121–130 of 163 posts
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PVC is quite toxic in a variety of ways. I would never heat, cut PVC voluntarily, especially without full breathing protection
We 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..
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=ygUTcHZjIHBpcGU...
After stumbling upon this, I’ve been obsessively looking for an excuse to drill a well[0]. https://drillyourownwell.com/
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=ygUTcHZjIHBpcGU...
Cool video except they left out all the steps necessary to reach the incredible precision. This is not how engineers work.
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If you go PEX, I highly recommend going the entire Uponor route and use the expansion tooling (get the powered one). No need to worry about incorrect crimps and it just works.
If only Uponor would flesh out their fitting portfolio for 3/8”. 3/8” PEX is a near-perfect material for hot water distribution to sinks and showers — jurisdictions seem to have settled on the 0-2gpm range for sinks and showers, and 3/8” PEX high velocity at moderate pressure loss at these flows, which is exactly what you want. [0] But Uponor has very limited 3/8” parts, and using their brass fittings in that small s…
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=ygUTcHZjIHBpcGU...
I'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.
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I agree, improvement is important. There is a saying, "everyone is a mechanical engineer". As one, we consistently have to field this kind of question in design reviews, etc. The question, in general, is why don't you invent a new material to solve that problem, the answer generally is we don't have the budget on this $100k project to ask DOW chemical or 3M or BASF to spend 10 years designing a new plastic for us. So…
I don’t think GP was asking for people on Hackernews to invent a general purpose, greener alternative to PVC. I think they were asking whether there’s an alternative that hobbyist could use for these types of projects. For example, there might be a material that’s significantly greener and a bit more expensive — enough so that a large scale project couldn’t justify the economic costs (i.e. it wouldn’t be a general pu…
I dont think there is.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
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"it can last for decades" Just my personal opinion, that's the problem with US housing. We build stuff to last 20-30 years(if properly installed) , instead of 100s of years.
We build most houses to last for centuries when properly maintained. We also know from experience that few houses go more than 50 years without a major remodel so we don't overbuild making that impossible.
Well obviously, if we don't build houses to last longer than a few decades. You're describing a symptom not a reason.
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=ygUTcHZjIHBpcGU...