The kind words are really much appreciated. I know several posters here are no strangers to big projects of various types. Frank, the fact that it's 120-lines helps, and an equivalent Nipkow disc display would be tiny and dim, unless built on a gigantic scale. And rather than just occupying a wedge at the rim of a disc like a Nipkow disc, the display from a Mirror Screw is as large as the screw itself. Here, we have a 12-inch (diagonal) picture.
There are corresponding disadvantages though... If you walk toward the screw when in action, apart from having your fingers chopped off (if you're really too close!) the picture width progressively shrinks and more pictures join it at the sides, each being one line further out of frame phase.
Seriously, when I made this, safety was a major concern. The screw itself weighs about 44 lbs and it rotates at 25 Hz. Moreover, after the slats' edges were re-polished it became out of balance and I've had to fit a correction weight.
Steve
There are corresponding disadvantages though... If you walk toward the screw when in action, apart from having your fingers chopped off (if you're really too close!) the picture width progressively shrinks and more pictures join it at the sides, each being one line further out of frame phase.
Seriously, when I made this, safety was a major concern. The screw itself weighs about 44 lbs and it rotates at 25 Hz. Moreover, after the slats' edges were re-polished it became out of balance and I've had to fit a correction weight.
Steve
