Parts directly from China

[Furcurequs]

Well, I progressed some with my build this weekend.

So, I now have my shafts, pulleys and belt mounted and located pretty much where they need to be (again, the belts and pulleys are just a convenience for my test device that wouldn't necessarily be required in a finished design should my preliminary experiments prove to be successful), and my homemade bearing mounts which I fabricated out of pieces of 3/8" square poplar dowels basically look like pillow blocks.

If I were to build something like this again, I think I would try to save much time and effort by going ahead and buying bearings that are already mounted in pillow blocks or at least have some flanged mounting brackets.

Anyway, I have all this stuff attached to a stand that I also made from 3/8" square dowels which I will be mounting on an approximately 9" by 19" by 1" pine board that I had leftover from some work done on my cabin. I made something of a scissoring/telescoping addition out of popsicle style craft sticks (I had a thousand!) that should effectively tension my timing belt when I push the base of my stand together and screw it down.

I've also added some other pieces, but I still have the main mechanisms yet to construct and add.

Oh, I also forgot to make one of the shafts long enough for a power take off!! I sure hope this thing doesn't work! ...erm... ...I mean... If I'm lucky maybe I'll have to go back later and make some alterations.

Regardless of whether it ultimately works or not, it is starting to look kind of cool! I guess if worse comes to worse, I can just pretend it was some sort of art project.

It currently stands about 40" tall.

...back to parts talk...

In some of my experiments, I may eventually need some springs, so I've been researching and trying to source those online.

Some websites have some really nice online tools for choosing just the right size and spring constant, but unfortunately the best seem to have minimum orders of $25 or $50 or even more.

The springs I'm interested in at this time would only cost a few dollars in total if I could buy them individually.

Some ebay sellers make it possible to buy small and inexpensive quantities - DIRECT FROM CHINA - but they don't always give the specifications I'm looking for. To buy them this way, I may have to actually read up on spring design and the formulas used so I can properly pick the right size and materials.

...or I could just buy a dozen I'm more sure of from McMaster and Carr for less than $9! ...plus shipping. I think they use UPS, though, and I have lots of trouble with my local UPS driver.

Anyway, it feels nice to get something done, at least. ...even if it's slow going. ...and now I have TWO unfinished test devices in my floor in front of my couch to stare at!! (ETA: That's not counting the THREE on the shelf in the kitchen or the pieces of the one magnet thing stuck to my fridge!)

[Mark]

"I have lots of trouble with my local UPS driver"

UPS offers 'hold for pickup'. [For free!! :-] How far away is your UPS Customer Center?
https://www.ups.com/content/us/en/shipp ... ickup.html

[Furcurequs]

Thanks.

It looks like the closest UPS Customer Center is 15.5 miles away. That would be in a nearby town I seldom get to. I was afraid of that. The next closest is 32.8 miles away.

Until I get my new tires, I probably shouldn't venture that far out. ...even to the 15.5 mile one. ...lol

That is an option, though.

One time I ordered some stuff through ebay, I believe it was, and I was really anxious to get it and so I was tracking things online. It seemed to be taking longer than it should have, and then I saw that for several days in a row my UPS driver actually said I wasn't home when I was here basically waiting for her!

She's just so lazy that she won't even get her fat butt out of the truck and walk down my driveway! I've not gotten anything through UPS in a while, but when I was expecting a few things she would call me on the phone and have me walk up my drive to meet her at her truck.

Other UPS drivers I've seen will practically run to your door with the package - in their little shorts. She pretends you're not home so she doesn't have to be on her feet.

:(

I have no problems at all with the USPS, though, so I try to find sellers who ship through them. ...and, thankfully, the Chinese don't use UPS!

...anyway, thanks again.

[Mark]

As far as McMaster-Carr is concerned, I see that they offer an option to choose another carrier. Might be worth a call, email, or text, to find what your options would be.

http://www.mcmaster.com/help/orderhelp. ... oseshpmthd

15 miles. Sorry to hear that. And you probably don't want to hear this, but... my Customer Center is about 1/2 a mile away. Good for picking up a "hold" item, not so good for deliveries. The SOP for this Center is that trucks are sent out to the furthest drop first, then work their way back to the barn. It's a rare day when UPS delivers my stuff before 3PM. Blessed all day long with every pothole, railroad track, and speed-bump they can find.

That's number 1 of 3 reasons I prefer Fedex. Bashed packages is number 2, although they are better lately than they were 2 or 3 years ago.

A couple of summer's back I had a signature-only package [fairly expensive radio equipment] that the UPS driver gave to the teenage boy that lives across the street. His dad brought it over to me... the next day, after he got home from work and finally noticed it sitting there..... well, I'll just say this... we never saw that delivery driver again.

[Furcurequs]

I've not ordered from McMaster-Carr before, but if I do, I probably should check with them about that.

