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Was thinking about those Rubix Cube solving machines.
And also about the guy who offers artisanal pencil-sharpening services.
Thinking about constructing a rubix-solving machine and then offering a service wherein people can mail me their rubix cubes, I will solve them, and then mail them back.
DR: For the past few years it has been $40 per pencil. But now, I just bumped it up to $500, which is a pretty big price bump. I'm intrigued to see if anyone takes me up on it.
"I've always wondered why I haven't heard from Kanye West about my services." - Artisanal pencil sharpener David Rees
Backstory:
Pulled engine, mounts are torn. Again.
Don't have much faith in tornagain mounts.
So I decided to make my own.
But, without off the shelf control arm bushings.
The goal is to eliminate engine vibrations while keeping it in place under load.
Long story short, the project is coming along nicely.
I will start a dedicated thread when they are done, but wanted to share the progress anyway.
Polyurethane mold:
I only need 4 bushings, but I poured two sets, one straight up PU, one hybrid, with steel jacketed rubber in the center...
I mocked them up this evening, to get ready to weld everything tomorrow:
I used 5 mm steel, and plasma cut individual components. I will "lighten" the metal once I am satisfied with the mounts.
It will mean re-touching the cad files and plasma cutting new pieces. (yay, gives me something to do..)
I am using Grade 12.9 hardware throughout. No need to take chances with an engine mount.
I will sandblast and powdercoat these babies.
I'm thinking bright red.
In my search for "proper" PU, I found a company that specializes in military grade stuff.
This particular polyurethane withstands 40000 (forty thousand) G, and is used in Howitzer projectile plugs to protect the circuit boards that transmit flight and GPS data.
Pretty amazing stuff.
There were tons of calculations on shore hardness, material thickness, diameter, damping, free vs enclosed compression, you name it.
Like I said, gives me something (productive) to do.
Last edited by Godless Commie; Feb 13, 2017 at 05:01 PM.
Would someone who works as a design engineer for an elevator company please explain something to me?
Why, at 7:30am on a weekday, are all three elevators in the 28-55 block of a residential building parked motionless on the first floor?
This is the time of day when people are coming *down* from their condos to go to work. At least two of the three cars should automatically move themselves to the upper floors when idle. I propose and 37 and 46.
Same goes for 6:30pm the same evening, but in reverse. There's no reason I should walk up to the upper elevator bank and see 37-52-45, with all three stationary. 2 of 3 should be at 1 after 4, any time they are not responding to commanded movement.
Would someone who works as a design engineer for an elevator company please explain something to me?
Why, at 7:30am on a weekday, are all three elevators in the 28-55 block of a residential building parked motionless on the first floor?
This is the time of day when people are coming *down* from their condos to go to work. At least two of the three cars should automatically move themselves to the upper floors when idle. I propose and 37 and 46.
Same goes for 6:30pm the same evening, but in reverse. There's no reason I should walk up to the upper elevator bank and see 37-52-45, with all three stationary. 2 of 3 should be at 1 after 4, any time they are not responding to commanded movement.
Predictive recall, anyone?
Pretty sure any modern elevator system can be programmed to do whatever you want. However, by programming the cars to return empty to a particular floor (upper floors in morning and lower floors in evening) to reduce the wait time for individuals during peak hours means every time one has to return empty to the opposite end because of a momentary lack of the "peak demand direction" is wasted wear&tear. I'm sure that warranty and service costs play into this decision... daily electricity usage... "mean run time between overhaul" and stuff like that. I feel your pain however.
What would really be **** is if everybody in the building carried a chip or some sort of RFID on them:
1: You had a trigger pad on your front door that you swiped as you walked out into the hallway... save a few seconds getting that elevator moving.
2: There was a scanner in the front door of the building that activated as you walked into the lobby... save a few seconds there too.
The chips would be programmed for your floor and an algorithm would continually compute as it received pings for particular floors... shouldn't be too damned hard to manage. It wouldn't mean the elevator would always be there waiting for you, but seconds add up. Plus, that kind of system WOULD save wear&tear on components by optimizing movement. Obviously you would still have buttons on each door and have to push the button once inside the elevator for the actual floor you wanted in case you weren't going directly to the lobby or your floor, but 19/20, it would be predictive enough to be worth it? Plus, it would know if you go into the elevator or not, and could keep that in the algorithm so if you forgot your keys and had to run back into the apartment and missed the car, the next one would stop. Yes? Maybe?
The elevators remain where they were deposited by their most recent occupants. There is no reason to move them when no demand has been made. It is an on demand system. To move them when there is no demand is, as pointed out, excess wear for no reason.
The elevators remain where they were deposited by their most recent occupants. There is no reason to move them when no demand has been made. It is an on demand system. To move them when there is no demand is, as pointed out, excess wear for no reason.
It is reasonable to expect that, at 7:30am, demand for downwards travel from floors 28-55 to floor 1 will greatly exceed that of upwards travel from 1, by a ratio of at least 10:1. Thus, having two of the three cars pre-stage themselves at an upper level when idle (we'll call it 28) will cause zero extra wear. They will ultimately have to make that trip anyway, it'll just save people's time if they do it before someone is standing there waiting.
Originally Posted by samnavy
What would really be **** is if everybody in the building carried a chip or some sort of RFID on them:
1: You had a trigger pad on your front door that you swiped as you walked out into the hallway... save a few seconds getting that elevator moving.
2: There was a scanner in the front door of the building that activated as you walked into the lobby... save a few seconds there too.
We already have the second half of that.
Everyone who lives here has one of these:
To enter the residential section of the building, you swipe it either when walking past the security desk in the front lobby, when entering next to the mail room from the parking garage, when moving from the freight elevator lobby to the main elevator lobby, or when coming into the elevator lobby the back way through the retail section of the building. But it's not tied to the elevator system... And, honestly, there are like 900 condos in this building, and so many people coming and going during commute hours that you really don't need that level of detail. At 6pm, someone will *always* be waiting at both banks of elevators on the first floor, and at 7am, people will *always* be waiting on the upper floors to go down.
Fun fact: you can bypass the keyfob security by entering the building through the main front door, walking past the doorman and going down the staircase to the package room in the upper basement, then walking past the package room towards the laundry room, entering the freight elevator from B1, and then taking it up to the 2nd floor. From there, you can exit and transfer to the 2-28 elevator, and if you take that to 28, you can transfer to the 28-55 elevator.
Fun fact: you can bypass the keyfob security by entering the building through the main front door, walking past the doorman and going down the staircase to the package room in the upper basement, then walking past the package room towards the laundry room, entering the freight elevator from B1, and then taking it up to the 2nd floor. From there, you can exit and transfer to the 2-28 elevator, and if you take that to 28, you can transfer to the 28-55 elevator.
Real secure building... You're right, you must've been a PITA student.
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