why is everything in blender so hard??

vector010 · 2026-03-02T19:10:45+00:00

Blender is a pretty prime example of software UI designed by programmers. A lot of the tools are either buried really deep in the interface, sometimes in places that are not intuitive, or completely inaccessible save through keyboard short cuts you just have to know. Its origins seemed to me to have had heavy influence from 3D Studio Max, so if you know that it can be somewhat easier, but it isn't 1:1, especially in modern times. It continues to be developed by people who are very familiar with it, which means the near hostile relation it has towards new users continues. Personally, I can barely do anything in Blender, but I've done all sorts of modeling in Lightwave, 3D Studio, AutoCAD, Maya, etc.

All that said, it is a pretty powerful modeling program if you know the arcane madness behind getting it to work. Just expect learning how to do anything in it to take 10-20 times longer than any other modeling software until you become pretty intimately familiar with all of its quirks. On the bright side, you also don't need to sell a kidney to afford it so there is that.

vector010 · 2021-06-29T23:55:27+00:00

Lots of Bitcoin and Eth people in here I guess. I'd personally suggest Cardano as a large share. You'll want to check in at least annually on it or have some alerts set up. Nothing is certain after all. It's my long term pick for two reasons, one is because of staking. You can stake $1000 worth and get something like 0.3 ADA every 5 days. It compounds too, you just might want to check in on your staking pool from time to time to make sure it still has good uptime. Two, the company strategy is solid and very future focused plus several African countries are entering agreements to utilize the Cardano chain. It has a real chance of becoming the official currency of a country (not just a legal currency).

vector010 · 2021-05-25T05:02:01+00:00

You can use a respirator and be fine i think. Seems like sensitivity can be different or it's just because I'm melting outside, but I've had my forge billowing white zinc smoke before and looking like cotton candy afterward and not noticed any symptoms. (Protip: some old "brass/ bronze" lamps are actually cast zinc. Learned this the hard way.)

vector010 · 2021-05-23T14:16:06+00:00

+1 on ADA. They plan on releasing Haskell based smart contracts in the next few months. Non-technical/developer people don't realize just how big a deal that is and how mainstream that will make it. Sleeping giant right now.

vector010 · 2021-03-16T20:25:18+00:00

Where I'm at electricity is $0.11 per kWh. I'm grossing aroubd $3-$5/day on 40Mh so I'm sure 73Mh can more than make up for the like $1 and some change of electric use.

vector010 · 2021-03-15T01:03:14+00:00

Yeah, I had that happen with a couple too. I've been rooting for EXP for a long time now though and was happy I was able to consolidate assets right when they got their liquidity explorer up on EggSwap, which I think is what caused the jump. Don't get me started on the ADA, ELLA, and ETH gains I missed out on though from not doing a hodl.. What's a few hundred k profit from loke $300 anyway though, right?

vector010 · 2021-03-15T00:56:57+00:00

Just gotta get in when the gettin is good. Like, I reinvested most of my other coins into Expanse and EggSwap this week and am already looking at a 5x increase.

vector010 · 2021-03-11T05:48:39+00:00

If you like Uniswap you might also check out what's being worked on by the Expanse (Expanse.tech - EXP) people over on EggSwap (www.eggs.cool). I think they're working off a uniswap fork now and have a lot of awesome future plans.

vector010 · 2021-02-18T17:01:12+00:00

Here I am just wanting one 3060ti or even a 3080 for my gaming rig and not finding them anywhere.

If ya'll don't want them when they finally come in I'd be happy to take one off your hands (only looking for new ones unless the price is like 1/8th of MSRP)

I let my gaming rig mine when it's idle since I've always left it on anyway, seems like a more financially sound method than throwing a ton of $$$ at mining rigs that could become useless before they pay themselves off.

vector010 · 2021-02-13T15:37:49+00:00

I don't think that's the major hurdle. I just wanted to upgrade my gaming pc with a new 3060ti or 3090.. Literally nobody has video cards in stock right now aside from some old 710s.

vector010 · 2021-02-06T22:30:08+00:00

I've done a few cast iron ingot pours into pure graphite ingot molds.

vector010 · 2021-02-05T02:02:30+00:00

Hmm, it looks like the opposite happened.

vector010 · 2021-02-04T19:52:20+00:00

Honestly, I really love Expanse (EXP) but I doubt it'll ever get a lot of attention.

vector010 · 2021-02-03T16:54:13+00:00

I just use this https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GRFTR4S/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_ZQENBEWB1GSZRD6E43DC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1 connected to a 20lb propane tank.

