That does look rather neat. Best invention since the beer can hat. But we need a good review. Does it really work as well as in that video, or do the birds get stuck often. Maybe we should ask twobeer, or another Swedish member, to get his hands on one of these and let us know.
I was very interested, but Im in the uk and can't get my hands on one without paying an extortionate amount of tax and shipment costs and such
Tax from Sweden? We'll get a nice 5% discount then (19% even to Switzerland I think). Saw it's selling for €60 in France ... It's a pipe, how much can it possibly weigh? Only problem could be the dimensions with regards to shipping method/cost ...
I contacted them and they told me that the cost of the "extras" far surpassed that of the product itself. Back to my original plan of trying to find an appropriately wide plastic tube.
Some did one for himself using a tube used for building materials, here is an image : http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/607/photoubb.jpg/ ideally, you need an internal diameter of the tube from 62 to 65 mm but he only had a bigger diameter so he fix it using some cardboard and aluminium stuff. Good luck. There is only one shop in France that sells this tube as they are the exclusive distributor of the Fukuda system.
Yep, years ago I made a similar thing starting from a rigid plastic tube. In my opinion these are the main design issues: finding a suitable tube: choose a thin-walled plastic tube having correct diameter (you want it to be as light as possible) use an ordninary wrist band at the lower end of the tube, magically it will work as a perfect shuttle dispenser you want to use some kind of cap or plug to prevent the shuttles from coming off from the top end during transportation ( in my case a standard ball used in floorball works quite well ) I think all the rest is quite easy to figure out, or is not that critical. Some people prefer feeding the shuttles from their arm, but using this kind of a tube gives you some more freedom: if you are feeding for your partner training his straight smash, you can easily play a net block return for your partner to rush. I guess it is not impossible to accomplish the same thing when you have some 20 shuttles on your arm, but at least in my case it is a lot easier when I am using the tube.
can anyone suggest a suitable "name" for those flexible tubes? What on earth are they called. I have tried as many google search variants on plastic flexible tubing I can think of, and nothing I tried works. Any thoughts?
Why not try "plastic tube" http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/270546978/Plastic_tube.html Anywayz, for that kind of stuff I would go to a local hardware or DIY store to check out what they have. To me it seems that the tube is similar to water drain lines that you might consider using in garden or under your house... There could also be some other options.
They are called the "raidyourlocalconstructionsite tube" Or you can try searching for "cable protection pipe/ tube" Had exactly these kinds of tubes in mind as well for a DIY. Apparently some even come with a smooth inner wall
demolidor: i could have guessed that name Thanks for the more sensible suggestion too. That comes up with lots of things that look about right!
I found some under the qualifications : electric cable protection or something similar. They are used as tube where you run the electric cables during construction. Something similar to that : http://www.electriduct.com/Wire-Loom.html Don't Fukuda get some distributor in the UK?
I made my own version of this 10 years ago and have recently updated it. Matthew, I have a spare which I'll bring to Lilleshall if I remember so you can have a go. Paul www.badminton-coach.co.uk
I'm working on developing these right now...definitely cheaper than 60 Euros too! Will post a pic and vid when it's done.