Ship of Fools: SoF Patent Office

Thread: SoF Patent Office Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=028187

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :

Have you an invention in your fertile brain whose amazingness is clear to you but somehow does not seem so clear to the world at large?

For example, TT Junior has a rear-facing car seat, safer it is said than a forward-facing one... so why not have a car in which all the seats are rear-facing? Safer for everyone! The driver could have a video camera to enable them to see out.

Genius, no? I have further, even more genius ideas. But I will not reveal them until you too have proved yourself worthy by yielding up your inventive secrets to the SoF Patent Office.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
TurquoiseTastic: why not have a car in which all the seats are rear-facing? Safer for everyone! The driver could have a video camera to enable them to see out.

Or (s)he could drive in reverse.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

I'd scrap cars' wing mirrors and replace them by small, discreet sensors that would flick up real-time images on the dashboard. Which a driver is always having to look at anyway. No problem about scraping wing mirrors any more or getting them covered in rain or mist. Goodbye to that hugely primitive technology (well, it is daft having to look in a mirror to see what's behind you in the 21st century).

I'd also invent cordless earphones for those of us who are sick of the trailing wires getting caught in things and suddenly, sometimes painfully, yanking out the earphones. They'd work by wi-fi. Of course there'd need to be some refining done on this so that with your wireless earphones you didn't pick up every other broadcast within 20 feet, including everybody else's mobile phone conversations, but I'm sure that would be easy.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

TT & LeRoc: I'm not quite sure how patents from the future work, but this has already been done there, in the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle from Captain Scarlet:

quote:
The SPV is manouvered by the driver sitting backwards in aircraft type, bucket-seats (facing the rear of the vehicle for safety reasons, watching steering through monitors above the steering bars and controlled by reverse differential, cylindrical hydro-pneumatic steering.

[ 21. February 2015, 16:47: Message edited by: Eutychus ]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

"I'm steering backwards for Christmassssssss
Across the Irish Seeeeeeeea..."

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Eutychus:
TT & LeRoc: I'm not quite sure how patents from the future work, but this has already been done there, in the Spectrum Pursuit Vehicle from Captain Scarlet:
quote:
The SPV is manouvered by the driver sitting backwards in aircraft type, bucket-seats (facing the rear of the vehicle for safety reasons, watching steering through monitors above the steering bars and controlled by reverse differential, cylindrical hydro-pneumatic steering.

Well there you are. Clearly this is the vehicle of the future. I hope Spectrum will pay me royalties when they begin to manufacture this vehicle.

OK how about this. The moment when you take a pear from the fruit bowl. A risky moment. A ripe pear is a wonderful thing. An unripe or over-ripe one - not so great. You could prod it, but then you bruise the pear!

What is needed is a handheld, non-intrusive sensor, probably ultrasonic, which you could point at the pear and which would give a clear signal about the pear's ripeness or lack thereof. It would be good if it could work for other fruits like peaches too. Maybe it could have various settings for various different fruit. Or a deluxe version could automatically sense which fruit it was.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
What is needed is a handheld, non-intrusive sensor, probably ultrasonic, which you could point at the pear and which would give a clear signal about the pear's ripeness or lack thereof.

It's not handheld, but I think it's called the nose. It's quite useful for judging the ripeness of many fruits, freshness of produce, aroma of cheeses, etc etc.

Posted by Jay-Emm (# 11411) on :

A minor one.

The supermarkets seem to have 17 home-brand varieties of tea, and more for coffee (and chocolate).
It seems reasonable to assume there's a difference and that people have preferences (and possibly even ones that vary with moods).

Realistically I can't store all of them. A little box that contains (say) 10 bags of everything, (like that for Chocolate bars and biscuits.) seems like it would be quite handy for students and other small households.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

What is needed is a device not to tell when friut is ripe, but one that will keep it at optimum freshness until it is needed. Then you could go to the supermarket once a week and have perfectly ripe fruit all week.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
TurquoiseTastic: What is needed is a handheld, non-intrusive sensor, probably ultrasonic, which you could point at the pear and which would give a clear signal about the pear's ripeness or lack thereof. It would be good if it could work for other fruits like peaches too.

And people?

