BesslerWheel.com

[jim_mich]

If young people can afford a used car and a place to garage it then they can easily afford a small machine shop and let the car sit outside. You might even fit both the car and the machine shop into one garage!

Milling machine for about $1449.00.
Engine Lathe for about $1299.00.
Table Saw for about $339.99.
Miter Saw for about $269.99.
Metal Saw for about $379.00.
Free shipping on orders over $1999.
Miscellaneous hand tools, drill bits, end mills, etc. maybe $500?

Total is about us$4000. You will have a hard time finding a used car for this price. And the machines will last a lot longer than a car.

If you do a little searching of different brands and sources you might very well outfit a shop for under three thousand. Oh, I forgot about the old Lincoln welder that I picked up used many years ago for $50. And my Craftsman skill saw cost me $20 used in 1968 and it's still running good, except the electric plug needs repairing. I got a wood cutting band saw (free) last fall but before that my metal saw doubled as a band saw. My electric hand drill costs me about $30 a few years ago. It replaced one that was worn out. My miter saw cost me about $199 a few years ago. My metal saw was about $149. I think my engine lathe was somewhere around $700. My milling machine cost about $1300 plus shipping. Of course inflation has pushed up the prices of tools since I bought mine.

My point is that anyone who is serious about making wheels should be able to afford a small machine shop. If someone has an idea then it is up to that person to nuture the idea, to test the idea, to learn if the idea will work and to make the idea grow and bloom or wither and die. Stand on your own two feet. Don't expect Mom and Dad or other older people to cradle and spoon feed you. The only difference between my shop and your potential shop is about $3000 or $4000 and about the space of a typical bathroom without the fixtures.

[docfeelsgood]

Having all this worn out junk equip. and tooling and actually using it is TWO different things !!!!!!

" Some Of Us Just Know " !!!!!

[rlortie]

[path_finder]

Dear docfeelsgood, Jim_Mich, riortie,
Thanks for your remarks.
Without offend any poster here, the building of few experiments can be done with a limited budget.
See per example Greg Smith with it's Tesla engine replica:
http://www.fuel-efficient-vehicles.org/tesla-flying-machine/Tesla-Flying-Stove-motor.php
At the bottom of the page, click on 'Photos'.

It's a cultural problem: the new generation thinks that everything is coming from a computer screen.
I have been fascinated by the ancient technologies because there were no computer at that time to do the job.
How do you explain per example the setup and then the lost of the chinese 'chariot pointing the south' (about 2600 BC), technology absolutely not used during the Middle-Age?
http://www.stirlingsouth.com/richard2/south_pointing_penguin.htm

_________________
I cannot imagine why nobody though on this before, including myself? It is so simple!...

[ectropy]

Don`t have the machinery to produce your components? How about 3D Printing? Have just had a few Spur Gears Mod 1.5 printed (various number of teeth). One of each. I need 4 of each but have to save on costs. I used the 3D printed parts as Patterns. Cast the various Silicon Molds and produced the required quantity of gears with Thermoset Plastic. No machining. Accuracy? +/- 0.05mm that`s 0.002". Way cheaper and time saving. Mail the files in STL format in the morning and collect the components in the afternoon. I have in fact produced complete prototypes with this method having only had to machine the shafts and pivot pins on a lathe and of course cut the shaft Woodruff keyways on a Mill. Only problem is that you would need a 3D Solid Model which is converted to STL format. Don`t have the Software? Ask a freind. A Gear, whether Spur, Bevel, Wishbone or Helical would take less than 2 minutes to produce a printable file. There are various 3D print systems. The cheapest being the plaster method. Google 3D Printing.

[path_finder]

Dear Fletcher,
You seem to be interested with some mechanisms.
I have one hereafter for you wich is really usefull.
I suggest to you the deep examination of this animation below:
tripode_090.swf

For all other readers:
If you remember fews pages earlier, the design coulisse.gif showing a point sliding inside an horizontal hollow rod.
The purpose was to obtain a FIXED POINT at 9:00 o'clock of the wheel.
Just think a little bit at the way we can use the center of the tripod.

This animation can be found here: www.mekanizmalar.com
then Couplings/A Driving mechanism'
(for caesar courtoisy)

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tripode_090.swf
Description:
Filesize:	811 Bytes
Viewed:	1795 Time(s)

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[broli]

Wouldn't it be easier to use gears in this case with a 2:1 ratio rather than sliding slots?

[axel]

[ectropy]

Hi Pathfinder, Your post is meant for Fletcher but seing as he is probably in dreamland at this time and seing as I received notification of your post I respectfully post my comments. Please do not take offence. The ONLY way of holding the axis of the "tripod" in a fixed position is by means of an external fixture ie; it connot be attached to the wheel. I have mentioned in a previous post that any external fixture which shaft axis is not co-insident to the axis of the axel is a no no as the force generated by the actuating weights is now no longer presenting a force on the wheel. Other than this being rather obvious I have never the less produced a few experiments with externaly fixed bearings which ALL did not work. Nice animation though and obviously the geometry required to produce the paths. Broli, yes gears can be used but believe me there always seems to be a gear rotating in the wrong direction. Took me 2 years to figure out a system using gears. May work, may not. I don`t get disapointed anymore with failures. Pathfinder your designs are really amazing.

[axel]

[genmurphy]

[genmurphy]

...and I have forgotten to thank Path-finder for this topic and all his wonderful mechanisms...

Genmurphy.

[docfeelsgood]

AXEL ;
LMFAO !! It seems you have received your "Doctorate" in finesse and psychology . my hats off to your mastery of it !! compared to you i am still in training !!!

Path finder ;
your "Tripode" depiction is truly exceptional !!

[path_finder]

Another basic mechanism is used inside some ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) rotative engines.
The animation here shows the principe:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xazo1_moteur-tornade_creation

If you forget the final use made by the ICE thermodynamicians, it's obvious that this mechanism can be useful with another way.
First we need to exchange the rotating parts. In the animation the outer frame was fixed and the center axis was rotating.
We will suppose hereafter that the outer frame will rotate and the center axis remains fixed.
In that case nothing is changed for the satellites and for the yellow rods.

Let's suppose that the red and blue cubes are playing football (rugby in Europe), by exchanging an internal ball at each time they touch together.
(Hello, how are you? take the ball please) and the heavy ball changes of cube, remaining by the way at the same place and giving a torque for the rotating wheel.
This is just a scenario and you can think about it if you are unsomniac. But I showed you this animation for a much more pragmatic application:

Remember the basic question: How to lift-up the weights between 4:0 and 6:00 o'clock?
If you replace the yellow rod by a cord you will be able to lift-up the weight, at two conditions:
- to place the planetary mechanism at the right position (by rotating at the wrong place you may stop the main wheel)
- to attach a cord between each weight and the opposite satellite
This action will occur three times for each turn of the wheel, but during the rest of the travel the cord will be smooth (not pulled) almost of the time.
This design requires an axis with some teeth, three satellites with some teeth, and a ring with some teeth on it's inner rim.
What could be more simple. The information from ectropy (many thanks for sharing), indicating in his previous post above how to manufacture such as parts, is therefore specially pertinent.
Who will send a shot?

[AB Hammer]

Path finder

I like your tripod wheel there. The biggest problem with what I am looking at is that if you have weight on each end. No matter what direction it is in, it will equal out. Also what I am looking at is similar to the do-nothing, IMO but even the do-nothing has a new purpose for drawing and cutting ovals, from different attachments to the arms. So I will keep an open mind for what you come up with next.