I did a bit of UV fibre printing of very small text, small enough to be done with single lines. It appears that a 25μm diameter object has about a 50/50 chance of staying put through the cleaning process. Many of the letters washed off during cleaning, creating a microscopic, alcoholic alphabet soup. Details on link.
http://blog.reprap.org/2026/10/reprapmicron-thin-lines-and-extruded.html
A 1/100th scale "Benchy" that you can see inside the cabin of.
Yep, that'll do. Stopped the perimeters from disintegrating by printing them after the infill. That thing is just over half a millimetre square and done with a resolution of about 1/100th of a millimetre.
Did it! I Made a micro-mechanism on my #RepRapMicron #3DPrinter!
https://ko-fi.com/post/First-Functioning-Micro-Mechanism-O8H128R4SX
I said I would.
I have had this jumpstart pack for ~15yrs. Still works. Well, until today.
The air compressor is operated by switching GND (held in fingers). This corroded (white blob) at the PCB, and when The Bloom Of My Desert turned the pack off, the wire broke loose. The wire then contacted some random ground inside the device, completing the circuit and running the compressor. There is no other off switch. Turning the main contactor off did diddly and The Guiding Star Of My Night had a ZOMBIE MACHINE!
Had to do it, didn't I?
Well, I've bleedin' done it. One 0.5mm Benchy from the #RepRapMicron #3Dprinter:
http://blog.reprap.org/2026/10/reprapmicron-success-decent-500m-12mm.html
Hello #Hackaday, full documentation to follow.
For giggles I installed the #HomeAssistant IMAP integration and attempted to configure *any* functionality with the GUI (no sneaky diving into YAML). As far as I can tell, you can get an event when the mailbox state changes, and ... erm, can't find anything else.
So, the ill-advised Benchy attempt on the #RepRapMicron #3Dprinter. It kinda worked. Not too bad for a first attempt. Vaguely recognisable as Benchy, 650μm long, about half a millimetre tall. I didn't try preventing the laser from over-shooting, so a lot more resin is set under overhangs than is supposed to be. Can fix that.
https://ko-fi.com/i/IX2Q027HNA9
I am doing something that may be ill-advised, but we'll see what the mess looks like afterwards.*
* Not for the first time...
I've had an offer of a very small IR fibre laser ~30W. This is strong enough to be dangerous, so some trepidation involved. However, in combination with #RepRapMicron it may bring into existence the world's smallest and most impractical laser cutter 😎
I has been making more small spikey things with different profiles. These all started out as 0.3mm 316SS wire. No. 14 and No. 17 are what I was aiming for, and they had the least etching.
For those who have not heard of the Austrian Girardoni air rifle, it's an engineering masterpiece from the 1700's. Made without modern seals it ran at 800psi and rapid-fired musket balls smokelessly even in the wet, while everyone else was faffing around with flintlocks. https://youtu.be/k5IPB9S9vNw
Interesting video from Sabine who was offered cash to read out anti-AI propaganda. She's looked into who is paying pro- and anti-AI social media influencers now that individual outrage determines what social media you hang out on. Man, this is getting messy even without real silicon overlords!
https://youtu.be/lPdmYMHrWKg
Well done #Google. The most ridiculous button text formatting cock-up I've seen yet on the Android Earthquake Alert system. Which, by the way, is one of the few apps that honours "Do Not Disturb" and won't override.That's bloody useful.
#blackanddecker 6V/12V trickle charger died. No big deal? Well, it trickle charged the start battery on our standby generator. Or rather, didn't. I cannot manually start said generator due to prolapsed L1/L2 which is why I bought a frickin' self start in the first place. At least our solar powers the important phase, and that's all going well.
Just made these kohlrabi fritters again. Sooo good, gotta share.
Well, bugger. A typhoon has (probably) stopped the Chang'e 7 launch for this window. Orbital mechanics and lighting conditions mean a 90+ day postponement, with the likelihood of the launch not being possible until early next year.
#spaceflight
If anyone wants to make the GrabSquid, I've put it on Printables.
https://www.printables.com/model/1820109-the-grabsquid-cane-foot
Today Young Grasshopper Learned that plants can grow without soil. We discussed hydroponics & aeroponics, The Great Oxidation Event, chloroplasts, ATP, mitochondria, transpiration, seeds transport by consumption, and chillies.
We ground chillies, performed solvent extraction with hot ethanol, and centrifugally separated capsaicin. This was compared with California Reaper hot sauce and won.
We also learned of chemical contamination and the importance of washing hands *before* using the toilet.