Posted by Polly Plummer (# 13354) on :

Balaam, there's a scary article in the Weekend section of today's Guardian, about stuff they treat food with to make it stay "fresh".

Posted by no prophet's flag is set so... (# 15560) on :

Knees that bend the other way, like flamingos, so that when you get a surgical knee replacement you can choose either normal or opposite direction knees. This would allow me to invent and patent chairs for these new knees and make a gadzookian of $,€,£,¥ etc

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
For example, TT Junior has a rear-facing car seat, safer it is said than a forward-facing one... so why not have a car in which all the seats are rear-facing? Safer for everyone! The driver could have a video camera to enable them to see out.

Some people get motion-sick when they ride backwards.

Moo

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
It's not handheld, but I think it's called the nose.

perhaps it is not handheld, but I have seen finger-mounted versions.

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:
I'd scrap cars' wing mirrors and replace them by small, discreet sensors that would flick up real-time images on the dashboard. Which a driver is always having to look at anyway. No problem about scraping wing mirrors any more or getting them covered in rain or mist. Goodbye to that hugely primitive technology (well, it is daft having to look in a mirror to see what's behind you in the 21st century).

I'd also invent cordless earphones for those of us who are sick of the trailing wires getting caught in things and suddenly, sometimes painfully, yanking out the earphones. They'd work by wi-fi. Of course there'd need to be some refining done on this so that with your wireless earphones you didn't pick up every other broadcast within 20 feet, including everybody else's mobile phone conversations, but I'm sure that would be easy.

Wireless headphones have been around for a few years. Usually works via bluetooth rather than wifi I think.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

Car side mirrors are in the slow process of being replaced by video cameras, but it's complicated by laws progress on replacing car mirrors

There's no end of inventions I'd like see.
A microwave oven with a radiant element for doing toaster oven things like toast.

A small combination horizontal axis washer/dryer that takes the dirty laundry in a top hatch and drops it through a bottom hatch into a bin when washed and dried. Combine that with a set of bins so you could set up 5 loads of dirty wash of different sorts, set the appropriate water and soap settings and come back when it's all done.

A combination slow cooker/ sous vide/ pressure cooker.

A laptop with an ergonomic keyboard with two halves at angles.

Posted by Uncle Pete (# 10422) on :

Ergonomic keyboards such as you describe have been commonly available for over 20 years.

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Wireless headphones have been around for a few years. Usually works via bluetooth rather than wifi I think.

Headphones, but not earphones, which are a lot neater and less clunky.

[ 22. February 2015, 07:10: Message edited by: Ariel ]

Posted by Huia (# 3473) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
A combination slow cooker/ sous vide/ pressure cooker.

I don't know what a sous vide is, but there are combination slow cooker/pressure cookers on the market here - called slow-fast cookers.

I would like to invent a way that cyclists could have a horn that sound like the one Kenworth trucks have - to be used when drivers carelessly open car doors in the cyclists path. [Devil]

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Wireless headphones have been around for a few years. Usually works via bluetooth rather than wifi I think.
Headphones, but not earphones, which are a lot neater and less clunky.

Well exactly what do you want?

Jengie

Posted by mrs whibley (# 4798) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
There's no end of inventions I'd like see.
A microwave oven with a radiant element for doing toaster oven things like toast.

Also available in the UK... Grill Microwaves

[code fix]

[ 22. February 2015, 20:13: Message edited by: jedijudy ]

Posted by Boogie (# 13538) on :

I want a gadget which washes, dries and styles my hair while I lie back and think of England.

[Smile]

Posted by Rev per Minute (# 69) on :

I've always wanted to see a reverse microwave - a machine that cools food as quickly as a microwave heats it. Fridges and freezers are too slow, and putting hot items in them affects their temperature and operation. I have a worrying suspicion that my idea would bend, if not break, the laws of thermodynamics, though. [Frown]

Posted by Kitten (# 1179) on :

Given some of the singing heard in my Church, I would love to see the invention of a sound sucker (kind of like a reverse microphone)

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

I was going to suggest that many of the gadgets featured on Star Trek would be nice to have around -- but it seems as though many are either already here or in the works. I could really use a holodeck and a transporter -- also a cloaking device.

