Home Made Tools

[Patio]

Hammermill.
What is a dog leg preventer.
I am an electrician, so I know what a dog leg is. Just never seen a preventer.

[homemadetools]

Jon here from HomemadeTools.net.

I know this thread is an old one, but thanks for the kind words

To celebrate our 20,000th homemade tool, we made a new ebook featuring our top 50 homemade tools. You guys are welcome to it for free:

http://download.homemadetools.net/50MustReadTools.pdf



We are now at 609 homemade tools listed from Chaski.org!

All listings use a thumbnail image (like Google Images), link back to each original post three times, and are fully credited to each builder and site, so I hope we've been able to send you guys some good traffic and some high-quality new members. You can see all Chaski.org listings here: homemade tools built by Chaski.org members, and you can see all tool listings by site here: homemade tools organized by contributing site.

[homemadetools]

Hey guys - we have a new ebook out: How to Make a Belt Sander. 100% free of course. Click the graphic below to check it out:

[tornitore45]

Most patents are a joke. In the electronic industry employees are encourage to submit patent applications. I have more than a dozen but I am proud of only 3. You would not believe the crap that get patented, some is downright NOT working or based on sound theory and experimental success, some is so generalized that a pet toilet may be considered to infringe according to the claims, and some is so fundamental that probably the Egyptians has made use before switching to something more effective.
Yet, the idea is not to have a clever solution to a real problem. The is to have a stack of patents higher that the other company in an acquisition. The height of the patent stack, not necessarily the value, becomes a factor in assessing the value of the company in a merger or acquisition. Of course patents that are actually protecting a selling profitable product have individual value, but all the others are just window dressing.

[homemadetools]

Most patents are a joke. In the electronic industry employees are encourage to submit patent applications. I have more than a dozen but I am proud of only 3. You would not believe the crap that get patented, some is downright NOT working or based on sound theory and experimental success, some is so generalized that a pet toilet may be considered to infringe according to the claims, and some is so fundamental that probably the Egyptians has made use before switching to something more effective.
Yet, the idea is not to have a clever solution to a real problem. The is to have a stack of patents higher that the other company in an acquisition. The height of the patent stack, not necessarily the value, becomes a factor in assessing the value of the company in a merger or acquisition. Of course patents that are actually protecting a selling profitable product have individual value, but all the others are just window dressing.

And some patents have got to be jokes. Looking through the patent database for gems is a favorite pastime on my site. A couple of good picks:

Butt kicking machine patent


High five patent

[John Hasler]

I notice that fees have not been paid for the butt-kicking patent. On the other hand, it appears that the high-fiver inventer has actually paid the fees (which amount to quite a lot!).

[Bentworker]

Interesting.

I got a surprise a little over a decade ago when I built something. I took it to Laguna Seca raceway, a Pleasanton CA Good Guys car show and had it on some online forums. People loved it, probably hundreds of photos were taken. For me to build them I figured they would cost me about twice what people were willing to pay. Fast forward about 2 1/2 years and some guy out of Texas patented what I had built, and started production in China. They were a big hit, Jay Leno (& I think Ellen too) had them on their shows. I have no idea if the other guy independently thought up the idea, or if he saw photos or the build of it online, or possibly photos in a publication, maybe even in person.

The big difference was the other guy was willing to make them overseas.

[homemadetools]

Yup, the concept of independent invention that you're talking about is called Multiple discovery. A list of historical multiple discoveries is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... iscoveries . The jet engine is a famous one. Going way back to pre-history, I'm sure things like the wheel or even the hammer were of course multiple discoveries.

Sometimes a guy will post a tool on our forum, and we'll discover, after the fact, that it was patented by someone else, sometimes many years ago, and none of us, including the builder, had any idea.

When you think it out logically, it's quite a stretch to believe that any one of us could legitimately be the first person in the entire history of humanity to build something. In the 20+ years I've spent in DIY forums, I've only one time ever seen a legitimate patent issue come up. I think it was a metalworking or automotive forum, but I can't remember. Someone posted a how-to on making a tool. The patent owner complained, and the post was deleted.

[tornitore45]

Someone posted a how-to on making a tool. The patent owner complained, and the post was deleted.

Ironic because the very concept of a patent is the disclosure of the secret sauce. In practice, after the layer write it up is nearly impossible to figure it out.
I can not understand my own patents reading the application document.

[John Hasler]

Interesting.

I got a surprise a little over a decade ago when I built something. I took it to Laguna Seca raceway, a Pleasanton CA Good Guys car show and had it on some online forums. People loved it, probably hundreds of photos were taken. For me to build them I figured they would cost me about twice what people were willing to pay. Fast forward about 2 1/2 years and some guy out of Texas patented what I had built, and started production in China. They were a big hit, Jay Leno (& I think Ellen too) had them on their shows. I have no idea if the other guy independently thought up the idea, or if he saw photos or the build of it online, or possibly photos in a publication, maybe even in person.

The big difference was the other guy was willing to make them overseas.

Based on the above his patent is probably unenforceble.