Yet another 3D printed Reo Grand button.

[aarhus]

Maybe not so much on a large scale, but have you googled "additive manufacturing" lately? We're there my friend.

Sent care of the guys that made Star Trek low tech.

Yeah, I know. I'm in contact with some of the guys working on printing spare parts for trucks etc. and we're not in Kansas anymore. Used to be that you needed a machine shop to do stuff. I worked in the Middle East for many years, and it was amazing to do contract work (IT) for the oil companies. ARAMCO and ARCO had shops where you could lathe/cast/whatever tools in a matter of days.

Now? It's just a question of size and materials. That will come. We're there, the world just hasn't woken up to it. Post industrial... HAH, we ain't seen nothing yet.

And it's not going to be fun for the 'first world'/'developed world' -- whatever moniker floats your boat -- just look at telecoms. We've invested in infrastructure over the years, yet it's in Kenya you have a real functioning micropayments system called m-pesa. Their infrastructure investment is zero, comparatively.

With AM, it no longer comes down to transporting raw materials somewhere to 'refine' it (adding value through the manufacturing process). Now we're going to end up with manufacturing 'in situ', and the only thing that's transported is going to be the raw materials used to manufacture the widgets. I'm in the logistics industry, and we're going to be hit hard.

I'm all for this, and I love the idea of being able to 'make' whatever I need, customised to fit my exact needs on the spot, but I'm worried that we're woefully unprepared for the chaos that will ensue. Mind you, that's the nature of paradigm shifts...

 

[Matthew Bye]

reading all this i had a idea...why not make a button cover out of buttons, like clothes buttons epoxy em together in a stack bore out a hole in the middle and shape the outside with a sander or something. polish it up and there you go. not sure if it would work but its a idea.

or what about a metal jeans button (not the snapping kind) cut off the flat part and jb weld it to the existing button.

 

[Big Hitter]

Can you make be a hand gun? JK

Yes actually you can ... (Shhhh don't ask how I know ... OK?)
But its only good for one shot ...... No hot loads ..... preferably a light load .......
And Wear a welders glove when you fire it .... Eye protection optional.

 

[Crash Moses]

reading all this i had a idea...why not make a button cover out of buttons, like clothes buttons epoxy em together in a stack bore out a hole in the middle and shape the outside with a sander or something. polish it up and there you go. not sure if it would work but its a idea.

or what about a metal jeans button (not the snapping kind) cut off the flat part and jb weld it to the existing button.

Funny you should mention that. I just ordered this. Should make a great button for my copper vein.

Amazon.com: Antiqued Brass Steampunk Gears 4 Hole Button 15mm (1): Home & Kitchen

 

[Treebeard]

Funny you should mention that. I just ordered this. Should make a great button for my copper vein.

Amazon.com: Antiqued Brass Steampunk Gears 4 Hole Button 15mm (1): Home & Kitchen

How do you plan to mod it to fit the reo button?

 

[Crash Moses]

How do you plan to mod it to fit the reo button?

I was just debating that with my vaping buddy. The button description lists it as brass but I believe it's likely just plastic. A good five minute epoxy or some variant of Liquid Nails should suffice. If I have to I'll pull the existing button out and drill a hole or two and thread it with some copper wire in addition to the epoxy (might be a neat effect). It'll be tricky but I build model airplanes so I'm used to working with small parts.

I could also affix it to the larger delrin button to make it easier to take off and then just paint both with some brass model paint. Lotsa possibilities.

 

[cadcoke5]

Given the crappy legal state of IP (intellectual property), what happens to people like Rob who designs something unique, that anyonw can download in a dxf or stl (or similar) file?

An artistic creation is copyrighted as soon as it is created. So, filing of copyright is not actually necessary. Of course, it is up to you to prove the date you created it, and chase down the violators, and tell them to stop. Then they owe you money for any future violations. If you put the phrase "Copyright (or the real copyright symbol) 2013 by John Smith" on it, then you also have the right to use the courts to get money from the copyright violator's past copies as well.

The mechanical aspects are the world of patents. That indeed is both very costly to pursue, and the patent granters seem to allow a lot of patents on things they shouldn't.

I actually came across this thread while I was preparing to make a post wondering if anyone had a good collection of pipes that they would submit to being scanned. I was going to specify that they be reasonably assured any original creator's copyrights had expired. If there was no copyright statement on it, the there is no violation for me to copy it. But, I would not want to do that without their permission, or to put work in to the scanning only to be told later that I had to abandon the work.

Of course, Google was powerful enough to get a judge to veto the existing copyright laws and allow Google to put scanned books online.

-Joe Dunfee

 

[cadcoke5]

Just an update. I did a little research about copyright. You can register a copyrightable work with the U.S. government at U.S. Copyright Office. The cost is $35, if you do it online.

As I said before, you DON"T need to register to have copyright ownership of something you created. But, registering has a number of benefits; First you have a way to prove your copyright. The, there is the ability to get money from violators of your copy rights.

Concerning duration, it varies greatly over time as the laws changed. But, anything relatively recent is for the life of the creator + 70 year. Works created by a company are for 95 years.

-Joe Dunfee