Starting April 18, 2022, quoting and ordering will begin moving from Big Blue Saw to the Xometry website. You'll continue to be able to get fast service and instant quotes, in addition addition to a whole host of new materials and manufacturing processes!
From Monday, June 19 through Wednesday, June 21, you'll be able to save on custom waterjet cut parts made from aluminum 6061 in 1/8 inch (0.125" or 3.2 mm) thickness. All orders placed online will automatically receive a quantity discount. Get your designs ready now by uploading them to our online quoting and ordering system.
Summer is almost upon us, and it's time for a cooling beverage. But can you get it to your table without spilling a drop, or worse, dropping the glass? Have you ever had to move a set of martini glasses across a crowded bar? Or watched as a server attempted to navigate a restaurant with a bunch of margaritas without spilling any?
Jeff Kinney has a solution, developed with help from Big Blue Saw. You may remember Jeff as the winner of our Spring Design Contest. He's back with a new (PATENT PENDING) invention: a martini glass carrier. The Martini Mover is a solution to keep top heavy drinks safe.
Jeff developed both a 3-glass and a 6-glass design, as seen below.
To get to the current design, Jeff had Big Blue Saw make a few variations in acrylic, polycarbonate, and stainless steel before arriving at the current version.
The carrier also includes LEDs for a cool nighttime glow.
Not only can it move martinis with ease, it works great for wine and margarita glasses as well.
According to Wikipedia, "A butterfly knife, also known as a fan knife and in the Philippines as the balisong, is a folding pocket knife. Its distinction is two handles counter-rotating around the tang such that, when closed, the blade is concealed within grooves in the handles. It is sometimes called a Batangas knife, after the Tagalog province of Batangas in the Philippines, where it is traditionally made."
Our customer Benjamin Kranking took the idea of the balisong to a new place: personal grooming. In particular, he used the balisong design to create a comb with help from Big Blue Saw. He told us "I liked the idea of owning a balisong comb, but most of the ones on the market were either cheaply made, or didn't close very well."
Benjamin chose 440C stainless steel in 1/8" thickness as the ideal material for the "blade". It's a corrosion resistant, hardenable material commonly used in knife blades. We were able to source and waterjet cut this material as a custom order.
The folding hardware and handle was from a pre-existing kit from USAknifemaker.com.
Are you ready to create a new twist on an old design? Let us know!
Customer Mark Dias sent some photos from a remodeling project in a beach home on the Oregon coast. Take a close look at the stairway's steel handrail. Big Blue Saw waterjet cut several custom top and bottom plates from 0.375 (3/8) and 0.188 (3/16) inch thick hot rolled steed A36 based on Mark's designs.
Mark told us: "Your parts made it possible to create a refreshing modern stair rail system. I think the ordering process was great; I am an engineer by trade and sometimes I get tired of having to make phone calls for quotes and placing orders so please keep your ecommerce site as is!"
Have you done any home remodeling or construction work with parts from Big Blue Saw? E-mail us at info@bigbluesaw.com and your project could be featured here!
Photo CC BY-ND 2.0 Mike Behnken
On May 10, 1752, the world would change forever. This was during the Age of Enlightenment, when scientific knowledge was rapidly expanding. But in the middle of the 18th century, science was still seen as a hobby for the curious gentleman and not an endeavor which could improve human existance. Today, of course, we take it for granted that new scientific discoveries will soon lead to new inventions that change our lives.
That all changed due to the experiments of French scientist Thomas-François Dalibard. Dalibard had been very interested in the work of an American scientist whose works he had translated and published earlier in the year. And so, in a high open plain at Marly-la-Ville, just outside Paris, he set up an experimental apparatus based upon the American's designs. It consisted of an 40 foot long round iron bar about an inch in diameter. The rod was raised perpendicular to the ground and supported with thin silk cords.
Dalibard himself was not present on the afternoon May 10 when a thunderstorm passed over Marly-la-Ville. But he had left an assistant and the local priest in charge to make observations. They noted that when the storm passed over, lightning struck the iron bar, but nowhere else in the village. The American was right: an iron rod could be used to create a path to ground for lightning to follow, protecting buildings from being struck.
The invention was the lightning rod. The American inventor was, of course, Benjamin Franklin.
With the lightning rod, man had finally learned to control one of the most feared, dangerous, and random forces of nature. Modern science had proven its usefulness.
When lightning rods first came into use, many objected to them on religious grounds. Franklin, ever the rationalist, saw things differently. He wrote: "Surely the Thunder of Heaven is no more supernatural than the Rain, Hail, or Sunshine of Heaven, against the Inconvenience of which we guard by Roofs and Shades without Scruple."
Benjamin Franklin had not only developed an effective defense against lightning by using scientific knowledge, but he had also changed the way we view science itself.
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Detail from Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky by Benjamin West, 1816
From May 8th through May 10th, to celebrate the 265th anniversary of the first lightning rod, Big Blue Saw will be having a sale to help modern day Franklins, engineers, artists, and makers. On these 3 days, every online order for waterjet cut custom parts in aluminum 6061 at 3/8 inch thickness (that's 0.375 inches or 9.5mm) will automatically receive our quantity discount. Depending on the design, this can mean savings up to 75%!
Aluminum 6061 is strong, lightweight, weldable, and corrosion resistant. Our customers have used it for custom bearing blocks, brackets, signs, robot chassis, wheels, and fine art.
And, by the way, aluminum is also a great conductor of electricity for those of you who might be designing your own lightning rods.
Get started on your history-making invention by uploading your design to our online quoting and ordering system now.
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