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Thread: Something a little different
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1st October 2012, 07:53 PM #1Philomath in training
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- Adelaide
- Age
- 59
- Posts
- 3,148
Something a little different
As some of you know, I do volunteer work for a group called "Technical Aid to the Disabled" (TAD), where we make up gadgets for people with needs that can not be filled commercially.
The last few weekends have been taken up with a project that is a little unusual. A guy in a wheelchair that I believe has been in an accident and suffered some form of brain injury is a smoker and at the assisted living place that he lives at they were complaining that he was burning his clothes etc with the by-products when smoking in his chair - could we help?
This is the result -
P1010481 (Medium).JPGP1010482 (Medium).JPGP1010483 (Medium).JPG
It attaches to the arm of his wheelchair and a plastic tube attaches to a spigot on the main barrel so that he will smoke via tube. It had to be enclosed as he 'fiddles with things', so it has a perforated metal cover and a brass screw down knob to hold the cover closed. The holder itself has an eject mechanism on it so that when the butt has burnt out, it can be removed from the holder. It can also tilt up around 15 degrees for ease of insertion and lighting. Every so often a carer will have to remove the ashtray and empty it, but it should hold ash from several cigarettes between empties.
(I'm a non-smoker, so trying to work out what features a smoker needs was interesting in itself.)
Materials are all things I had lying around - this work is great for convincing the other half that all that equipment gets used and that stuff that was scrounged from various places will get used.
Most states have TAD offices, so if you have some spare time and fancy the occasional challenge consider signing up(we also have guys that do clever things with electronics too).
Michael
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1st October 2012, 09:10 PM #2.
- Join Date
- Nov 2008
- Location
- Perth WA
- Age
- 71
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- 5,641
Clever Michael. Well done.
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1st October 2012, 10:14 PM #3Senior Member
- Join Date
- Apr 2010
- Location
- Rural Victoria
- Posts
- 359
That's awesome. Having seen disability from the other side (cauda equina syndrome- thanks to a genius surgeon I can still walk but my productivity has been reduced somewhat) and with the third diagnosis of Autism coming up for my third child, it is great to know that there are people who volunteer their time and talents for those less fortunate.
Probably not OHS approved... but who cares? Quality of life should be the over-riding factor.
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1st October 2012, 10:21 PM #4SENIOR MEMBER
- Join Date
- Jun 2012
- Location
- SA
- Posts
- 1,477
Nice job.
Looks very professional.
You could always add a magazine loader if he's a chain smoker
Maybe this video will help.
Smoking machine by Kristoffer Myskja - YouTube
Cheers
Rob
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2nd October 2012, 12:04 AM #5GOLD MEMBER
- Join Date
- May 2011
- Location
- Murray Bridge SA
- Posts
- 2,956
Certainly is.
Hi Michael G, that is a neat setup. I have a friend who had a stoke, is now in a motorised wheelchair and has similar problems. I made up a split tube for his ciggy lighter, mobile phone mounted on the left side and a holder for his coffee mug on the right. Have thought about TAD from time to time but find it difficult to get to Gilles Plains. I use to have a steel fabrication business in the Salisbury area. If I can help out at any time, for anyone in Murray Bridge area please do not hesitate to contact me.
Keep up the good work.
Regards
Kryn