ZACplus Citizen-Science Workshop vom 04.09.2026

Online-Workshop vom 04.09.2026, laser cutting parts

Manually producing the remaining parts

Here is the way shown how to produce the Brass and Copper metal plates and the silicone gaskets optional manually. Furthermore the Graphite felt and the Grafoil current collectors have to be done manually.

You can see some impressions of the fabrication process on Youtube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijiRkXcEmPQ

Copper Plates

We start with the raw copper plate. With a caliper we mark a line in a distance of 50mm. With a thick marker and ruler we make a thick line on the right side of the thin line. This thick line will later become cutted with an angle grinder and the thickness denotes the thickness of the anglegrinders disc.

In a similar way we mark to lines in 50 mm distance from the upper and the lower edge. With a scriber and the help of the 3d-printed stencil we can mark the exact middle point of the bigger holes. Furthermore we can mark the round edges. The advantage at this point is, that two of the edges of the plate are derived by using the readymate even edges and must not be cutted with the angle grinder.

With an automatic center punch we make the holes a bit bigger for centered drilling. But before the drilling we cut the 50 mm copper stripe of from the big copperplate along the thick black line with an angle grinder. The edge can afterwards made even on a belt grinder. Take care to make the stripe not smaller (but also not bigger) then the 50 mm.

Then we drill the holes repeatedly, at first with a 4mm drill, then with 5mm drill, a 6mm drill and finally with a 7mm drill. which is the target size of the holes.

Here the final cut and the resulting copper plates:

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Brassplates

The Brassplates were in the same manner produced like the copper plates. We can also use the same 3d-printed stencil for marking the hole-centers.

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Grafoil

For the grafoil we use a 3d-printed version of the acrylic static frame as stencil and mark with a scriber the outlines.

Afterwards we cut it carefully. At first the four inner circles (but not the inner square) and then the outer edges which then became rounded.

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Silicone-Gasket

Here i have also used the Model for the static frame. When using it as a stencil its maybe a good idea to print it with a thickness of only 1 mm or less.

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