Reinventing the wheel!

rant_mode = on

I suspect most new stuff comes out because people are stimulated to buy something new, irrespective of the merit of the design. Selling useless fashion items like cast aluminum car wheels is more profitable than useful stuff like refrigerators. Actual improvements can be hard to spot.

Jordan

Reply to
Jordan
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I remember a fellow using that expression on me.

He said CP/M already had everything a user could want. Why reinvent the wheel...

Reply to
cavelamb himself

I often see comments about "Reinventing the wheel" on replies to questions about making something that is manufactured. One time I asked about making something on the knifemaking newsgroup and got a response about reinventing the wheel. What? Them guys make knives! Like there is some kind of knife shortage?

What about all the new aluminum flashlights? Did Mag-Lite and Brinkman waste their time reinventing the flashlight? Why does West Coast Choppers waste their time reinventing the motorcycle. And then there are ... wheels, you can buy all kinds of sporty wheels for automobiles, those companies really are reinventing the wheel!

If it wasn't for "reinventing the wheel" we'd only have stone wheels with one choice of tire for only one make and model of automobile. So much for building a better mousetrap, why reinvent the mousetrap?

Don't get me wrong, these replies usually inform the OP of a product like they are wanting to make, and often very helpful. But there are new inventions and about everything else is "reinventing the wheel". Reinventing the wheel give opportunity for improvment and variety.

rant_mode = off

:-)

RogerN Appreciating those who build a better mousetrap!

Reply to
Roger_N

That's me I suppose. I've been buying the same design of Swing-Away can opener for decades, as there isn't a better one as far as I know. (first can opener in outer space!)

Reply to
Jordan

Some people are just meat and potatoes types of people. Dull, dull, dull.

Reply to
SteveB

It's one of the few things worth buying at K-mart. I had to buy a new one, after 20 years of daily use.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

For every person that creates there are dozens of critics who are unable to create but are adept snipers.

Non illigimatus carborundum -- don't let the bastards wear ya down.

Don, who spent 35 years in the R&D biz...

Reply to
Don Foreman

Then followed MP/M...

Reply to
Wes

I believe it is still made in America, I've bought a few myself. (note: don't leave out at work).

Wes

Reply to
Wes

That's why I bought it. The Chinese crap didn't look like it would last a year.

Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

I'm on number 2. I've been known to give them to people after watching them open cans when I've been invited over for dinner. Karl

Reply to
kfvorwerk

I teach design classes to budding engineers. There is a gray middle ground between sticking with the old proven design and going with the 'bleeding edge' technology. Trying to help program young brain cells to make this distinction can cause gray hair!

In real world jobs, there is a real tendency to not make changes in "what we did on the last project". The result is 30 year old technology and getting your product kicked in the market place.

The other side of the coin is the engineer who gets a kick out of implementing the latest and greatest technology. Or the one that refuses to look for good ideas from past project, the NIH syndrome.

The best engineers and designers have a knack for picking out the key design elements from old products, looking for better ideas in the marketplace, and add in some internal inspiration to get to a much better end result.

Reply to
RoyJ

It's too bad I can't look at stupid flash ads on CP/M. I can fire up a word processor much faster though.

Reply to
Cydrome Leader

Deciding which elements of a design to keep as old tried-and-true, and which elements to advance to the bleeding edge can be one of the toughest (and potentially most value-added) parts of a design (or major redesign).

I always worry about designs (even my own!) that are too much 'old stuff' or too much 'new stuff'.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

one thing I find annoying with can openers in general is that cans seem to be shrinking in metal thickness and some can openers can't deal with the thin cans.

Wes

Reply to
Wes

Yeah, that's been going on for close to 30 years now. That's how steel has remained competitive first, with aluminum, and now with plastics.

Notice that the steel is a lot harder. Tuna cans are deep-drawn to a state that's almost like heat-treated steel.

-- Ed Huntress

Reply to
Ed Huntress

Bottom posting fixed.

Recognizing that there is an issue is a HUGE step toward getting the right mix. I've found that if a design team actually asks the question, they usually do a fairly good job of picking the right mix.

But I did have one team leader who "kept putting Formula parts in an off road vehicle" (quoted from a team member), and took twice as long as usual to get a car built.

I try to get the students to "go ask the old gray haired guy" about the design issues and then THINK about why he says what he says. Example: U joints and drive shafts. The old guy says "always use U joints in pairs, they have to be synched, don't use too high an angle" Ask him why, "it vibrates and breaks" several hours with the machine design and geometry text books later, you discover there is a nasty 2x rotational harmonic as well as a torque calc that has a divisor that goes to zero as the angle increases. Well duh! Sure was glad the old guy pointed in the right direction, didn't care if he knew why or not.

Reply to
RoyJ

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 11:56:27 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, Wes quickly quoth:

If that's so, "adjust" your can opener with a hammer.

-- Death is more universal than life; everyone dies but not everyone lives. -- A. Sachs

Reply to
Larry Jaques

I've been tempted. Didn't want to find out it was too hard to bend w/o cracking.

Wes

Reply to
Wes

There's no problem with sticking with a proven design. There have been products that they quit manufacturing, or replaced with inferior imitations. Or fancier (and more costly) imitations. Can openers, as you mentioned.......... I like the ones I find at yard sales. Potato peelers the same way. The old ones are the best ones.

What I was referring to were people who are just not going to try new things. I still know some people who wouldn't consider owning a computer. I know a guy who has a computer, but refuses to hook up to Internet. He uses is to play solitaire. And people who refuse to consider some of the new and better options to things that actually would do the job better and easier.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

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