Dear Reprappers!
Some months ago I bought "Swift Chopper", a "manual food processor"
with 21,90 euros from a promotional sale at the up-scale
department store here in Helsinki:
[
www.alibaba.com]
I also recently saw a similar looking product from Tupperware
in a local second-hand shop.
Note that the only metal (non-plastic) components are those three
blades, and those three screws which keep bottom and top parts
of the lid closed, hiding the gear mechanism inside it.
(See the attached photos.)
And no, I don't intend that would make an exact copy of this machine,
but just as a suggestion, what you can do with even a simple gear mechanism.
Now the question:
When do think it would be realistic to print the plastic components
of this kind of thing (somewhat simplified) with a RepRap?
(I.e. already with Darwin or not until Mendel is ready?)
And how long it would take (in hours), and what would be the expenses, for
a) the whole thing,
b) only the gear mechanism, the top part and the component (axis)
where the blades are attached, if we pragmatically choose to employ
some standard plastic bucket or such as the bottom-part (the bowl),
and the hand-crank were made from, say a wood or bamboo.
As for the blades, I guess any skilled third world village blacksmith
could make them from old knifes, for example.
The gear ratio is 40/18 * 38/20 = 38/9 = 4.222... rotations of
blades for each full rotation of the hand-crank.
The texts in the underside of the top-part say:
ATTENTION:
This Product is Protected by
Copyright and Worldwide Patent
U.K. Design Reg.No.2048632
U.K. Design Reg.No.2029823
China Design Reg.No.ZL 93 3 06181.1
U.S. Design Patent No.Des. 361,694
H.K. Registered Design No.9700643.9
(So, they are just design patents, nothing real.)
--------------------------------------
Yours,
Antti Karttunen
