Bead roller speed controller

[curte]

I have the usual sewing machine foot pedal speed controller for my bead roller. I was unable to accurately control the speed. I built a square plywood pad and mounted the pedal on it. On each side I put varied thickness’s of blocks. Depending on speed needed is where I put my foot

Cheap, simple and it works!

[Toolmaker51]

Old fashioned me would have a stop-screw; fiddly and too-fine adjustments. Curte's solution is far better.

[Frank S]

I like things that I don't have to fiddle with to accomplish what I need done. I wouldn't have thought of a multi tiered wood block solution in a million years

[DIYer]

Thanks curte! We've added your Bead Roller Speed Controller to our Switches category,
as well as to your builder page: curte's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Bead Roller Speed Controller by curte

tags: controller

[mklotz]

Very clever. I'm guessing that the guy has a lathe with a rotating, multi-pin carriage stop and it inspired him to this design.

I've done something similar for production drilling of holes to several depths. Set the drill press depth stop for the deepest hole and make a couple of spacer blocks for the shallower holes. Stick one of the blocks between the stop and its seat when drilling the shallower holes.

A more elegant form of the "blocks" is cylinders cut to length and a half-diameter slot down the axis, said slot to fit over the threaded rod of the depth stop. Self-orients and stays in place better than a rectangular block. Once made, save the blocks; they can be useful elsewhere.

[mklotz]

If you want to improve your ability to originate creative solutions to problems, you need to be able to extract the essential elements from any clever idea you see and add those to your mental tool kit.

Curte's speed presets provide a nice example for this. What we want to take away from his work are the following generalizations that can be applied to future problems.

Infinitely adjustable stops may not be as good as preset ones. (Toolmaker has already nailed this takeaway.)

Using the stops to stop the actuator (the worker's foot in this case) may be superior to stops applied to the control element (the speed pot pedal).

Combine this identification of essential features with an understanding of the elemental nature of components, stuff like...

A link is a device to hold two holes a fixed distance apart.

A screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder.

and you'll soon have a mental tool kit that will make solving shop problems easier and faster.

Waxing a bit theoretical with this but thinking about thinking is always a worthwhile pursuit. The more you understand how your mind works and how you can exploit its features, the more productive you become.

[Jon]

Broadly: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metacognition
Specifically: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Functional_fixedness

To expand on mklotz's point about elemental nature of components, note Anthony McCaffrey's work:

As you break an object into its parts, ask yourself two questions. "Can I subdivide the current part further?" If yes, do so. "Does my current description imply a use?" If yes, create a more generic description involving its shape and material. For example, initially I divide a candle into its parts: wick and wax. The word "wick" implies a use: burning to emit light. So, describe it more generically as a string. Since "string" implies a use, I describe it more generically: interwoven fibrous strands. This brings to mind that I could use the wick to make a wig for my hamster. Since "interwoven fibrous strands" does not imply a use, I can stop working on wick and start working on wax. People trained in this technique solved 67% more problems that suffered from functional fixedness than a control group. This technique systematically strips away all the layers of associated uses from an object and its parts.

Cuban industrial designer Ernesto Oroza approaches the same concept through his pet theory of "technological disobedience" in which, for example, he characterizes machines as merely "all of the symbols that unify an object".

[PJs]

Nice simple design for a nonlinear device. To figure the speeds for various operations on a bead roller probably took some time to figure the heights for positions but ultimately brings it to a simple repeatable process. Nicely done, curte!

Regarding Marvs fine analysis and Jon's observant additions, it's actually not dissimilar to how ADC (analog to digital converter) chips work or perhaps in this case, how a DAC (Digital to Analog converter)...basically a variable signal to a step...literally. I spent a great deal of time at one point analyzing the sound signal quality of Analog converted to MP3 at various audio frequencies and sample rates to see the quantization distortions (rounding error), non-linearity and jitter from the algorithms. Curte's project reminded me of the hours and hours at the scope.

Perhaps a new term/acronym could evolve from Marv and Jon's thoughts on these processes, calling it CFEA (Cognitive Finite Element Analysis)...just a thought.

PJ