[ 22. February 2015, 10:38: Message edited by: Amanda B. Reckondwythe ]

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :

quote:
Originally posted by no prophet's flag is set so...:
Knees that bend the other way, like flamingos, so that when you get a surgical knee replacement you can choose either normal or opposite direction knees. This would allow me to invent and patent chairs for these new knees and make a gadzookian of $,€,£,¥ etc

This is good. But I think one should also have the option of universal joint knees, maybe ball-and-socket, so that you could bend your legs in any direction. Great for ice-hockey goalies.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
What is needed is a device not to tell when friut is ripe, but one that will keep it at optimum freshness until it is needed. Then you could go to the supermarket once a week and have perfectly ripe fruit all week.

I have two things which claim to extend fruit life. There are bags which absorb the ethylene which fruit produce, thus slowing ripening. They can be got from Lakeland in the UK, or a company called Ecoegg.

There is also a gadget I got off a shopping channel for putting in the fridge.
Genius Air
It produces negative ions which apparently neutralise the ethylene gas. At the risk of sounding like a review on the site, I bought one, and found it worked, so bought a second for my other fridge.

Posted by Chocoholic (# 4655) on :

An automatic de-icer, demisting and heating function for the car either on a timer setting or by remote control or app would be great for the cold mornings so it would be all warm and ready to go.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I was going to suggest that many of the gadgets featured on Star Trek would be nice to have around -- but it seems as though many are either already here or in the works. I could really use a holodeck and a transporter -- also a cloaking device.

Given all the plots which focus on transporter and holodeck errors, I really wouldn't go there.

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:

OK how about this. The moment when you take a pear from the fruit bowl. A risky moment. A ripe pear is a wonderful thing. An unripe or over-ripe one - not so great. You could prod it, but then you bruise the pear!

What is needed is a handheld, non-intrusive sensor, probably ultrasonic, which you could point at the pear and which would give a clear signal about the pear's ripeness or lack thereof. It would be good if it could work for other fruits like peaches too. Maybe it could have various settings for various different fruit. Or a deluxe version could automatically sense which fruit it was.

My husband, who designs sensory devices, designed one of these for a fruit sorting company. It was a sensor which had to be tapped on the fruit and was calibrated for a variety of fruits.

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
I want a gadget which washes, dries and styles my hair while I lie back and think of England.

That seems like an unusual time to get your hair done, wouldn't it be a bit distracting [Biased]

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Rev per Minute:
I've always wanted to see a reverse microwave - a machine that cools food as quickly as a microwave heats it. Fridges and freezers are too slow, and putting hot items in them affects their temperature and operation. I have a worrying suspicion that my idea would bend, if not break, the laws of thermodynamics, though.

Many Patent Offices receive hundreds of inventions every year that fail to obey the laws of physics. Inventors aren't discouraged one little bit!

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chocoholic:
An automatic de-icer, demisting and heating function for the car either on a timer setting or by remote control or app would be great for the cold mornings so it would be all warm and ready to go.

Ah, now if you'd watched "Top Gear" last night you'd have seen Jeremy Clarkson enthusing about the amazing app on his phone that let him heat up the car, unlock it and probably even make tea in advance from wherever he happened to be. It was some kind of new hybrid BMW I think.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

quote:
Rev per Minute: I have a worrying suspicion that my idea would bend, if not break, the laws of thermodynamics, though.

I don't think it would. There isn't a real thermodynamic limit on how fast heat can be transported.

Posted by Pigwidgeon (# 10192) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Chocoholic:
An automatic de-icer, demisting and heating function for the car either on a timer setting or by remote control or app would be great for the cold mornings so it would be all warm and ready to go.

Here in the U.S. desert southwest, we'd prefer having an app to turn on the air conditioning and cool off our cars so that we don't burn the back of our legs on the seat and our hands on the steering wheel.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Uncle Pete:
Ergonomic keyboards such as you describe have been commonly available for over 20 years.

and I'm using them as I type now. I want a laptop with one built in instead of the regular keyboard. Do you know of any being manufactured?

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Rev per Minute:
I've always wanted to see a reverse microwave - a machine that cools food as quickly as a microwave heats it. Fridges and freezers are too slow, and putting hot items in them affects their temperature and operation. I have a worrying suspicion that my idea would bend, if not break, the laws of thermodynamics, though.

