Machinist

My son is about ready for his first printer. His school is running Cetus MK3 printers, he has a class using them, and his teacher has recommended this printer. He also has an educational seat of Fusion 360.

I'm proficient with Mastercam and hand written/modified G-code. I can help him with CAD no problem. Alignment, assembly, adjustment, and backlash are second nature for me. Have a little better than layman's understanding of printers. (Lusted over the Markforged printer that could do continuous carbon fiber.)

Eventually, will be building my own shop and hope my son might work with me. Hope to include printing, especially in metal.

I've seen some of the flap about Bambu and them closing up the software tool chain. I would like to avoid that sort of thing, for now, openness is better.

Top of my budget is around $500, with $200 probably being better.

Usable prints for tooling/spacers/repairs would be a bonus as would being able to print UV resistant plastic.

My goal for him is to get gud at modelling and get a feel for computer controlled movement. Another goal, harder to describe, is him finding the joy in mechanical tinkering and producing an idea made physical.

Thank you much! What do?

I have added a wifi repeater to the outside of my home so that my wife can watch her critter cams. It is a POE device that runs all the way back to my router.

Would like to install this surge protector but I'm getting conflicting information on grounding it. My installation is to the side of my house, not a metal pole.

Lowest effort options first, I can:

A. Place the protector inside near where the CAT5 enters the basement. Ground to a junction box that I installed that is grounded to the house panel and rod.

B. Ground internally to a water pipe or externally to the outdoor spigot.

C. Drive a ground rod where the cable exits the house and ground to it.

D. Repeat C and also bond to to the pre-existing home ground rod. (Least preferable option, rods would be on opposite corners of house.)

They hate each other so much.

Just looking up some DIY medical procedures and then the unwanted AI goes off the rails.

Another before:

It's green Vermont slate, figured out that it was originally painted black and marbled. Victorian thing, faux marble mantels. Fireplace is also Victorian faux, red brick, would have had logs and a red light. I'll be putting in a gas insert at some point.

Started at 220grit, and worked up to 1000. Finished with a 50/50 mix of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits:

Didn't realize slate could be this pretty and figured:

Cishet male. In no way do I mean offense or have I tried to take advantage of lower functioning individuals, that's just sick. Best I can figure, I'm a typical. Maybe I'm a little crazy; but who isn't.

During a discussion about my son's neurodivergency, I realized I have a 'type' of woman. (Son is technically stepson, but he's my boy.) I tend to be attracted to high functioning women that are on the spectrum.

I've been in four relationships with divergent women, three serious and two extended friends with benefits. I've been in two serious relationships with typical women. Many flings with typical women. Figure that's pretty statistically unlikely.

In my experience, divergent women tend to have a refreshing openness in communication. Painfully honest. Direct. They have some weird stuff that can be alternately cute and irritating. When sleeping they either don't like to snuggle or like being an octopus. (My preference is octopus but my wife only tolerates some side contact.) They like to discuss instead of argue. Sexually adventurous and willing to work for satisfaction. They prefer precision in statements. I find myself writing in an extended way that I don't engage in with other people and try and pay attention to grammar and punctuation. Pretty sure this doesn't apply to all women on the spectrum, just my 'type'.

I dunno, just a strange realization, especially at this stage of life. It's not a fetish, just something that has occurred.

Like this is hitting me real hard. I can feel the sadness and the fight. They're good boys and and don't deserve what's coming down. They have some good religion. I'd like to be like these men. We fight for the ones we love.

In the final stages of moving from the deep south to a northern state.

I used to run a shop under a corporation. Long story, but I integrated the shop, and built something beautiful. I had to use a temp service to do a lot of my hiring, I hired lots of black folks because they were undervalued and I could give them a good environment and pay. Was just starting to hire women. COVID and Qanon blew it the fuck up.

Tomorrow I'll be having lunch with two of my former crew. One of them is the only man I've ever called brother. He was my neighbor and best friend for years. I would have trusted him to help me hide a body. The other feller was a kind and gentle guy, had a bad divorce but was a teddy bear, was on the road back up.

They both went down the rabbit hole real bad.

I miss who they were and the shop we had. It was fucking jazz. I protected all of them from corporate. We made shit happen. I fought to get them more money and got fucked over myself.

I've lost my parents, my grandfather, my aunts and uncles and cousins to the insanity. Thank jeebus my grandmothers and one grandfather are dead.

Tomorrow I'm going to hug my brother and tell him goodbye. He isn't really my brother anymore. I don't trust him. I love him. He's not the man I knew.

It hurts a lot. It broke my heart.

*Edit

Lunch was good but rough. My son got to see me cry for the first time, afterwards, so I guess that was good.

Then my closest former friend came over this evening. Texted my girl:

"Holy fuck. Joe has some sort of grandpa weed that he he'd be saving. I hit once and I'm all fucked up. They smoked a whole blunt. Then I learned about how taking ivermectin was a good preventative and that Susan is actually a Mayan priestess discovered through astral projection."

Have lived in the deep south my entire life. Things went really badly during 2020 and we realized we needed to get out. Started saving and preparing, our plan was to move before the next election.

We have bought a 1920's farmhouse that still has 9 acres. 100 year old apple trees, blueberries, vineyard. It's amazing. Part of the land is industrial zoned with power and I'm going to build my machine shop there. We got a steal of a deal, it would be a $500k house and land here.

I bought a '98 Chevy box truck. The boy and I will be making our second trip tomorrow.

We're preparing to move about 1000mi.

I'm getting my truck ready to tow a trailer for our three potbelly pigs, two cats and a dog.

'98 Ranger XLT with 4.0L V6, auto trans. Rated for 5900lbs tow, 9500 gross. Even has the overdrive disable and good rear end ratio.

I'm adding a Redarc Liberty brake control. The 7-way plug kit I got includes 30 and 40 amp auto reset breakers for the control and trailer power.

Here's the thing. I don't like the idea of an automatically resetting breaker at 30 amps or more due to the risk of fire or frying the electronics in my truck. I would prefer to install manual reset breakers. I understand that an auto reset might allow some brake capability in the event of a short and that is why they are used. I just don't feel like the auto breaker justification is that likely vs the other risks of auto breakers.

How long does it take the auto breakers to reset?

What are the real world risks using manual reset breakers?

Opinions/thoughts greatly appreciated!

I use a Das Keyboard 4 Ultimate with cherry blues and love it. Have a good friend who likes using her grandson's gaming keyboard that I think is a nice membrane keyboard. She was interested in my keyboard as it is mechanical like the old keyboards she used back in the day.

We are both office users, not gamers.

I don't want to spend the $179 for a keyboard that might not be what she wants and there are better options now, from what I understand.

Can you please recommend a cherry blue mechanical with a number pad and a steel back plane?