Quote from: Nearings Fault on Dec 18, 2024, 07:02 AMCongrats on the new venture. I hope you figure out your printer issues. We purchased a printed part for a set of headphones last year that put it back in service and was unavailable through regular retail markets. A greenhouse owner has a special clip printed by the same person to hold her irrigation hose without screwing into the aluminum arches. I see a great future for this kind of service. Aging semi retired tech gods doing some at home puttering to keep things working. It would be a good energy dump load for extra summer solar production as well. It's downright uplifting. As usual I'm sure the negatives get the press such as ghost guns and sextoys. I don't post much these days; nothing personal I just am busy being out there building stuff.

Gr8 2 hear from U NF! 

I will eventually work this out I think.  I ordered a memory stick and I will manually save the .stl file onto the stick, then move it over to the printer to load and print it.  A little cumbersome and a major kludge, but until the networking problems are solved it should keep me printing.

The positive side to this is that since there is more to it than just pushing a Print button, working with it you develop a skill set and knowledge which makes you valuable.  Particularly when you star messing with other materials besides just the PLA plastic, which is finnicky emough by itself.  For any given project or part somebody wants, you need to decide what material would work best for it, then you have to know your machine and its idiosycracies to get the right temperature settings, distnce from the build plate, in-fill amount etc to end up with a good print and functional part.  Plus of course on the design end you have to know how to use a 3D CAD program to create the.stl files the printer uses to guide the machine.

So yea, it's definitely a good hobby/bizness for the old retired tinkering type of guy.  I think anyone who enjoys doing carpentry type projects would enjoy it.  It gives you additional range to be able to make stuff you either can't make or are impractical to do with wood.  Finally, it's small enough and cheap enough that you don't have to be rich with a big shop space to have one.  I'm actually a little surprised you haven't got one for yourself.  Right up your alley, and would make your DIY projects easier to accomplish.

RE

Quote from: RE on Dec 18, 2024, 08:15 AM

Quote from: Nearings Fault on Dec 18, 2024, 07:02 AMCongrats on the new venture. I hope you figure out your printer issues. We purchased a printed part for a set of headphones last year that put it back in service and was unavailable through regular retail markets. A greenhouse owner has a special clip printed by the same person to hold her irrigation hose without screwing into the aluminum arches. I see a great future for this kind of service. Aging semi retired tech gods doing some at home puttering to keep things working. It would be a good energy dump load for extra summer solar production as well. It's downright uplifting. As usual I'm sure the negatives get the press such as ghost guns and sextoys. I don't post much these days; nothing personal I just am busy being out there building stuff.

Gr8 2 hear from U NF! 

I will eventually work this out I think.  I ordered a memory stick and I will manually save the .stl file onto the stick, then move it over to the printer to load and print it.  A little cumbersome and a major kludge, but until the networking problems are solved it should keep me printing.

The positive side to this is that since there is more to it than just pushing a Print button, working with it you develop a skill set and knowledge which makes you valuable.  Particularly when you star messing with other materials besides just the PLA plastic, which is finnicky emough by itself.  For any given project or part somebody wants, you need to decide what material would work best for it, then you have to know your machine and its idiosycracies to get the right temperature settings, distnce from the build plate, in-fill amount etc to end up with a good print and functional part.  Plus of course on the design end you have to know how to use a 3D CAD program to create the.stl files the printer uses to guide the machine.

So yea, it's definitely a good hobby/bizness for the old retired tinkering type of guy.  I think anyone who enjoys doing carpentry type projects would enjoy it.  It gives you additional range to be able to make stuff you either can't make or are impractical to do with wood.  Finally, it's small enough and cheap enough that you don't have to be rich with a big shop space to have one.  I'm actually a little surprised you haven't got one for yourself.  Right up your alley, and would make your DIY projects easier to accomplish.

RE

I'll admit I've thought of it. It's one of those problems: yes I COULD do anything I set my mind to... BUT I cannot do everything. construction biz, solar biz, kids, relationship, energy consulting, some downtime... It's a lot. There is room for others to expand into their niches. The little I know of you it sounds like a good fit. Can you scan and duplicate a part? I could see that as a fun side hustle. Post an add offering a service see where it goes. You are in the money would be nice phase of life not the I make money or I'm on the street phase so you can let it grow.
Cheers,  NF

Quote from: Nearings Fault on Dec 18, 2024, 10:52 AMCan you scan and duplicate a part? I could see that as a fun side hustle. \

Sure.  There's a very good free app for your phone or tablet called KIRI Engine that does 3D scans.

https://www.kiriengine.app/

After scanning you usually need to clean it up a little before printing, but you can do it right in the app.

Once I get the thing working consistently and get the bugs ironed out, I'll probably put up an ad on Craig's list.  Also I want to get more experience with other materials.

RE

Well,the networking problems are still with us, but I have overcome the problem with using the USB port to load Gcode files from a USB stick.

When I first tried it, after saving a gcode file onto the stick and plugging it into the printer, nothing appeared on the printer screen when I hit the USB icon.  Back to support. 

Support tells me I need to use a USB stick <16GB that is FAT32 formatted.  You can hardly buy sticks with so little memory anymore, and most of them come exFAT formatted.  Win10 doesn't even format FAT32 built in.  However, I downloaded a utility that does and partitioned and reformatted a 64GB stick, and when I saved to that, POOF the file appeared on the printer screen and I was able to print from it. 

