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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: December 27th, 2023

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  • Sometimes we might not do a great job because we didn’t know what we were doing and other times we were geniuses because we had messed up so many times before that we finally figured out how to do it right.

    As I grow older, I find this is how you become an ‘expert’. You start not knowing how to do it, then you figure out all the wrong ways to do it by doing it wrong. Eventually, when you have messed it up in more ways than anyone else you know which paths not to take and you are then the expert.










  • A Solid Model (CAD) file (while very useful) doesn’t contain all the information you need to convey what a good part is. There are an innumerable amount of things you want to convey to the manufacturer what you are looking for, from masking parts of a surface, to how parts need to be packaged, to which of the dimensions are the most important and how you should measure them (GDT etc).

    There are services out there that you just upload a solidpart file and they give you a price. They are highly automated, cheap and quick. The parts are not high quality. Often their standard tool sets cant machine a feature. They communicate that and you have to make other arrangements, either alter your design, or plan on doing some post processing. I was actually supposed to place an order with one today, but had some problems with capability so I am altering the design to accommodate those limitations.

    Its sad, but good machinists are a dying breed.








  • Heinlein also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land which is about a bunch of hippies living together in a commune fighting against an oppressive state and wining.

    I think calling Starship Troopers “fascist source material” is a bit reductive. Heinlein was exploring some ideas, not trying to make an argument for ideals. He had some issues, definitely, but just pointing to it and saying ‘fascist!’ ignores a TON of context.