Wow! That’s amazing, I’ve never heard of a blue bee. That’s just really cool. I bet it was confusing when you first saw it. I’ve heard of/seen solitary bees but didn’t think about it. Did a little beekeeping work as a kid.

We’ve got a couple weird ones on the other side of the pond that I’ve been around. (wasps, actually)

Cow killer/Red velvet ant it’s sting is in the top 10 for most painful. They’re beautiful.

Cicada Killers are huge, 5cm/2in long. I had one fall out of a tree with a cicada right next to me. I thought it was birds fighting.

Didn’t even think it about it not being a honey a bee. You’re right.

Drones don’t have stingers. Queens and workers have stingers. Queens are from worker larva that are fed royal jelly that transforms them into a queen that is capable of reproduction. Workers are technically female but they’re closer to asexual.

So, that badass enby ace bee gave that motherfucker what for.

The whole Tankie thing. Just like MAGAts but on the other side. They’re authoritarian left with lots of Chinese and possibly Russian influence. Far left most of us support are on the opposite end of the authoritarian/individualistic axis from both Tankies and MAGAts.

Was looking up tracks in a field guide the other day and ran across this super cute rodent, The Mountain Beaver.

Jerboa has served well as the replacement for me.

Don’t they slightly increase rain and slightly decrease UV? The particulate in the exhaust acts as nucleation sites for water droplets and crystals.

Lunchables! You gotta keep that. Wonder if his Mommy still packs his lunchables and lays out his clothes every morning.

So other than clit-mouse, what’s the actual name of the nubbin thingy?

Ladies, and non-binary feminine aliens, this is my Horga’hn.

My son and I laughed our asses off over that presentation. Brilliant but kind of disgusting.

Hand code is still used. Most frequently, a sub is hand coded with incremental moves and then called at a point. A lot of probing, weird moves, edge cases all still get hand coded.

Hand editing CAM produced programs constantly occurs at the machine as well.

3D printing gcode is pretty ugly because hobbyists “improved” the language without really understanding why it was so stripped down.

Modern Gcode is really meant to be machine generated and human readable/editable.

Damn skippy. Gaslighting and basic ass lying are different things. But hey, it’s trendy right now. Next, we’ll find out how he’s a malignant narcissist.

Dude posted a shill review. It’s called shilling. It’s a form of lying for profit. He likely did it to advance his career or because he was afraid not to. His employer likely encouraged the action without directly ordering it.

I imagine the pipeline for a lot of users is some variant of:

BBS/Usenet | Slashdot/SomethingAwful/Ars Technica | Digg | Reddit | Lemmy

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.