My product you see is at right is another design for a hex connector for model geodesic domes.  This ome allows you to use tubing for your struts and the channels run through the conneector so you can use it to run wiring or as plumbing.  What am I using for tubing here? Cocktail Straws!  lol.  I could actually make a 10' diameter geodesic dome out of the straws, and even though they are not very strong, as long as your joinery work is good with your cardboard or plywood triangles, the dome will self support.  In reality of course I'd never use such weak support struts for such a large dome, I'd use carbon fiber or aluminum tubing.

I should be able now to make steady progress with my other stuff also, and possibly be ready to start hunting down some SUITS to get some protection by early spring.  Then we move on from there to see about finding some Venture Capital.

Everybody here in the Gulag is gaga over how cool the printer is and loves watching it do its stuff.  My first contract, one of the nurses wants me to make the LOGO symbol for her band to put on her Drum Set.  Not sure what it looks like or how complicated it is yet.

It's a bit of a pain having to use the USB stick, but I'm OK with it even if I can't get the neyworking running.  As long as it runs.  Like the carz I owned over the years, I never cared what it looked like, long as it got me from point A to point B.

RE

Well, after close to a week of the printer doing its job making parts for me to test out my concepts, I can report both successes and failures.

The Geodesic Domes have seen several different versions of connectors while I worked out the best way to get them to securely snap together.  This won't be an issue for larger size domes bigger than around 4 feet, which will be joined with nuts and bolts at the node points.  However, for small toy domes to use either for doll houses, bird cages or mini-hydroponics kits, I want them to just snap together without hardware.  If I were to do it with nuts and bolts they would be tiny size ones which are a pain in the ass to work with.  I finally have a system which works pretty well I think though I have yet to print up a full dome's worth of parts.

My Developmental system has gone through a complete overhaul, and the cubes and tetrahedrons with the edge insets and holes are out, they just didn't work with the architectural models for the older kids.  However, I came up with a new, better concept for that which I have just begun designing the parts for.  There are a lot of different parts involved in the architecturla models, and making all the preschool shapes compatible and useful means they all have to be carefully dimensioned.  So this is going to take quite a bit of time.

As a result, I won't be looking for SUITS for a while, and my timeline of having products  ready for Xmas 2025 is out.  Everything is being pushed back a year.

The other reason I am delaying is the 3D Printer issues.  After about a week's worth of successful printing using the USB stick method a new problem has now cropped up, it's not loading the filament properly.  So it's once again offline and just a big paperweight cluttering my room.  I have about had it with this printer and am ready to write it off as a learning experience and buy a new one from another manufacturer.  I'm getting recommendations from one of the tech support guys for the CAD progtam I use to find one that they support.  If I can find one under $500, I'll buy it.  I'm offering the one I have for sale for $150, if any of you are interested.  There's a CNA here who's interested, so it may go soon.  I've been up front with him about the issues but he likes to tinker and the challenge.

Anyhow, it's still keeping me busy and occupied, but it's gonna be a while before I get rich. lol.

RE

Quote from: RE on Dec 24, 2024, 12:20 PMAnyhow, it's still keeping me busy and occupied, but it's gonna be a while before I get rich. lol.
RE

"Busy and occupied" makes perfect sense, considering the limitations of your circumstances.

But you've had an entire lifetime to get rich, and even after getting helped out by the Illuminati at a young age you couldn't get that one done. Why the interest now? You've got everything you need, living at the largesse of the taxpayers. You've got EV wheels, computer gear, 3 hots and a cot. It is a good thing you can't get out and roam around, you barely made it over one of those cable bumps at the fairgrounds without being thrown of your EV. At least if it had happened there after you called out the old fart slogan of "help me! I've fallen and I can't get up!", after that first giggle at the sight, one of bystanders being fine Christian folk, would have helped you out.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

QuoteBut you've had an entire lifetime to get rich, and even after getting helped out by the Illuminati at a young age you couldn't get that one done.

Meritocracy is a lie.


If you think inequality is the result of a disparity in individual effort you are full of shit.

Quote from: K-Dog on Dec 25, 2024, 03:57 PM

QuoteBut you've had an entire lifetime to get rich, and even after getting helped out by the Illuminati at a young age you couldn't get that one done.

Meritocracy is a lie.

If you think inequality is the result of a disparity in individual effort you are full of shit.

Good thing I don't think what you think I think! After all, I am not you. In my experience, in success there is luck, personality, persistance, smarts (of differing kinds...irritating kinds...good kinds...and the kind that deliver results), who you know, timing, the economy at the time, and so on and so forth.

The quote you pulled is EXACTLY NOT ABOUT MERITOCRACY. It is about the Illuminati....roaming the world, hiding in the darkness and collecting those who, as RE says, have fathers who are mysterious Illuminati like figures themselves...and helping their children (regardless of the size of their children's brain pan) succeed regardless of merit.

I was just figuring that between RE having gone to the cool kids school in NYC AND unfair help from the Illuminati he should have been GOLDEN! Never said anything about him deserving to be rich. Hell, he should have had that just with an inheritance! Completely supports your idea that not everyone gets what they deserve through merit, and some who might APPEAR to deserve can still screw it up for themselves.

What a lovely Xmas gift.  An insulting post.  Now I get to drop you in the cooler.

Getting rich has always taken a back seat to my other priorities, namely doing what I like to do without working too hard. lol.  Generally speaking, as long as I have enough to eat and a roof over my head that's enough for me.  The only reason to get rich now is to have seed money to found a SUN Community.

See you in 2025.

RE