It's called a container of liquid nitrogen. They used to have them in the labs where I went to school and it cools things very fast.
I'm told there are Italian machines which use a tank of co2 and a special nozzle to instantly make gelato and fresh fruit sorbet. Since it's using high pressure gas, it keeps indefinitely.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe:
I was going to suggest that many of the gadgets featured on Star Trek would be nice to have around -- but it seems as though many are either already here or in the works. I could really use a holodeck and a transporter -- also a cloaking device.

The high school student who won a science fair prize for a test for pancreatic cancer is now working with other science fair prizewinners on making the equivalent of the tricorder that Dr McCoy will use.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
I want a gadget which washes, dries and styles my hair while I lie back and think of England.

It's not a gadget - it's called a "hairdresser". [Big Grin]

Having said that, I'd like something (possibly a tablet or injection) that'll make the hair on my head grow nice and straight (so that I don't have to faff about with straighteners) and the unwanted hair anywhere else (don't ask) stop growing altogether.

Posted by The5thMary (# 12953) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Boogie:
I want a gadget which washes, dries and styles my hair while I lie back and think of England.

Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :

I want to invent a device that will zap all the MP3 players in a metro carriage being used over a certain volume. Please understand that I don’t just want to block the noise. I want the offending gadget to explode [Snigger]

Posted by *Leon* (# 3377) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Rev per Minute:
I've always wanted to see a reverse microwave - a machine that cools food as quickly as a microwave heats it. Fridges and freezers are too slow, and putting hot items in them affects their temperature and operation. I have a worrying suspicion that my idea would bend, if not break, the laws of thermodynamics, though.

It's called a blast chiller. They're standard equipment in commercial kitchens but cheap-enough-for-home ones don't seem to exist.

Posted by Piglet (# 11803) on :

A former colleague of D's (sadly now deceased) reckoned that someone should invent microwave sleep: you close your eyes for five minutes and wake feeling as if you've had eight hours.

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :

You know when you are driving up to the entrance to a multi-story car park, and pull up next to the barrier. But wait! You are too far from the button on the ticket machine to press it!

What is needed is a sort of extensible arm to reach out and press the button, then pick up the ticket. Like those lazy-tongs for sugar lumps.

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
Car side mirrors are in the slow process of being replaced by video cameras, but it's complicated by laws progress on replacing car mirrors

There's no end of inventions I'd like see.
A microwave oven with a radiant element for doing toaster oven things like toast.

A small combination horizontal axis washer/dryer that takes the dirty laundry in a top hatch and drops it through a bottom hatch into a bin when washed and dried. Combine that with a set of bins so you could set up 5 loads of dirty wash of different sorts, set the appropriate water and soap settings and come back when it's all done.

A combination slow cooker/ sous vide/ pressure cooker.

A laptop with an ergonomic keyboard with two halves at angles.

Combination slow cooker/pressure cooker is definitely a thing. Don't think one with a sous vide function exists yet though, but my friend has a combo slow cooker/pressure cooker/rice cooker. You can get ones with halogen ovens in as well.

Posted by Pomona (# 17175) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Ariel:

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Wireless headphones have been around for a few years. Usually works via bluetooth rather than wifi I think.
Headphones, but not earphones, which are a lot neater and less clunky.

But there are earphones (sleek sports ones even) in the link I gave [Confused]

I use headphones and earphones interchangeably though.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

Forget wireless, I want someone to invent earphones that actually stay in my ears!

Posted by Chocoholic (# 4655) on :

You can get custom ones made, they're not cheap though.

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Earphones which don't leave my ears hurting after 15 minutes use would be good too.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by LeRoc:
Forget wireless, I want someone to invent earphones that actually stay in my ears!

quote:
Originally posted by balaam:
Earphones which don't leave my ears hurting after 15 minutes use would be good too.

Many come with multiple ear-sleeves to customise the fit.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
You know when you are driving up to the entrance to a multi-story car park, and pull up next to the barrier. But wait! You are too far from the button on the ticket machine to press it!

What is needed is a sort of extensible arm to reach out and press the button, then pick up the ticket. Like those lazy-tongs for sugar lumps.

It would be easier to have the machine move in closer to your car (far enough away to avoid the wing mirrors of course [Smile]

).

