Custom UL gear prototypes?

[chris smead]

Not sure how practical this is….but has anyone ever hired a prototyping company to build custom backpacking stuff?  Does it cost an arm and a leg?    Do you have to be a CAD expert?   I’ve got a few items I’ve wanted for years, but they never appeared on the market.  Unfortunately I suck at making things myself.

Examples:

-A tiny minimalist titanium camera slider dolly for small cameras (rx100/GoPro) using a small Teflon or  other slippery plastic carriage.

-titanium minimalist microspikes

-minimal shoulder strap mount for GoPro (something lighter than ones on market today)

-600ml ti cup with minimalist heat exchanger and lid.

-Regenerating pizza slice.    (Every time you take a bite it grows back)

 

[Franco Darioli]

The only practical suggestion that I can think of is to contact some forum members that tinker with the sort of stuff you would like to have made.
For a pro (non DIY/cottage manufacturer) to make one for you you should expect to pay several times their hourly wage times the hours spent on the project so possibly VERY expensive.

[chris smead]

Makes sense.  Any Ti experts out there?  Maybe the Suluk46 guy?

[Roger Caffin]

has anyone ever hired a prototyping company to build custom backpacking stuff?  Does it cost an arm and a leg?

Not backpacking stuff, but medical instrumentation. Not my doing: I was just the science consultant/designer who created the initial prototype (which worked very well). It was not a success: they did not have anywhere near enough knowledge of what we were doing, why we were doing it, what the constraints were, or how it would be used in the ‘field’. I suspect the same would happen with backpacking gear, especially UL gear.

The biggest problem would be communication. What you normally find is that the external company tries to cover their backside (legally) by making the device as robust as possible, a bit like the military designs. Convincing them to take risks with the design … difficult.

The next biggest problem would be paying for the time taken. I have spent about 9 years working on my Winter Stove. What would that cost if done commercially? A bit more than one arm and one leg.

Items 1, 2 &3 are doable.

Item 4 might have to be a casting I think. I would suggest you might be better off with an aluminium casting here. Welding Al to Ti – Jetboil tried that.

Item 5 you subcontract to Hogwarts.

Cheers

 

[Ken Thompson]

Cut a jetboil pot down? Look in gear deals for the link.

[Mt. Tamalpais]

I recently tried to design a mirror sun tarp that packed small and was indestructible. I posted 3 videos about it on youtube. It cost me about 150$

http://youtu.be/IhUhyP4J4Ys

http://youtu.be/V84z8nwwIF4

http://youtu.be/LRrVXRSmHWE

[Ken M]

Regenerative pizza….now that’s worth following up!  I suggest you contact the company that just got approval for the ” Frankenfish” salmon with genes spliced in from two other types of fish.   Ask them if they could splice in kudzu and zuchinni genes to the pepperoni genome.  That should do it!  Of course the unexpected side effect might be thay you’d have to carry out an excess of pizza after a multi-day hike.

Ha!

[Mt. Tamalpais]

LOL ?

[Roger Caffin]

-A tiny minimalist titanium camera slider dolly for small cameras (rx100/GoPro) using a small Teflon or  other slippery plastic carriage.

Sketchs?

Cheers

 

[Ryan Smith]

I would ask Steve at Suluk46.  He has a lot of experience and I think even mentions on his website that he can assist with manufacturing, design, etc.

Ryan

[chris smead]

Cool I’ll reach out to Steve after Christmas.

As for GoPro slider sketches…anyone recommend an intuitive software for designing that?  I tried Google Sketch-up and hated it…

In a nutshell, picture a titanium ruler, bent lengthwise to 90degrees so it kinda looks like a toblerone.  Drill big holes in it to save weight.  Rolled edges for safety.  This would serve as the track.  The actual dolly carriage part would be a matching shorter (2-3″) piece of slippery plastic…or perhaps regular plastic with Teflon tape to help it glide over the toblerone.  The top of the dolly would have a standard camera mount thread.    Nothing fancy or groundbreaking here…just something I want.  ;)

[Roger Caffin]

I THINK I can visualise that. Something like this?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Spindler-Hoyer-Cast-Iron-Optical-Bench-Rail-1M-100cm-Zeiss-Profile-/331525648195

Believe it or not, i have two of these, in cast iron, and I use them.

But how are you going to hold the Ti track? And where will you use it?

Cheers

 

[Travis Leanna]

Everything costs money. Especially the attempts leading up to the actual production of an idea. But I’m not sure it’s futile. Look up local manufacturers and companies who deal in the materials you are looking to use. Sometimes companies have people who’se (at least partial) job is to entertain people like you to see if small projects can get off the ground. [semi-personal experience] After all, the industry of the world was built on the backbone of slow, steady, small innovations.

[Colin Krusor]

I’m working on #4 (Ti cup) right now. It might not be Ti, but it will be ultralight, with a heat exchanger and lid, and I’ll probably try to produce several variants (different sizes and materials). The heat exchanger should be much more effective than any commercial pot/cup, due to better contact and increased surface area at the HX/hot gas interface and the HX/pot interface. Also, some exotic materials that I’ve never seen used for backpacking gear recently fell into my lap (silicate-matrix carbon fiber that tolerates direct flame, 99.8% pure beryllium thin walled tubes in 2.5″ and 4.5″ diameters, fireproof transparent mica sheets for pot windows, magnesium foil, aerogel insulation for lids, etc.), and these should help to keep the weight of a pot with a big heat exchanger down. It will be a grotesquely lavish application of fancy materials to trivial hobby project, but the materials came to me in a one-time batch and I have nothing better to do with them. Better this than sell them on ebay, in my opinion. So, share ideas if you have any and I will provide updates.

[Jon Fong / Flat Cat Gear]

I hope that you know about the safety precautions about working with beryllium, few people work with this material.

[Colin Krusor]

Yes. Cutting of the Be will happen on a shrouded CNC machine with HEPA dust collector. I’ll be wearing a respirator when I open the machine and when I do any manual finishing operations. I also plan to use the ammonium bifluoride fluorescence test to detect beryllium dust outside the enclosure. To those who are unfamiliar: beryllium causes a granulomatous lung disease when fine beryllium dust is inhaled. It is NOT dangerous to touch beryllium metal, and eating it has not been shown to cause any ill effects. Inhaling the dust is the ONLY hazard. The various amateurs online who claim that anyone who touches beryllium will die (and that top-secret black ops beryllium knives are extra super deadly) are fantasizing. Inhaling glass dust can cause serious lung disease, too, but, like beryllium, nobody needs to fear handling things made of glass. Also, like titanium, beryllium metal forms a tenacious oxide film and is very inert. It has been used for medical implants.

[Author]

Posts