A Challenging Project

Way cool! What brain designed that?!?

On my bucket list!

OK. Checked out the website. Plans are $99, and no wonder! Builder says about 700 hours into it. Also not surprised. Add cnc programming for each shape and that number goes way up for sure! Not particularly saleable. Even at $10 per hour for construction, the piece prices out at $7,000! And that labor rate is silly. Shop rate is multiple times that. And the cost of hardware and other materials is not taken into the sale price consideration.

Just ruminating here. Still a great project to tackle. But not for money.
 
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Love the way you think Carol.

There are a number of ways to look at that project.

My first thinking was about the kinematics of the project.

Had I gone to the website - I also would have thought of it as a CNC business opportunity.

You hit the nail on that one.
 
I think the 700 hours is including the non trivial amount of design and programming time ("start to finish").

Not sure what the actual CNC run time and assembly time is, but I would have to imagine that the design and programming side was the vast bulk of the 700 hours.
 
My son would get into something like that... when he has time and isn't working on building his own airplane, ... he's built a couple of all wood clocks on a scroll saw so far... but recently got a small cnc machine that he plays with occasionally as he has time.... it's way too complicated for my tired old brain.... I believe in KISS ... keep it simple smarty.
 
One would probably need to convert all the dxf files into gcode, but if you're going to sell them you'd be cutting parts 50 to 100 of each at the same time, so could cut down on some time costs. Big unknown is how much fiddling one would need to do to make each work as expected.
 
One would probably need to convert all the dxf files into gcode, but if you're going to sell them you'd be cutting parts 50 to 100 of each at the same time, so could cut down on some time costs. Big unknown is how much fiddling one would need to do to make each work as expected.

If you want to sell any of his stuff, read the fine print. Or, don't let him find out.

His dxf files import perfectly into VCarve, so setting them up to cut on a CNC would be no problem.
 
If you want to sell any of his stuff, read the fine print. Or, don't let him find out.

His dxf files import perfectly into VCarve, so setting them up to cut on a CNC would be no problem.

Interesting. I went back to his site and did not find any rhetoric regarding selling models.
 
Interesting. I went back to his site and did not find any rhetoric regarding selling models.

From the second page of the "sample plans": http://www.derekhugger.com/plan_samples/Colibri-Sample.pdf
"Reproduction of part or all of this document is prohibited except by the original retail purchaser for his or her own personal use. The contents of this
document and associated documents, including but not limited to instructions, designs, illustrations, diagrams, and patterns are for personal use, and may
not be included in any other work or publication, or be distributed, or be used for commercial purposes except with explicit written consent from the author.
Any apparatus or work created using the designs, patterns, or instructions in this document is for personal use only and may not be used for commercial
purposes nor sold for profit. The contents of this document are presented in good faith but without warranty and without guaranteed results."

which is a wee bit.. offputting because he also says: http://www.derekhugger.com/about.html
Q. What is this site's return policy?
A. Because there is no way to guarantee digital files are "unused" once purchased, plans from this site are non-refundable. Before deciding to buy, please take a look at the sample plans available at the bottom of each project page to make sure that particular project is right for you.

So yep, $99 for plans for something you can just make for yourself I guess (any commercial use means no display, advertising, etc.. I would imagine as well).
 
This is an interesting grey area of creative law. Certainly the plans cannot be resold in any form. The result of using the plans is the creative output of the purchaser of the plans. Materials, colors, size, etc. are easily changed. His defense is problematic, even with all that verbiage. At the end of the day, it is the deepest pockets that will prevail in the courts.
 
I ended up picking up the plans for the Contrivance project today. It looked like a fun study project of gears and linkage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rftPbiU1BI

http://www.derekhugger.com/contrivance.html

I spent a little time nesting some of the dxf files. This is only about a 1/4th of them as some of the 63 .dxf files have multiple copies.
nesting.jpg

I'll re-do these and label them as I go next time as I've already forgotten what parts some of them were. I plan to burn the labels using the laser before cutting them out.
 
I ended up picking up the plans for the Contrivance project today. It looked like a fun study project of gears and linkage.

I spent a little time nesting some of the dxf files. This is only about a 1/4th of them as some of the 63 .dxf files have multiple copies.

I'll re-do these and label them as I go next time as I've already forgotten what parts some of them were. I plan to burn the labels using the laser before cutting them out.

Great minds ... or whatever.

I bought the same plans a couple of days ago so I could see more about how he does what he does. I've got a lot of the dxf files imported to VCarve. I'm placing labels on my drawing under each type of part. I also separated the parts by plywood thickness so it would be easier to do the import.

When I started looking at some of the metal parts, I got a little sticker shock. The part numbers Derrick provides get you what you need but, in some cases, it calls out a bag of 50 when only four are needed. Also, I'm wondering if there's any reason one couldn't use brass rod in place of stainless steel.
 
Great minds ... or whatever.

I bought the same plans a couple of days ago so I could see more about how he does what he does. I've got a lot of the dxf files imported to VCarve. I'm placing labels on my drawing under each type of part. I also separated the parts by plywood thickness so it would be easier to do the import.

When I started looking at some of the metal parts, I got a little sticker shock. The part numbers Derrick provides get you what you need but, in some cases, it calls out a bag of 50 when only four are needed. Also, I'm wondering if there's any reason one couldn't use brass rod in place of stainless steel.

yeah, I'll be modifying what ever I need to to make some other hardware work as needed. I like the idea of putting the files in respective directories based on material...I'll be using that! :thumb:
 
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