You reminded me of another UPS story. Years ago I had ordered some recordable CDs or something similar, and I never received them. So, I checked with UPS and after some investigation they told me that they had left my package on my neighbor's doorstep.

When I asked my neighbor about it, though, he claimed they had not seen it. So, I really don't know what happened to the thing. Since the UPS story sounded believable to me at the time, I was actually wondering if my neighbor might have lied to me about it, or whether one of his kids might have gotten the CDs and just not told anyone.

I think it's safe to blame UPS, though, at the very least for not putting my package on the right doorstep - if, of course, they were being honest.

Oh, also, a friend of mine told me he once worked at UPS - and based upon his story apparently in his young punk days. He told me that they would actually toss around and even drop kick boxes that were marked "fragile"! So, all-in-all, I'm not sure if UPS hires the most responsible of employees.

Of course, I was also a bit disturbed that any friend of mine would actually do something like that, but hopefully his young punk days are far behind him.

It seems I'm on the end of a UPS route, also. I've never gotten a package before late in the afternoon or early evening.

[Furcurequs]

Well, after searching all over ebay for the right size spring, I ended up just buying a pack of 12 of the size I wanted online from McMaster-Carr. ...and I'll just take my chances with their ground shipping - even if it does happen to be UPS.

A dozen 2.5 inch springs shouldn't be too much trouble for Ms. Lazy Butt! Hopefully she'll just stuff them into my mailbox like I think she's done with some other small items (although I don't think that's technically legal, but I don't personally mind in this case), and then hopefully that will be that!

Actually, I may end up getting more springs in the future to replace rubber bands and makeshift springs I've used in other builds.

I don't know what it is, but I'm now getting as excited about looking at springs and chains and sprockets and gears and pulleys and belts and stuff as I used to get about searching for electronic parts! Maybe I should have gone into mechanical engineering after all!

[Furcurequs]

Okay, I used the tracking number provided by McMaster-Carr to check the status of my package being shipped through UPS.

According to this my package has been on the delivery truck since early this morning. It's now about 3:57 p.m. here, so we'll see how they do this time!



My springs should have been bouncing around on the local delivery truck for 8 hours now! Could they possibly be delivered today like they're supposed to be?!

...or will they be delivered next week or later like with items in times past?!

...lol

For $5.60 in shipping, I would hope that they could do better from near Atlanta than free shipping gets me from China.

[rlortie]

A dozen 2.5 inch springs shouldn't be too much trouble for Ms. Lazy Butt! Hopefully she'll just stuff them into my mailbox like I think she's done with some other small items (although I don't think that's technically legal, but I don't personally mind in this case), and then hopefully that will be that!

Times are changing! I live in a small town, I do not get my mail to a box in front or mounted on my house. I have to pay an annual fee for a P O Box (four blocks from my house). UPS used to deliver to my doorstep. They now deliver small items to the post office.

Reduces overhead for UPS, but I fail to see how the Postal Service benefits. I get a notice in my box stating I have a package. I usually pick up my mail when they are closed for lunch or after hours, which means another trip back when open.

Apparently the postal service is making changes to reduce overhead, my outgoing mail is now shipped and sorted in Portland Oregon 290 miles away and then shipped to the receiver. This adds three days to deliver a letter six miles away.

Ralph

[Furcurequs]

My springs are here! My springs are here!

...and it wasn't Ms. Lazy Butt delivering them this time!

Don't get me wrong, now. She was really friendly and stuff, but she was also lazy and slow and seemingly dishonest and irresponsible, too, if of course I had to bear a true and honest witness. ...lol

It's perhaps been years since I've had a UPS delivery, so hopefully in the mean time she has moved on to better things.

Anyway, I like the new guy! I heard the truck, so I walked up my drive to meet him, and he actually looked like he had some spring in his step. He had his little shorts on, like it's supposed to be, and it really did look like he was actually about to start sprinting down my driveway to my cabin, as it too is supposed to be! ...lol

Maybe it's safe to use UPS again! Yeah!

Of course, though, my springs did still ride around in his truck for over 10 hours today before they got to me, but I can deal with that, I guess.

I think once in the past UPS actually returned a large item to the sender because Ms. Lazy Butt had told them I wasn't home every day for a week or more - when I was actually home and waiting for the package the whole time!

Anyway, I'm happy now.

Sorry, Ralph. I just got too excited that I may finally have a reliable delivery driver!

As you mentioned, I didn't know that UPS and the USPS were working together like that.

I live in a rural area on the outskirts of a small town and yet I get both UPS and USPS delivering to me.

Sometimes the USPS will deliver packages to my door, but at other times, though, I guess especially busy times like holidays, they will leave a note in my mailbox for me to come and pick them up at the post office. With my health the way it is, that can be pretty frustrating at times.

Once my mailman drove her SUV (or whatever it was) down into my driveway and punctured her tire on a rock that's a bit too close to the drive. I ended up, even though while not feeling very well, putting her spare tire/wheel on for her.

