I recently stumbled across and old toy record player made by Fisher Price in the 1970s. I’m sure many of you will recognise this iconic toy … As with many 40-year old toys, it was in a bit of a sad state and a couple of the records had been lost. Technology has moved on since it was manufactured and making some new records for it seemed like a nice way to merge old technology and new.
3D printing a record might seem like the obvious choice these days, but I decided to go with CNC milling.
Why a mill you ask? Not a laser cutter or a 3D printer? Well we can’t use a laser cutter as the record needs slots in the surface but these don’t go all the way through. Laser cutters are great if you don’t need any partial depth cuts, but we do. 3D printing the record would seem to be a sensible choice and would definitely do the job. However, we will end up creating plastic pins around 1mm in size that trigger the music box hidden in the record player’s arm. I was worried about whether the extruded plastic technique used by most printers would give it the required strength.
Fred27 also put together a piece of code to help edit the music for one of these disks.
valley-tones asked:
I can imagine.. It's not nice when you're insulted about what you do, and it sounds like you're quite passionate about doing that. Silly man :( I think people easily forget that others have hearts and emotions..
Yeah, I love my job, I love that I know that I help others by doing my job, I’m always prepared to stand up for myself politely while in work, and I’ll never feel bad about what I do because it’s ultimately for the most amazing cause. I think I was caught off guard because I didn’t expect to be spoken to that way while picking up milk and bread from my local shop, out of work hours, my mind elsewhere. I don’t see peoples’ attitudes changing any time soon, but I’m kind of used to it. It would be nice if people were a bit more open-minded though.
It’s also worth mentioning that not everyone has those opinions, I meet lots of absolutely lovely people in my job who understand and respect my profession whether they choose to sign up or not. It’s just some people who take it upon themselves to abuse fundraisers, and I suppose they’ll continue to do so for as long as they misunderstand us.
valley-tones asked:
He sounded very rude :( and the fact that he assume that you paid no attention to the people you interact with isn't nice. I hate it when people assume things about others...
Yeah, I admit my feelings were a bit hurt. Maybe he also assumes that fundraisers are heartless because most of the time we manage not to break down into floods of tears when people abuse us in the street or something? I dunno. It’s silly.
valley-tones asked:
wow that person is a right dickhead.. Some people have such wrong opinions. It makes me wonder what goes on in their heads
Thank you! This makes me feel slightly less mental. Part of me asked myself if I was just being overly sensitive, but I think my surprise and slight upset at what he said is understandable.
I went to the Co-Op on my way home to pick up some stuff and had a weird experience. I was at the till paying for my stuff when the guy serving at the till next to the one I was at started shaking his head at me. I said “Why are you shaking your head at me?”, feeling a bit puzzled and he said “You’re a chugger”. I was about to ask him how he could tell and he said “You’re carrying an umbrella and a red jacket. Also, you’ve tried to stop me before in the street. I guess I’m just another faceless person to you, though.” I explained that actually I remembered having tried to stop him, and I didn’t want to say to him at the time “aw, you’re that guy that works in the Co-Op near me!” because I thought it might be a bit weird. He then said that “at least in my job the people who come in actually want to buy something.” I said that actually most of the people who stop to talk to me want to know more about the charity, because it’s obvious that’s what I’m there to talk about. I just paid for my stuff and left without any fuss at all, but it was half past 8 at night, I was tired, I had just finished work, he doesn’t even know me, I’m actually a nice person and a good fundraiser, and he had no right whatsoever to speak to me like that. The funny thing is, he’s been working there for years and I’ve been going in for years, and I’d had this kinda idea in my head that he seemed like a decent sort of person who wouldn’t say something like that. I suppose that I was wrong. I find it surprising that anyone thinks it’s okay to be so accusatory to someone else in that situation about something they don’t even understand. I work directly for a charity, raising money on their behalf in order to save lives, NOT on commission, NOT in a disrespectful or impolite or intrusive way, and I’m the shit person? Okay, whatever. I think that based on the brief exchanges he and I have ever had with each other it’s now clear which of us is disrespectful, impolite and intrusive. Unbelievable.
Is amazing so far! I love fundraising here, people actually treat you like a human being :D In the space of two days i’ve met so many lovely people. One woman I signed up yesterday walked past me again today and came over to say hi and give me a hug. Also on a side note, SO MANY nice looking guys…Yep.
