Colibri Hummingbird Dynamic Sculpture - WIP

[kvom]

kvom, is that onyx material paintable?

yes

[kvom]

After more dithering I've gotten back in the saddle on this rebuild, and have been slowly reassembling using the printed parts.  I print one extra part that was a composite of three aluminum parts screwed together for simplicity.  For those which are attached using the 1/16" pins, it's necessary to drill the holes with a 1/16" bit in order to get a moderate press fit.  The same applies to 1/4" holes that need to assemble onto 1/4" rod.  It seems that printed holes come out smaller than in the STL.  The Onyx material taps very well for the 8-32 and 2-56 fasteners.

[simplyloco]

Your post has just reminded me that I've got a box full of laser cut wooden parts for this beautiful bird sitting in the loft!
I might just retrieve it, when I've got time that is...

[kvom]

I assembled everything except the weight and the petals, and found that the main assembly tilts to the left, as the weight is partially supported by the lower large gear resting on its roller and their is some slack in all the parts through which the drive rod passes.  Inspection of the plans shows I omitted to include a brass bushing tube around the rod where it intersects with the main frame.  It's possible that this fix will correct the lean, but there is also some space between the entire main assembly and the support frames.

In the interim, I want to measure the needed counterweight.



Rather than a jar with BBs, a gallon jug with water is used.  Water weighs 8.3 lbs/gallon, so a half gallon (about what I have here) would be around 4 pounds.  The gearing all runs quite smoothing turning the shaft by hand using its gear.  I'll repeat after the leaning is corrected.

[crueby]

Going to be flapping around the room soon. Very cool.

[Kim]

It will be fun to see it moving! 

Kim

[Jo]

In case other might feel the need to make one of these  the Chinese are doing rip off wooden ones for less than the price of the plans: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/315305441488

So much for copyright 

Jo

[Jasonb]

More a case of copywrong than copyright

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=921888382048909

[Jo]

And because it is copywrong is probably why they get away with it. They don't claim it is a moving sculpture just a "puzzle". Which is probably their way of saying the instructions are awful, good luck

Jo

[Jasonb]

Its the same old grey area when a set of plans are redrawn maybe in metric and with the size altered and then either used or made public, not unlike the drawings Julius does which seem to be OK to post here?

[Jo]

Where drawings are in copyright Julius is very good and asks permission from the Copyright Owner before he publishes them on the internet. David Carpenter (Ex Editor of Model Engineer) is also happy with the copyright status on Julius' drawings and posts them on his site.

The major problem with copyright is when a third party sells for a profit. The Chinese are not selling the drawings which are copyrighted, they are selling what is equivalent to a set of castings, complete with features to overcome 

Jo

[gbritnell]

So the Chinese copy everything and get away with it! A friend and I bought the original plans for the Hummingbird and he finished his. Not being that much of a woodworker I got started on mine but never finished it. I have pictures of my Holt all over the internet as do others. When the Chinese started copying everyone's engines and selling them there's not much the average person can do. Their Holt was first advertised on another forum so I complained to the owner of the forum about the blatant copy of my engine, fuel tank, radiator with fan and shrouding, governor and even the Holt logo on the radiator tank. He contacted Jin the seller and his response was "its on the internet so it's fair game!" The only way to stop the piracy is DONT BUY THE PRODUCTS,

[Jo]

The Chinese do not believe in copyright: If they can acquire it they will copy it. Rolls Royce learnt this years ago and made sure that an "alternative" set of drawings were acquired by the Chinese and when one of the UK Rolls Royce Engineers visited one of the Chinese enquired about an engine fault they had... Oh yes we know all about that fault, we designed it into one of the sets of our drawings. They were not told what it was caused by.

So often companies commission a Chinese Factory to make something and afterwards the same factory do an "overrun" and undercut the original company selling their design     The rejects are also sold on through the normal channels, hence our opinion of poor Chinese quality. 


The Latest problem is we are all too happy to accept their youngsters to come over to our Universities for degrees, paying vast fees and to attend other training to design things and then they go home and apply what we have taught them. I think the term I would use is short sighted.

Jo

P.S. We have banned all Chinese IP addresses from this Forum 

[internal_fire]

He contacted Jin the seller and his response was "its on the internet so it's fair game!"

Interesting.

There is an ongoing campaign topic on another forum that caters mostly to collectors and restorers of steam "toys" ( Mamod and the like). The campaign is "Help save Jin". It seems he is about to be kicked out of ebay.

Gene

[john mills]

copying parts or selling parts made for original suppliers  .when these parts are made by someone else they are sold on the open market
late 1970's it was known there were parts available for much lower price they could be sorceed from the factory door what would you like.
even 1990s i worked for a company  where former employed workers left and made the same products from there own factory
and it was too costly to do much about it.
John