Some of those package pickups I have to make at the post office may be because she's afraid to come down into my driveway now. I'm only speculating, though, since I've actually had some packages delivered to my door since then.

I'm not sure of this, but if things haven't changed from what I understood to be the case even decades ago, our local mail is sorted about 60 miles away from here, and so it can take awhile for our local mail to arrive, also. You'd think that at least some of it, that which is picked up by delivery drivers from local mailboxes, for instance, could be easily enough sorted for local delivery without traveling an unnecessary extra 120 miles or so.

Anyway, I guess I now have some new toys to play with! I better get at it. ...lol

Dwayne

[Furcurequs]

I knew that rubber bands would be lossy if used for energy storage, but I didn't realize just how much until I compared my rubber bands to one of my new springs.

I attached a chain of several rubber bands to a roll of pennies and then placed the loose end over a hook and dropped the pennies from a position where the bands were slack. The weight, of course, started oscillating up and down but then damped out in about 10 seconds.

When I attached the same weight to one of my new extension springs that I hung from the same hook and then released the weight from the unstretched position, the weight then oscillated for around 7 or 8 minutes! ...nearly 50 times longer than with the bands!

Watching it reminded me of some of those Milkovic videos where he tries to impress people with how long a pendulum will swing compared to the time a wheel will rotate. His pendulums have nothing on my springs! ...lol

Well, actually, the pendulums he shows in some of his videos probably swing a little longer than most because they seem to actually be somewhat springy at the connection point.

[Furcurequs]

Now from the UPS tracking page:



...and:



"Met Customer Man" is talking about me! I'm somebody now!

[Furcurequs]

I found another company that sells online who currently have the springs I bought as a clearance sale item!

That means I could have bought the same springs for less than 13 cents each!! I paid over five and a half times that for mine, not counting shipping.

...but I plugged in the numbers for a dozen and their UPS shipping was almost twice as much, so all-in-all I could have only saved about two and a half bucks for the 12.

I think I'll bookmark the site, though, for if I need to mass produce prototypes at some point, if these springs are still on sale the savings might really be worth the extra in shipping.

Oh, here is the website. They apparently specialize in fasteners.

https://www.fastenal.com/home

[Furcurequs]

I had been planning on using some poster board in my latest build, but I decided that it might be better if I could find some sort of clear plastic to use instead. That way, should my device actually work (or even not, I guess), people could see what was going on (or not) inside.

So, while I was at Walmart this evening getting a new battery for my car :( , I searched for something I could use. I finally found a Scotch brand "Display Pocket" made of clear plastic that seemed like it might do the job. The plastic was crystal clear and was not too thick nor thin.

It was a little pricier than I would have liked, but I splurged and got it anyway. The pocket, then, made of two layers of approximately 81/2" by 11" plastic plus some pieces of Velcro with adhesive tape backing cost me about $4!

Anyway, though it was a Scotch brand 3M product, guess where it was made!

...China!!

This time, then, my future parts aren't direct from China but via 3M and Walmart.

I had actually searched Walmart's website a day or two ago, and they had some poster board sized plastic that could be ordered online and shipped to the store, but it was in packs of 25 sheets. That was quite a bit more than I needed, and my local Walmart didn't seem to have anything else like it already stocked - whether packaged or sold as individual sheets.

Regardless, I think what I ended up getting should do well. ...and should help make this art project look really cool!

[Furcurequs]

...arrgghh...

Problems, problems...

I was hoping to get this latest build done so that I could, one way or another, put one of my ideas to bed. I thought this build would be easier than the last, but NOTHING IS EASY!

I'm not sure if my grooved pulleys and belt are working as I would have liked. There is still some slop overall that I might be able to do away with, but even so it's not looking good!

...plus the lengths of hardwood dowel that I'm using as shafts are twisting/flexing a great deal. I may have to replace them with machined steel shafts instead.

...arrgghhh...

My cheap wood materials are failing me!!

[Furcurequs]

When out today getting some new tires for my car :( , I stopped by the hardware store and got some things for my build. I bought a 5/16 steel shaft to replace my oak dowels.

...and I took the plunge and bought 250 ml of epoxy this time instead of yet another dual syringe of the stuff. It was around $15, but with as much as I use, it should really save me money in the long run.

Having jars full might actually work a little better for me than the dual syringes, anyway. Correction, it's in plastic squeeze bottles which should work okay, too.

I typically use relatively small amounts at a time, so it is hard for me to get the mix just right with the dual syringes. With the air bubbles and whatnot, I invariably squeeze out different amounts of the resin and hardener

Oh, and my worry about my belt and pulleys last night might have been a little premature. When I held things tightly together and tried the movement of my mechanisms again, the belt and pulleys seemed to work as I wanted them to after all. I just need to make sure to eliminate as much play as possible when tightening everything up.

I also got more masking tape. One can never have enough masking tape!

Maybe I'll actually get this build finished - eventually.