[HN Gopher] Knife Throwing Machine (2022) [video]
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       Knife Throwing Machine (2022) [video]
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 75 points
       Date   : 2023-07-27 18:25 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | jonas21 wrote:
       | I can imagine being the neighbor on the other side of that fence.
       | 
       | ( _peeks head over fence_ ) Hey neighbor, what's that thumping
       | sound I've been hearing all day?
       | 
       | Oh, that? Just my knife throwing machine. Nothing to worry about
       | - I've worked out all the math, and my smart 13-year-old wrote
       | the code, and there's plenty of safety margin with this little
       | block of wood I've mounted on the fence to absorb the knives. And
       | the machine has only activated without anyone telling it to once
       | or twice. Like I said, nothing to worry about!
        
         | kobalsky wrote:
         | I loved the project but I couldn't stop thinking about a knife
         | flying over that fence, or getting shot backwards (that thing
         | returned pretty fast). It would have been more sensible to put
         | the block of wood on the side of their house.
        
       | micromacrofoot wrote:
       | This is very cool home engineering, and maybe I'm getting soft in
       | my old age... but whenever I see something like this I have to
       | wonder "why violence." I guess it's some inherent trait we have.
        
         | wlesieutre wrote:
         | He has other videos like a pumpkin carving robot, gunpowder-
         | powered home run bat, and a self-aiming pool cue
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9zXcnSXNF0
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Puo6Vgcbxps
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsTTXYxydOE
        
           | expertentipp wrote:
           | The ads are so obnoxious and unskippable that I prefer to
           | close the tab even at the price of missing to watch educating
           | and substantive content. No, I'm not going to buy Youtube
           | Premium.
        
             | Ukudala wrote:
             | Unsure your platform, you may want to check out Vinegar if
             | on Mac or iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vinegar-tube-
             | cleaner/id1591303...
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | micromacrofoot wrote:
           | Thank you :)
        
         | bcook wrote:
         | As someone who has carried a pocket knife for most of my life,
         | I very rarely think of the knife as a weapon. When I was
         | younger, me and my friends would throw knives at trees.
         | Sometimes we would throw hatchets at trees. It's fun and very
         | satisfying to finally stick the knife/hatchet.
         | 
         | Violence was never in my thoughts.
        
       | fluoridation wrote:
       | It probably could have been simpler and lighter if it accelerated
       | the knife using rollers like a baseball throwing machine. It
       | would have also eliminated the problem of calculating how much to
       | spin the knife.
        
         | dsr_ wrote:
         | Knives are not particularly aerodynamically stable. (Not these,
         | anyway.) They need some spin to avoid tumbling erratically.
         | 
         | Nobody cares which point on a baseball hits the bat, although
         | they do care about spin because it contributes to path changes
         | via aerodynamic effects.
        
         | Someone wrote:
         | I don't think the typical knife is stable in flight that way.
         | 
         | In my layman's physics, the knife edge will keep pointing
         | forwards if the knife handle would decelerate faster than the
         | knife blade, when thrown that way in isolation.
         | 
         | So, you either need more mass in the knife blade or more air
         | resistance in the knife handle to get that.
        
       | siliconc0w wrote:
       | Stuff Made Here (https://www.youtube.com/@StuffMadeHere) also has
       | a lot of similar content which is pretty great. Really respect
       | the generalist skillet that can pull of these kinds of
       | complicated projects.
        
         | mrguyorama wrote:
         | StuffMadeHere actually spends some time here on HN
         | occasionally. I don't remember his user.
        
           | dralley wrote:
           | https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=swighton
        
         | jihadjihad wrote:
         | Ah, no, I can't click...I know I am going to be nerd sniped if
         | I do and I have stuff to finish!
         | 
         | Some of my favorite stuff on YT by far.
        
       | decker wrote:
       | Pretty neat, but I wish they would have emphasized safety a bit
       | more and put up a full sheet of plywood behind the target.
        
         | LorenzoGood wrote:
         | Yeah they really could have taken out the neighbors through
         | that fence.
        
       | reaperman wrote:
       | I believe it would be slightly more optimal if the knife only
       | rotated 1/2 of a rotation. That's what I always aimed for when I
       | was practicing throwing knives, based on the logic that less
       | angular velocity would provide a longer "sweet spot" time during
       | which the knife would be at the optimum angle for deeper
       | penetration, so if the rotation speed was off by a little bit it
       | would still be closer than it would be if the rotation speed was
       | "off" by the same absolute amount but with a 3x-6x faster
       | rotation speed.
        
         | adrian_b wrote:
         | In the third video of this series they show an improved version
         | where before throwing the knife one can choose the number of
         | rotations, down to the minimum value of 1/2 of a rotation.
        
       | muxator wrote:
       | Now I know I'll never be half the father this guy is!
        
