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Thread: Cool stuff

  1. #121
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    I don't think anyone knows yet what 3D printers will really do to building technologies. All our projections are based on using it to replace traditional methods of making known types of objects. That will be the main use in the short term. But 10 or 15 years from now, we will be using it to do things we can't anticipate now. That's when we'll really see the potential.

    This has been the case with all really disruptive technologies: steam power, electricity, refrigeration, computers, etc., etc. We look back at what people THOUGHT we would do with the new technology and shake our heads at their lack of imagination. I'm old enough to remember people laughing at the idea of home computers. "Nice toy, but what would you DO with it? Catalog your neckties or something?"

    We are only just now beginning to see really new products and processes from CNC cutting machines, and they are considerably older than 3D printers. At first, CNCs just cut the same old parts quicker. Then you started to get slight improvements on old designs, like the "finger" butt joins in some wooden boat kits. And we've all seen building jigs for small boats made from slotted plywood -- bang it together with a rubber mallet to create a stiff structure with no fasteners. So the next step was house-sized structures built entirely the same way, permanent buildings made from nothing but plywood and no fasteners. (I saw one built at a Maker Faire a few years back.)

    Now a few designers have finally branched out into truly innovative stuff. I've seen hinges and expansion joints made from plywood via dozens of partial cuts. Planar rotating joints. Interlocking parts. See MAKE | CNC Panel Joinery Notebook. These kinds of things are theoretically possible without a CNC cutter, but would be prohibitively expensive. Combine these techniques with new engineered wood technologies (see Building materials: Wooden skyscrapers | The Economist for more on that) and things get really crazy.

    So my guess is that, in 15 years, no one will be using 3D printers to replicate Ronstan blocks or entire hulls. But every shop will have 3D printers doing something we can't imagine doing now and they can't imagine doing without.

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  3. #122
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    I like this entire thread. Funny stuff, brain stretching stuff, awesome stuff (Cup races). It is just great having this in one place to try to wrap my old head around. Keep it coming.

  4. #123
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    Agreed, many don't have vision, but when desktops came out, I knew what was next and got on board early. My first machine was a 286 running a blistering 16 Mg clock. Actually I did have a Tandy 99 first, but it didn't have ahard drive (duel cassettes), no RAM and was a bit of a toy. The 286 was able to run word processing (Word Perfect) and basic graphics (Ventura Publisher!). In fact, I beta tested Corel 2, Page maker 2 and Windows 1.2a, just a few years after the appearance of the 16 bit bus. I can remember thinking I had a 20 Mg hard drive and a 1/2 a mg of RAM and I couldn't possibly fill this up with data in my life time. Well, I never did get that old SeaGate drive filled, as it crashed and burned, but I was in heaven. It was clear, just a few years in (I was up to a 386/33 by then) that software was the limiting problem and we all knew how to write some FORTRAN patches to get us through. In fact, it was guys like me that first linked photo copiers and fax machines to our computers. I had an office with home made cables running everywhere. I'd scan an image with the copier and steal it from the toner head, as a data file I could manipulate on screen. I was using primitive OCR and AutoCad (release 2) software in the mid 80's! It was ugly back then and if your machine didn't crash several times a day, you just weren't working it very hard.

    Vision isn't hard for some, though most do seem to have blinders on. I hope I'm around when quantum processing comes to play. This will be the next big leap in computing power. Now, if we can only write an algorithm that a photon or electron likes.

    3D printing (first done in the mid 80's BTW) will likely be replaced by application spicifc devices, such as consumable part auto replacement, protein and other bio/mechanical regeneration, tissue regeneration, etc. Imagine a device implanted at the hospital that replaces brain cells, at the same rate the inoperative cancer consumes them. Maybe a replacement blood vessel to take over for the clogged one, literally cast in place. I can see a time where a replacement organ is printed, with precise DNA matching, so no rejection issues. Duplicate eye balls, just in case you loose one. And yes, printing out a new dinghy to replace the one that was just stolen.

  5. #124
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    Quote Originally Posted by Boatmik View Post
    I've no idea what this is



    MIK
    Isn't this some sort of jam cleat? Where's it from?

  6. #125
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sun Dog View Post
    Isn't this some sort of jam cleat? Where's it from?
    Howdy ... I was digging around to find a page of fittings for canoes from about the 1870s and on. A lot of the cleats (quick release ones are important in racing canoes fairleads and other fittings were developed within the USA canoe racing scene. I know in the printed folio of drawings by W.P Stevens (or Stephens - one of the documenters and explainers of that era) that there is a page of strangely familiar fittings. They weren't originally in plastic, as many are now, but in bronze.