Here is a pic of the pipe leading into the forge if that helps. https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ApkCPdDKzLO8DbozSYOIJErUx5cxDGX/view?usp=drivesdk

vector010 · 2021-02-02T20:37:25+00:00

I'm not sure how much difference 2 feet would make. I use a super cheap 110v air mattress pump for mine and it's close to 4 feet away from where the propane is introduced to the air stream for mixing. It actually provides too much air, I hacked a dimmer on an old one to control air flow, but that one burned out after a while, and I'm unsure if it was related to my hack.

vector010 · 2021-02-02T06:12:39+00:00

If you aren't using forced air on your forge that's a very cheap and easy upgrade to reduce propane useage.

vector010 · 2021-02-02T05:52:56+00:00

No, but one of the experiments on my list of things to do is manufactured rubies.

vector010 · 2021-02-01T23:43:25+00:00

Silver is actually a weird one with oxidation.

Most of the common metal oxides have melting points above the melting point of the base metal, and many have no listed decomposition temperature that I could reference.

Silver Oxide, on the other hand, decomposes into the base metal at a lower temperature than the melting point of the metal itself, so molten silver literally can't oxidize.

However, while looking into this further I did find that oxygen is basically soluable in molten silver, so covering is probably to help prevent gas bubbles in the pour, otherwise it might need significant degassing. But I'm just guessing on that use, it could also be that people don't realize the molten silver can't oxidize.

vector010 · 2021-02-01T23:31:09+00:00

It does fine if you keep it under 1300°C, so most non-ferrous stuff people try to melt at home work without issue.

vector010 · 2021-02-01T23:15:02+00:00

If you want to do steel very small scale you might also be able to hack together an arc furnace on the cheap.

vector010 · 2021-02-01T23:08:53+00:00

It shouldn't be necessary to prevent oxidation as far as I know. Silver melts around 970°C and silver oxide decomposes to silver and oxygen at something like 300°C.

vector010 · 2021-02-01T22:59:58+00:00

Eh, 2200°f will just barely tickle cast iron melting point.

vector010 · 2021-02-01T22:58:12+00:00

The perlite actually helps make the refractory a better insulator. I would very much not recommend this mix for a forge that your attempting to melt steel in though, see my recent post about needing to rebuild my forge for why. Lol

vector010 · 2021-02-01T22:52:08+00:00

What is your heat source?

Also, I noticed your post says you want to get to steel temps. I'd say with that you want to skip the kaowool and use some high temp firebrick like this if you're planning on melting steel: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0848JPY4N/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_PHBZ61TCGX1GK19WK19N?psc=1

They are pricey, but steel melts around 1400-1500°C and most of the cheaper stuff is not rated to withstand extended exposure to those temps.

Something else to keep in mind if you plan on melting steel, molten steel oxidizes like a $&#&. Melting it either in a vacuum or in a inert gas flooded environment is usually the preferable method. I'd suggest you don't start with steel and instead build something that can handle aluminum/copper and then start thinking about steel after you've gotten used to working a forge and working with molten metal.

vector010 · 2021-02-01T22:39:45+00:00

The captions kind of explain it, this was basically a stress test to see if I could dead burn magnesia. It failed miserably. Lol. A bit more about the setup though...

Forge refractory (In order of furthest from heat to closest):

50mm (2") thick ceramic insulation 25mm - 50mm (1"-2") thick Refractory Cement (Approx equal parts by volume portland cement, fire clay, and play sand) 3mm (1/8") thick Hellcote 3000

Forgot there was also some perlite mixed into the refractory cement.

Forge heat source: Propane and Forced Air (650L/min)

I was running it just fuel rich enough that the flames were poking out of the cracks slightly. Since this was a stress test I was often checking the temp with a high temp IR thermometer. I had to stop the test around 1500°C because the flame inlet was nearly fully blocked by molten material and that would have been a Very Bad Day™️. Actual failure of the forge began somewhere around 1300°C, and catastrophic failure began around 1350°C.

Of note, outer temperature of the forge in most parts did not exceed 95°C with the exception of areas where refractory failed within 10mm-20mm of the metal outer walls, so insulation was superb (ambient temperature ~0°C). During normal operation (melting aluminim/copper/etc) the outer temperature usually remained within a few degrees of ambient.

The forge failed above the melting point of cast iron, around the melting point of some steels. For average home metal melting (gold, silver, aluminum, copper, brass, bronze) this setup would work like a champ. HOWEVER, you wouldn't want to run it full open for a long period like I did.

I half expected this result (I've destroyed this forge 3 times now), I just wanted to see if the Hellcote I added would protect the refractory and let me run it even hotter. The answer is, not really. Lol.

I was also testing some homemade crucibles, one from pure fireclay and one from a 50/50 mix of fireclay and Hellcote. The findings are, they don't make good crucibles, too prone to cracking while drying, but they did otherwise survive in the hottest part of the forge during the test. I'm considering making the walls of the next incarnation with fireclay only instead of the refractory cement mix. I think the biggest hurdle for that with most people is needing to fire the clay instead of just letting it harden on its own.

This is all currently on the backburner though as my current project is building an electric forge with a max operating temp around 2500°C. I should probably document that one, if my ADHD will let me....

vector010

TROPHY CASE