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Interesting way to build an expanding table.

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Roy Smith

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Dec 10, 2006, 1:32:11 PM12/10/06
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Check out the videos here http://www.dbfletcher.com/capstan/. I'm sure the
magic is all in the mechanism, not the woodworking itself, but it's still
kind of neat. Considering it's designed for mega-yachts, I'm sure it comes
with a pricetag most of us would find hard to swallow.

Juvenal

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Dec 10, 2006, 1:44:49 PM12/10/06
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"Roy Smith" wrote...

> I'm sure the
> magic is all in the mechanism

[...]


One of the still pics of the Brazillian table shows some of the mechanism,
but it would sure be nice to be able to inspect one of these in person to
see exactly how it works.

--
Timothy Juvenal
www.tjwoodworking.com


Flex Flint

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Dec 11, 2006, 11:10:03 PM12/11/06
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Juvenal wrote:
> One of the still pics of the Brazillian table shows some of the mechanism,
> but it would sure be nice to be able to inspect one of these in person to
> see exactly how it works.

From the link that Mr. Smith gave: "PATENT GRANTED. DESIGN RIGHT."
I'm quite sure you're not *meant* to know how it works.

Good thing I checked to see whether this had been posted, I came in here
to link to that exact same page.

Here are some more links on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=capstan+table&search=Search

Simply amazing. They must have spent hours design the mechanics inside.
--
Best regards,
Flint

John L. Poole

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Dec 12, 2006, 1:24:13 AM12/12/06
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Flex Flint wrote:
[snip]

> From the link that Mr. Smith gave: "PATENT GRANTED. DESIGN RIGHT."
> I'm quite sure you're not *meant* to know how it works.
[snip]

If it is patented, then the design is suppose to be disclosed. That's
the whole point of the patent system: you disclose to the
government/public your invention and how to create it so others can
create it after the patent expires and the government gives you a
monopoly on it for a duration of years. If a patent was granted
recently, then you may be able to access the patent via the Internet and
learn about the inner workings.

Flex Flint

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Dec 12, 2006, 6:02:00 AM12/12/06
to
John L. Poole wrote:
[...]

> If a patent was granted
> recently, then you may be able to access the patent via the Internet and
> learn about the inner workings.

Valid points, valid points; I posted too eagerly. Perhaps I'll try and
find one or two things if the day permits.

Note: there's two treads reporting these tables, see subject "Amazing
expanding circular table".
Link:
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.woodworking/browse_frm/thread/8068cdf814813915/66f14adb50da8e67?tvc=1&q=circular+table&hl=en#66f14adb50da8e67

The walking table is nice too by the way ;).
--
Best regards,
Flint

J. Clarke

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Dec 12, 2006, 8:00:08 AM12/12/06
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The "art" of patent writing is to write in such a manner that your idea is
protected but nobody else can figure out how to replicate it from the
patent. Or so they taught us at Georgia Tech many years ago.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Flex Flint

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Dec 12, 2006, 11:49:24 AM12/12/06
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J. Clarke wrote:
> The "art" of patent writing is to write in such a manner that your idea is
> protected but nobody else can figure out how to replicate it from the
> patent.

Hah! Got it! Or at least I think so, and it gets better by the minute!

Found this link first [1], where it is stated:
***
In another and quite famous solution, Robert Jupe developed around 1835
a radial table containing sections that diverge from a common center
to allow for insertion of expansion leaves.
***

From there worked may way to USPTO.gov[2]. From this latest page (the
actual patent, or at least what I think it is):
***
In 1835, Robert Jupe was granted British Patent No. 6788 for an
expanding table.
***

Here's another page selling similar designs: http://www.jupetables.com/

[1]:
http://www.freshpatents.com/Expansible-table-dt20060413ptan20060075940.php
[2]:
http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=4&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=Robert&s2=Jupe&OS=Robert+AND+Jupe&RS=Robert+AND+Jupe

There's some UHMWP and other exotic stuff in there, worth a look (I'm
drooling as we speak, sorry).
To view the images on the USPTO-site you'll need a TIFF-viewer (plugin),
but I just installed it in IE7, works like a charm. Go to the "Images"
page, click the "Help" link top right for instructions. Haven't tried it
in Firefox though. Enjoy!
--
Best regards,
Vriendelijke groeten,
Meilleures salutations,

Flint

Flex Flint

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Dec 12, 2006, 12:40:34 PM12/12/06
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[Firefox]

Update: works equally smooth, except after a few modifications (at least
in my case):
-the program installed under my Thunderbird plugins-folder
-cut and paste it to your firefox plugins-folder instead
-reboot (might be possible that this isn't even necessary)
-saving files works as well, but only for a certain amount of downloads
in the case of the freeware version.
-TIff-files can be viewed and adapted with the standard Windows-viewer.
-There are also rectangular tables in the patent
-Allow me to drool on.

John L. Poole

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Dec 14, 2006, 10:34:35 AM12/14/06
to
Google is now into serving up patents -- what a wonderful project.

Here's the jupe table reference, and there is a patent as recent as
January 4, 2000, that references the original patent.

See:
http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT6994032&id=Ghp3AAAAEBAJ&dq=robert+jupe

Flex Flint

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Dec 15, 2006, 7:37:53 AM12/15/06
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John L. Poole wrote:
> Google is now into serving up patents -- what a wonderful project.

Huge fan of Google here, didn't even know they had this. Will the fun
ever end? :)

> Here's the jupe table reference, and there is a patent as recent as
> January 4, 2000, that references the original patent.
>
> See:
> http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT6994032&id=Ghp3AAAAEBAJ&dq=robert+jupe

Amazing indeed, and it doesn't even require you to fiddle around with
software. Thanks much for this link!
--
Best regards,
Flint

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