Re: Handmade high-tech

in bundle 513 message 6241 on Oct 26 20:34:46 [email removed]    said:
>
> wouldn't object to televisions, grav cars or space ships  -  provided they
> were handmade!
>
I think one would have to know what your definition of hand made was.
I believe there is a car manufacturer in the south U.S. that hand
manufactures limos (Blackhawk?). In this case all parts are indivdually
fitted, milled, etc. But using a drill press or a lathe isn't really
hand made is it?

> making a few submachineguns per year. Noone is going to make a career out
> of manufacturing one jet-plane per decade.

If I could make a jet by myself (or with a small crew of assistants) in
a decade, with cash up front, and contuation money, plus a large
completion bonus. Then as long as I was making at least a average
wage, then why not?

>
> So my main question is this: Given that you have a large income, can buy
> most tech 4-5 items ready-made, can hire assistants for scut-work, has
> tech 15 knowledge available, and are willing to devote a couple of hours a
> day for a decade to the project, what kind of interesting high-tech items
> might you be able to produce? What would be beyond you? Same question for
> familiy projects, ie. several family members working on one project over
> several generations (this culture is over 2000 years old and very stable).
> Would you be able to build a spaceship? Or even a starship?
>
I don't think that any electronic components could be hand made.
(depending on your definition). It would be pretty hard to even make
vacuum tubes by hand (which of course includes televisions). A lot
of modern machinery also requires fairly tight tolerances. The pistons
in your car have to be almost perfectly cylindrical. These are hard
to do without some level of machinery.

I think that this type of culture is interesting, however. What happens
to visitors to the planet? How could you tell by casual inspection
that a gun was mass-produced, not hand made?

			-Dan

Dan Corrin, Network Manager, Mechanical Engineering, UWO, London, Ontario
InterNet: [email removed].                                [phone removed]
TML/CZ/FrameUsers/Consim FTP site: ftp.engrg.uwo.ca (129.100.100.12)