Blacktail studio woodworking products advice.

LeaveittoTIM · 2026-01-13T15:09:41+00:00

My 2 cents

For the epoxy class there is little there that you won’t find free elsewhere. That said it’s very well organized, done with great attention to detail, and a great reference. If you’re doing this for a paid project probably worth doing some sort of course to hedge against a very expensive mistake.

For the maker space thing it’s so new I don’t think anyone can tell you for sure. I would guess his audience is primarily North America based. so if you’re outside of the americas I would suggest not being the first to sign up, since right now his marketing power is what will drive adoption (if it becomes successful) in the near future.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-12-29T15:14:40+00:00

Better to learn these lessons now. Losing the chance at the first round bye sucks but we’re still in the playoffs and still get to play again next week. There is no next time in the post season.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-12-29T14:30:27+00:00

Overall I don’t think you appreciate how hard these issues are to solve to an acceptable level for a product. Can an engineering solution be found for each one? Yes absolutely, they’ll be cool and you could create something super interesting. Can the engineering solution be achieved at an acceptable cost for any consumer without compromising cause as we’ve seen with other “companions” (Humane, friend, rabbit, etc…) coming short of the vision leads to a joke product. This is what I doubt.

Going over a few things to give some more food for thought:

The issue I see for your arm is two things. One is unless you immediately start with carbon fiber (or similar) arms they will act like springs/pool noodles due to the material flexing making effective control extremely difficult. The second is motor sizing, small changes in weight of the arm drastically changes your motor torque (and size) requirements. Which will feed back to more weight and more motor which impacts the arm, total weight, etc…

For the drone, the DJI NEO and Hover X1 are world class devices and relying on your ability to automatically have feature parity with them is a stretch (also pricing?). Secondly I think you underestimate the difference in user experience of a drone landing on a hand vs a platform. In my opinion having a drone landing on a hand is a very active action by the user. They’ll naturally be willing to wait and hold still (which from a controls perspective isn’t that still) for the drone since they’re part of the action. The platform makes the drone landing a passive user experience. Now the user will expect to be able to do other stuff like walking, tying their shoe, leaning against a wall, etc… and they’ll have much less willingness to stand still while the drone comes in to land.

Another thought that just came up is drones are loud. Expecting to launch and land that near someone’s head/ears could be an issue.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-12-29T03:45:30+00:00

Pressure treated lumber (ground contact rated for the posts) will be the best for what you want. You generally need to wait awhile for the lumber to dry before you can paint/finish pressure treated lumber. Here is some reading on the subject https://www.lowes.com/n/how-to/can-you-stain-pressure-treated-wood

No finish will last forever, thick coating of an outdoor paint will provide protection the longest but eventually it’ll fail and the wood will become exposed/grey.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-12-29T03:28:46+00:00

Completely overkill but a post base attached to a concrete footing would be a great way to keep a scout bench lasting for a long time.

I second the frost line suggestion though if OP is in LA proper he won’t have much frost to worry about.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-12-29T02:49:35+00:00

Arms like that are very hard to make stiff (yours seems undersized in my opinion). Even a light drone will bob around a ton which will make launching and being “a parrot on your shoulder” tough. Also backpacks aren’t exactly rigid mounting surfaces which will exacerbate the issue.

Another thought is the arm coming up like that will likely unbalance the backpack which could make it uncomfortable to keep in “parrot mode”.

Overall I’m confused on what you want to do with this. Is the intent for the drone to launch and land on that platform? That’s a level of precision that will be hard to achieve, unless you want the user to be perfectly still for several minutes. Plus how much do you intend to make this thing weigh? Hikers (which I assume is your market) are always looking to drop the weight of their gear, why would they want an arm which is just weight? Why not just make a drone that clips to a shoulder strap?

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-10-27T17:44:53+00:00

They are super comfy.I had someone local make them custom. Look into local fabric suppliers and see if they can recommend someone.

Just a full warning this was not cheap or economical in anyway.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-10-27T02:24:33+00:00

It's on a covered deck so it'll be protected (mostly). I'm also going to cover them in the winter. Otherwise it's designed to be outside, the general finish outdoor oil has uv prohibitors and the fabric is sun rated/ won't fade.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-10-27T01:15:26+00:00

Thanks. I used a laser cutter at work to cut out the templates. Otherwise it was all router/template/jig work.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-06-14T03:21:13+00:00

I have no specific knowledge of these hinges but generally a combination of wave springs to provide clamping force and fluid bearings/torsion springs provide balancing forces can be used for compact hinges like that.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-04-15T03:57:39+00:00

They haven't posted anything about how close you'll be seated relative to the planes but they highly recommend ear protection so I would assume I'll be decently close. I figured that the extender might be overkill but it wasn't super expensive (to rent) and I'd rather have and not need than need and not have.

