Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome • Hacker News Board

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#161

Post by djmips » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 8:19 PM UTC

JakeTehPwner wrote: post #116

bluescrn wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buy a Prusa, Skip most of the setup/tweaking/upgrading. Print things. Learn to design things to print.

I just bought the prusa mk4 kit+enclosure, spent 20+ hours building it, and now I can’t stop printing upgrades for it(mostly the enclosure). I sealed the enclosure a bit, did the squash ball feet mod for the printer(it’s silent now), and I’m currently printing this: https://www.printables.com/model/588524-prusa-mk4-improved-f...

a VORON kit can't be too far away now! haha

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#162

Post by xsmasher » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 8:41 PM UTC

taffronaut wrote: post #13

kleiba wrote: post #6

So, you're not supposed to buy stuff for your hobby nor build stuff for your hobby? I think it depends on how you define "the hobby" - is it really just the part where you use your equipment? I find that too narrow. A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love bui…

> So, you're not supposed to buy stuff for your hobby nor build stuff for your hobby? I'm not sure that anyone is proposing that. > A good counter example could perhaps be table top wargaming, e.g. Warhammer and the likes. Surely, people who call that their hobby like to play the (various different) games. But a lot of people love building and painting their miniature armies just as much. That sounds perfectly reason…

Worse if they keep buying paints and models but never even open them.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#163

Post by ano-ther » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 8:50 PM UTC

wodenokoto wrote: post #8

> Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS). A person’s insatiable urge to buy equipment for their art or hobby, distracting them from actually practicing said art or hobby. > It’s driven in part by the belief that new gear will improve one’s art or performance, e.g. I don’t sound like Jimi Hendrix because I don’t have the same effects pedal he used. Bit tangent, but I think one should just embrace it and say “my hobby is coll…

That’s a creative re-framing.

Sadly, the realization that you are not going to be a rockstar but a gear collector is likely to trigger a midlife crisis.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#164

Post by asalahli » Fri, Oct 27, 2023, 10:46 PM UTC

mauvehaus wrote: post #68

krisoft wrote: post #59

I felt called out by the title since I spent all my hobby time in the last few weeks to fabricate brass gears for an orrery I’m working on. :) Luckily it is not about that kind of gear fabrication syndrome.

At the risk of nerd sniping all of HN: please tell us more about this orrery you're building! Can we follow your progress online?

Please also tell us about your gear fabrication process!

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#165

Post by TwiztidK » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 1:38 AM UTC

Brian_K_White wrote: post #16

All that design and fabrication work, and the pedals swing the wrong way? And has no rigid frame connection to a seat? If you're going to bother, then one of the biggest things is to rigidly attach the pedals to the seat so that they cannot move in relation to the seat even against the full power of legs. And of course car pedals swing on a pivot that is above the pedals not below, although the gas pedal has an extra…

You're dead on about rigid mounts for the pedals. One of the first issues many sim racers run into with regular cheap pedals and a desk mounted wheel is that they pedals slide once you start braking hard. And with load cell pedals the expectation is that you'll be using even more force, so that problem will just get worse.

As for pedal mounting location, many pedals can be top or bottom mounted if your racing chassis allows for it. However, floor mounted pedals offer the same performance as top mounted, match the majority of purpose built racing cars, and are simpler to mount in a sim racing chassis.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#166

Post by eternityforest » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 2:51 AM UTC

alright2565 wrote: post #158

eternityforest wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The wrong way to do a hobby is if it doesn't actually bring you or anyone else any happiness, which in extremely GAS/GFS cases seems to be possible. An Oscilloscope is a pretty reasonable thing even for a beginner, it's totally unnecessary but it does make things easier, it's something you'll probably actually use. I had GAS/GFS pretty bad when I first got into electronics. Most of the stuff I regret buying was all p…

I relate a lot with this. Especially cables--what an absolute nightmare, especially when you need to interface with commercial devices that have standardized on a different cabling standard! I have learned about Mini-PV connectors, which are compatible with P=2.54mm headers and do not loosen up over time: https://www.mattmillman.com/info/crimpconnectors/dupont-and-... > When I first saw a commercial install made of r…

Once you get to 10, or even 1 if it's a handheld (a pocket is a very rough environment) a PCB makes sense.

