Days 5 and 6: Failure and Regression
Sometimes midnight hits far earlier thanĀ expected, which was the case on day 5. I went to bed knowing I failed to make anything substantial. This is the only thing Iāll consider a failure ā not making something. If something doesnāt work, or breaks, thatās valuable data and learning. Which bring us to day 6.
Day 6 - GoPro Lens Cap and White Balance Tool
Again I waited until bedtime, but this time I had a 5 minute project lined up: use more U-Mold plastic to make a lens cap for the GoPro. Because the U-Mold dries to a translucent white, I was hoping to use make the front pretty thin so that I could also do test shots with the cap on to get a good white balance reading ā this idea was taken from the ExpoDisc from ExpoImaging.
I melted a small amount of the U-Mold, rolled it into a ball, and pressed it around the lensĀ of the GoPro. Iām trying to get better at shaping this stuff (see Day 1 haha) and I think I did better on this one. There was some excess plastic, so I shaped it to one side and tapered it offĀ (thinking I could use this as a wedge under the camera when I didnāt want to mount it on a tripod) and poked a hole in it, so it can be attached to the camera itself. This was a last-minute addition.
I let the U-Mold cool and harden on the camera, but it was really difficult to get off. Because it was late and I was impatient, I pulledĀ too hard and took off the GoProĀ lensās dust shroud with the cap. After inspection it was obvious that the plastic had worked itās way into the shroudāsĀ clip openings, which is why it came off together.
TheĀ shroud has three tabs on the bottom which lock into the GoPro case (see the IFixIt GoPro3 teardown to see all the parts) and these broke off during the cap removal.
This is a regression because itās forced me to source another shroud, or fix this one. I donāt give up easily, so I will try fixing it using something like the Bondic Liquid Plastic Welder, but in generic form.Ā The key seems to be finding the right viscosity so the glue doesnāt settle and flatten before curing.
The MSDSĀ for Bondic puts the viscosity at 150 cP (which stands for centiPoise, I had to look that one up), which seems to also always equal the CentiStokes (cS) and milliPascal Seconds (mPas) according to this chart. Iām not an engineer and know nothing about fluid dynamics, so Iām trusting the internets.
I ended up buying a 1oz bottle of Loctite 4311, which is a UV cure adhesive with a much higher viscosity, which should allow me to build the tabs back on the dust shroud. Iāll update that when it gets here.