@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

If I ever pierce my ears for ornamental reasons then I am 100% making and wearing earrings with miniature floppies, zip disks, tape reels, punch cards, and any other digital media that strikes my fancy.

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

Current status: Watching Eurorack tutorials and fighting the urge to pick up a new hobby. For science! 😸

trevorflowers, to Watches
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

Oh, dang. Behrens made a sick lightweight and curvy wristwatch. Even if it was free I couldn't wear it but as a machine-minded person I love the stuffing out of the engineering, manufacturing, and aesthetics.
#horology #machinist
https://youtu.be/GOqzjrPnWao

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

This is a thoughtful piece about the balancing act of making physical things. How long should they work? What do recycling, repair, and durability bring to the equation? Whether you're making one-offs or runs of 110k, I think this is worth your time.
#manufacturing #machining
https://www.core77.com/posts/132088/Fantastic-Industrial-Design-Student-Work-How-Long-Should-Objects-Last

trevorflowers, to random
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

The Konmari tidying method breaks the initial discard into phases by categories: clothes, books, papers, misc, and sentimental items. I wonder what the categories are for a home workshop because it can't all be misc.
#konmari #shopLife

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

So, how do people with anhedonia decide whether an item sparks joy?
🤷
Asking for a friend.

wezm, to apple
@wezm@mastodon.decentralised.social avatar

New M4 iPads have more cores and are likely higher performing than my Ryzen 7 5800U based laptop and yet still can be used for development. Even a simple task like editing, building, and deploying my SSG (Zola) based website can't be done without the help of a remote machine running a real operating system. When will Apple focus on the iPad operating system instead of the hardware? #Apple #iPad

trevorflowers,
@trevorflowers@machines.social avatar

@decryption @wezm I have mixed feelings about that idea. I agree that they're targeting the no-skill user but I also suspect that they've shipped the OS and first party apps they feel are sufficient so they're not messing with what they consider a success, instead relying on thinner/faster/prettier hw to drive sales.

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. 😉
#machining #shopLife

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.
#horology

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.
#horology #obsession

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 #FreeCADFriday to tag! #freecad #fc3d

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.
#shopLife

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.

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