[HN Gopher] Grid Beam
___________________________________________________________________
Grid Beam
Author : Tomte
Score : 166 points
Date : 2023-01-29 07:07 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (gridbeam.xyz)
(TXT) w3m dump (gridbeam.xyz)
| tgsovlerkhgsel wrote:
| Tip for people trying to advertise something: You have a limited
| amount of time to get people's attention. Once a video is longer
| than 2-3 minutes, people's willingness to even start watching it
| goes down, and you better show something interesting in the first
| 20 seconds.
|
| 1 minute into the video is the first time they even mention the
| product. Which happens to look suspiciously like standard pieces
| I've seen in the hardware store.
| ddellacosta wrote:
| The video was not produced by the people making Grid Beam, but
| by Kirsten Dirksen, who covers all kinds of
| DIY/Sustainable/etc. unique and largely housing-related things
| https://www.youtube.com/@kirstendirksen
| thewebcount wrote:
| Also, if your YouTube hosted video that's an ad for your
| product has other ads inserted into it by the platform, it's
| probably too long.
| metacritic12 wrote:
| Would also add that having an autoplay background showing a few
| different uses of your product in 5 second cut clips would be
| effective too. Right now I have a hard time telling in 10
| seconds of landing what the product does.
| almostarockstar wrote:
| Looks like you could do some damage with those bolts on the chair
| if you caught on them.
|
| But this is a cool concept.
| MisterBastahrd wrote:
| Oh, so a wooden Erector set, just bigger.
| Vaskerville wrote:
| Ken Isaacs - How to Build Your Living Structures
|
| https://archive.org/details/How.To.Build.Your.Own.Living.Str...
| sitkack wrote:
| I came to post this. I got this spiral bound techno hippie book
| at the bookstore when I was 12. Blew my mind.
| fsloth wrote:
| Wow, this is awesome, thanks for sharing. Perhaps a bit jury
| rigged, but I love the ingenuity and the rough aesthetics.
| ilyt wrote:
| I mean, it's cute but I'm pretty sure most DIYers own a drill. Or
| wood glue.
|
| "A bunch of holes in a matrix" is useful if say you're designing
| a wall where you want to attach different things at different
| positions, but for anything else permanent you can just... buy
| the raw stock and drill them at exact spot you _need_
|
| My experience with something smaller scale (Makerbeam, screws
| used to press fit instead of holes so it can be screwed together
| at near-any position, not just at hole position) is that in the
| end it's nice to prototype but there will be inevitably either
| too short or too long piece and when you need to start cutting
| them the benefits go out of the window
|
| Having holes everywhere isn't also great from furniture
| perspective, harder to clean and might not exactly be
| aesthetically pleasing
| TOGoS wrote:
| > I mean, it's cute but I'm pretty sure most DIYers own a
| drill. Or wood glue.
|
| I do, and I use them to make gridbeam.
| elil17 wrote:
| I use 80/20 (this is a version 80/20 ready tube with a wooden
| option) all the time at work to build temporary (and sometimes
| permanent) desks, tables, cabinets, and test stands.
|
| There are a few advantages of predrilled hardware like this:
|
| 1) Holes always line up (don't need to worry about drilling
| off-center)
|
| 2) only one tool needed (bandsaw to cut to length), reduces how
| many people need to get safety training on other tools
|
| 3) compatibility across a wide variety of components (brackets,
| rollers, etc)
|
| 4) quickly reposition furniture without the need for any power
| tools
|
| 5) no measuring, just count holes
|
| I would view this as having a few applications for home use:
|
| 1) anyone who moves frequently - easy to flat pack everything,
| easy to customize for a new space
|
| 2) Anyone may want to build temporary for various projects
| (e.g. sewing table this month, drafting table the next)
|
| Not sure about cleaning for home applications. At work we just
| spray everything down but perhaps you could use grommets.
