Wednesday, April 13

Today we were able to begin construction of the X-Y positioning system. We started by mounting two tracks exactly parallel to each other as shown in the following photograph.

This was not as easy as it sounds because, as stated in a previous blog, the tracks need to be perfectly parallel. It was very convenient that we got the very flat and straight-edged board, because we could measure the same distance 0.5 inches in from edge on the top and bottom. One of us had to hold the tracks down and carefully monitor the measurements while the other screwed in the three screws to hold the tracks in place. We were very successful in mounting them perfectly parallel.