Makezine.com has a nice write-up on Pat Delaney and building tools from junk.
Here is the MultiMachine link, on opensourcemachinetools.org.
The Concrete Lathe.
There are several other projects and lots of interesting links and information if you poke around a little.
Of course, it is meant for less developed areas, but we always appreciate the artistry of ingenuity. It might even be a good thing to store away on paper or in a Faraday cage for Leibowitz.
Nice set of links. That sort of thing is relevant to my interests...
ReplyDeleteI have wondered if one could do the bulk of the mass of a machine tool in concrete. Now I know. Maybe someday.....
What's the line? Significant shrinkage? I hadn't realized that would be a problem, but sounds like the solved it. Using an engine block for precise alignment is clever. We have old junk cars sitting around everywhere.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of S.M. Stirling's book Dies the Fire. I'm not really a fan, but after all advanced power is lost, one character says something about the difficulty of acquiring metal. Another reminds him this is America, and the highways are full of good steel.