In the long run this sounds like a great smart phone application. In Seattle you can pay for on street parking with the ticket machine that's a half block away, or enter the machine number which is on the sign into an app and charge your credit card. It wouldn't be hard to make that work in a parking lot.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Pomona:
Combination slow cooker/pressure cooker is definitely a thing. Don't think one with a sous vide function exists yet though, but my friend has a combo slow cooker/pressure cooker/rice cooker. You can get ones with halogen ovens in as well.

I did notice that the grill/convection/microwave which has been in Europe is showing up in the U.S. recently.

How does the halogen oven one work? Is it used to heat the cooker or does it bake?

I have a rice cooker which does use pressure technology but I think it's induction baaed.

Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on :

Lately I've started to wear blue filtered short range glasses for working at the computer, and longer range varifocals for everything else. So my desired invention is a lightweight frame that will accommodate both, and whip the relevant pair of lenses in front of my eyes depending on what I'm doing, rather than my having to swap them over manually.

That might seem rather clunky, of course. If I wanted to eschew the steampunk look and go for something a bit more futuristic, spectacles fitted with Dune-style oil lenses with programmable settings would fit the bill nicely.

Posted by TurquoiseTastic (# 8978) on :

I am glad to see that bobble hats are back in fashion after a decade of the grimly austere "bobble-less bobble hat". A couple of Christmases ago I saw a magnificent Christmas Pudding bobble hat. However it might not be suitable at other times of year, I felt. So how about a reversible bobble hat! But of course you would need a slit at the top so that the bobble could be pushed through and emerge once more atop the reversed hat.

Posted by Lord Jestocost (# 12909) on :

quote:
Originally posted by TurquoiseTastic:
I am glad to see that bobble hats are back in fashion after a decade of the grimly austere "bobble-less bobble hat". A couple of Christmases ago I saw a magnificent Christmas Pudding bobble hat. However it might not be suitable at other times of year, I felt. So how about a reversible bobble hat! But of course you would need a slit at the top so that the bobble could be pushed through and emerge once more atop the reversed hat.

Perhaps the bobble could inflate or deflate at will, depending on the fashion and season.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

quote:
What is needed is a handheld, non-intrusive sensor, probably ultrasonic, which you could point at the pear and which would give a clear signal about the pear's ripeness or lack thereof. It would be good if it could work for other fruits like peaches too. Maybe it could have various settings for various different fruit. Or a deluxe version could automatically sense which fruit it was.

When I had a proper job, bits of it were in acoustics research. A colleague in Spain (where else) was trying to get this working for oranges, about 10 years ago. It's a sensible suggestion - the acoustic impedance at the surface of a fruit might well be a function of its ripeness, or indeed its species.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

quote:
Earphones which don't leave my ears hurting after 15 minutes use would be good too.

...and another! You can get custom-molds done, where something very like a small tampon (complete with string...) is pushed into your ear canal, followed by a few syringes of silicon. When it goes off, it is sent away and a hard-plastic plug formed, with or without miniature loudspeaker, to work as a comfy and high-performance hearing protector / earphone.

I once read of a fitting session where the tampon shifted, the ear-drum ruptured, and the technician kept on pumping and filled the middle-ear, ossicles and all, with silicon. Amazingly it was all removed in an operation which did not completely render the subject deaf.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

One last one:

quote:
Given some of the singing heard in my Church, I would love to see the invention of a sound sucker (kind of like a reverse microphone)

My PhD was in Active Noise Control' - a sexy, fundable corner of acoustics about 20 years ago - which is what you're describing. Not for nothing does PhD stand for Permanent Head Damage. I suggest you don't think about your suggestion for too long!

Actually, you'd be best off with a set of high-performing ear muffs or ear plugs. These never work as well at low, as opposed to high frequency, so if they have a loudspeaker built-in, this can be controlled to vibrate in anti-phase to the incoming bad singing, detected by a small microphone. Only needing to achieve sound cancellation in a small space (under the muff/plug), you have a fighting chance, which you would not if you wanted to wipe out that singing across the whole church - but the feedback-loop stability problems are such that you would very likely do a great impression of that elderly congregant who always turns up their hearing aid until it whistles. And whistles. Good job they're deaf, really.

