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Simple screw counter

mitxela.com

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Re: Simple screw counter

#11

Post by bschwindHN »

> You can probably guess my opinions on it though, the software is very good but the cloud-based vendor lock-in is grating, and the free tier is hobbled beyond the point of usefulness. On the plus side, being browser-based, it works perfectly on Linux.

> The 1.1 release of FreeCAD should be soon. I really want FreeCAD to succeed, but blimey they have a big hill to climb. My fingers are crossed.

Since these parts mostly seem to be laser cut acrylic (so mostly 2D), it seems like solvespace would do a good job at cranking out the designs. I haven't used it for a larger project like this though, maybe it was already considered.

Re: Simple screw counter

#12

Post by bravoetch »

chrsstrm wrote: post #3

>> I have wasted a significant chunk of my life counting out small numbers of parts into bags and posting them to people. So, small parts like this are always counted by weight, and I'm wondering why you would spend so much time on a counting solution when "buy a scale" is right there.

Yes it's by weight when you need exactly 20k tiny screws in a box. But when you need six that won't save you any time.

Re: Simple screw counter

#15

Post by LiamPowell »

> the (OnShape) free tier is hobbled beyond the point of usefulness.

The free tier is identical to the standard tier except you can not create private documents and it has a no commercial use clause. This has been the case for many years, so I'm not sure where "hobbled beyond the point of usefulness" is coming from.

Re: Simple screw counter

#16

Post by irjustin »

At scale, use weight and supply 1 or 2 extra.

This is how pretty much every IKEA, LEGO, etc works with very small, cheap parts.

End users benefit because it's easy to drop/lose/break one.

Re: Simple screw counter

#17

Post by kristianp »

irjustin wrote: post #16

At scale, use weight and supply 1 or 2 extra. This is how pretty much every IKEA, LEGO, etc works with very small, cheap parts. End users benefit because it's easy to drop/lose/break one.

So that explains why the smallest parts often have spares in ikea and lego builds. Is this done because of the error in weighing the smallest parts, so they have a margin for error by allowing for an extra 1 or 2?

Re: Simple screw counter

#18

Post by medi8r »

irjustin wrote: post #16

At scale, use weight and supply 1 or 2 extra. This is how pretty much every IKEA, LEGO, etc works with very small, cheap parts. End users benefit because it's easy to drop/lose/break one.

Or a vibrating seperator which can give perfect counts if needed.

Re: Simple screw counter

#19

Post by irjustin »

kristianp wrote: post #17
irjustin wrote: post #16

At scale, use weight and supply 1 or 2 extra. This is how pretty much every IKEA, LEGO, etc works with very small, cheap parts. End users benefit because it's easy to drop/lose/break one.

So that explains why the smallest parts often have spares in ikea and lego builds. Is this done because of the error in weighing the smallest parts, so they have a margin for error by allowing for an extra 1 or 2?

> Is this done because of the error in weighing the smallest parts, so they have a margin for error by allowing for an extra 1 or 2?

This is a secondary benefit, the primary benefit is if the end user loses/breaks one. That part very well could be show stopper (Ikea 110630 anyone?). Now the end user is stuck - has to call, you have to ship, do you charge? do you give for free? they have to wait. they're annoyed, you're annoyed.

No one is happy.

The supply chain headaches for giving exact number of tiny parts is terribly expensive, relatively speaking. So you give spares because in the long run it's way cheaper.

Re: Simple screw counter

#20

Post by Doxin »

bschwindHN wrote: post #11

> You can probably guess my opinions on it though, the software is very good but the cloud-based vendor lock-in is grating, and the free tier is hobbled beyond the point of usefulness. On the plus side, being browser-based, it works perfectly on Linux. > The 1.1 release of FreeCAD should be soon. I really want FreeCAD to succeed, but blimey they have a big hill to climb. My fingers are crossed. Since these parts most…

For what it's worth I've been using FreeCad 1.1RC2 lately, and for me it's the first FreeCad version worth bothering with. It's now a tool I actively reach for over OpenSCAD and Blender for various projects. Previously I couldn't make the simplest part with it.

I can't wait for the release proper, but I can heartily recommend everyone try the release candidates as well. I've got a feeling this is the tipping point for FreeCad like 2.5 was for blender.

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