BTTF Futaba Delorean Remote Project

Scotophor said:
@fantomas: Recasting someone else's casting of an unaltered, purely found item shouldn't be a problem, as long as you take some effort to clean it up as much as possible to keep it faithful to the original. Remember multi-generational castings tend to amplify distortions and artifacts of the process, just like multi-generation photocopies or digital scans and printouts. One of the more noticeable problems we have to deal with (if you're looking for it, and have a good reference) is shrinkage. All silicones, urethanes, latex and other rubbery materials, and even most hard resins, exhibit measurable shrinkage when they cure. If you have a master pattern of reasonably large size (at least a few inches) and a casting from a mold pulled from that pattern, measure them both carefully with a micrometer or digital caliper and you'll see what I mean. Some materials expand when they cure (many plasters). Another issue is warping, which typically happens with all flexible molding materials but can be minimized by making the mold thick enough and/or supporting it with a rigid backing mold.

The big gripe that gets almost everyone upset, is recasting someone else's casting of their own sculpture -- even if that "own sculpture" is a reproduction of someone else's original sculpture that was the basis of a prop. Apparently, it's OK to make your own re-sculpted copy of original artwork (and castings from your new sculpture), but pulling a new mold off of a cast from another person's interpretation of that artwork and then re-casting from that mold without his permission or a legal right to use that mold isn't cricket. And beware that if your sculpting skills are so good that people can't tell that castings from your mold of your own sculpture are not castings from a mold pulled from their castings (or the original prop), you're still going to catch a lot of flak. I've met more than one person in the industry who also makes items for fans, but when he re-sculpts them he deliberately makes subtle changes or "tells" that differ from the original prop, so that if someone claims his mold was pulled from the prop or from their re-sculpted copy of the prop, he can point out his "tells" to demonstrate that the work is his own. If the person making the claim can't show that the new casting also has his tells, then he has no basis for argument.
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I just don't want to be presumptuous and take someone else's casting and recast it to make it available for anyone that wants one and have someone flip their lid and be labeled as a recaster :lol
 
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Well that will and can def happen. For example if i had a found item that i molded and castes for profit, and someone took one of mine instead of finding their own original and molded and castes it for the same reason they would be "taking" my business and from one of my own pieces at that. Its a touchy subject. I would say just hold off on your desire to get and recast as deals are already in the works and atleast two people who are seeing to deliver on making them available.
 
Fluxcapacitor said:
Well that will and can def happen. For example if i had a found item that i molded and castes for profit, and someone took one of mine instead of finding their own original and molded and castes it for the same reason they would be "taking" my business and from one of my own pieces at that. Its a touchy subject. I would say just hold off on your desire to get and recast as deals are already in the works and atleast two people who are seeing to deliver on making them available.
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I'm just offering up my services since Oneminde appears to have been the only one working on replicating the displays in the past 2 years, and as of 4 weeks ago is no longer able to continue the project. I guess it all depends on if he's able to make a few casts and send them out to other people to continue replicating. Unless there is someone completely separate that hasn't been posting here still working on it.
 
If someone selling unaltered castings of a found item complains about you selling castings of the same item, unless they have an exclusive license from the maker of the item or a subsequent owner of the I.P. to sell their castings, they haven't got a leg to stand on to complain about you selling essentially identical castings, regardless of how you got your mold. Making a mold from a pre-existing pattern does not involve any artistry, so does not give them any I.P. rights. If you did that and got such complaints about it, just ignore them.
 
Making molds and casts of anyone else's casts (found part or otherwise) without permission is frowned upon at best. Hard to find items even more so since people can end up investing a LOT of time and/or money into tracking down items that are nearly impossible to find. Even if you don't get banned for it, you'll likely end up being on the blacklists of many people.
 
This item is kind of weird though... Gary Weaver was in the process of making everything, but didn't have enough time so he was going to send off the project to someone else so they could finish the reproduction. I'm not sure what the terms of the "deal" was, but at least he wasn't preparing to hold out on them. I'm guessing maybe it was Oneminde that received it, but I guess can't continue because of funds? Java also said he has casts in hand but I haven't contacted him to see if they're still available.
 
fantomas said:
This item is kind of weird though... Gary Weaver was in the process of making everything, but didn't have enough time so he was going to send off the project to someone else so they could finish the reproduction. I'm not sure what the terms of the "deal" was, but at least he wasn't preparing to hold out on them. I'm guessing maybe it was Oneminde that received it, but I guess can't continue because of funds? Java also said he has casts in hand but I haven't contacted him to see if they're still available.
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No I did not receive from Gary, but I've been in communication with him about the re-cast that I have. And I am equally bummed out over the fact that I cannot proceed at the moment. Life happens, but in time I will.
 
