Philip Poburka on sun 17 jan 10
s and Pottery Wheels
Hi James,
Lol...wow...
Actually, the thing you describe - the device/travel-mode the link goes to
an image of - has no moving parts.
Childhood time, I and neighbor kids used to attach one or more old Roller
Skates to a Board, the original 'Skate Boards', as it were, and those were
fun...but, never saw anyone make one of those 'Crank' things..!
Oh yeah...looks like a fast one way Ticket to Face Plant City,
indeed...Oye...hurts just thinking about it.
Phil
Lv
----- Original Message -----
From: "James Freeman"
To:
Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 9:54 AM
Subject: Re: Flash Gordon Saab Station wagon - Search for Simplicity in Car=
s
and Pottery Wheels
> On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Vince Pitelka
> wrote:
>
> The only vehicle I know of with only one moving part is a unicycle. Wait,
> the pedals move. Okay, three moving parts.
>
>
>
>
>
> ..and believe it or not, I still have the unicycle I bought in my youth,
> and
> can still ride it! Well, at least forward. Can't seem to do backward or
> standing still anymore.
>
> I built one of these as a kid:
> http://www.firetoys.co.uk/juggling/info_1_LG_FnWhl.html . Two old wagon
> wheels, and a crankshaft bent from a salvaged steel rod. No pedals; you
> had
> to hook the heel of your shoe up against the crankshaft. An absolute
> death-machine, guaranteed for a face-plant, but only one moving part!
>
> Maybe one day I will admit to the motorbike made from a lawnmower engine,
> a
> garbage-picked stingray bike, and three pieces of angle iron. Direct
> friction drive to the front wheel, with no clutch! Only way to stop was
> to
> kill the engine.
>
> Amazing that any of us survived childhood.
>
> Thanks for bringing back memories.
>
> ...James
>
> James Freeman
>
> "All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I shoul=
d
> not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed."
> -Michel de Montaigne
>
> http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com
> http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesfreemanstudio/
> http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com/clayart/
Vince Pitelka on sun 17 jan 10
s and Pottery Wheels
Marcia Selsor wrote:
"My first car was a 1961 (?) Saab station wagon 2 stroke /3 cylinder
that mixed oil in the gas tank. Looked like something from Flash Gordon."
I know I have mentioned this before on Clayart, but this car, odd as it
appeared, was a beautiful exercise in simplicity. The engine had seven
internal moving parts - three pistons, three connecting rods, and the
crankshaft. Of course, being a two-stroke with an oil-gas mix, it left a
cloud of oil smoke in its wake.
But this does speak for the advantages of simplicity. My trusty Isuzu
Rodeo, at only 160K miles, has a quiet clattering in the engine that turns
out to be rod bearings. It is not worth fixing. The engine is a
double-overhead-cam V-6 with four valves per cylinder. I hate to think how
many moving parts are in that engine. Does it really need to be that
complicated? GM, Isuzu, and Lotus collaborated to design that engine.
After the recent discussion on the sound made by various kinds of pottery
wheel, it seems that the Shimpo Whisper is the perfect exercise in
simplicity, with no more moving parts than a kick wheel - only one moving
part, unless you count all the balls or rollers in the bearings. Of course=
,
the moving part is composed of multiple components connected together, but
they are rotating as a single rigidly-connected unit, and thus qualify as
one moving part. Can it get any simpler than that?
The only vehicle I know of with only one moving part is a unicycle. Wait,
the pedals move. Okay, three moving parts.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net; wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka
James Freeman on sun 17 jan 10
s and Pottery Wheels
On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Vince Pitelka wrote=
:
The only vehicle I know of with only one moving part is a unicycle. Wait,
the pedals move. Okay, three moving parts.
..and believe it or not, I still have the unicycle I bought in my youth, an=
d
can still ride it! Well, at least forward. Can't seem to do backward or
standing still anymore.
I built one of these as a kid:
http://www.firetoys.co.uk/juggling/info_1_LG_FnWhl.html . Two old wagon
wheels, and a crankshaft bent from a salvaged steel rod. No pedals; you ha=
d
to hook the heel of your shoe up against the crankshaft. An absolute
death-machine, guaranteed for a face-plant, but only one moving part!
Maybe one day I will admit to the motorbike made from a lawnmower engine, a
garbage-picked stingray bike, and three pieces of angle iron. Direct
friction drive to the front wheel, with no clutch! Only way to stop was to
kill the engine.
Amazing that any of us survived childhood.
Thanks for bringing back memories.
...James
James Freeman
"All I say is by way of discourse, and nothing by way of advice. I should
not speak so boldly if it were my due to be believed."
-Michel de Montaigne
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesfreemanstudio/
http://www.jamesfreemanstudio.com/clayart/
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