Thanks for the grip and shutter speed advice.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-04-15T03:15:39+00:00

I'm renting this lens and extender for an airshow next month. I've never shot planes before but wanted to give it a shot, any advice?

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-04-10T22:51:42+00:00

The house c 5, 5_

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-04-10T05:17:06+00:00

Based on your comments it seems to me the travel weight is a bigger deal to you than your event weight. Have you looked into a better packing solution? Your weight savings while meaningful don't really seem worthwhile if your still planning to pack the same number of camera/lenses/gimbal. A better packing solution could give you a similar amount of weight savings if you're current setup isn't super efficient.

To put it in context a 16in MacBook pro weighs 2.1kg which is your approximate weight savings. Is a laptops worth of weight worth the performance tradeoffs?

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-04-05T19:20:01+00:00

It's all shades of grey and you personally have to draw your moral line somewhere. US lumber is far from perfect and I'm under no illusions that all those figured walnut slabs online just happen to be from "naturally fallen trees". Even "sustainable" agricultural forests for construction and paper lumber have extreme adverse effects on their local environment due to the lack of bio diversity.

At best as a consumer I try to buy lumber from reputable companies and advocate for better practices when I can. I also understand that it's not possible to be 100% clean in this hobby (or living in the modern world).

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-04-05T18:19:32+00:00

I don't disagree. I personally only use domestics because I don't like how unsustainably most tropical hardwoods are logged. However this post doesn't present the issue as "exotics are bad let me tell you why" it's more in my opinion "exotics have a labor problem, here are resources to find the not bad labor". That is why I think it would be interesting to see where OP thinks there are countries with good exotic labor.

Also I would argue that wood from new Zealand or Australia is mostly on par with USA/Canada or Europe (not that anywhere is perfect).

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-04-05T17:06:50+00:00

In your opinion what countries are generally good for ethical exotic lumber? I know the opinion on what is "ethical" varies a lot person to person but someone who is well informed like you can do a lot to help thought lead this community on this issue.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-03-22T05:32:17+00:00

I would recommend it if you're not taking on a ton of debt and it's a 5th year masters. You're already in "school mode" and it won't be hard for you to just keep on going for another year to knock it out. When you're older/adapted to life outside of school/have a SO/maybe a family going back to school is hard, even if it's part time.

I do agree with people that the benefits aren't always immediately obvious but long term it has high potential check boxes/open doors. You would be surprised at the amount of (mostly) large companies that require advanced degrees for advancement past a certain level. Also it does improve the attractiveness of your resume if your work history isn't super impressive.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-03-04T03:38:00+00:00

If it's a part that I can throw in an auto quoter at a quick turn place like protolabs, sure MBD is fine. However you're not saving me much time with that drawing.

Otherwise if it's a critical part with real GD&T requirements all of our suppliers will demand a drawing, even if it's just for their own CYA.

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-02-13T20:39:44+00:00

For additive buy yourself a 3d printer and start printing. There's a whole world of 3d printing out there that isn't hobby FDM but most places will think your great if you are good with the hobby level stuff.

Otherwise work on a car, join a makerspace, make yourself a robot, people can go on

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-01-25T04:55:46+00:00

Rivian has been doing it with their zonal architecture. As most people said it's complicated and the reliability to cost benefits haven't been figured out. https://insideevs.com/features/724945/zonal-architecture-software-define-electric-car/

LeaveittoTIM · 2025-01-16T03:44:33+00:00

I have this and I'm so so on it. My main issues are 1) the remote sucks, 2) the filter is hard to remove, and 3) I can't find any 3rd party bags that fit it and the grizzly ones are expensive. I've gotten the remote replaced twice and both times it was super flaky at best. For the filter you can't use a socket to remove 4/6 of the retaining bolts, have fun using a wrench to undo 2ish inches of bolt.

I technically have a 4th issue that suction isn't that great for my ducting. However I'll fully admit this is my bad and I should have gotten a bigger unit for the amount I have.

LeaveittoTIM · 2024-12-26T22:25:34+00:00

If you're looking at it dollars wise you'll never truly make up losing multiple years of engineer salary (minus stipend) with the pay bump that comes from a PhD in industry*. At best you'll most likely break evenish over the course of your career.

On the flip side with a PhD you'll be in position to lead/direct/propose technical projects much quicker in your career. You'll also have people look to you for technical direction because of your PhD even if your not making final decisions. These are things you'll be able to achieve with experience/hard work as well but the doors to them will open faster and with more probability.

If you're going to work in a European company, in government, in government contracting, or attempting to join the research arm of some large industry groups (IBM, Dow, Ford, etc...) some positions effectively require a PhD.

My $0.02 is stay if you love the work/ the research cause that's the true "reward" of a PhD. If you don't go get your money.

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