October 2011 until now

Kingsley Burn: KB 3D Design Ltd

Well work definitely tailed off at the end of last month so now I have time to get this blog together at long last.  I finished some designs for Fingermark Ltd incl. some 46inch touchscreen frames for the new Auckland Art Gallery and 6 digital signage kiosks for Auckland Airport.
Also did some work for Valley Wholesale in Thames, and Enlightenz in Auckland.
The highlite of the month was Jonno ringing up. A blast from the past. He wanted me to do some 3D models for some turbo manifolds he is making for his car.  He has already tweaked the car's computer and altered the fuel mix and timing to give 50% better performance.  Sorry I can't show 3D images here yet.                                                               www.kb3ddesign.com

Te Ana Lodge bookings have doubled since last year.  I don't know when we will get a chance to go down ourselves.
http://www.kb3ddesign.com/teanalane/
 It's keeping our new cleaner / maintenance lady busy (Susan) and their Adventure business will be kicking in soon with the start of the Summer. (Eyezopen Ltd).http://www.eyezopen.co.nz/

Lastly.  Yesterday I lterally field tested a solar food dehydrator I designed yonks ago. Life in general has slowed this project down a lot but I eventually got it together yesterday for a field trial.
The prototype I cobbled together got up to 80 degrees C inside the food chamber. I was only trying for 40-50 deg C so that was very encouraging. Yesterday was blowing a gail and partially overcast and I only achieved 35 deg C for 3 hours until rain made me take it back inside. The tomatoes I had inside had already started drying out though. I think the 5 volt fan run from a solar cell makes a huge difference.  As soon as the weather settles down I will be out again for an 8 hour run.
I will write a new blog as soon as it's completed.
4:28pm 3rd Nov 2011

Sunny day today and dehydrator running at over 50 deg C for the last 3 hours. See image to the right here ->
temp dropped to 39 ish when I opened the door (obviously)
There are runners for 6 grids inside but I'm only using one for testing.  The entire unit folds up into a box 400x300x250mm for storing in a cupboard when not being used.
4th Nov 2011
A good sunny day with little wind.  I put a new batch of tomatoes into the dehydrator and ran it for 8 hours. (where we live we only get 8 hours of sun anywhere on our property).
The tomatoes were just about dried. Another 2 hours and they would have been done. 40 deg C maintained all day.






Links to the Alternative Universe
Check out Wayne Burn (cousin) operating from UK. Wayne creates 3D art sculptures for sale throughout UK using materials such as oak, glass, recycled copper, gorse roots, to name a few.  http://alkemyartdesign.blogspot.com/
Example on the right here.

Wanted list
1) Can anyone tell me if they know of a manufacturer of elastic tension springs (rather like small bungee cords with hooks on each end?  There was a company in UK years ago but I can't find them anymore.  They were using them for retracting aircraft wheels after take off.
2) I need to find a supplier of bevel / mitre gears who can re-cut the bores to a specific profile before hardening them?  I have been going round in circles on this one.
3) Who knows someone who can build bicycle wheels commercially with a freewheel hub - (left and right hand freewheels)? so I can make a kids trike for disabled kids.
Kingsley Burn
3/11/2011