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Return to Useless Machine Kit (Metal Hinge Version)
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  1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 
Not a complete or functional kit. Needs more work. August 2, 2011
Reviewer: Zev Goldberg from Chicago, IL United States  
CMD from SD, hit the nail on the head but was too kind with the stars.

Not including hinges in the kit is poor form.

The machine drained fresh batteries overnight. IT DOES NOT PERFORM ITS PRIMARY FUNCTION. I will have to do a little more research into the problem. If it's my fault, I will come back and amend my statement.

This is cute for a Make project or an Instructable. This is unacceptable to sell as a kit.

EDIT: After seeing the next review, from Roddy from Troy, I take back what I said about the faulty circuit design. My rating has been bumped from 1 to 3 stars, provided I can get it working with the original parts. Thanks for the hint. I will  check my work.

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  5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
 
Drained batteries due to ambiguous instructions August 2, 2011
Reviewer: Roddy from Troy, NY United States  
I, too, had a problem with drained batteries the first time I assembled it.  The problem is that the parts can be assembled so that everything looks like it's working as expected, but the rotor is merely blocked by the limit switch and not turned off, thus draining the batteries.  It's important at the "mid-assembly test" phase to ensure the motor turns *off* and doesn't merely wedge itself against the switch.  For example, test this by flipping the toggle to reverse direction and quickly hit the limit switch with your finger to make sure it cuts the power.

(Fixing it for me required completely disassembling the box and flipping the parts because the mounting holes on the bottom are almost, but not quite, symmetric.  The fact that everything lined up the first time lulled me into a false sense of security that it was all working.)

Once I did this, the batteries stopped draining; it works fine, and never fails to make people laugh when they play with it in my office at work.


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  1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
 
Fun beginner project July 24, 2011
Reviewer: CMD from San Diego, CA United States  
I really enjoyed putting this together and think it is pretty hilarious.  But I do think there are a couple drawbacks to this project.  One is that it has this nice spiffy acrylic box, but you make the hinges from tape.  They work...but come on...that could be better.  The second, and I have to stress I might have just screwed up (I'm a noob at this kinda stuff), but I think it is constantly drawing power from the battery pack for the "fingers" to press down on the lever switch.  So if you leave the batteries in over night, they are drained by morning.  I would advise checking out the schematics first if you think this is a deal breaker.  I tried installing a second switch on the battery pack so I can turn it off and it seems to have worked.  I just think if the switch could be low profile slide or something out of a precut hole that would have been better (and maybe with an LED power light).

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  1 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
 
Such a despicable waste. July 22, 2011
Reviewer: Anonymous Person  
This is the sort of product that makes me want to stop shopping here. What a total waste of materials that could have been put into making something useful. Do you really want to support this sort of wastefulness by continuing to offer products that are completely dedicated to being useless?

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