Tech Spam thread - because 1/4" BSP gets 5 hand spans to the jiggawatt

[Nominal]

They are smokey old things
 

 

[Kiwibirdman]

On 06/05/2024 at 15:16, Nominal said:

Anyone used Robinsons for speedo calibration?

OK? Timely service?

Their website doesn't inspire confidence, but maybe they are better at doing things than building websites.

I used them for my Holden, they made the Commodore fuel gauge sender work the EJ Fuel gauge. Not too bad price. They also rebuilt the speedo after it failed compliance, still 1962 Holden quality but made the compliance people happy.  

[Doug Hill]

Because I'm too cool for CAD and im sick of using the kitchen table. Drawing board project. 

Pretty much impossible to find any info on these NTI units, but I'll figure the fine adjustment out while I pull it to pieces and the ADHD on to a totally different project 

[Doug Hill]

Mk1 seems to work. Board is hinged, will flip up horizontal to give access to where I can hide my lollies from mimi-me. The lower horizontal board can be folded up behind the drawing board, but is very important for holding cups of tea. 

Figured out the fine adjustment knobs (angle indicator has a vernier scale) and the overall alignment. 

Will need a disasembly and good clean up.

I will need to find suitable rulers, will probably just make some moubts and epoxy them to a 500 and 300mm clear ruler

now I can hide in the spare room like a loner 

[tortron]

I want, what is basically a small mixer,

Spinning at about 300 rpm, and changing direction every say 15 seconds

 

I can sit there with a drill I suppose, it only has to run for about 5 minutes at a time, but the reversing is a bit fiddly 

Maybe something like an electric screwdriver and a timer circuit to switch polarity of the motor

 

It doesn't have to spin much mass, maybe 100g, size of a jam jar sort of thing

[Willdat?]

@tortron How quickly do you need it? Would be a sweet Technology project for a student...

Next question - is there a (preferably NZ based, actually or not) company that does CNC machining or routering with an online quote function? I'd like to be able to use it with students, but would rather not waste companies time on pie in the sky dreams...

[tortron]

10 minutes ago, Willdat? said:

How quickly do you need it?

I don't really need it...... lol

Basically  i want a watch cleaning machine, but not pay watch cleaning machine price considering it's basically what I just described. I see there's a "kiwi cleaner " on the market now that presumably someone in nz has come up with

 

Lo9king at the fancy ones, they have a small.ultrasonic cleaner as well as a heater. Takes the cleaning cycle from 5min to 30 seconds the literature says. I think I'd use a cheap one that fits a mason jar

 

Can buy those little mesh holders on aliexpress,  or little tea strainer things that could go in something 

[mjrstar]

3 hours ago, tortron said:

I want, what is basically a small mixer,

Spinning at about 300 rpm, and changing direction every say 15 seconds

 

I can sit there with a drill I suppose, it only has to run for about 5 minutes at a time, but the reversing is a bit fiddly 

Maybe something like an electric screwdriver and a timer circuit to switch polarity of the motor

 

It doesn't have to spin much mass, maybe 100g, size of a jam jar sort of thing

Would a window wiper motor give you the agitation you need without reversing?

I have an external control module for a wiper somewhere, which has adjustable intermittent function.

[h4nd]

2 hours ago, Willdat? said:

@tortron How quickly do you need it? Would be a sweet Technology project for a student...

Next question - is there a (preferably NZ based, actually or not) company that does CNC machining or routering with an online quote function? I'd like to be able to use it with students, but would rather not waste companies time on pie in the sky dreams...

ponoko

[NickJ]

3 hours ago, Willdat? said:

Next question - is there a (preferably NZ based, actually or not) company that does CNC machining or routering with an online quote function? I'd like to be able to use it with students, but would rather not waste companies time on pie in the sky dreams...

Can you just build them a spreadsheet based on setup cost + material cost + cut distance/time? 

Put some good factors in there to play under promise/over deliver?

[Willdat?]

36 minutes ago, NickJ said:

Can you just build them a spreadsheet based on setup cost + material cost + cut distance/time? 

Put some good factors in there to play under promise/over deliver?

Good idea, what would some ball park figures for setup and cut time be?

