[HN Gopher] Totem construction system with cuttable parts
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Totem construction system with cuttable parts
Author : unwind
Score : 34 points
Date : 2023-04-04 07:10 UTC (15 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (totemmaker.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (totemmaker.net)
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| What really annoys me is it is really, really hard to just buy
| big kits of generic Meccano/Erector-alike parts. I don't want a
| kit that makes a tiny car with 50% custom bits for the exact
| model. I just want hundreds and hundreds of plain metal strips
| and angles and brackets and braces, all with a compatible module.
| I can add thousands of nuts and bolts of any size myself. Cheap
| and replenishable enough that I can bend and cut and drill and
| solder and glue and paint and prototype, and and generally _make_
| with them without worrying.
|
| The best you can apparently do is to buy cheapish vintage bits
| onesy-twosy on eBay or a few dealers. Which is both needlessly
| complicated to assemble a good pile that has the network effects
| to be truly useful, more expensive than it needs to be,
| especially with postage, and feels somewhat sacrilegious to trash
| 70+ year old parts.
| tkarolis wrote:
| Honestly that's the very gap that we're trying to fill with
| Totem. All of our mechanical parts that are available in our
| kits first are made available as individually purchasable
| parts, the whole section is here
| https://totemmaker.net/product-category/totem-mechanics/ , and
| strips like you're talking about here:
| https://totemmaker.net/product/cuttable-strip-bracket-200-mm...
| , with the intention of them being abundant enough for exactly
| these purposes. I'm genuinely curious and would appreciate your
| response on what components could be added or improved to our
| system to make it more fit for such use cases?
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| So firstly let me say that the design of the beams is genius,
| and for things that need a rigid 3D frame, it's looks very
| good indeed, and your PCBs are cool too. And kudos on the
| general price point that doesn't gouge at all on simple
| things like the screws.
|
| As you say, you do have what I would use most: the "strip
| bracket". Mostly I end up making things that are a smaller,
| fiddlier scale than the chunkier beams would allow, and
| bending strips with pliers works well [1]. When I need
| something on the scale of the beams, I have been reaching for
| 15mm DIN rail as it's often to hand (for me it's offcuts, but
| it's a lot more expensive then these plastic beams if you buy
| it for the purpose). I didn't see those strips at first: the
| kit that includes them is out of stock, which is a nice
| problem to have!
|
| I'd like to say it would be great to see more gears and so
| on, but while I think they're super cool in Meccano, I don't
| actually have any practical need for them.
|
| Probably what I would use more would be a "small and fiddly"
| kit rather then "big and frame-y".
|
| I will definitely keep this stuff in mind. Good luck growing
| your parts library!
|
| 1: my tip: use parallel-jaw pliers for easier, straighter
| bends. You could even sell a model with a groove in the jaw
| sized for the strip to keep it perpendicular to the edge.
| scotty79 wrote:
| You could just buy nuts, bolts, threaded rods and metal strips
| with holes. This might be too soft but you can cut it to any
| length: https://www.amazon.com/AOOF-Pocket-Carabiner-
| Screwdriver-Key...
| adhesive_wombat wrote:
| I thought of that but it's slightly too big and thick: if it
| was scaled down to have 3mm (or M3 clearance, rather) holes
| it would be better.
|
| For things on the order of a half-inch-ish wide, I usually
| reach for 15mm slotted DIN rail offcuts, which is usually
| straight and rigid due to the profile.
| buildbot wrote:
| The idea in general seems pretty useful - it's really hard and
| expensive to design separate parts with cad that combine together
| well - having a set of existing standard parts makes that way
| easier.
|
| Is anyone aware of a similar offering for small metal components?
| Clockwork components?
| mcphage wrote:
| I don't know about clockwork, but for small metal components:
| https://www.makerbeam.com/
| neatze wrote:
| This is awesome, thank you, I was searching for this but
| without success when looking for smaller beams then 8020 :(
| mcphage wrote:
| You're welcome :-). I used to have a few other similar
| things bookmarked, but now that I'm checking them, the rest
| seem to be discontinued.
| tkarolis wrote:
| I'm one of the creators behind Totem -- that was actually the
| original idea that started it all, seeing the difficulty in
| assembling electronics boards in our own projects made us think
| if there could be a better way around it. We chose 10mm as a
| basis for our H-shaped beams and boards, and designed
| adjustable metal brackets to have an easy way to join them
| together with M3 bolts. My personal favourite feature is that
| the holes in beams are just slightly concave shape, so it
| provides enough friction to hold brackets in place while
| putting in bolts. We also provide STL, STEP and SketchUp files
| of our parts here https://totemmaker.net/wiki/parts-library/
| for those who want to include it in their designs or 3d print
| it themselves.
| neatze wrote:
| First thing comes to mind is Soviet Constructor Kits.
| zokier wrote:
| Meccano/Erector are the classic predecessors of this idea.
| cultofmetatron wrote:
| kind of loving this. was debating getting a 3d printer but didn't
| wanna print every single part. I can see this being great for 80%
| of the model and then I can 3d print the specialty stuff!
| [deleted]
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