I’m a redneck. Not inbred more than normal, as far as I know. I think I’m purty smart sometimes. Since you and I are 50th cousins, at worst, you’ve got some redneck in you.

Don’t be like the fascists. Don’t get lazy in your thinking. Our antagonists are human, some are very intelligent.

To defeat their ideology, we must view them accurately. Otherwise, how will we anticipate what they will do?

I dug into ‘Creation Science’ for a while as a result of the cognitive dissonance. Trying to square reason and science with religion and belief in an inerrant Bible. Ultimately, I lost my religion and had an existential crisis that lasted about a year.

It was terrible. Panic attacks and circular thinking. An existential crisis is depression’s cousin. Painful, frightening, and eventually exciting. I’m free now. I got rid of the slavery that was pushed into me as a child. Still have to fight the guilt and bad thought patterns.

I was not successful in bringing any friends or family with me from before. I tried. I have regrets, but would do it again.

Just a note on the efficacy of activist messages in FOSS.

In the Aughts, I was learning to play with microcontrollers. PIC microcontrollers were free as well as the JAL language. I ordered a hardware programmer from the Dutch guy who created JAL: Wouter van Ooijen. Probably my first purchase online. There was a statement in the license, to the effect of, the language could not be used to develop arms.

Looking back, that was a turning point for me. I was machining arms for a living and continued to do so for years. It got me to thinking about what it was that I was producing with my hands. Weapons for killing people.

I thought about it a lot. All these things I was making with blood and sweat being used to kill people. Running machines on night shift gives you time to think.

His statement was, at minimum, at least partially responsible for me changing my mind. I grew past the bad religion and far right ideology that I was taught.

I’m going to send him a thank you note.

Did you read the article? If you have a problem with the political messages he is adding to the releases, you’ve probably been brainwashed by a government or a political party. He’s not saying anything controversial, mostly just “Hey y’all, genocide bad.”

That is not a cheap toy. I’ve heard of them, never seen one. What is it and how much was it?

So, say I have a POE outdoor router that is TP-link. It is wired to my main router and is the network for outdoor cameras. How bad an idea is this?

Been using 10th gen kindle, 5.17.1 firmware, as my daily driver. It’s not jailbroken, use calibre server to download my alternately sourced ebooks, convert to .mobi as needed.

I looked at Winterbreak. Decided not to fool with it as I can still sail with stock.

Any advantage to a jailbreak other than future proofing against side loading being disabled?

You may already know this, but is commonly taught by evangelical fundy Protestants that Catholicism isn’t Christianity. It is considered a polytheistic cult due to the praying to and veneration of saints. By these group’s definition: Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses are not Christians.

Me? I think they all suck, but, I was raised by the fundies.

Nifty. Just deleted mine.

I started with Surfcam then MasterCAM, done some TEBIS, Fusion 360, AutoCAD, Eagle, Solidworks, and probably some others. I’ve even used inkscape and GIMP to cleanup and convert images into models for measurements and reverse engineering.

I have never had the trouble I have with FreeCAD. Have seen others complain about it as well.

Metal printing and such would be in the context of building a CNC shop and him being proficient at modeling and such after playing with an FDM printer for a few years. We’re talking a pro grade printer and sintering oven. If he has the interest, my son could handle printing and I would handle CNC. That’s the dream. Requires tens of thousands of dollars. Baby steps first to see if he has the drive. Bambu is almost certainly not on the list unless I trip up on an incredible deal.

I guess my ultimate goal is that he learn to model and begin building proficiency with CAD to prepare him for CAM. I also want him to start getting a feel for CNC movement and thinking in Cartesian. I think the best way to get there is by getting him engaged in printing. I’m not sure if tinkering will help or hinder this process. I know it helped for me, but I’m not sure if it will for him. I think it might. Still pondering the appropriate level of tinkering, but am leaning towards Voron, not sure if that’s my personal bias.

Yah, these days I refer to anyone under 30 as a kid. Especially in a manufacturing or trade context.