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| "Lining up" is a huge time-saver - compare making some
| shelves out of wood, where you will want to be fairly careful
| to measure the position of each shelf on each side to make
| them square and level, with "count 20 holes down on each
| side" (and I say this as someone who mostly knocks things
| together out of wood since I have more of it around - but
| still admire the Lego-esque predictability of extrusions).
| ilyt wrote:
| 80/20 and other T/V slotted things seems like better approach
| for system like that
| convolvatron wrote:
| I've started collecting a system of 1" steel tube (sadly
| now 3USD/ft). make little 90 degree clamps out of 1 1/4
| tube (w/ 1/8 walls) that have been cut down the middle the
| long way. weld little flanges on em and tap one side.
|
| now you can pretty much go wild. desktop? throw some of the
| 1 1/4 on the bottom and you can just plug in the legs.
| monitor? make a bracket with a 10cm x 10cm vest plate
| welded on. wall panels in wood or steel with 1" backing
| frames? make some clamps with 2 1/2 and 1/4 wall tube
|
| the 1/16 wall tube is fairly easy to cut with a manual
| hacksaw. get a portaband if you are spending too much time.
|
| I really do think everyone is easily capable of learning to
| do this kind of work with a minimal investment of time and
| tooling and really can't imagine why people don't just make
| their own shelving and other basic furniture.
| morsch wrote:
| I'm not a DIYer and I don't own a drill. Having something like
| this be widely available and affordable would be a game changer
| for me.
| Enginerrrd wrote:
| This type of thing is already available, in many different
| forms.
|
| https://www.grainger.com/category/electrical/conduit-
| fitting...
| justsomehnguy wrote:
| >don't own a drill
|
| Power drill is $50 and would serve you at least 10 years and
| is a must for any home. Hand saw is enough.
|
| >affordable
|
| Pre-drilled set can't be cheap, that's the catch. $15 for a
| meter of beam? Ridiculous.
| morsch wrote:
| I borrowed a friend's drill for a week when I moved in and
| had to use it like twice. I haven't missed it since. What
| you consider a must is just stuff taking up space for me.
| I'll buy one when I need it.
|
| And I'm not going to start building my own furniture with a
| saw and a drill. I wish I had that kind of time or energy,
| there's a thousand things I'd do if I had.
|
| I'm pretty sure pre drilled sets could be cheap with the
| right economy of scale. I doubt it'll get there, though.
| ilyt wrote:
| > And I'm not going to start building my own furniture
| with a saw and a drill
|
| And you wont with that. You will buy it, maybe build 2
| things, then decide they are fucking ugly and buy
| something off ikea, putting the holey sticks back into
| the box and never touching them again. Then complain they
| were more expensive than the ikea thing.
| TOGoS wrote:
| My sister asked me the other day "is gridbeam a thing?" and I
| said "yes, for me and about 5 other people in the world." Nice to
| see it make the front page of HN. I had been trying to come up
| with a modular construction system for years and when I
| discovered gridbeam it was pretty game-changing. Not so much
| because it saves me from having to do any woodworking, though
| being able to re-use the parts is nice when it happens, but more
| because it provides a framework within which I can design parts
| and know they'll all be compatible with each other. If this desk
| project doesn't work out, I know it'll be easy to re-use
| everything. More thoughts: https://www.nuke24.net/plog/26.html
| A_Duck wrote:
| Reminds me of Dieter Rams' Vitsoe shelving system:
| https://www.vitsoe.com/gb/606/components
| samwillis wrote:
| I'm quite a fan of String shelving and furniture, it's similar
| to Vitsoe but a little more affordable:
| https://stringfurniture.com/
|
| It's also a mid-century design by couple Kajsa & Nisse
| Strinning.
| mkarliner wrote:
| The UK has this for decades.
|
| It's call Dexion.
| samwillis wrote:
| I now have visions of a chair made of Dexion, with nasty sharp
| edges and cuts on my legs...
|
| I wouldn't exactly call them equivalent, similar concept yes,
| but a timber frame is more accessible to hobbyist and more
| "home" friendly.
| davnicwil wrote:
| I googled Dexion and found this company [0] but it looks like
| it does shelving more in an industrial setting - warehouses and
| such. Do they also have products that allow you to do more DIY
| projects for the home like small shelves, desks etc, or is it a
| different company / brand?
