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Written by Simon Arthur

Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog

Created: 22 October 2008

Our last sale on aluminum was a great success. What would you like to see on sale next? E-mail your ideas to sales@bigbluesaw.com or post them here.

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Written by Simon Arthur

Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog

Created: 21 October 2008

Shane Colton of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology e-mailed us to tell the tale of the fantastic electric go-kart that he and a group of students built with help from Big Blue Saw. It's electrically powered and features a massive steel flywheel for regenerative braking custom made by Big Blue Saw.

I spent a while wondering how to machine a piece of steel that big and have it balanced. Waterjet makes the most sense because it cuts the center and the OD from the same reference. Anyway, we've got some really nice, clean data now from the regenerative braking circuit. (Imagine spinning those disks up to 3,000rpm and then pushing all that energy into a capacitor.) [...]

I and the group of high school students I work with appreciate the Big Blue Saw service. We've used it now for two summer projects (last year was a DIY segway scooter, which I think has been replicated a few times actually). We have six OMAX machines on campus, and I've used three of them, but it's still easier and cheaper (and often faster) from your site for many things, especially when you factor in material cost. More importantly, in terms of showing students that you can make pretty much anything without necessarily having to be an MIT engineer, it's a great tool.

Thanks for the kind words, Shane.

Shane further notes:

Flywheels this size are pretty dangerous. I wasn't that worried at 3,000rpm. But I wouldn't want somebody to go making a 10,000rpm version and have it fail. A containment is probably a good idea.

In other words, don't try this unless you know what you're doing.

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Written by Simon Arthur

Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog

Created: 21 October 2008

We have a new mailing address:

Big Blue Saw
2566 Shallowford Rd. Suite 104 #146
Atlanta, GA 30345
USA

Note that this is for correspondence, payments, and the like. If you need to send us other things, like materials for machining, please contact us for the correct address.

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Written by Simon Arthur

Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog

Created: 10 October 2008

Special on Aluminum Parts through October 20

Big Blue Saw is offering great discounts on aluminum parts, now through October 20. All orders of 0.63" (1/16"), 0.125" (1/8") and 0.75" (3/4") aluminum 6061 will automatically receive a quantity discount, even on orders as small as one part.

For a typical order of a single part for $85, this means that your price will now be as low as $9.

Also, our home page now has a form where you can sign up for our mailing list to find out about special discounts.