[TheForge] Re: Weightless Sledge - Your Feedback Needed

Wed Feb 6 21:56:03 2002

funny you should say that thermoss...i've built my share of "weightless" projects myself. depending on the quality/quantity of the current substance abuse i may make more than one in an evening.

sorry that's all i can reveal right now.

bob s.
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>"thermoss" <[email protected]>
>I have been working on a similar idea for awhile myself. mine is a little
>more complex than yours. I believe .....
>I don't really want to discuss it in an open forum either......but it does
>involve a rocket ship and a nazel 5b ....ok that's all I'm going to
>say........
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>----- Original Message -----
>From: Bruce Freeman <[email protected]>
>To: <[email protected]>
>Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 11:46 AM
>Subject: [TheForge] Re: Weightless Sledge - Your Feedback Needed
>
>
>I'm calling on this group for encouragement (or not) on a project I've
>started recently and am having some trouble coming up with the enthusiasm to
>spend time on.  The problem with enthusiasm has little to do with the merit
>of the project, and everything to due with other things going on in my life
>that makes me too busy, too tired, or too unmotivated to spend time on it.
>Please read the following and give me some feedback on whether you consider
>this project one you personally will receive with some enthusiasm - meaning
>you'll want to run right out and build one for yourself!
>
>The project is a weightless (sledge) hammer.  Ideally, the result of this
>project will be a massive (e.g., 16#) hand-held hammer rendered weightless
>so that one man can swing it one-handed.  I want the hammer to be
>"swing-able" in virtually any direction, so that it could be used (almost)
>as freely as a smaller, hand-held hammer.  There will be no built-in
>directional limitations like those of a treadle hammer.  In other words,
>you'll be able to grab this hammer, bring it down on work on the top of the
>anvil, swing it around and clobber something on the side of the anvil, or
>even up against the bottom side of the horn or whatever.  (Watch that your
>anvil can take a whack from a 16# hammer, though! � I almost knocked my poor
>little Southern Crescent off its stump when I hit it from the side!)   The
>catch, of course, is the mass.  You'll never swing a 16# hammer, even a
>weightless one, as easily as a 2# hammer.  Still, when it makes contact it
>does some >serious< work!
>
>My progress to date is thus:  I've built two prototypes, the second a vast
>improvement over the first.  I have at least one more improvement in store.
>Using the second prototype, I can swing the hammer up and down and at some
>limited angles, at about one blow per second, and can keep it up
>indefinitely.  I might not be able to improve much upon that speed, but I
>plan to improve upon the versatility of the hammer and the "feel" of it in
>your hand.  I plan to make the hammer usable anywhere within a fair working
>area (maybe an area of 50 square feet or so), and I plan to make the whole
>apparatus portable, so you can move it to a different location in your shop,
>or to another shop, with little trouble.  The second prototype weighs about
>200# total, but the next should weigh less than 50#, hammer included.
>
>The disappointing aspect to me is that the project turns out to be too
>simple.  I thought I had an engineering challenge on my hands, but it's
>becoming so simple that it looks like any competent person is going to be
>able to build one of these things in two hours time for less than $50.
>Frankly, I'm surprised this thing hasn't been invented already.  (Or has it
>been and you guys have been holding out on me?)  Because this is turning out
>to be so simple, I've abandoned the idea of selling the plans.  If I ever
>get my act together on this, I'll send the plans - a few pages at most - to
>our chapter editor to be published in the newsletter.
>
>I will >not< discuss the mechanism of this hammer in a public forum.  My
>reason for this limitation is some of the negative feedback in my earlier
>discussions of the concept of the Grasshopper Treadle Hammer.  Don't need
>any more of that crap on a public forum.  If anyone is interested enough to
>want to discuss it with me privately, they may email me at
>[email protected] (NOT at the address from which I sent this!) and I will
>discuss it one-on-one.
>
>(BTW, if anyone doubts my ability to design this weightless sledge, please
>settle your doubts by visiting http://
>www.monmouth.com/~freeman/bmf/grashopr.htm , where I show a >weightless<
>treadle hammer.  The weightless sledge is a >lot< simpler than that!)
>
>Thanks for listening.  Now give me your response!
>
>Bruce
>
>P.S.:  For those not too used to the terminology of physics:  All matter has
>mass.  Mass acted upon by gravity equals weight.  A 16# hammer has 16# mass.
>On the surface of the earth, we perceive it as "heavy".  In space, it would
>be weightless.  But weightlessness can be achieved in effect by artificial
>means as well.  This could be done, for example, by a see-saw
>('teeter-totter' to some of you).  I am using such a means to remove the
>effect of gravity upon a 16# hammer.  Turns out there are more ways to get
>the thing to work than you can shake a stick at, some of them >very< simple.
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