[time-nuts] Maser manual

jimlux jimlux at earthlink.net
Thu Sep 2 05:12:34 UTC 2010


>> As that brings the mechanics inside the work envelope of main-stream
>> CNC machines with the required tolerances.
> 
> Yes, but what is the issues relating to sapphire loading? What's the 
> cost of the sapphire block and having it machined?
>

Sapphire is pretty inexpensive (relatively speaking).. they grow it in 
big boules by the Czochralski process (like silicon).  Machining might 
be tricky.. it's pretty hard, so diamond tooling would be needed.

(I was thinking about making my wife a necklace of sapphire ball 
bearings.. they're chromium doped (i.e. rubies) to make them easier to 
find when you drop them.   You can also get clear sapphire spheres, 
plates, and pretty much any lens shape you want.  Edmund had the ball 
bearings for, as I recall, something like $8 each for 5mm diameter.

They're used in ball point pens, too.

http://www.industrialjewels.com/
http://www.birdprecision.com/




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