Subject:
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Re: Plasti-Dipping parts
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 9 Apr 2004 12:14:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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614 times
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I replied to this last night but apparently the reply was lost. Here’s a copy of
the message I wrote:
In lugnet.general, Rob Hendrix wrote:
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Ooh, ooh! Can I be the Mutilato....uh, modererator!!!!!!????????????? LOL
:D
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I figured I’d get a rise out of you on that one. :)
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Sorry, I can’t answer your question right off, as I have not used the
plastidip (have always wanted to), but if you’ll do a little more
explaining, I’m sure we all can come up with something unique...
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A long hard discussion with the Powers That Be tonight has made it clear to me
that in the next year or so my LEGO time must to shrink to about what you can
buy at a pool table for a plug nickel, so...(more explanation on that tomorrow
in my blog)...this project has died almost faster than it began. But I’m going
to make sure that I become a terrible billiards player.
Anyway, if you guys come up with a good design, I’m sure I can come up with a
good excuse to build it. After all, it’s for the business.
The basic idea is that I’m building a contraption to automate the
therblig-intensive(1) process of affixing address labels to envelopes (this is
the sister machine to the MStamp). The whole (albeit short) process of stripping a single label from an
Avery sheet (30 labels per sheet, arranged 3x10) has quite a few motions
involved.
About a month ago I had the unique opportunity to take a tour of a Krispy Kreme
donut factory. Most of it I had seen before, so the highlight of the tour was a
small machine sitting next to the boxing station that spit out a single sticker
at a time, automatically advancing the tape when one was pulled off until
another was sticking up. This was accomplished by pulling the length of stickers
around a very acute angle - probably less than ten degrees - wherein the sticker
couldn’t make the bend and popped one end off the paper (these were stickers on
a roll). A simple laser/light sensor setup detected the presence of a sticker
protruding far enough. I thought it was a brilliant idea at the time. It’s a
crying shame I forgot to take my camera. Fortunately one company that makes them
has a website. The place where the
sticker pops off is in the lower left on both photos, one of which is hotlinked
here:
So, the other day I was sitting down with a big stack of orders to process and
had a couple sheets of labels (unfortunately these aren’t on a roll!) to pull
off. It occurred to me that I could very likely build a LEGO machine that would
do exactly the same thing, just that it would expose three labels at a time. Not
a problem, since they are naturally printed in order from left-to-right,
top-to-bottom. However, the sheets only leave exactly half an inch of non-label
paper at the top and the bottom. Not very much to get a grip on.
So that’s the non-basic explanation of what I want(ed) to do. Correction: I
still want to, I’m just unable. :) So, my first thought was to have some sort of
minescule system on a sort of reel, that grabbed the paper and pulled it around
the bend where it would be rolled up on a cylinder. That’s what I wanted the dip
for - to coat a couple Technic elements to use as the fingers. Not sixty seconds
after I authorized the post, though, I had a better idea: stick the paper in
between a couple gears and crank it once or twice. Wonderful grip, will never
let go, and z8 gears are pretty tiny.
That’s pretty much where I left off (dinner commenced and the discussion
happened promptly afterwards. If you are so interested to take up the cause, by
all means use, abuse or otherwise take advantage of these ideas. You will
receive full credit in the office. :) Clients will be amazed.
Now I’m off to bed. I have a long day tomorrow.
-Mike
(1) If you are unfamiliar with this technical term, you have no choice but to
read Cheaper By The Dozen by Frank Gilbreth. Fabulous book. Simply put, a
therblig is one of at least twelve individual motions you may make in any
process involving your various limbs.
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Plasti-Dipping parts
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| "Mike Thorn" <webmaster!@!robotic...urces.com> wrote in message news:HvvMFL.wEz@lugnet.com... (...) it. (...) grabbers)? Ooh, ooh! Can I be the Mutilato....uh, modererator!!!!!!???...??? LOL :D Sorry, I can't answer your question right off, as I (...) (20 years ago, 9-Apr-04, to lugnet.general)
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