Hi all. I’m trying something new. A focused design sprint where we put our heads together to tackle one specific aspect of Kinograph and see if we can improve it. Here’s a quick video introduction to the frame prototype.
For our first one, I’m going with something easy. The frame. It’s the literal backbone of Kinograph and right now I think it has some great things going for it. It’s rigid, light, and disassembles into pieces that fit easily in the mail.
There are also some things that could probably be improved.
1 - it’s uses extruded aluminum, which is very strong and easy to work with but also expensive.
2 - it uses 80-20 brand hardware, which is waaaaay overpriced for what it is (see link to BOM below).
3 - the vertical panels are acrylic and so require laser-cutting, which not everyone has easy access to.
With all of that in mind, here are the goals for the design sprint. In this thread, post your ideas for any of the following: A). reduce the cost of materials B.) make it easier to source and assemble with local supplies and common tools
Here is the full-scale model of the current design.
Here’s a rough (not-to-scale) model of the overall design for reference.
Here is the BOM (Bill of Materials).
Everyone should have comment permissions on all of the above.
A sprint is generally two weeks, so we will set a deadline of Sunday, May 3rd.
I’m looking forward to hearing your ideas and seeing what we can come up with! Feel free to post any questions you might have here as well or email me directly: info@kinograph.cc
I did some other diy project. Making a wind turbine out off offset aluminum from printers as blades and the mold was a sheet off paper with the drill markings on it and you measured two parallel lines if it’s exactly the right distances. Let’s say 20cm… so you know that every time it has the right distance. (But do it with horizontal and vertical lines you never know if it has been stretched one way or another)
And for large sheets off paper. Go to a local printshop like A2,A1,… it would be cheaper then a laser cutter shop…
Good find Pablo. Thanks. I like that build a lot. Square aluminum tube makes a lot of sense structurally, but it does add the additional step of needing to drill holes for mounting, etc. I like the price, though.
Today I tried printing the 80-20 brand parts using the CAD files from McMaster’s site and they looks great. Even the threading seems to work. I laser cut the flat brackets and those will do just fine as well.
So it looks like the mounting hardware costs have been significantly reduced, which may make having the extruded aluminum okay for now. If people want to experiment with using wood, they certainly could. I might do that at some point just to try it. Would bring down the cost but realistically only about $30-$40.