|
| [0] https://www.dexion.co.uk/products/
| butlersean wrote:
| Metric or imperial measurements?
| wolfskaempf wrote:
| There are examples for both. The system can work in any unit
| system because it relies on the equality between width of the
| beams and the width between holes.
| azubinski wrote:
| So, what's interesting here?
|
| It's not new, it's something like scaled Meccano from 1901. In
| its scale it's useless cause of reliability of fastenings over
| time, dust and ugly appearance. DIY is (typically) quite the
| opposite. Let it be, but you have to lose your childhood to buy
| something like that.
| eterps wrote:
| This concept should be much more common.
| saboot wrote:
| I desperately hope something like this gets popular. I see one
| off ideas every now and then but there's not one big system
| that's easily purchasable yet.
| ilyt wrote:
| They kinda are but they are also quite pricy compared to raw
| materials. And there is not that much market for "DIY but
| overpay for materials instead of getting actual drill and
| some fasteners"
| Kukumber wrote:
| It is already super common, this is the basics of DIY projects
| eterps wrote:
| I looked for it several times online and DIY stores but never
| seen anything like this (at least not for constructing
| objects of that size).
| yourapostasy wrote:
| Someone created a CNC mill to make Grid Beams [1]. However, I
| cannot find anything authoritative on whether Grid Beam itself is
| open source.
|
| [1] https://hackaday.com/2017/09/27/beamcnc-computer-
| controlled-...
| TOGoS wrote:
| > whether Grid Beam itself is open source
|
| "Grid beam is a system of beams in which the width of each beam
| is equal to the hole spacing."
|
| There's your source right there.
| nvartolomei wrote:
| This is pretty much real scale lego.
| hugs wrote:
| Literally! The mathematical requirement for grid beam is that
| the width of the beam matches the hole-to-hole distance in the
| beams. Lego technic beams are 8mm wide, and the hole-to-hole
| distance is 8mm. Lego is small-scale grid beam.
|
| Example grid beam tri-joint made with Lego Technic pieces:
| https://twitter.com/hugs/status/1619804592199577601
| [deleted]
| webkike wrote:
| Wood's pretty re-usable as is, and these look ugly as sin
| [deleted]
| rustyminnow wrote:
| Wow! Love to see this here! I'm currently sitting at a desk made
| of Grid Beam!
|
| Grid Beam is great for prototyping, temporary projects, or
| furniture where you'd want customizability/flexibility. Folks are
| right about the aesthetic - it ain't pretty. But the flexibility
| is well worth it for some things.
|
| TLA suggests buying a kit but you can make it yourself - I bought
| a drill press and a bunch of 2x2s and went to town. It's a time
| sink for sure, but once you've got a bunch of "sticks" (as they
| call them) drilled and standing by, you can quickly put together
| all sorts of things. Last weekend my SO wanted some shelves for
| growing her seed starts and in less than half an hour we built
| them out of Grid Beam. When the seed starts are done, we'll take
| the shelves apart and the Grid Beam can be re-used for the next
| project.
|
| Basic DIY instructions: cut 2x2s to lengths of 3, 6, 9, 12
| inches, and multiples of 6 inches after that (1', 1.5', 2', etc).
| Drill holes 3/4" inch apart. The first holes should be 3/8" from
| each end. I use 5/16" holes I think, and 1/4-20 bolts.
|
| Some other projects I've made with grid beam: -
| my desk - a card table - a bike stand for maintenance
| - a music stand
|
| Other things I think it would be great for: - 3d
| printer enclosure (beats a lack stack in customizability) -
| High school plays: stage furniture/sets/props (painted of course)
| - garage furniture - work bench, shelves, etc
|
| The "Grid Beam book"[1] has loads of tips for making your own
| grid beam, project tips and ideas, and more.
