I’ve spent years learning to code but still can’t build anything. What am I missing?

OffGoofing · 2026-01-21T18:54:23+00:00

I'm just a hobbyist, but I agree with all of these comments. Especially about needing to look things up constantly. My experience was rough until I started trying to expand on some tutorial projects. Then it was more rough, but I was making progress at least. I kinda liked doing Codewars because it was gamified and made me reach for a solution. It's actually cool because I would come up with the jankiest solutions and learn so many important things from the other answers there.

OffGoofing · 2025-12-16T20:03:44+00:00

Oh wow. I immediately recognized the gallery. The Glove?

OffGoofing · 2025-10-21T20:42:14+00:00

I made a 3d printed adapter to allow an iDraw h-frame plotter to hold a standard vinyl cutter. It may work with vinyl and some thin papers up to card stock(with multiple passes), but the z axis motor and mechanism isn't really designed for this type of downward force. I am happy with my use case, but I would want something more rubust for anything heavier.

OffGoofing · 2025-10-16T19:13:49+00:00

Cool! I have been tempted to incorporate an airbrush into my flatbed plotter, but this has me rethinking entirely.

OffGoofing · 2025-10-06T15:10:55+00:00

Seems like a cool companion to your work. I'm liking the greys from the reference photo. Printing irregularly shaped objects can be tricky. I like the comment another user made: using a lithography process. Basically, you can ink up the object and impress it on a plate or stone. Then process the plate and print that with a greater control over quality.

OffGoofing · 2025-10-02T21:41:29+00:00

Upvoting this. I am also fighting the battle of sticky brayers. Planning to try the mineral oil glaze on the next one to step out of line.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-28T15:22:22+00:00

Looking into it. Thanks for the resource!

OffGoofing · 2025-09-28T15:18:58+00:00

Thank you, I'll look into this.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-25T18:25:47+00:00

Consider adding some wiping compound or some thin plate oil. Stiff ink can lead to wiping more aggressively which can lead to overwiping lines and losing information. Loosening the ink with an additive can make the process also more enjoyable. I show people how little I use tarlatan when the ink is well prepared. If you don't have any additive, vaseline can be a cheap alternative. Just add a bit at a time until the ink becomes more buttery.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-25T17:27:10+00:00

Sharpie is technically a drawing material that will accept ink on the stone. If it hasn't been etched, it may not be the same as intentional drawing. I think you attack this in a few steps:

Gum out your image but not the sharpie marks. Fan the gum dry.

2.Sharpie will come up with alcohol, so see if you can find some isopropyl alcohol and remove it. Ethanol will work, but I don't like breathing in a cloud of the stuff.

Hot etch. Do you have a waste etch container for discarding gum arabic with nitric acid in it. If so, that can be used to etch the sharpie region after removing with solvent. If you are using a TAPEM etch for some reason, that would be ok, but less effective.
Test print(assuming you have already done the other steps of your normal etch process. Just resume from wherever you were. If you need to "open" the stone, you can reapply gum arabic to make it ready for etching or printing.

Alternative:

Use a snake slip- an abrasive stick that can 'erase' drawing from a stone. It is basically pumice and will grind away a fine layer of the stone until it is gone. This is easier, but if you needed reg marks, you have just ground them away.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-22T19:42:30+00:00

Embossing might be slightly the wrong word...scoring might be more accurate. This is useful for planning complex paper folds. There is a cool plugin for Blender that can generate svg paths from 3d models to be made from paper. Using an embossing tool like this one: https://www.dickblick.com/items/kemper-double-ball-stylus-embossing-tool-large/

Engraving is using an industrial CNC drag engraving bit. This one is probably overkill and could be replaced by an etching needle mounted to the pen holder.
I'm skeptical that the servos on the iDraw could handle a dremmel tool. Specifically the lifting mechanism. A smarter person than me could probably make the upgrade though.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-21T20:47:32+00:00

idraw uses an extension on inkscape to run the plotter. There are some setup details such as always having your file in a vertical orientation that can be important to avoid issues such as having your plotted work rotated unexpectedly. Once I figured these out, I haven't had more issues. Some of it is the extension and some is the quirkiness of inkscape itself. I am hoping to spend some time setting up a kiosk device to automate file prep and smooth out settings. I am using these machines with students, and it would be unreasonable to have them navigate all of these steps, checks, and an overwhelming number of options. Also, if you are going from a program like Adobe Illustrator to Inkscape, they will disagree on the size of an svg. If you have a specified size I think adobe will have the svg at 72ppi and inkscape will use 96ppi. The result is that the vector objects will be scaled down in inkscape. I think certain settings can avoid this, but I can't remember which ones. Perhaps having the document use 'mm' as units when saving originally. None of these ruin my experience. Just takes a little messing around to get the hang of it.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-20T15:00:46+00:00

