[wsfii-discuss] One more regarding UCT...

Sun Oct 16 19:20:57 UTC 2005

Tx Karel - Amen to the general drift of all 3 posts!

Karel Kulhavy wrote:

>I think UCT could really help because it shows that even complicated
>mechanics can be done this way quickly and cheap.
>
>With drilling templates you can precisely hand-file very complicated
>shapes.
>
>For example my bike alternator was constantly failing, I had a cheap
>plastic one, then I bough some very expensive Union Turbo which proven
>to be crap too. The sleeve bearing worn out and started to oscillate
>very loud so you couldn't ride without people turning their heads.
>
>So I got pissed off bought two industrial 1605 ball bearings and
>redesigned 50% of the alternator mechanics to UCT. The design process
>itself was very slow and painful (frequent mistakes and redesigns, had
>to remake it about 3 times) but finally I ended up with very complicated
>workpieces that you can turn out with lathe and drill very quickly.
>
>I redesigned the case from metal to plastic (to not waste eddy currents
>-> now it's very efficient) and the bearing flange from aluminium.  You
>print out drill templates on a laser printer, glue on and work according
>to that. The precision is enough for the mechanics which has only 0.5mm
>rotor allowance inside. The alternator runs then very smoothly and
>doesn't pose resistance when riding.
>
>The cost was 5USD (2 bearings) and negligible cost of material, plus
>12 tiny screws.
>
>Or like on my water cooling I had to design very complicated aluminium
>mounting brackets for disk due to confined space.  Manufacture again
>very quick, with the templates.  Without free software QCad this
>wouldn't be possible. Free software is UCT already implemented in the
>software area.
>
>CL<
>
>_______________________________________________
>wsfii-discuss mailing list
>wsfii-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wsfii-discuss
>
>
>  
>