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Folks on YouTube cut, heat, and flatten PVC and then scratch build scale models out of it. This working excavator is rather extraordinary. https://m.youtube.c
by whartung 3y ago
Folks on YouTube cut, heat, and flatten PVC and then scratch build scale models out of it.
This working excavator is rather extraordinary.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qam0DmWq_No&pp=ygUTcHZjIHBpcGUgZXhjYXZhdG9yIA%3D%3D https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qam0DmWq_No&pp=ygUTcHZjIHBpcGU...
- gkhartman 3y agoWhen I saw the finished model at the start of the video, my first thought was "clearly there must be some PVC sheets used". You clearly said that he's flattening the tubing with heat, but my brain just couldn't accept the work involved in doing that for every flat surface I was seeing. Truly remarkable.
- neilv 3y agoThis deserves its own HN post.
- metadat 3y agoAgreed, submitted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37534779 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37534779
- latchkey 3y agoThat's amazing. Some kid from some small town in Northern Vietnam, who is a genius.
- supportengineer 3y agoThis is astounding. What I want to know is, how does one have that much free time?
- tobr 3y agoIs it “free time” though when they post multiple videos per month and regularly have several million views?
- zo1 3y agoThe channel has 500k subscribers, so it's probably a full time job/business. I wouldn't be surprised if they take shortcuts by having parts made off camera by "helpers". At the end of the day, these things are entertainment for us to consume and they don't have to show us all the effort happening off-camera. I say this generally for these kinds of channels, not this one specifically.
- Groxx 3y agoIt even has windshield wipers, that's pretty wild: https://youtube.com/watch?v=qam0DmWq_No&t=48m1s https://youtube.com/watch?v=qam0DmWq_No&t=48m1s
- toddmorey 3y agoHe hand drilled each and every hole for the perforated step plates. Just in awe of both the skill and the patience. He also seems to be working with several tools he made himself.
- jpm_sd 3y agoThis might be the craziest thing I have ever seen. How is this even possible? He doesn't measure or mark anything?? How can it fit together? How are the repeated parts so perfectly identical?
- amelius 3y agoCool video except they left out all the steps necessary to reach the incredible precision. This is not how engineers work.
- jasonjayr 3y agoIt occasionally cuts to measuring items with calipers, a multimeter, using a compass, and parts show up on screen with score marks, so I assume the creator is definitely measuring things off camera. The video is an hour long, but the fast scene cuts, and focusing on the actual assembly actions makes the video somehow more compelling and "can't-look-away".
- samtho 3y agoAn engineer is not a YouTube video which is essentially a (maybe) narrated highlight reel of a process. I don’t find it disingenuous to condense this down for general consumption because there just is not a ton of value from showing every measurement, each individual cut, and inevitable mess-ups of this process.
- js2 3y agoI've only gotten to the part where he makes the gear... despite having a few jigs, I can't get over how much he's doing by hand and by eye with sufficient precision. The teeth were hand drawn and match up with the spacing of the tracks made earlier. Very impressive work.
- jabart 3y agoThe style is similar to the way dovetails were cut by hand in drawers before dovetail machines became a thing.
- 2Gkashmiri 3y agohttps://youtu.be/qam0DmWq_No?t=971 https://youtu.be/qam0DmWq_No?t=971 this is fucking amazing. stencil a photo from a screen and trace it on to an object. i am generally hateful towards 5 minute crafts but this is serious engineering.
- JoshTko 3y agoPVC is quite toxic in a variety of ways. I would never heat, cut PVC voluntarily, especially without full breathing protection
- ArlenBales 3y agoWe never see his face so I'm not sure where your assumptions are coming from, but I'm sure someone with enough PVC experience to make a working model excavator out of PVC is probably taking the necessary safety precautions..
- JoshTko 3y agoI think this sequence is sufficient to infer that their approach to safety is not commensurate with their engineering skill. https://youtu.be/Z6JvAZHJCAo?si=y-nWawnkC_mIAvVM&t=123 https://youtu.be/Z6JvAZHJCAo?si=y-nWawnkC_mIAvVM&t=123
- MengerSponge 3y agoTalent at fabrication and wisdom/access to adequate PPE's are almost entirely uncorrelated
- dbsmith83 3y agoI was wondering about that myself... It also gave me the willies when he was using the table saw cutting those tiny little strips with his fingers so close to the blade!
- ArlenBales 3y agoRealistically, given the tiny size of that table saw and the small parts needed to cut, what other way would there be to use it?
- dbsmith83 3y agoHe could have used another piece of pvc instead of his finger
- MegaDeKay 3y agoI started watching this and couldn't stop. It is ridiculously impressive. I would guess he would have used some CAD tool to design this excavator? It had to have been very carefully thought out to ensure proper access to put the pieces together and take them back apart all along the way. Does he say in other videos what he uses?
- bragr 3y agoI would have assumed the same, but at 16:08 and 17:58 he's sketching parts by hand overlaid on a computer monitor with reference images What a mad man
- chimichurri 3y agoI came here to post about this. Very impressive. I wonder how he got the model to such high level of 3d Fidelity. Can PVC objects be additively manufactured?
- genman 3y agoImpressive, but it hurts me to see how much risk to loose his fingers he takes.
- mhb 3y agoFantastic. Thanks.