3 Successful Business Models I've Seen Lately

Originally Posted by MichaelRoss

It is ALL about Positioning, Balance Point and Momentum. The same way the Ikea Box could have been Walked - from balance point to balance point with the aid of momentum.

You can use Brute Force and that requires tremendous strength as you are trying to Lift the entire thing and give it Upward Momentum at the same time. Or you can use Balance Points, Positioning and Momentum. How much of each depends on the dimensions of the object and where you want to move it to.

Also remember Archimedes' advice... use a Lever. Which Gives Strength dependent on the Length of the Lever and the Lever point (fulcrum). And a lever can be anything - a screw driver, piece of 4x2, crow bar or pry bar or Burke Bar.

And above all, remember my tag line - near my photo.

Michael Ross

You're exactly right Michael.

Take the case of a heavy bag that you can't lift above your waist, but that you can swing. Give it a swing and then just guide it to the higher target.

I've been planning to move a 22' x 8' steel storage building, that weighs at least 5,000 lbs and probably more. I'm going to move it by myself, by hand, with no levers, no jacks, no cables, for a distance of about 20' and in the process turn it around 180°. Why? Because my friend said I couldn't.

I got the method here, but with a modification to make it even easier. He drags balance weights from end to end, and I plan to construct a tank on each end and pump water back and forth as needed to achieve the balance.

The guy at the above link left out some rather important details of his method, but by studying his photos and using a model I think I have it figured out. Once set up, the longest part of my move will be waiting for the water to transfer from tank to tank.

There is always a way!

Bozo,

Thanks for adding to the discussion.

I think there's a guy down Florida way that has also done some Amazing things with Very heavy chunks of coral and other stuff - all by himself. And this guy's story reminds me of it - where a truck had a delivery of a heavy concrete thing, they guy asked the driver to wait around the corner while he got it off the truck himself without any Crane - puzzling the truckie when he got back to his truck.

Also. Have you seen the Stunt by Pen and Teller (I think it's them) when they drive a real truck over one of them. The key was... the side opposite the guy on the ground had Counterweights so that the side that ran over him had no weight on the ground, and even the heavy tires on that side had been replaced with foam replicas.

Oh, and for those who are wondering, the Formula for the force required for a basic lever starts as: distance to fulcrum x mass.

Meaning with a distance of ten yards on one side and a downward force of ten pounds (10x10 = 100) I can lift 100 pounds on the other side if it is one yard away (100x1=100).

With the link you provided, I'd like to see a Current Update to his progress. So we could see how many Uprights he has stood and how many Top Stones he's managed to get into place. Because the photos are a few years old.

Michael Ross

I also noticed that his site hadn't been updated for 2 years. Given what all can happen when you're moving heavy things, he could be laying out there under one of those 20,000 lb chunks of concrete. Or maybe he's waiting to update until he has all the stones in place.

I did a study of levers for a special project, and learned that gears are also levers. I needed to move a sliding gate 15" but only had room to move my lever half that distance. I studied 4-bar mechanisms I found in a 1929 mechanical engineering handbook.

One of the mechanisms was called a stroke doubler. It had two racks with one pinion between them. If the bottom rack is fixed, and you apply your stroke to the pinion, the top rack moves twice the distance as the pinion. The top rack is the output link.

So I puzzled over that, and went round and round with it, until I sorta understood how it worked. But I couldn't figure out how to size the pinion. What diameter pinion do I need to get the 15" of stroke. So I went next door and asked the CAD guy at the machine shop. He told me, from looking at my diagram, that it wouldn't work so I didn't need to figure a diameter.

I made a model of it with popsicle sticks for racks and a coin for the pinion. The engineer couldn't believe what he was seeing when I demonstrated it. Turns out it doesn't matter what size of pinion you use, it will always double whatever stroke you apply to the pinion.

I'd give a hundred bucks for a copy of that book I had borrowed. Published 1929 by the University of ....wish I could remember, titled "Levers".

Bozo,

Thanks for revealing more Lever stuff.

They are quite Ingenious when you see how some Mechanisms are put together.

Take for example... a Quick Release Door - where the Door itself releases from the hinges. Such a door is used on a Helicopter Crash Simulator I've been working with this week - putting the Infantry guys through their Water Ditching Training.



We first ditch them without the doors on the Chopper and upright. Then without the doors but with the Simulator Spinning underwater until they are upside down. Then put the front doors back on - the back ones just slide.

The hinge on the door is a Pin which fits through a bit of tube steel on the door and on the Simulator's body. There is one pin which goes Up and one which goes down - while one goes up the other goes down.

This is achieved by having each Pin attached to a Rod via a hinge. Those rods are then attached to a triangular piece of metal at top and bottom corner - with the third corner attached to a handle - a triangle is attached to the machine between the top and bottom corner.

When you operate the handle it causes the Triangle to move. One corner goes Out and Down while the other comes In and Up. The rod's follow along and the Pins are moved in turn.

The same Principles are used in older machinery - stuff that doesn't rely on pneumatics to work. They usually work with hinged rods attached to cams of different shapes. Even having some cams with hills and valleys on the outer surface and a Track on the inner flat surface which other rods follow along. Thus giving vertical and horizontal movement with the additional aid of rods attached to other levers and Mechanisms in various configurations.

Out on the farms you can usually find drop-down fencing and drop-down gates. Which stay erect until you need them dropped. At which point, a Handle which is attached to a bit of wire running through the main supporting fence post and then Around the Drop Fence Post, release the drop fence and down it comes.

The handle gives you Leverage to Pull the Drop Fence tight to the Supporting post - the tension enables the drop fence to remain upright.

On the one I made for a property I lived on, the main supporting post was secured into the ground without concrete. By backfilling gradually and Compacting the backfill as I went.

Michael Ross

P.S. If you are able to manufacture a Simulator like pictured, and have the know-how of what's involved in the training, there is no reason this couldn't be a business. The people we did it for used the swimming pool at the local police academy - but they do use other more Public pools in other cities - they Hired the divers (from a learn to dive school) which stay under and Help any of the Students who get into trouble while upside down under water, and they Hired the crane people (us) to lift the Simulator in and out of the water. They Outsourced Everything.

Their Market is... the military and journalists who ride around in helicopters. With the Rates they were charging $277 per person for 36 people spread over two sessions of 18 during the day, they have found themselves quite a money spinner. A money spinner without any competition I am aware of.