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

I have a pair of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones. I'm partial to them in part because a friend of mine worked on the design. [Smile]

They don't completely cut out noise in an open office but they do help. It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.

The ones I have are over ear with big foam muffs. I haven't tried their in ear model yet.

Posted by Penny S (# 14768) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Palimpsest:
I have a pair of Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones. I'm partial to them in part because a friend of mine worked on the design. They don't completely cut out noise in an open office but they do help. It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.

The ones I have are over ear with big foam muffs. I haven't tried their in ear model yet.

I was amused when these first appeared, as I recalled how, long ago, the concept appeared in Ariadne's column in New Scientist, a home for things intended to be humorous.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

I want a 3-way copper pipe elbow--one arranged corner style. Seriously, folks, people build crap out of copper piping all the time. Why should this be so hard (read: impossible) to find?

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
I want a 3-way copper pipe elbow--one arranged corner style. Seriously, folks, people build crap out of copper piping all the time. Why should this be so hard (read: impossible) to find?

You mean a corner tee? Not sure I've ever seen a copper one for solder joints, though - you might need to make do with a tee and a 90.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

It's the right shape, but looks like brass to me. And no need for compression. I'm just looking to build a simple rectangular frame here, rather like a 3-d cube diagram but with copper.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

You could always make two squares using 8x90deg bends, and then use a round file on both ends of 4 bits of plain pipe to form them so as to stand the two squares off from one another and make a cube. Then clean it all up with a wire mop, put plenty of flux on, and use a solder stick and a blow lamp to join them. Getting a good enough fit to solder will be a pain in the a*se, but if you anneal the pipe end by heating and quenching it will be nice and malleable and you can knock it into contact within reason...

I'm assuming this is art, and not some funky radiator needing to hold a fluid!

Edit to add - or if it really is just art and not much strength needed, do the above but join the two squares to the intervening 4 plain pipes with a hot glue gun or epoxy glue!

[ 01. March 2015, 09:37: Message edited by: mark_in_manchester ]

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

quote:
It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.

You mean like this?

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
It's the right shape, but looks like brass to me. And no need for compression. I'm just looking to build a simple rectangular frame here, rather like a 3-d cube diagram but with copper.

Copper corner tee. They do exist.

Posted by mark_in_manchester (# 15978) on :

Wow. Is that price for one?!

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

Heheheheh. And I'd need six of the things for a single project, and I need three copies of it. Meh. I've decided to order the cheapo crap version off the internet (it's a trousers trolley) and use duct tape or something to shore up the inferior welding. Hey ho.

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :

Why not PVC or ABS? You'd likely need to go a thicker pipe than is generally used for home plumbing and I'd add some vertical bracing in the middle of the long horizontal span, but it should work. I built a lighting rig from it for a friend once. The thicker stuff works surprisingly well, and is easy to cut and glue.
ETA: or the cheaper stuff with a wooden dowl along the horizontal spans.
ETA2: and, if there is too much sag, additional wheels under the added centre horizontal span.

[ 01. March 2015, 18:28: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

I priced the PVC corner tees (which are also hard to get) and it was much cheaper just to go with the prefab crap and shore it up when it gets here. I could have done all wood, of course, but my carpentry skills are not much and my husband would likely divorce me halfway through the building process, so, all in all...

Posted by Stercus Tauri (# 16668) on :

ABS corner tees were once used for the frames of wendy houses. It happens that though our daughter's wendy house has long since disappeared, I still have the six corner tees, about 13mm inside and about 17.5 mm outside in a lovely shade of red, free to a good home if they would work. If it's not too late and they sound useful, send a PM. I've used most of the frame tubes for other projects, though.

Posted by Lamb Chopped (# 5528) on :

oh, thank you! But I've already ordered the others. God bless you.

Posted by Leorning Cniht (# 17564) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Lamb Chopped:
but my carpentry skills are not much and my husband would likely divorce me halfway through the building process, so, all in all...

I think Mr. Lamb and Mrs. Cniht might be kindred spirits there. I'm quite good at starting projects...

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :

quote:
Originally posted by mark_in_manchester:

quote:
It improves when I play a roaring surf sound track.
You mean like this?

More like this I chose the three hour one rather than the 10 hour one in consideration of the hosts [Smile]

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0