    I couldn't find the page - but this fitting was one of the results - yes a quick release cleat - you put the line around the right hand part coming towards you and then under the left handed part going away from you - it will jam under the shallow angle. Release by pulling towards you.

    I can't remember the name of the sailor, but during those years the canoe sailing was dominated by one person. Most canoeists were strong outdoor types .. this chap had polio as a child so is described as small in stature and lacking strength.

    He developed the leaning plank for the canoes, many of the advanced hullshapes and lots of the fittings - so he didn't have to use strength to hang onto the sheets. By the way ... cleats are now generally considered to be bad practice for mainsails on small boats. Too much risk of capsize - and other rigging improvements have reduced the load on the sheet because instead of being require to hold the boom DOWN the vang does that so the sheet only brings the boom inwards.

    Best wishes
    Michael

  7. #126
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    Quote Originally Posted by PAR View Post
    ...I can see a time where a replacement organ is printed, with precise DNA matching, so no rejection issues. Duplicate eye balls, just in case you loose one.
    "honey, have you seen my left eyeball? I swear I had it when I woke up"
    "Well, where did you put it last?"
    "If I knew that, it wouldn't be lost!"

    And so on...





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    Dave
    StorerBoat Builder, Sailor, Enthusiast
    Dave's GIS Chronicles | Dave's Lugs'l Chronicles | Dave's StorerBoat Forum Thread

  8. #127
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    "Well, just reach in the box and put in your spare."

  9. #128
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    Quote Originally Posted by Northstar View Post
    "Well, just reach in the box and put in your spare."
    Just wait dear, I'll fire up the printer.

  10. #129
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  11. #130
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    Quote Originally Posted by woodeneye View Post
    Damn, I should have made my Goat's centreboard slot wide enough to take a laser centreboard! Is that wing on the bottom of the centreboard just attached to a normal laser centreboard or is the whole centreboard plus wing plus altitude control thingimie a complete unit? I don't think the GIS hull weighs any more than a laser, so maybe we could have the first foiling lug-yawl. Give em a fright at the next luggers and gaffers regatta, especially with a set of wings or a leaning plank to help with generating enough power to windward.

    Ian

  12. #131
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanHowick View Post
    Damn, I should have made my Goat's centreboard slot wide enough to take a laser centreboard! Is that wing on the bottom of the centreboard just attached to a normal laser centreboard or is the whole centreboard plus wing plus altitude control thingimie a complete unit? I don't think the GIS hull weighs any more than a laser, so maybe we could have the first foiling lug-yawl. Give em a fright at the next luggers and gaffers regatta, especially with a set of wings or a leaning plank to help with generating enough power to windward.

    Ian
    Haha, wouldn't that be something! I'm not sure how the rig would cope with the apparent wind though.

    As far as I know, they are not using any original Laser parts as both vertical foils have internal rods to work the lifting foils. In the pics you can see the control wand underneath the boat. From what I understand, the foils they are trialling are aluminium extrusions and the idea is to sell them in kit form. I cannot be absolutely sure though.

    For a while now, I have been thinking about a lightweight foiler along the lines of a super quick, cheap build. Sort of a "peoples foiler", more suitable than the Laser. Perhaps to Moth specs, but with a hull not as narrow so an old fart like me to get up to speed more quickly without too much swimming, but made of 4mm plywood with aluminium hiking wings. Next to no rocker needed. Imagine a coffin with a cb case. Add a really nice set of foils, but not carbon. If this Laser foil kit eventuates, it may just be the answer to the foils for it without spending $10k for carbon ones.

  13. #132
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  14. #133
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    I was coming here to report this one on your thread Bruce ... you guys are just too fast!!!

    Another thought wonder how a 105 lb paulownia framed goat with a carbon mast would go on the hull lift stakes. Apart from the centrecase width of only 25mm the rest of the case geometry is based on La Laser

    MIK

  15. #134
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    Quote Originally Posted by IanHowick View Post
    Give em a fright at the next luggers and gaffers regatta, especially with a set of wings or a leaning plank to help with generating enough power to windward.

    Ian
    Haha ... what a thought!!!

    I think the goat is wider than the laser - so more R.M. (also more windage upwind) Interestingly the apparent wind might mean it is efficient to sail a goat with a reef or two in

    MIK

  16. #135
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    And about the project itself ... if you ever wanted to popularise foiling ... this is the boat to choose for the development.

    I'd say it has a big chance of being a money maker.

    MIK

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