@trevorflowers@machines.social
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

trevorflowers

@trevorflowers@machines.social

I make tiny art machines.
Tiny dogs run my life and I'm OK with it.
#machining #electronics #miniatures
#neurospicy #anxiety
#seattle #retrocomputing
#cadcam #3Dprinting #CNC #lathe #mill

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trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

You know that thing where you order something online without understanding its size? Well, my new mill vice came in. 😉

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I've fallen down the rabbit hole of clock movements and it's good fun! My favorite advancement so far is the modern spring drive that merges satisfying mechanical features with a clever bit of silicon and quartz to keep more accurate time without a chemical battery.
https://youtu.be/jVoRoK1u3Dg

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I don't wear a wristwatch for reasons of sensory processing and demand anxiety but I'm tinkering with a wristwrap design that might work. It's fabric and solid state electronics, though, so sadly no neat springs and wheels.

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I kind of love the messed up mechanisms spit out by Midjourney.
How many hairsprings and escapement wheels does this thing have?!

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I could happily spend a bit of time making art web sites that appear to sell these impossible machines but the sales process is behind-the-scenes a choose your own adventure story or a sort of "play by mail" game.

trevorflowers, to Watches
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

TIL that an org, the COSC, that certifies mechanical watch movements for timekeeping accuracy accepts -4 to +6 seconds of deviation per day.
A ten second spread each day!
I like machines as much as anybody and my life wouldn't be changed by that error but knowing that my timepiece has that much slop in it would give me cold chills.
I guess I'll stick with devices set with NTP.

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

In related news, I'm deeply tickled by the complexity of a seemingly simple project like standardizing a time zone for Luna. Ever changing distance, gravity strength, and velocity in the relationship between heavenly bodies does quite a number on timekeeping.
Time is a lovely mess.
https://hackaday.com/2024/05/02/nasa-is-now-tasked-with-developing-a-lunar-time-standard-relativity-or-not/#more-675962

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

If you ever want to get me a gift, this would work. 😹
But for real, that's a gorgeous Unimat collection.
https://youtu.be/opp-jWOWOrM

foone, to random
@foone@digipres.club avatar

I want a macropad keyboard that's also kind-of a watch. Like, it's a macropad, but you wear it on your wrist/arm.

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

@foone Like, does it Bluetooth to a PC?

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I do love me a slab portable.
I wonder whether I could sell a short run of mechanical keyboards designed to drop into these projects.
https://github.com/crazycaleb2008/T3rminal

NanoRaptor, to random
@NanoRaptor@bitbang.social avatar

You get to make one change to any single genus of animal that’s immediately applied to all of its members worldwide.

What do you change for maximum chaos?

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

@NanoRaptor Houseflies can sing the greatest hits of the 70s and harmonize with each other.

FreeCAD, to random
@FreeCAD@fosstodon.org avatar

It's Friday once again! Hope everyone has an excellent weekend. Feel free to show us what you are working on using to tag!

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

@FreeCAD I have a few different designs for miniature key switches using flextures for springs and I'm playing around with tolerances and supports for printing 1:3 scale VT100 keyboards.
All of the miniatures in this store were designed in FreeCAD: https://store.transmutable.com

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

Now that's a cutie pie SBC portable.
https://www.hackster.io/news/arduboy-s-kevin-bates-is-back-with-an-esp32-s3-powered-all-in-one-the-singleboard-alpha-a4bdecc703c5

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

Dang, that's a sweet leg. The ankle motion is especially slick though I wonder about using hard linkages instead of opposing and balanced tendons.
https://youtu.be/wLFCMwRvhVI

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I see many randomized scenarios while working in a college machine shop. It looks like this will be my last quarter helping out as there is a changing of the guard on the way. Only 14 more classes and then that'll be the end of a fun three years with that shop and crew.

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

This article about how Boeing stripped themselves of capabilities is behind a paywall but these two paragraphs tell the story.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/04/boeing-corporate-america-manufacturing/678137/

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I have a small-ish resin printer that I use to create tiny detailed parts (like the wee logo badge on the 1:6 scale Model III: https://store.transmutable.com/l/e-trs-80-model-iii) but it's still way too big for my work. I'm really tempted by the Lite3DP Gen 2 which has a print volume of just 36 x 48 x 80 mm. It is OSHW, runs on an ESP32, and seems pretty hackable.
https://www.crowdsupply.com/lite3dp/lite3dp-gen-2

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

Friends, if Microsoft tries to squeeze you to buy a new computer to run version 11 when every new version of Windows gets worse and adds ads then please consider that more than 100 million people use Linux on their desktop computer, including people who make all sorts of projects with videos, illustrations, digital photographs, laser cuttings, animations, paper media, CAD, CAM, 3D printed stuff, circuit boards, etc.
Will it be exactly the same as Windows? No.
Can it be awesome? Yes.

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

@JoshuaACNewman @zleap @Jennifer It's true, there are at least as many jerks writing FOSS as in the rest of the population and many are grumpy about the stream of suggestions, requests, and demands that come in for even mildly popular projects.
That said, my experience with closed software has been aggressively user hostile at best. Mastercam won't even notice small fries like me but the FreeCAD team has been awesome.

mcdanlj, to random
@mcdanlj@social.makerforums.info avatar

Huh. I have totally done this, and I'll bet that at least one broken tap was a result. I thought I didn't need to make some tap holders. But I was wrong. One more rite of passage after the tap followers I made!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0PBPGjd0Pc

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

@mcdanlj I agree that the direct drive is a nice approach but this isn't a good test. The loss of concentricity seen in the t-handle is because he has the tap extended much farther out of the t-handle than necessary and he doesn't show how he's driving it. I was taught to hold and turn both sides of the t-handle, apply a gentle force toward the work, and to use the follower as just a starting guide and a distance signal. I've seen many successfully tapped tiny holes this way. It's all technique.

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

This time last year I was knee deep in prep for the "Alto at 50" event at the Computer History Museum. I had the pleasure of working with Alan Kay during production, including a virtual reality design review of the CAD model with him in London while I was in Seattle.
It feels like ages ago as so many changes have occurred in my work and workshop. Some easy, some hard, as is the way it seems.

trevorflowers, to 3DPrinting
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

Hold up. Wait a minute.
🤔
?

trevorflowers, to retrocomputing
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

It will take time to spin up production of the 1:3 scale VT100 terminals so for pre-sale buyers I'm making a "thank you for your patience" 1:10 scale mini. Here is a quick test print and oh, wow is it a cutie pie.
😻
The display cutout has an indent sized for cardstock so it can show whatever screenshot or image they care to print.
https://store.transmutable.com/l/vt100-pre-sale

A photo of parts of a miniature computer terminal.

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

I understand a few of the reasons why Mozilla are moving away from the goal of returning Firefox to relevance. It's sad and I wish they wouldn't, but here we are.
That said, whoo boy are they alienating their remaining FF users with their LLM projects and partnerships. Brand dilution in action.

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

A potential display panel and driver for the 1:3 scale VT100 terminals arrived. The next step is to make a bezel for it to see how it sits in the case. If it works as advertised then it has 640x480 pixels driven over HDMI.

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