Messages

136

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: September 12, 2013, 12:45:17 AM »

Meat, that looks super handy. What are the dimensions of it? Looks as though it would be amazing for maintenance workers in factories.

Its got a 4m working height (your head height fully extended), needs to fit through a regular door so about 680mm wide, maybe 1.2m long. It's basically there to replace step ladders, which are a health and safety nightmare nowadays, so they're getting sold to all sorts. So far a big supermarket here has taken them on for stock picking, several girly clothes chains have had custom ones for doing window displays, the shard in london has them for building services, microsoft bought a load for working on their european main server, etc,etc, i think theres a few hundred out there already.

This one you just push around, starting on a drive-able 6m one next year, thats going to be a bitch to keep from falling over, the testing required is ruthless.

137

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: September 11, 2013, 01:34:52 AM »

I've not really put any of my work stuff up, but I did this access lift earlier in the year, you'll see it in primark, morrisons, etc, soon. Not particularly sexy, but there are about half a dozen patents on it and its been well received.

138

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: September 10, 2013, 04:08:18 AM »

The sheaths look suspiciously human coloured....

139

The Bike Shop / Re: Quick Questions

« on: September 01, 2013, 01:20:45 PM »

I thought it was a couch thing, not that bpn guy... Figures. I've always greased them anyway, at least now I don't have to feel guilty about it 

140

The Bike Shop / Re: Quick Questions

« on: August 31, 2013, 11:17:42 AM »

I don't grease bearing seats right? Why is that?

141

The Lounge / Re: apps

« on: August 22, 2013, 06:39:06 AM »

My mates stupid ismokeweed app is hitting itunes this weekend, they've relaxed the content rules apparently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SmzrIa5NCA

ismokecrack and ishootsmack currently in development too, you heard it here first...

142

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: July 03, 2013, 02:05:31 PM »

Seems to work pretty well, only needs very slight contact with the wire to create a good braking force, so a bit tricky to modulate, probably need a larger dia brake thingy. Making an air brake too...

143

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: July 02, 2013, 06:45:58 AM »

Any chance of a doodle G?

I'm picturing something like a wedge of cheese shape, pivoting around the pointy bit, as it rotates round more of the curved outside contacts the string?

144

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: June 30, 2013, 12:11:50 PM »

Was there supposed to be a picture or something there? I was mulling it over earlier and got the idea to do a fan something like a paddle steamer on the middle wheel, but with blades that you can flare like the prop on an aeroplane, so when the blades are set at 90deg sticking out relative to the alu chassis bit you get max resistance, as you angle them inwards the resistance decreases, until they're parallel with the chassis and not really doing anything, kind of like a classic windmill in a side wind.... no idea if any of that makes sense, even less idea if it'll actually work...

I work for an engineering and design consultancy, design stuff from scratch for other companies mostly and then oversee its manufacture. It has its ups and downs, the good days are brilliant, the bad days are fucking awful. Did an engineering degree, worked for a year or so then did an industrial design degree.

145

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: June 29, 2013, 07:03:39 AM »

Yeah that's probably the way of doing it, id wanted to stay away from creating friction on the line, thinking that wear might be an issue, it would be nice if the braking force was proportional to the speed too, so you get a smooth start/stop on it.

I've got a load of 608 bearings kicking around, so maybe i could do something like you suggested, but pinching the line between two bearing races, rather than static surfaces....

146

The Lounge / Re: What have you made?

« on: June 28, 2013, 02:51:24 PM »

Made myself a gopro wire cam thingamy at work on the 3d printer when no one was looking, idea was i wanted something small enough to fit into a camelbak, light enough to use 1-2mm 'wire' and with some sort of speed limiter, without using friction on the line (makes a racket and gives a bumpy shot). Designed with the limitations of the printer in mind, so not the sexiest thing ever, but started off like this...



That middle wheel can be adjusted up and down, idea being that the more of an angle you bend the line (some parachord i found) through the slower it would go.

It changed a bit along the way, figured i could get the same result from the centre wheel by moving it left and right, as it would up and down, also the original camera attachment was fucking awful idea so i simplified that to use two ball/socket joints clamping together with a single captive bolt. Its about 250g all in.




First test flight, wasnt expecting it to go this fast... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laMjo1FC7OI


So the 3rd wheel bendy wire thing does work, it'll slow it by about 25%, but thats about it, you bend it further and it makes the trolley unstable, its not anywhere near enough of a braking force for what i need..

Anyone here got any ideas? I can make pretty much anything within reason, a cylindrical fan like a turbo trainer might do it, but it would have to be reasonably large, or geared up with some sort of pulley arrangement to increase its speed, maybe there's something simple i can do with magnets, rubber bands, etc....