I check on FreeCAD every so often. The UI team should be forced to wear underwear made from pinecones until they fix that horror. Been doing CAD/CAM for more than two decades and FreeCAD is so unintuitive that it is unusable. Making a sketch or taking a measurement shouldn’t require research. Recently tried it again and was unable to sketch angles for a brace I was making and needed dims on. Tried libreCAD (unfortunately 2d only) and was able to get my angles and lengths in 15min or so without any tutorials.

I hear and agree with what you’re saying about open CAD software. However, I don’t want my son trying to learn something that will just frustrate him. I wish OSS would catch up on CAD/CAM, I could ditch windows for good.

I watched the RepRap development back in the day, but eventually stopped following 3D printing closely. (Ended up with an Atlas Craftsman lathe with milling attachment that did all the home manufacturing I needed). Prussa and Voron are our top contenders for printers now. He’s got a spreadsheet where he’s comparing specs and I’m getting him to read the quick starts and manuals.

I’m going to dig into the Voron world and see if it’s a reasonable project for me to support my son on. Not sure if it will be beyond his attention span. Otherwise it will be either a Prussa or maybe an Ender.

FDM for now. Not planning on doing casting or proto mockups at this time.

Envelope is not a large concern, I assume it is similar to machining. You buy 1.5x the size you think you need and find out it should have been twice as big. The plan is to cut teeth on this printer before moving to something better/larger.

Mostly want to use the printer as a tool, not bothered if some tinkering is required. A Harbor Freight machine like a drill press or band saw is a ‘kit’. Use it for a little bit, take it apart and fix the manufacturing shortcomings. I’m okay with a printer of similar build quality as long as the bones are good.

Voron sounds interesting, have seen the Enders as well, seem to be okay.

I get what you’re expressing. I’m not going to try and force him to enjoy it if he hates it.

However, he’s about to be as old as I was when I got my first job. Some personal discipline is necessary. The family business is going to be machining and at minimum, he will push buttons and load parts at some point.

He spends several hours a day playing Storm works and has been teaching himself the Lua scripting that is in it. He has expressed interest in civil engineering, architect, and all sorts of mechanical things. He’s nuts about cars, tractors, trucks.

We’re kind of reaching the point where the rubber meets the road. I have provided Arduinos, discrete component kits, knives for whittling, his own rolling tool chest, pirate server, rpi, FFA involvement, python, and so on. There has been some engagement, but, not the deep engagement he shows with gamified machines.

I need him spending less time gaming, even if it is an engineering based game, and more time building some practical skills. He’s at the age to begin transitioning to an adult. He’ll be driving soon. It is time to be a little firmer about learning real world mechanical skills. It’s my duty.

He’s been very excited about the printers at school and the seat of Fusion. I’m hoping this will spark the fire.

Given his interests, it’s critical he actually learn how to model instead of playing with the limited implementation in something like stormworks. (He frequently shows me machinery he’s built in game and we discuss them.)

He did built a kit picnic table this year, where he had to chop saw the 2x4s and screw it together. I’ve about got RTFM hammered into him.

I’m also pushing him to research his interests instead of just watching YouTube videos. He doesn’t have to be a machinist or even mechanical, even though his interests are there. However, he must begin learning how to work and teach himself.

I was sitting around stoned out of my gourd with a coworker (pizza delivery). We were listening to music with the stereo way up and he played this album. He was watching me when it started, kept a straight face through it, died laughing when it got to rabbits wearing glasses. Damn, that’s a good memory.

I like this idea. We’re raising chickens and probably rabbits this spring. If you’re going to eat meat, you should face the reality of the life you are consuming.

My girl makes that decision and wants to keep the holder as well.

I actually have a wood lathe and all the other tooling to make one, not that I would.

I’ve been fixing the place up since August. It’s a farm that hasn’t been properly maintained in about 20 years.

I’m doing my best to build to the standard of the original owner and his son with modern materials and methods. It’s a humbling experience. Nothing is quite square but everything is built like it’s bomb proof. You couldn’t afford to build out of solid wood like they did. The joints and meets are also super tight, you can’t get a sheet of paper between roof boards on the barn in most places.