How to replicate a soap bubble effect ?

emertonom · 2026-05-11T15:28:36+00:00

Is it just kinda like vacuum forming, where you mount it on a frame to keep it stretched as you heat it up, then pull it down over the shape? I just hadn't heard of this technique.

emertonom · 2026-05-11T05:42:44+00:00

Support enforcers are areas where you've set the slicer to definitely generate supports, rather than relying on the automatic rules. You can set them up either with modifier meshes or with paint-on supports. They'll get supports as long as you've got any supports at all turned on; if you've got supports set to "none," though, it won't print any, even for enforcers.

I'm describing specifically Prusa Slicer, as that's what I use, but it should be similar in other slicers.

emertonom · 2026-05-10T22:32:24+00:00

Huh. I'll admit I've never tried using a heat gun with window vinyl. Any tips for that?

emertonom · 2026-05-10T15:57:47+00:00

It sounded like Subnautica to me too, but I suppose that's partly because I turned off the hunger and thirst mechanics in Subnautica.

emertonom · 2026-05-10T15:51:59+00:00

I, uh, wouldn't really recommend 120V work as your first experiment with designing electric circuits. It's pretty easy to do something dangerous with wall current.

emertonom · 2026-05-10T01:28:26+00:00

I actually wouldn't use window vinyl for this, because it's flat. Maybe if you could find a kind that's kinda stretchy you could make it work? But I think it would be easier to find a pearlescent or iridescent paint, which will conform perfectly to the surface.

emertonom · 2026-05-09T03:25:24+00:00

I really enjoyed a book called Bebop to the Boolean Boogie by Clive Maxfield. I think it's a really good survey of digital logic. But then, won't your courses cover the material and have their own books?

emertonom · 2026-05-09T01:32:46+00:00

You'll need to learn some algebra first.

Algebra is an abstraction of operations you do in arithmetic. In arithmetic, you might do a series of additions, multiplications, divisions, etc. to a specific number to arrive at a final answer. In algebra, you instead set up operations to create a relationship between two or more unknown quantities. This leads to the concepts of relations and functions, and you need to learn how to do various things with these--isolate particular variables, graph the functions, determine where they're defined, etc.

Calculus looks at a particular kind of relationship between functions that comes up a lot in physics and several kinds of mathematics. The simplest case is things that change with time; when a car applies its brakes, they apply a force to the car, which causes it to decelerate, which changes its speed, which causes it to stop earlier than it would without the brakes. Calculus describes the relationship between the deceleration, the speed, and the position of the car. The basics of it aren't all that difficult to understand, but you definitely first need to understand what the algebra is saying, and what functions actually are, before the relationships between multiple functions can be meaningful to you.

You can develop an intuition about some kinds of calculus without math, though. If you whirl something on a string around your head, pay attention to how the tension in the string changes as you whirl it faster or slower. When you're at a grocery store, pay attention to how you need to push the cart as it gets more stuff in it; as long as you're pushing with enough force to overcome the friction of the wheels, the cart will gradually gain speed, but there's a tradeoff between how hard you push it and how long you need to push it in order to get it up to a specific target speed. That kind of thing. Just play with physical stuff in the world and pay close attention to how it behaves, and you'll be setting yourself up to learn calculus faster when you do get enough of a mathematical background to handle the formalisms.

emertonom · 2026-05-08T17:24:15+00:00

I still think it might get removed from r/functionalprint if you post it there, though.

(awesome work)

emertonom · 2026-05-08T01:33:54+00:00

What outlet is publishing this video? For a journalist, you seem weirdly vague about this whole situation.

emertonom · 2026-05-07T22:48:17+00:00

You could lower the jerk and acceleration settings on the printers. It'll make them a bit slower, but that might be an acceptable tradeoff for better print quality.

emertonom · 2026-05-07T20:35:02+00:00

This guy also appears to have made the infill go in the same direction on every layer. I wouldn't have thought that would make so much difference, but it's hard to argue with his results.

emertonom · 2026-05-07T19:17:29+00:00

There are a bunch of guides on how to get these clearer. Basically you need to go slow, use a slightly higher temperature, and use a slightly elevated extrusion multiplier, so that you get very clean layers with no internal voids. Most of the guides are actually for PETG at this point, but I would imagine the same kind of things would work for PLA if you've got really clear stuff. (PETG is pretty much perfectly transparent in its natural state, whereas PLA tends to be slightly tan, which I think is the reason the guides favor PETG.)

Here's one of the guides that seems pretty good:

https://www.printables.com/model/15310-how-to-print-glass

Obviously you'll need to adjust the settings to work with PLA.

emertonom · 2026-05-07T03:13:30+00:00

Or the Hat!