So, I have been waiting to get displays to get my prototype remote made. Being these might not come for a while is there anyone out there with the necessary parts who would like to have their remote built or upgraded to my system in order for me to show my system in action?
 
Considering Fluxcapacitor (Doug) works closely with Bruce Coloumbe - who has in the past repeatedly recast my parts, I'd be hesitant to send him anything of mine. Even for "testing".

Doug's involvement in this project is one of the primary reasons I'm in no rush to assist anyone. Bruce has already publicly stated via facebook that they are working together to do a run of super accurate Futaba reproductions. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that all they are doing is data-mining this thread and everyone else's efforts to do the heavy lifting for them.

It's even easier when everyone is volunteering their parts to Doug simply because he asks nicely.
 
Yea, don't really know how to respond to this. Don't want to stoop to anyone's level or create an unnecessary amount of drama but I'll try and clear a few things up.

First, as usual, if you are still nursing bad feelings for me from ancient history do the right thing and come get the facts first. While your hypothesis seems totally plausible and would make since to those of us in the know and from way back it's lacking the kind of info one would get by asking an individual. My involvement in this project came after you said you couldn't complete it for whatever your reasons were.

Second, Bruce is and will always be my friend. This is 100% true. I am not his lackey or employee. I have a mind of my own and my own life. So anything he may be doing to someone or anyone as accused doesn't make me guilty by association. I am long since not involved in projects with him. Anything that recently was going to happen has had nothing going on with it for a while now. So while I was collaborating with him recently at the time that's dead in the water. None of anyone's business but there that is.

Third, please don't bring drama to these efforts in our go at this project. You are free to start up a new thread or we can have our posts moved to our own thread. You walked away from the project and we have been working to continue it.

My recent post was not an attempt at securing parts to "recast". My post was exactly what I said it was. No need to read into it and find something sinister about it. Let the past be the past, I mean I have never recasted anything of yours. You simply are associating me with someone you don't like.
 
Just curious. Coincidence?
Screenshot 2015-01-13 09.12.40.jpg
 
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That's what he and myself are referring to.
This came from me mentioning to him my project and he told me his customers have been wanting what I've done for a long time. I told him if he wanted to let me get that business then we could work it out that way if people wanted my system in their remote. He excitedly made that without me knowing right away. Either way, as I said, this is dead in the water anyways and doesn't look like it will be happening. Again, not really anyone's business but since I'm feeling attacked and my intentions questioned I'm trying to explain in the hopes that this will be let go.
 
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Dont have immediate pics to show but im having some luck with my STOP lens molds and castings. Gotta get the color dark enough and still experimenting with getting the white in the lettering.
 
A few things have changed and all for the better. I am aware of the fact that this "small" project has taken much longer than anticipated and I have had time to consider how to do things. With the recent flood of information, I will be able to nail down this display to the mm. I have also considered back and forth how to do things and finally arrived at a solution that will be very good. It will be a semi professional production meaning the PCB will be properly manufactured in a plant, soldermask and all, the plastic parts will be made from one mould only while the clear lid will be its own mould. I have tracked down various parts and the first batch - when ready - should be about 300 fully functional displays. That is 100 remote's and/or digital speedometers. I will make about 20 digital speedometer's complete with housing and 20-30 units for the display. The rest can and will be on stand by and possibly used in other projects. But this is no hinder to make more available for the BTTF community.

I am currently working on a 100 % blueprint of the display with minor adjustment as it would have been if the display was new today. Expect measurements to be within 98-99 %.
A few changes is needed but will not affect the overall appearance or performance.

Please note that I will not do a re-cast, this is out of the question with the display I have. Instead, I will spend some extra time and measure things 2-3 times when designing in Solidworks. The display that I will offer is a reproduction. I will not sell the one I have.

I am also considering a proper reproduction of the Eimac tubes located in the Flux capacitor at a later time.

And as always, this is not a sales tread :thumbsup
 
A quick check. I am missing about 4 mm or 0,157" on the back of the display, from the bottom where the led's enter to the top of the edge border.
 
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