PCBs easy to make, and probably worth it a lot of the time, but there's also some pretty nice module options. Seems like going straight for PLCs is pretty common these days.

Mini-PV looks really nice! I'll have to check that out!

For dealing with commercial stuff on random cable standards, a lot of the time I'll get a pigtail and use Wago lever nuts to connect it to a longer cable, so it's easy to swap out stuff and make up whatever cable I need at the moment.

I've ever wagoed an 0.1" pigtail before, it works fine as long you keep the big heavy thing you're wagoing it to from pulling too hard.

Some people seem to like bananas for quick connections in the lab... but they are so easy to get wrong. A cheap banana plug last I checked was kind of bad.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#167

Post by eternityforest » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 3:09 AM UTC

starcraft2wol wrote: post #142

eternityforest wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But first, one should ask if the hobby is actually fun without the imagined success(Even if the imagined success is just an excuse for the hobby! Nobody said psychology always makes sense!). I used to do a lot of DIY software when I first got started, that I now deeply question the value of. I think without the imaginary payoffs, I would have only done about a quarter of it for fun. I don't use any of that code now,…

Some of us like to program

Programming random small toy stuff that catches your interest is fun, as is making something you really believe is useful.

But when you design a project I a way that's not appropriate for your resources, and it becomes an overwhelming pile of bugs, because you tried to do something really complex and reinvent 20 different wheels, it's less fun, unless you can polish it up to be like what you imagined, but that could take years depending on how crazy your idea was.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#168

Post by eternityforest » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 3:56 AM UTC

Zondartul wrote: post #55

A 3D printing hobby is basically GAS/GFS-as-a-hobby. You buy the cheapest printer, then print better parts for it, then you buy a second printer to print faster and with more quality, then you go on an ebay spree and buy a VORON kit to make your own, then you build a "mostly-printed CNC", lathe, plotter, laser cutter, and then you run out of room in your garage and start looking for a bigger house. It's a huge money…

I actually have less GAS/GFS with printing than anything else. I'd like a Klipper Pad and a camera... but it's not essential.

I think it might be the fact that anything decorative or artistic needs post processing anyway, so a few layer lines aren't a big deal, and that I enjoy CAD design and trying to make functions parts work without relying on precision.

I would like to quiet the fan and steppers a bit though!

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#169

Post by eternityforest » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 4:01 AM UTC

bad_alloc wrote: post #79

perlgeek wrote: post #47

I misread the title, and thought he compulsively built gears (as in, gearing mechanism) :-)

Me too. This is somehow an interest many hobby machinists converge on as a far away goal. It is hard to do, needs extra equipment and is mostly avoidable. Still, the allure is there...

I want to do a 3DP project with a cool gearing mechanism but I don't know what it should do. I'm thinking some kind of PC input device.

Re: Let me tell you about me Gear Fabrication Syndrome

#170

Post by krisoft » Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 8:09 AM UTC

mauvehaus wrote: post #68

krisoft wrote: post #59

I felt called out by the title since I spent all my hobby time in the last few weeks to fabricate brass gears for an orrery I’m working on. :) Luckily it is not about that kind of gear fabrication syndrome.

At the risk of nerd sniping all of HN: please tell us more about this orrery you're building! Can we follow your progress online?

> please tell us more about this orrery you're building!

Oh, thank you for asking. It is a fantasy planet system from the role playing world of Critical Role. It has a tiny brass cold cast planet with continents in the center of it. Two moons “orbit” around that on slanted orbits. A smaller red one and a bigger greyish one, these are realised as two semi-precious stone beads. The mechanism has two pairs of brass bevel gears and three pairs of brass reducing gears to achieve the cannonical 1:6 speed ratio between the moons.

Better shown in a video: https://youtu.be/zOOXRaQLdMs?si=cDCp2T-kjUETtRzj

> Can we follow your progress online?

Oh thank you. Not much of a progress is expected anymore. I have finished it yesterday, boxed it up and now I am on my way to the london comiccon to gift it away.

The next project is going to be a real world orrery of the Gallilean moons if I can manage it. Will try to get better at uploading progress reports periodically. I guess that youtube channel is the best one to follow if this is of interest to anyone.