Ponoko is something I used years ago but had forgotten about, thanks @h4nd

[440bbm]

Depends if you want real world or kinda close.  
Also depends on if they can figure out good setup time allowances, tools, and the job in the machine. 

How many ops? allow hr per setup and hr per programme, plus materials ( allowing extra material for 1st off and getting the setup/tool heights-lengths and programme 100% correct). and then divide by total qty required. then allow $2 per minute of cut time. should get you rroooooughly close enough.

 

whats a shop rate now? 120 /hr? depending on machine. 2 3 4 or 5 axis can double easy. 

But should give close enough to learn, a heavily programme and setup time cost compared to 1 or 3, 5 items cost allllllllot more than 10 20 50 off.

 

 

but tool path length varies so much and either high speed machining or slower more traditional tools changes everything. soooooo its kinda not really possible unless you can specify those variables. depends on how clever an in depth you want to go with m/min, Ae/Ap etc etc      how clever are ya kids?

 

 

[Willdat?]

3 hours ago, 440bbm said:

Depends if you want real world or kinda close.  
Also depends on if they can figure out good setup time allowances, tools, and the job in the machine. 

How many ops? allow hr per setup and hr per programme, plus materials ( allowing extra material for 1st off and getting the setup/tool heights-lengths and programme 100% correct). and then divide by total qty required. then allow $2 per minute of cut time. should get you rroooooughly close enough.

 

whats a shop rate now? 120 /hr? depending on machine. 2 3 4 or 5 axis can double easy. 

But should give close enough to learn, a heavily programme and setup time cost compared to 1 or 3, 5 items cost allllllllot more than 10 20 50 off.

 

 

but tool path length varies so much and either high speed machining or slower more traditional tools changes everything. soooooo its kinda not really possible unless you can specify those variables. depends on how clever an in depth you want to go with m/min, Ae/Ap etc etc      how clever are ya kids?

 

 

Kinda close is good enough. Kids are pretty damn clever (some anyway!). Currently projects are an oblique wing RC plane, autonomous lawn mower, laminar flow water tank for testing boat hulls, someone monitoring and transmitting water temperatures at a remote river spot plus a bunch more mundane things...

Our major issue is getting stakeholders that are interested. And access to the equipment needed to prototype. 18 years of me saying "when you're rich and famous, I'll still be here, come and donate us some gear!" has to start paying dividends at some point.

[h4nd]

If you need small controllers, wireless bits etc, gimme a yell

[440bbm]

13 hours ago, Willdat? said:

Kinda close is good enough. Kids are pretty damn clever (some anyway!). Currently projects are an oblique wing RC plane, autonomous lawn mower, laminar flow water tank for testing boat hulls, someone monitoring and transmitting water temperatures at a remote river spot plus a bunch more mundane things...

Our major issue is getting stakeholders that are interested. And access to the equipment needed to prototype. 18 years of me saying "when you're rich and famous, I'll still be here, come and donate us some gear!" has to start paying dividends at some point.

Sweet.

I need to dig my old laptop out and see if it still fires up. I have a couple spreadsheets that used for working out costs. It isnt clever and is pretty basic. you need to know the cycle time per op, and material costs. 

It does quickly show the true costs of manufacture pretty quickly when you feed in some values which with some conversations with the kids they can learn quickly and realise the outcomes of their dreams. the other advantage is if you know the final desired cost you can play with the cycle times and qtys to end up at your desired cost price - this shows how clever they need to get with design and or bump the run qty higher to spread the fixed prices over to be able to afford the items depending on their profit and sell price. So its not a complete loss.

Let me know if it would be of any use to you and can see if i can still acquire it from the archives LOL

[yoeddynz]

23 hours ago, tortron said:

I want, what is basically a small mixer,

Oh yeah... 

 

[Willdat?]

17 hours ago, h4nd said:

If you need small controllers, wireless bits etc, gimme a yell

Have you got any LoRaWAN gear?

[h4nd]

Err, yes actually. PM?

[Willdat?]

Next random spam tech question, currently trying to unbodge my caravan.  What do I replace rivets with going into fibreglass? Some are starting to pull through, just go up a size? Or rivnuts or...

[cletus]

If you can get to the back side, put a washer on for the rivet to grip onto