Having worked in an ISO 17025 calibration lab, I get to see a lot of different and fancy test equipment. The Crystals are hands down my favourite pressure calibrators. They last forever and are usually within tolerance as found. Since they last so long, there’s still a good deal of these IS33 pressure calibrators out there that has the odd ball custom RS232 serial connector. This makes setting the calibration date and span adjustment a bit of an issue. The PN 1928 cable is VERY hard to come by and basically impossible to purchase. I got to thinking and found that I could make my own custom cable that is compatible with the PN 1928. This is my first custom cable and I’m very happy that it worked out. The working cable you see in the photo is a third iteration that uses a standard RS232 serial connector, Ethernet cable and a modified SATA power connector.

After having some 3D printed metal pieces from Shapeways.com under my belt, I felt fairly confident with my settings to get legible engraved text. So, I decided to try my hand at having a custom name plate 3D printed for a new electrical test set (Hui Gardens HFX) I made for my Fluke 87V multimeter. This one is in brass and has both engraved text AND an embossed element. It’s got English, Chinese and a custom logo. Costing about ~$35 CAD plus shipping, it’s not bad considering the quality and customization I’m getting. WAY cooler than plain printed text on a metal blank. You can feel the letters on this custom name plate. I chose brass, because it’s a fairly inexpensive metal and brass doesn’t spark when struck (not that it matters in this case) and I see lots of brass being used on HV test equipment I come across. It’s more for aesthetics, but it looks like it belongs.

I was looking to try out 3D printing metals on Shapeways.com, but haven’t found the right piece to try it with that wasn’t too big and WAY too expensive. I thought something the size of a nickel that can be used as a golf ball marker shouldn’t be too bad. Bronze pricing is fairly reasonable in this size and looks very good compared to the more blob-like medallion that is the plastic nylon version.