YouTube lunatic designed and 3D printed a working mechanical calculator Mechanical calculators are precise, fascinating gadgets that you wouldn’t think would take well to being 3D printed, but a YouTuber has proved that a pocket-sized unit can be made purely from plastic filament. YouTuber 3D all Workshop detailed his working, but limited, build in a recent video. If you’re familiar with the holy …
"Gears kept binding because of tight 3D-printing tolerances, while backlash (the play between mating mechanical parts) could throw the drums out of sync. Pieces kept breaking during redesigns, and even the vibrations from picking up and using the calculator were enough to disrupt its components."
A Silicon Valley AI company having a product in such a state would easily be worth 3 times the GDP of the entire multiverse.
Sell my Russian railroad stocks and buy into this new-fangled gewgaw.
If only. I doubt the concept would have ever exercised the grey matter of the majority of young cashiers/shop assistants who cannot grasp the concept of change optimisation which just requires a bit of addition and subtraction.
If, say the amount due is £3.67, and I hand over £4.17 as the change due is then 50p, which can be given as a single coin, rather than if I'd tendered £4.00, the change due being 33p.
Invariably that confuses them
I did that yesterday, paid using the shrapnel in my pocket and optimised it to minimise the number of coins I got back.
The cashier did not get it, could not work it out even after I'd explained it and told them how much change I needed.
They handed over nearly three times too much and insisted it was correct.
So I took it.
Just perhaps this is due to the ubiquity of calculators?
When I was a mere sprog calculators were either huge or ludicrously expensive so we had no choice but to learn mental arithmetic and learn all the sneaky short cuts.
I was in big school when calculators became affordable and it took quite a while for educators to come to grips with the situation as initially they were still quite dear, so it could be divisive to allow their use if not all students had access to one, so while I was at school their use was discouraged or outright banned in class. So is mental arithmetic taught in schools today?
"When I was a mere sprog calculators were either huge or ludicrously expensive so we had no choice but to learn mental arithmetic and learn all the sneaky short cuts."
In high school, the math teachers would not allow calculators. I countered by asking if I could use a slide-rule, since I'm a PIA. The teacher agreed I could. This is how I learned to use a slide-rule.
In chemistry, we were required to use a calculator to cut down on mistakes in arithmetic which might be a bit too exciting when mixing things up. We still had to show all of our work on assignments so the teacher could be sure we were setting up and solving the problems correctly.
it was nothing but a throw-away joke. An old one.
I just took a look and discovered (perhaps not surprisingly) that the tubes of ewe has many videos on the subject.
Agree that today's kids can't make change, but that's an entirely different and probably vastly more important issue.
Very many years ago after out lunch in the cafe at the top of Box Hill (dunno if it's still there) the girl was adding up the bill on paper. She didn't realise that dad was also adding it up, reading her handwriting upside down. As she finished dad told her she'd made a mistake... and told her exactly where it was.
Dad was a bit of a maths guru.
I am guessing you proffered £2 × 2, 10p, 5p, 2p in five coins which probably caused a retail neuronal overflow and reset.
You could try the £2 × 2, receive your 20p, 10p, 2p, 1p and add your 10p, 5p, 2p and ask for 50p in exchange although might have to offer 2p × 2, 1p for 5p; then 5p × 2 for 10p; then 10p × 2 for 20p; then 20p × 2, 10p for 50p.
By then the assistant will be needing a wee lie down and you wishing you had used a card. ;)
Boggles the mind how UK retail would have fared had the UK retained £sd. Probably ended up with the € and still in the EU. Even the chancellor might have difficulty calculating the VAT (20%) on £5 17s 6d. (£1 3s 6d?)
"By then the assistant will be needing a wee lie down and you wishing you had used a card. ;)"
Not me. I live to teach and pain is a good teacher.
Small purchases I make with cash. No cash, no purchase. Regular things that are already tracked such as utilities I'll pay with plastic (to preserve cash on hand). For me, it's an excellent budgeting tool. I think about how much money I may need before leaving the house and add that to a pocket (plus a bit). My general rule is that once the cash is gone, I'm done for the day. There are exceptions but I try very hard to not use them unless I have to. If my blood sugar is bottoming out and I'm out of cash, I'll use the debit card to get some calories.
"If, say the amount due is £3.67, and I hand over £4.17 as the change due is then 50p, which can be given as a single coin, rather than if I'd tendered £4.00, the change due being 33p.
Invariably that confuses them"
Doing that is one of my favorite sports.
