Phi Calipers : Calipers With Scale
New Caliper design: For a while now (eg, about 2 years) it’s bugged me that the calipers I make can only measure down to a certain size – rather than all the way down to zero. I made hundreds of designs… nothing worked terribly well… but eventually a design turned up which caused the complexity to shrink (which is a good sign)… going from 5 parts to 2. Complexity reasserted itself in the shape of a scale and case… I generated the scales (both inches/mm) by writing a PHP script that generates SVG (zipped script here)… SVG can be imported straight into Inkscape… tweaked, then into the laser-cutter – which can also etch, using Cermark spray. Cermark Spray is fairly crazy stuff – costs about $150 a can – a type of muddy water-based paint, but when it’s lasered, it winds up being harder than burnt-on rice. It is actually…
New Cases
It’s been most ludicrous busy… I have about 4 different products ready to launch… a bunch of different caliper cases, and calipers and whatnot… but to do all that I need to take photos, and reorganise the web-site so there are categories etc. Still… done. I think. The photo above are a collection of sheath-type cases… the calipers slide in the top. Quite simple etc – I make them myself with a laser-cutter… bit of sanding, bit of glueing, bit of polishing, bit of oiling. I can put pretty much any design you can dream up on them… I’ve made up a bunch though. Playing with designs is one of my favourite things to do. What it does mean though… at last… is that there’s finally a caliper-case for the big ones – something that’s been sorely lacking for the last couple of years. Still… more tomorrow, now I’ve got…
Micro Calipers
Busy I have been. Micro-calipers… that can measure very small measurements, right down to zero… and can also be used as jewellery. They come in two sizes… 50mm (2 inches) and 75mm (3 inches) – but like everything I make, I can make them any size you like – if you want something different, let me know. I’ve made crafty cases for them – which consist of two sides that swivel in opposite directions (look a bit like wings of a beetle). These are rimu laminate held together with brass binder-screws. The wood is polished with a tung oil – from a recipe that’s been in the family for at least 100 years – the recipe is elsewhere in this blog if you’d like to make it yourself. So there you go – they’re available in the shop… which I’m going to have to reorganise soon, as I’ve got a…
More on Bitcoins
Bitcoins have been hitting the news a fair bit recently. I’ve been offering calipers for bitcoins for the last couple of years now… mainly because I think our current monetary system is socially corrosive, and credit-card companies are essentially gentrified loan-sharks. Their interest rates are outrageous… AND… … I’ve just gone to the trouble of working out how much credit-card companies charge per transaction… and when you add this together for the fee they charge for currency exchanges, it actually comes to about 7%. I’d like to encourage people to use bitcoins (rather than just hoarding them) so I’ll pass this saving on. Purchases that use bitcoins now get a 7% discount.
Rabbits etc. Fibonacci.
A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits can be produced from that pair in a year if it is supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair which from the second month on becomes productive? The resulting numbers of rabbits, month by month form a series known as the Fibonacci series. I wrote a little program to work out… ooh… 1000 months worth of rabbits. Fibonacci to 1000 iterations This is the first 100 1 1 2 3 5 8 13 21 34 55 89 144 233 377 610 987 1597 2584 4181 6765 10946 17711 28657 46368 75025 121393 196418 317811 514229 832040 1346269 2178309 3524578 5702887 9227465 14930352 24157817 39088169 63245986 102334155 165580141 267914296 433494437 701408733 1134903170 1836311903 2971215073 4807526976 7778742049 12586269025 20365011074 32951280099 53316291173 86267571272 139583862445 225851433717 365435296162 591286729879…