       | browslee wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | samstave wrote:
       | Ive been thowing knives for 30+ years
       | 
       | but a robot knife thrower is not the same in intrinsic priciple
       | as to WHY we throw knives...
       | 
       | Its subtle but significant. The movement of throwing a knife is
       | very same to throwing a person, that is ; the physical body
       | movements of throwing a knife are the same as the movements of
       | throwing a person, swingin a sword etc...
       | 
       | They are movements designed to train you when you dont have an
       | Uki.
       | 
       | Here is me at ~60 feet, knife on knife. But this movement is the
       | same as several throws in Bujinkan.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ks_sBg85suA
       | 
       | Its all in the hips.
       | 
       | Check out Flying Steel and r/throwing
       | 
       | Unrelated but still fun ;
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3I6lbpF68Q
        
         | h2odragon wrote:
         | If I may ask the question you're answering: throwing a knife is
         | almost never an effective attack. distraction, yes; but it
         | seems a silly thing to do in actual training.
         | 
         | As you say, however, knife throwing is very useful as training
         | for throwing _anything_ else. With knives you 've got to have
         | so much so close to perfect for it to work at all. When you
         | throw a rock the number of important variables is much lower;
         | but what you've learned with the knives still serves you well.
        
           | samstave wrote:
           | This is basically correct, the factors that you focus on when
           | throwing a knife are the same factors you take focus upon
           | when throwing a human.
           | 
           | The visuals are the arms, but the core is the hips and their
           | placement.
           | 
           | When you watch me in that all distance vid, you see that the
           | real power comes from the hip rotation, but the precision
           | comes from the upper shoulder displacement. Thus the training
           | of the hips sans Uki.
           | 
           | This was my professor ;
           | 
           | https://www.usadojo.com/larry-cary/
           | 
           | Ive trained with every single person in these photos...
           | 
           | Recently my best friend and training partner got back from
           | Israel where he was doing some akban training...
           | https://www.youtube.com/@AkbanOrg/videos
           | 
           | We've been training with them since ~1989 - but these are the
           | movement styles that map with arts, aside from pure bujinkan
           | movements such like our Soke, Hatsumi - but there is a cadre
           | of bad-ass ninjutsu folks in the US, no not richard
           | whatevere...
           | 
           | but look up van donk, hatsumi, and others in akban, krav maga
           | and bujinkan.
           | 
           | --
           | 
           | There are several throwing style - spin, no-spin, spike
           | (which is the same as no spin) but here is an example of me
           | in my garage
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtCYnjeaog4
           | 
           | (Also this was handle thrown, which implies no-spin.... but
           | honestly spin throw, blade held is my preference, this is why
           | you see me wearing gloves in vids... Never throw a knife
           | without PPE (gloves)
           | 
           | Trust me - being sliced by a knife leaving your grip at
           | velocity is no fun.
           | 
           | EDIT: Oh Yeah - always grind down the edges of any knife you
           | intent to throw.
           | 
           | The only thing that matters is the pointy part. And the mass
           | of the knife and your skill. The cutting part does not
           | matter.
           | 
           | Do you know why Katanas were curved, because they got more
           | cutting edge ratio with a single pull/strike.
           | 
           | throwing is about puncture, hence stars and blah - and its a
           | portion of why ninjatos were straight - because they were
           | designed for piercing in small enclosures (hallways)
           | 
           | The movements are designed around the "small circle jujitsu"
           | principles as booked by wally jay - not only was he a teacher
           | of mine he was a neighbor and we lived 2 blocks from him in
           | Alameda..
        
       | nicechianti wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | Saulivar wrote:
       | This guy should win dad of the year award. Seriously. I gave my
       | son a knife for his birthday when he was 7, but this is taking to
       | a whole another dimension. I should also mention that growing up
       | in eastern Europe back in the day, when I was 14, I was building
       | a gun in my bedroom. It blew a hole in my palm when I was
       | testing.
        
       | BohdanPetryshyn wrote:
       | I didn't know why I might want to have a kid one day. This
       | channel answers this question and also shows a good and a fun way
       | to raise a smart child!
        
         | the_third_wave wrote:
         | That assumes your child will pick up your interests which is
         | certainly not guaranteed - mine sure did not even though I did
         | try to engage them in similar (though less high-tech) exploits.
         | I have two daughters who both grow up liking typical daughter-
         | things like horses (which is not that odd given that my wife is
         | a horse vet and we have 3 of the critters around the farm) and
         | books instead of all those noisy smelly dangerous things I'm
         | wont to play with. I did manage to build a three-wheeled
         | soapbox car with my oldest daughter with which she then
         | competed - and won - a soapbox race, the thing was loosely
         | shaped like a bee and painted to resemble one, bug eyes
         | included (bubble plastic with some red spray paint does
         | wonders). It had Ackerman steering (cobbled together using
         | rebar and welded-on nuts for bearings) and was dangerously
         | fast, just the way those thing should be.
        
       | placesalt wrote:
       | "Because it measures in the infrared, it even works in the
       | /dark/"
       | 
       | No, because it's an active rather than passive light sensor, it
       | works in the dark.
       | 
       | Edit: also, the fact that you can see a green dot heavily implies
       | the sensor is operating in the green wavelengths, not in the
       | infrared, but that's secondary.
        
         | adrian_b wrote:
         | While you are right about the active light sensor, it is likely
         | that the sensor really works in the infrared.
         | 
         | The green laser beam must be in addition to the infrared beam,
         | with the purpose of allowing a human to choose the aiming spot.
        
         | jdlshore wrote:
         | It uses LiDAR. The green dot is an aiming laser for the human,
         | and is calculated from the LiDAR result.
        
           | placesalt wrote:
           | You can use the green part of the spectrum for LiDAR. It's
           | what they use for bathymetric LiDAR.
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-28 23:01 UTC)