If the total is $12.17, I'll mess them up by handing over $22.17. The first response is for them to try and hand back the extra $2.17. I have to tell them to punch the numbers into the confuser and there's an "Oh" moment. Arithmetic is so amazing.
Back in the stone age when I had retail jobs, we didn't have fancy electronic tills and needed to do basic arithmetic in our head to make change. It's good practice. I can usually calculate the change I should get back faster than the PFY can mash the buttons. Even with computerized help, they can still get it wrong. I was also taught to put the cash I was handed on the lip of the till and not in the drawer until after I handed back the change. If the customer tells me they gave me more than I made change for, I could check. If I just shove the money in, I'd have to do a count of the whole cash drawer which is a requirement in some places if there is a challenge. Better managers have a workflow for that with a new drawer being swapped in to business can continue while they do the count.
Not forgetting the establishments offering black leather clad ladies equipped with riding crops.
My thought exactly seeing the headline: "YouTube lunatic designed and 3D printed a working mechanical calculator"
Even with my limited exposure to youtube you would have to wade through raging torrents of insanity in that souk of lunacy to find anything remotely as rational (note I didn't write practical) as 3D printing a mechanical calculator.
If the chap could 3D print a working Analytical Engine the 3D printer itself would be a mechanical miracle.
Not a looney. Doing something just for the sake of accomplishment and learning has always been an honorable pastime.
That being said, for the time and filament invested in this project, an actual Curta probably could have been had for less.
In the 1970s when my dad's office switched over to electronic calculators, he brought home a last generation Brunsviga mechanical calculator. As a child, I was fascinated by being able to do calculations with a mechanism of gear wheels and cams, and the clicks as the numbers fell into place. It still sits on a shelf in my lounge along with my other mechanical throwback to the 1960s, a Mamiya C33 TLR camera.
Sometimes I get it down to show the curious how to do calculations on it.
I have a magnificent Venner time switch which has automatic adjustment for BST/GMT and lengthening/shortening days.
It's really rather wonderful and an absolute mechanical nightmare/masterpiece in whatever brass like material clocks used to be made of.
I dread to think how much such a thing would cost to have made these days now it's been replaced by a photocell or 868MHz mesh network.
3D printing a complex contraption is fine, but the guts need to be seen. Plenty of companies will channel their inner Rube Goldberg by building a demonstration machine with their products that accomplishes nothing in the end, but is loads of fun watching it not get anywhere.
AB2047 (Assembly Bill 2047) has effectively banned new 3D printer sales in California. I expect their go after more classic CNC machine tools in the next round. Somebody could make a gun without a serial number on a mill. There is a carve out for companies/people that make movie props, but they'll have to buy printers specifically made for the prop industry (don't exist).
It actually hasn't.
Firstly, it requires the Department of Justice to check quarterly from July 2027 whether ASTM International has actually come up with industry standards for blocking the printing of guns and gun parts, and that those standards are feasibly possible to implement.
Secondly, the Department of Justice must publish guidance or regulations within 24 months of those standards being available and feasible.
Thirdly, regulations on restricting the sale of non-compliant printers will come into effect one year after DoJ publication of guidance and regulations.
Fourthly, if no feasible standards are available before July 2029, the whole thing lapses.
In the very unlikely event of everyone moving superfast on this, it could require printers with gun-blocking technology to be sold sometime in late 2028. The much more likely scenario is sometime between 2032 and never.
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB2047
"And during the meanwhile, I still have my aging Bridgeport ... "
Me too. There's also been a bunch of desktop CNC mills coming out at a cheap price. It's getting to the point where the price is low enough to justify over just farming out prototype designs. Why print in plastic when one can carve metal?
"It actually hasn't."
The "tech" that is being put forward is from a subsidiary of Palantir. I doubt it will work, but that may not stop it from being accepted.
That the politicians spent the time on this and passed it is problematic. They want it or at least want to be seen doing something about people printing gun parts with a 3D printer.
Will schools need to start discontinuing having 3D printers "just to be safe"? Wouldn't want little Johnny and young Jane acquiring the skills to print gun parts with no serial numbers.
I'd give the whole thing a 90% chance of falling on it's face, but if a big faceless corporation can see good money in providing software the might do something (whatever that might be), it could come to pass. There's nothing better than being the sole source of something that is required to make something work and be legal. Patent the algorithm, Copyright the code and keep a tight fist around the database of naughty designs and there will be giggling all the way to the bank.
