What Machine/Device Impressed you Recently?

One look under the bonnet/hood of a modern car. Shut it quick!

Yeah, in the old days if you dropped a spanner it would hit the road...now you'll never see it again.
Del

It's just like a cat to blame all your problems on a dog.

Curiosity drove me to open up my wife's very old windup alarm clock after it finally puked last week. It was not worth repairing for a multitude of reasons, but I figured I'd learn something. I removed the last screw on the back cover and it immediately pushed against my hand. Something was trying to get out. I remember giggling at this point. Oh God, what's doing the pushing?!? Why is it pushing?!? I've got to see it!!! I just couldn't stop myself. I removed the cover and everything went boing, springs and such flying out everywhere. What was left in the body impressed me, so did all the leetle parts scattered about the kitchen.

I think you just explained the main reason it wasn't worth repairing.

Boing!!!!

Yup. No hope, post boing.

When I was 12 years old I dismantled and re-assembled our Favre Leuba - Jaz alarm clock. when but few parts were left out I could not find out where & how; the clock was ticking ok! very fun experience!

"Lean Engineering" at its best

This isn't that new, except to me _{I'm hard of hearing so there's about a five year delay between my ear and brain - at least that's my story.}

A local contractor swears this thing automatically controls the blade height within 1/8" of the site plan cut-and-fill data. No more driving stakes and shooting levels. The operator simply goes back and forth and ocassionally turns around, so he can pile dirt the other way.

That IS impressive. This is a great find. Thanks for sharing.

Great in a tight corner.
Pull one of those and your would be assailant stops dead in his tracks slack jawed in disbelief
Del

I suppose you would have to keep the cat away from it though.....

He might break a tooth......

I tend to get more impressed by simple devices rather than by complex pieces of machinery. Simple devices require a great observation capacity as well as a great skill to find a suitable use for it. VELCRO tape is first among my top tens: it was based on bur seeds (AKA sticktight / burr marygold) being used in thousands of applications.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLjdc06TT0g&NR=1

For the double crank fans

That's wonderful link to Theo Jansen mechanism in same page!.-

Orthodyne (K&S) double head wire bonder

Well it's not very sophisticated but we rented a 12" auger with a hydraulic motor, mounted on a skid-steer. Made some impressive holes in the ground real fast! Pulled rocks and stones and anything else that was loose until you hit ledge! Much nicer than digging by hand!

I just returned from a trip to Munich, and while I was there I visited the Deutsches Museum. If any of you from CR4 are ever in Germany, you have to check it out. It happens to be the biggest technology museum in the world, and it was fantastic. I was impressed the whole way through.

Specifically, the section on old radial aircraft engines was pretty stunning. They had some cutaway exhibits of some of the bigger, more advanced ones. Things like this blow my mind. And they did it all without 3D!

Unfortunately I had to limit myself to only 3 hours at the place to keep my girlfriend sane. It was her vacation too .

It's just too bad that women don't really appreciate the finer things in life.

Remember, we went to the moon with slide rules and T-squares.

I was fortunate enough to have an entire day to spend in the Deutsches Museum on my last business trip before I retired. I certainly is a fantastic place. I was a bit shocked to see some computers that I have worked on in a museum...kinda made me feel old!

http://youtu.be/WcR7U2tuNoY

I would love to see or be in his workshop or even be part of his team. He has a team, hasn't he? I'll have a closer look late, nice link.

Why nobody did this before in pehaps 30 centurys of mechanics? Perhaps "genius" is a justified word after all.I think he works alone.-

I do a lot of metal fab work and recently took on a large project with a tight time line. When I went to pick up the material I started looking at the 8 1/4" metal cutting circular saw that they had on display made by Milwaukee. The guys there that I have known for some time told me that it was the cats a$$ for cutting plate steel so I bought one.

I can't remember the last time I was so impressed by a tool. If you do any kind of metal fab work this thing is a must have tool even at the $300.00 price. With the 2 blades that they offer with it you can go as thin as sheet metal and with the other blade I have gone as far as 2" thick and can't think of any other tool that could do the work as fast and clean as this tool.

If you ever get the chance to try one out do it and you may share my opinion.

WOW!!

I forgot all about that one! It ranks up there on my list of best machines.

Yes - impressive. Featured in here if I recall correctly. A somewhat definitive argument.