-parts-searchlight-outrageous-fortune-1236000856/

‘Theater Camp’s Molly Gordon To Direct ‘Small Parts’ For Searchlight Pictures
#News #MollyGordon #SearchlightPictures #SmallParts #TheaterCamp

https://deadline.com/2024/05/searchlight-pictures-molly-gordon-small-parts-1235914049/

Bottoms Up: Soda Can Help with Almost Any Project

If there's any one thing that the average hacker is short on at a given moment (besides chips), it's transient small part storage. Just as new projects are built from small parts, diagnostics and teardowns of commercial equipment invariably result in small parts. We think [amenjet] may have the answer -- small parts holders made from the bottoms of soda cans.

You start by cutting the bottom off of an empty can however you like. In the first video after the break, [amenjet] scores the can on what could be a purpose-built jig before cutting along the line with tin snips, but you could use regular scissors if that's all you have. Then it's just a matter of shoving it into the circle around the perimeter of the print to secure the sharp edge.

The underside of the print is graduated and ends with a small hole fit for a disc magnet. To keep the prints from scratching the table, [amenjet] covered the bottoms with crushed velvet. After making about a dozen of these things, they CNC'd a tray to hold three of them, which you can see in the second video. Each cavity in the tray is lined with more crushed velvet for elegance and stability.

Between the concavity of the can bottom and that little lip, it should be particularly easy to actually retrieve a tiny part from the pile and grab on to it. Between the utility and the recycled aspect, this could easily be an entry into the second Challenge of the 2022 Hackaday Prize, which runs now until Sunday, June 12th. This round is all about reusing, recycling, and revamping anything and everything to keep it out of the landfill. Start your entry today!

#mischacks #fnmagnets #parts #smallparts #sodacan

How Small is Too Small?

Not a rhetorical question! This week we consider the most micro microcontroller: the HC32L110. It's the new title holder of the smallest ARM Cortex M0+ part. But could you actually use it?

MCU is the black thing that's smaller than the capacitor.

I remember way back, when I first learned to solder surface-mount components. It was fiddly at first, but nowadays I don't use through-hole components unless someone's twisting my arm. And I still do my soldering myself -- down to 0603 really isn't all that bad with an iron, and below that, there's always the heat plate. My heat plate has also gotten me through the two times I've actually needed to put down a ball-grid-array part. It wasn't as bad as I had feared, honestly.

So maybe it's time for me to take the BGA plunge and design a board or two just to get more familiar with the tech. I probably won't dive straight into the deep end, like the featured chip here with 0.35 mm ball pitch, but rather stick with something that the cheap PCB services can easily handle. My experience tells me that the best way to learn something is just to test it out.

Now, off to go part shopping in the middle of a chip crisis! Wish me luck.

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#microcontrollers #rants #bga #diy #microscope #pcb #smallparts