"H[indistinct] World" At 5 Microns on RepRapMicron PIKA

The tip fitted to the current Touch/Probe head is far too fine for me to practically work with on the 10's of microns scale that my hands are capable of. But before I retired it, I just had to find out what it would do to "Hello World". We really are bumping into the limits of what one can do with a pointy thing, Sharpie marker, and a Konus binocular microscope here, and I had to drag out the Awful (but cleaned) Biolux to get better shots. So here's what I can see with an 8μm spacing using the Konus:

Few things to note. First off, that's 56μm tall. This about the size of the spacing between dots in previous Hello World's (50μm). Second off, the amount the probe skids sideways on contact is far, far smaller than previous attempts. I attribute this to the more precise probe height positioning possible with the Touch/Probe, and the fact that the Probe Tip moves vertically when pushed rather than diving off at an angle.

Time then to zoom in on a gory detail shot with the Biolux:

 

Woah. I think this illustrates pretty well that PIKA has sufficient control to work on single digit micron scales.

Which begs the question, what if I tried 4μm spacing? OK then.

At this point the debris kicked up by poking the point into the Sharpie is becoming a limiting factor. Here's a shot through the Biolux:

Yep, definitely pushing it there. Limits seem to be in the substrate/tip, not the μRepRap.

So, takeaways from all this. PIKA with the Touch/Probe is going to be up to positioning the probe as accurately as is needed for sub-10μm features. That means I need to get the Touch/Probe design put in the repository, and put a wider tip on it to begin resin deposition on the 10-20μm scale once more.

FYI This is the current probe configuration: