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Hicks Sticks

The issue I see with narrow standoffs is the stick kicking, larger foot print leaves less as cantilever. Which is why I think the lean more towards a forked out look


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Im hoping that by leaving some of the material at a full half inch thick in continuous strips along the height of the stick I will be able to minimize the deflection. @Weldabeast

Half inch aluminum is pretty damn stiff. Unfortunately I dont have any way to model the stresses with a computer. They may just fold up like a beer can, we will see.

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ThereWillBeSpuds said:
Im hoping that by leaving some of the material at a full half inch thick in continuous strips along the height of the stick I will be able to minimize the deflection. @Weldabeast

Half inch aluminum is pretty damn stiff. Unfortunately I dont have any way to model the stresses with a computer. They may just fold up like a beer can, we will see.

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Woah...I didn't realize u have thick plate to start with... Thick ribs will be much better... Or go the other route and go thin plate and have it bent to box it in. Honestly I'm really surprised there haven't been a boxed plate stick or platform design yet...easy to make, if u have the right tools, which I don't...any press break operator on this forum? U guys see where I'm going with this
 
Weldabeast said:
Woah...I didn't realize u have thick plate to start with... Thick ribs will be much better... Or go the other route and go thin plate and have it bent to box it in. Honestly I'm really surprised there haven't been a boxed plate stick or platform design yet...easy to make, if u have the right tools, which I don't...any press break operator on this forum? U guys see where I'm going with this
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I had not considered that approach actually, but yeah, I don't have the right tool or enough experience with it to know how to design the stick for that manufacturing process.

Yeah the thick plate is gonna kill me on material cost and machining time, but they are for me, so I can afford to waste a bunch of time.

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I'll be sending you a cease and desist letter this week on the name of your sticks, I've been using it for 54 years so far! Hoping this works out for you, good to at least something a little different from the standard format.

John Hicks
 
Bwhana said:
I'll be sending you a cease and desist letter this week on the name of your sticks, I've been using it for 54 years so far! Hoping this works out for you, good to at least something a little different from the standard format.

John Hicks
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Funny, I have a cousin named John Hicks, Hes a sniper for the Aiken County, SC sherif.
 
here is a basic outilne of my plan, Total width of 8" Inside of the bottom step ins 7" Overall length is 24"

Plan would be to use a 1/8 inch ball nose endmill to cut some channels along the face and rear of the long struts as well as in the thiccc area of the middle of the bow tie, except where I mount the camcleat.

The two holes at the bottom and at the top are for mounting the standoffs.

I used an online laser cutting service to estimate the weight, based on just the existing profile, not counting bolts or standoffs, but also not including any weight saving relief cuts, this part weighs 2lb.

I am also considering shortening it to 18 inches overall so that it is less wide than me, so if I strap it on my lumbar pack it wont grab too much brush.

I fully intend to add aiders to these, btw.
 

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20 inch version looks like this, leaning toward this scale, gives a 19" step length and a weight before standoffs and relief cuts of 1.7lb
 

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Ill be honest, I am basing these proportions off of "that looks pretty strong". So, perhaps this form-factor in the hands of an actual engineer could yield some much flimsier looking but still strong sticks. Id love to get them down to the 1lb mark, but I wont sacrifice safety to do so, and I dont have unlimited money and time to shave metal off these things until they aren't strong enough anymore, you know?

The lightening plan is to use a 1/8" ball nose endmill to cut channels along all 4 struts, on the front and back, leaving about 0.1 inches of structure in the bottom of each channel. I dont have any reliable way of easily calulating how much weight that would shave, or how strong the resulting struts would be.

Another thing I am thinking about is the best way to make the stacked sticks stay stacked. Any bright ideas? first person to say "glass filled plastic pegs" gets a sassy fingerwag.
 
ThereWillBeSpuds said:
Another thing I am thinking about is the best way to make the stacked sticks stay stacked. Any bright ideas? first person to say "glass filled plastic pegs" gets a sassy fingerwag.
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Seems like the auto-stacking feature is one that often fails and causes problems - 2 recent examples that come to mind are hawk’s suction cups and the plastic pegs you mentioned. If these nest together as neatly as you intend then a stack of 3 should only be like 3” thick around the waist, right? Why not keep it simple and use a nite ize gear tie?
 
drew13 said:
Seems like the auto-stacking feature is one that often fails and causes problems - 2 recent examples that come to mind are hawk’s suction cups and the plastic pegs you mentioned. If these nest together as neatly as you intend then a stack of 3 should only be like 3” thick around the waist, right? Why not keep it simple and use a nite ize gear tie?
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This is a good idea, K.I.S.S.

However, Has anybody ever tried neodymium magnets for stacking?

Could be a slick system if properly sized and positioned and silenced.

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ThereWillBeSpuds said:
This is a good idea, K.I.S.S.

However, Has anybody ever tried neodymium magnets for stacking?

Could be a slick system if properly sized and positioned and silenced.

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Click to expand...

word of advice, don’t leave the magnets on the dining table while you’re outside flipping steaks. Heard a loud scream, came in to see my dad and the tip of his middle finger had figured out how strong the magnets were.

and yes, it’s been toyed with. It’s the answer, but it will take a bit of time/effort to find the right combo of strength/location for the magnets.
 
kyler1945 said:
word of advice, don’t leave the magnets on the dining table while you’re outside flipping steaks. Heard a loud scream, came in to see my dad and the tip of his middle finger had figured out how strong the magnets were.

and yes, it’s been toyed with. It’s the answer, but it will take a bit of time/effort to find the right combo of strength/location for the magnets.
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The machinist in me wants to make something like an indicator base. A permanent magnet that can be turned on and off.

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So my first step is gonna be to make a beam with the cross section I intend to have for my sticks to test it for rigidity without wasting a giant piece of aluminum.

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Mill out a channel on the back of 1 stick, leave a ridge on the front of 1 stick and a channel on the back (this would be the middle of the stack) and leave a ridge on the 3rd stick... Then they would nest together...ridge fits into channel....u could countersink some magnets so they stay together. Back of stick 1 has female channel, stick 2 has male ridge that fits into female channel... Hopefully that makes sense.. Hard to explain in text
 
@Weldabeast I'm kinda getting what you are saying. My actual plan is to fill all my relief cuts with expanding foam and then cut them flush. This should reduce the tendency to ring, I also intend to vetwrap them, so all my stacking tolerances need to accommodate that fact.

My current plan is to put a lobe on the bottom of the top step that slips into a space between the two bolts that hold the top standoff on.

Then on the bottom standoffs press fit a steel pin into each standoff, offset so that when stacked they all line up, then have a strong magnet on the first stick that is in a delrin puck in a little channel so that it can be slid on and off of the steel pin, locking the sticks together.

So to stack you would nest the lobe on each stick into the space in the top standoff, then slide the magnet into place, locking the bottom standoffs together.

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