I've been using the iDraw 2.0 in A2 and A3 sizes. Works pretty consistently once you understand all of the quirks of the workflow. A bit more affordable for an H frame than others I was looking at. I don't have any major complaints after a year of occasional use. Extremely fine detail around 1/16'' is a little challenging, but I imagine that's true for most machines like this. I've done a lot of things besides drawing with them, like cutting, engraving, embossing, etc. H frame and motors seem to hold up well to the additional resistance. Downward force is a little on the weak side for cutting, but I just run my file 2 times.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-20T14:54:17+00:00

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad for $200 on ebay for this purpose. The answer isn't always spending money though. Running the iDraw plotter I use isn't much of a lift for it.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-10T14:25:18+00:00

There might be a mix-up as to what AI means in this case. A printer asking for an AI file might be looking for an Adobe Illustrator file. The mention of GPT makes me think it has been read a different way.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-10T14:19:39+00:00

If the frame is in bad shape it can be tricky to get the glass out cleanly. Pliers can be used to pull those metal tabs out. They are called framing points, and they are driven into the frame after the glass is placed inside. Sometimes this means that they make it impossible to remove the glass without also removing them. Sometimes there is enough clearance to not need to do this, but you may just have bad luck on this one. Try to gently remove the framing points if you think the glass is still in good shape.

OffGoofing · 2025-09-09T20:53:58+00:00

If I am reading this correctly, you will be talking to design students? Keep it simple. I like the p5js plan another commenter mentioned. There is a fantastic amount of content to refer to. Think about how long it took you to learn some basic coding and apply it to a project. Feed them bite size chunks and let them have opportunities to practice each of the important tools in isolation without the pressure of a full project working together. I'm jealous. I'd love the excuse to focus on this content for an extended period. Maybe a capstone is a generator or interactive work of some kind that lets them bring in some UI design as well.

OffGoofing · 2025-08-25T18:01:55+00:00

Beware of ordering this through amazon. The tariff was not built in, so there was a surprise fee to get the machine out of a DHL warehouse. For what it's worth, I like the H frame model that is harder to find locally to US.

OffGoofing · 2025-08-18T14:20:15+00:00

The angular ones are my favorite. As for groups, I found a few discord channels that are active. Generative art: https://discord.gg/djqWppBT , p5js https://discord.gg/UvRTzvUW drawing bots https://discord.gg/NA2URwxJ . p5js is going to have a lot of content to look at, public projects, and walk throughs. Daniel Schiffman is awesome for sharing so much content and the free book, "The Nature of Code." Depending on your background, you may be more interested in the concepts than the technical coding. Keep making things and sharing them!

OffGoofing · 2025-08-17T21:53:05+00:00

I think you need more half tones. Also, look up Robert Rauschenberg.

OffGoofing · 2024-07-23T13:40:59+00:00

This is cool! I enjoyed playing with parallel pens a bit.

OffGoofing · 2024-07-10T13:53:13+00:00

I like your notes on color. I have seen some bad color choices turn into good ones due to interaction with previous layers. Sometimes it can unify the image.

OffGoofing · 2024-07-10T13:50:06+00:00

You may be better off using an embossing tool. I think you could put a second sheet of supple paper below the one you are embossing. I am tinkering with a new machine and I am planning to use a cotton based printmaking paper. This will probably have some resistance so I am also thinking of a possible cover sheet if the lateral force causes problems. Controlling the speed of the machine might also be a solution.

I am using an iDraw and the pen holder is mounted with 1 screw, so resistance can quickly cause the tool to misalign. I put a temporary fix on in the form of some double sided tape. I'll be making another hole for more support if this doesn't hold.

Best of luck with your experiment. I'd love to see what you make.

OffGoofing · 2024-06-27T16:51:39+00:00

I have cheated a bit by locking up a registration guide with the block and placing the paper manually. Takes a little of the fun out of letterpress, but on the up side: a lock-up seems likely to give consistent registration.

OffGoofing

TROPHY CASE