ROBOKTOPI

My son independently built the tools he needed to survive as a student at Caltech. It's finally ready for everyone. An advanced graphing calculator and notebook for heavy duty problem sets, research, and engineering. youtu.be/-H8WCG30jeY

Caturday

Anyone else notice a sudden and brief gr1ndR meme trend? Strange.

My 2026 bingo card is starting to fill in nicely.

#caturday

You'd think after making so many Test tubes they'd finally be able to just start making tubes but, I guess they still haven't figured out there needs to be a hole on both ends to be a proper tube.

Here's a 3d printed 2nd distal mechanical prosthetic I designed in case someone needs a new digit after 4th of July fireworks FAFO.

What's the finger vapor pressure of this firework?

If a light falls on a stage and no one's around to see it, does it make a sound.

Squared the gantry X axis as well as I could without having the machine running. I'll have to spend some time tuning that later. Need to purchase some shim stock. Also doing a fit test on the steppers and ball screw bearing blocks. #build #make #fit #engineering #design #robot

Got the CNC machine flipped over and on the table tonight. Put the X axis carrier on, tightened it up and nothing locked up which is a good sign. I will need to realign the Y axis rails again though. #build #design #engineering #diy #tech

This thing would survive about 10 minutes in my house before it either got stuck, or un-alived from touching the wrong thing.

Mounted the gantry plates and aligned all the rails tonight. Next step is to flip it over, move it to the table, and mount the X axis carrier. #build #design #engineering #design #maker #tech

Got the rear panel on tonight. Tensioned everything and ran a dial down the rail mounts. I have .37mm of rise in Z along the Y axis at 720mm which is well within the tramming limit. Debating whether to disassemble and remove the high compression sound baffles or fix with tramming. #build #maker

This is Madam Marie Purrie, 2 time winner of the Meowbel Award for her work in Radiocativity and the discovery Catniponium.

Discovered one of the carriage ball returns is cracked and bleeding grease this morning. Luckily I have a few spares on hand. Did a quick swap with a new carrier and and tore down the bad one to harvest and store spares pieces in case I need to do a rebuild at some point. #maker #tech #engineering

I can't verify this claim but I'm not surprised. We could have had a cultural celebration for the ages, instead we got Temu carnival vanilla ice and slime pool slip and slide.

Disassembled, cleaned, reassembled, and greased the Y axis carriages today. Grease nipples feel like something that was invented in in the 1920ies by some dude named Zerk and now we're just stuck with them forever. #engineering #design #maker #diy #build #tech

The pile of random bu11s#!t in my garage is getting smaller and beginning to look like a CNC machine. #engineering #mechanical #engineering #stem #makerspace #tech

Tonight's progress on the base and Y axis. #engineering #mechanical #diy #buildit #tech

The M5 extrusion ball nuts I've been waiting for arrived and I finally got the X axis sliding tonight. #build #design #engineering #mechanical #maker #tech

According to Labyrinth lore, if you put so much as a single toe into its sludgy waters, you will smell horribly forever

I'm a big fan of #cult #classics.

Not sure if these are Autobots or Decepticons.

I have 1 egret. It's a tale most fowl but nothing to crow about. I won't birden you with it

I must have liked a picture of someone's d0g at some point. My feed is now 50% pictures of people's d0gs that just passed away. It's a bit depressing.

The opening scene to a new dystopian thriller cable show.

On the bright side, there's going to be a record breaking slime harvest this year.

Shades of swamp and sludge, Reflecting their incompetence, Dark Paint peeling away.

There's a literal swamp in DC now. This is a metaphor.

X axis carriage in progress. #engineering #design #maker #build #tech #mechanicalengineering

Washed and ready for assembly. #build #design #engineering #maker #tech

Prewash done. Started pre- assembly tonight to check fit and alignment. Once I verify everything I'll disassemble it, do a thorough cleaning, and begin assembly of the base and Y axis linear rails. #build #design #engineering #robotics #tech

Redesigned and 3d printed these drill alignment jigs last night. Less than .01mm drift at 720mm. These should massively simplify drilling the cross beam holes. #3dprinting #engineering #precision #maker #tech

If you haven't watched every single video from Dan Gelbart do yourself a favor and set aside the time, make a bowl of popcorn, and absorb a small bit of the man's experience and genius. www.youtube.com/@dgelbart/vi...

All the tapps are done. Now to drill the blind cross beam holes, pre-wash everything in IPA, and then I can assemble some absolute monster linear actuators. #build #engineering #design #maker #tech

Finished 18 of the 36 M12 tapps today. These were tedious. Had to do these by hand so I designed and 3d printed some nifty tapp guides to keep the entry alignment since these are 20mm depth. #3dprinting #build #design #mechanicalengineering #maker

Current vibe. #catterday

Assembled the enclosure front tonight. I'll need to align everything and add the sealing trim once the entire enclosure is done. #build #engineering #mechanicalengineering #robotics #maker

50 tapped holes done, 36 left. Unfortunately the rest are M12 holes with relief splines so I may have to do them by hand. #tech #engineering #design #mechanicalengineering #build

Extrusion for the enclosure arrived but, they didn't send any of the hardware for assembly. Now I wait for Misumi to respond. They're usually really reliable. Don't have any more tasks to do until more parts arrive. #maker #tech #mechanicalengineering #engineering #design #diy

Rebuilt all the linear bearing carriages, ball screw carrier, and reassembled the Z Axis motion plate. #maker #tech #engineering #mechanicalengineering #build

Soaked in IPA for an hour, air blasted and greased. Now to disassemble the carriages. #engineering #tech #Hardware #mechanicalengineering

And this is why you have to tear down, clean, inspect, lubricate, and rebuild every assembly drop shipped from China. To be fair, these are quality components with terrible assembly and quality control. #Maker #MakersOfBluesky #DIY #Engineering #MechanicalEngineering #Hardware #followme

Built the enclosure doors today. Learned that polycarbonate can shatter on a table saw. Check your teeth for death cookies before every cut. #build #design #learn #engineering #diy #mechanical #maker #cncmachining #stem #steam #breakthings #safteyfirst

Sinking an m4 tapp in 304 steel is a little stressful.

Bed Plates arrived. #build #design #learn #engineering #diy #buildit #maker #cncmachining #mechanical #stem #steam #cnc

3d printed all the sensor mounts and some drilling jigs in glass fiber PETG for the CNC machine build last night. #3dprinting #build #design #learn #engineering #diy #buildit #maker #cncmachining #mechanical #stem #steam