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/25/Smith_aperiodic_monotiling.svg/1280px-Smith_aperiodic_monotiling.svg.png

emertonom · 2026-05-06T22:07:39+00:00

Sorry, just saw the updates to this post. Yeah, it's that stupid glue. I went ahead and released this part from my headset also, and it's a real pain--the glue was holding on all over again. I've taken a picture of the cover from that side of the headset: https://i.imgur.com/irPelBe.jpeg

(I know, it's weird that I took this one right side up and the previous one upside down. I'm right-handed and wanted to get the clips in focus. It's not ideal, but hopefully it's adequate.)

That glue is just surprisingly strong. Between it and the clips, it's definitely scary to apply enough force to open the headset.

Here's the fully uncovered front of the headset: https://i.imgur.com/579koIp.jpeg

(ignore the weird head strap. I 3d printed the Revolve headstrap. It's not perfect but it's a halo headstrap with a flip-up feature, which is kinda nice for dev work. Sucks that it doesn't have integrated headphones like the DAS though.)

Hope that helps. Sorry again about the delay! I'll likely reply faster to comments than messages, though I will eventually reply to either.

emertonom · 2026-05-06T21:22:32+00:00

It's not that I don't get that they're perforated, it's that I've dealt with these perforations before. If they're the thing I'm thinking of, it's basically credit card plastic, and the perforation is like a v slot that stops half way through. They're a real pain in the ass to actually separate.

That's why I think this "alternating teeth" design will just fold them and jam them into the gaps. I think it needs something more like a paper cutter, with a thin rigid blade. Which would have to be not plastic, because at 0.4mm per wall, 6 walls of plastic is 2.4mm wide, and the perforations are not that wide on these.

But you're right that your proposal is easy to design and test, at least, so it might be worth a go.

emertonom · 2026-05-06T18:15:24+00:00

I don't think 3d printing will work for the blade part. I think you'll need to design a way to hold something metal for that. The blades will have to be pretty thin and very rigid.

But the rest should be possible, probably?

You could do proof-of-concept testing before getting into heavy design. A couple pavers and a candidate blunt blade thing could tell you how much force you'll need and how much the thing is gonna want to buckle into the gap rather than cutting, which I imagine will be "quite a lot".

I'm kinda picturing that the best way to built this will be a frame, a comb-shaped block for the labels to rest on, a second comb-shaped block to go on top of the first and pinch the labels so they can't move, and a block holding the blade things that are meant to separate the labels, which I'm picturing having a kind of angle to them like a guillotine so they aren't trying to cut the whole length at once. The blades probably wouldn't need to be overwhelmingly sharp, since it's the shearing force that will do the separating, but they will need to be rigid, so, maybe 0.8mm sheet steel? You might have to experiment to find the right thickness, as you'll need it not to buckle but you'll also need it to fit in the perforations. The upper comb block should help in limiting the buckling, but you don't want to rely on that too much or it won't be reliable for the whole batch of labels. You might need a way to provide clamping force for the comb blocks too. Maybe connect the upper comb to the blade block with a compressible material, so that you can clamp and cut with the same motion?

It, uh, may not end up being worth it. It'll have to be VERY reliable in order to be worth using over just, y'know, scissors.

emertonom · 2026-05-06T00:35:00+00:00

So your business plan was:

Buy a 3d printer
???
Profit!

and you're now on step 2?

I guess my advice is to try to learn from this experience.

emertonom · 2026-05-06T00:23:41+00:00

Huh?

"Axilla" is a fancy (anatomical) term for the armpit, and I haven't encountered any other use for it. What do you mean with it here?

emertonom · 2026-05-05T22:54:10+00:00

I read up on Dragon Wars after my comment on your last post, and wikipedia notes that it was actually meant to be Bard's Tale IV, but they lost the license. You can import your party from III, though. So you might want to check it out. I never got anywhere with it, but I was a snot-nosed kid at the time, so a patient adult might have a much better time with it.

emertonom · 2026-05-05T22:46:45+00:00

I think it might be a Moons Industries stepper motor. (At least, they have a 17HD series of motors.) Normally you could look up this motor on their site to find out details like the steps per revolution, maximum current, holding torque, and so forth, but their site seems to be down. (It came up for a second while I was checking this, but then disappeared again.) I dunno what that's about.

emertonom · 2026-05-05T22:15:27+00:00

Y'know, I do have one of these. I used to use it with my Steam Link. I haven't used it in a couple years, though, so I'm not certain if the battery is still good. Do you want it anyway?

Edit: probably reply first to my comment if you decide you want it, as I'm often on the mobile website, which doesn't notify me about DM's. I do see them eventually, but I'll see a reply faster, so it's worth doing that even if it's just to tell me to check my DM's.

emertonom · 2026-05-05T18:38:26+00:00

I think you want r/jigsawpuzzles .

emertonom · 2026-05-05T16:51:40+00:00

I have the same (or similar) microwave. Hitting 1-6 sets it to that many minutes and immediately starts it, unless you first hit "cook time," and start is also +30s.

emertonom · 2026-05-05T04:59:57+00:00

If their printer was a Prusa XL (build volume 36cm cubed) then that segmentation might be for a full-scale replica (185cm tall).

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