|
| Some more resources: - Read a sample of "The Grid
| Beam Book"[2] - Buy it from the publisher [1] - Open
| source design for a Grid Beam making machine [3] [1]
| https://newsociety.com/books/h/how-to-build-with-grid-beam-
| pdf?sitedomain=us&undefined [2] https://books.google.com/bo
| oks?id=H9D4l0q96vAC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_vpt_buy#v=onep
| age&q&f=false [3]
| https://www.core77.com/projects/69637/BeamCNC-Works-with-Common-
| Materials-to-Help-Produce-Grid-Beam-Projects
| Archelaos wrote:
| Reminds me of Fischertechnik:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischertechnik
| odabaxok wrote:
| Or Merkur (Constructo, Build-O, Tecc):
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merkur_(toy)
| steve_taylor wrote:
| I would caution against using something like this for a bunk bed
| or loft bed. It's a potentially fatal accident waiting to happen.
| At the very least, you should stick to a design that has been
| thoroughly tested and rated for load. Even so, the temptation to
| modify it is always there, especially for kids. And as a parent,
| it may not be obvious when it's been modified because there are
| holes all over the place.
|
| As you can probably tell, I'm a parent with kids who have used
| bunk beds and loft beds.
| brudgers wrote:
| There are two separate concerns here.
|
| Is the design adequate?
|
| Will children do something risky?
|
| "Yes," and "Yes" irrespective of how their bed is built.
|
| Conversation is the second best way to address the second
| "Yes."
|
| Play the best way.
| cjrp wrote:
| That's why designs of things like beds have to prevent them
| getting their necks caught, for example. There was a
| carpenter selling custom beds in the UK, but there were a
| number of fatal accidents because he hadn't designed it
| properly.
| ivanbakel wrote:
| Source on this? Quick websearch didn't reveal anything.
| cjrp wrote:
| https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/crime/toddler-
| almost-ha...
| llanowarelves wrote:
| Just saw a video the other day of people cutting a chair
| because a kid went through it legs-first and got stuck.
|
| It's a design consideration I hadn't thought that much
| about.
|
| It's like the image of getting stuck in one of those
| spiral "ladders"(?) on the playground, by climbing down
| the middle of it.
| hugs wrote:
| I generally agree, especially for kids' furniture, but the pre-
| drilled grid-beam compatible beams from McMaster-Carr[1] (which
| is likely just 80/20 Ready Tube) are incredibly strong. I've
| made a bunch of office desk & table structures and they are
| still going strong years later.[2][3]
|
| [1]: Aluminum Bolt-Together Framing
| https://www.mcmaster.com/product/8809T7
|
| [2]: Grid-beam office tables
| https://twitter.com/hugs/status/824028862753439744
|
| [3]: Grid-beam office tables
| https://twitter.com/hugs/status/1089303146533396481
| dtgriscom wrote:
| That bunk bed design looks pretty flimsy to me. Yes, there's a
| set of cross cables across part of the back and across one end,
| but the rest looks like it would parallelogram pretty easily.
| My_Account7619 wrote:
| [flagged]
| suby wrote:
| I love everything about this.
| taneq wrote:
| Reminds me of the V-slot and T-slot aluminium extrusion that's
| often used to build light duty equipment like 3D printers.
| ilyt wrote:
| This is kinda... worse version of it
| mmh0000 wrote:
| For an even more customizable solution check out 8020(1)
|
| They're not cheap, but they have engineers on staff who will help
| you finalize your project.
|
| I've used them for several things in the past and have been quite
| happy.
|
| (1) https://8020.net/
| sitkack wrote:
| Or https://openbuilds.com/
| elil17 wrote:
| This is, in fact, just a (more expensive) version of 80/20
| Ready-Tube with a wooden option, which is really nice (80/20 is
| aluminum only). It should be compatible with existing 80/20
| hardware.
|
| 80/20 also offers project plans for some furniture:
| https://8020.net/xdiy1601
| chrisshroba wrote:
| Wow, I made an account to download the BoM and that coffee
| table's total price of materials is $1108 and the end table
| is $1378. I was expecting less than half that.
| londons_explore wrote:
| If I have to almost design my coffee table from scratch,
| including sawing all the pieces to length, then I don't
| really expect the parts to cost much more than $30. The
| real investment was my time...
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-01-29 23:02 UTC)