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00:00:01
7 Pete Parisi of PeteSquared23
67 Plays6 months ago
Pete is doing innovative projects with his cnc and 3d printer! We had a fantastic conversation about his lego sorters, his method for projecting light patterns, and learning to paint with his cnc.
https://www.instagram.com/petesquared23/
https://www.petesquared23.com/
https://www.facebook.com/petesquared23/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCy5bp942x6XPB9r5JEBcXxQ
https://www.tiktok.com/@petesquared23
Things of the week:
Pete: Led/silicone neon lights https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08SJCTTQP
Al: Storing spray paint on the ceiling https://www.instagram.com/p/DEZ5iPao0pO/
Jeff: Savage Builds https://www.discovery.com/shows/savage-builds
Patreon: http://patreon.com/digifabricators
Discord: https://discord.gg/hHp8Sv7vt4
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Digi Fabricators
00:00:12
Speaker
damn Hello and welcome to Digi Fabricators, the show where we learn how makers and artists use their computer-driven tools for fun art and profit. I'm your host, Jeff Stein, AKA a a weird guy, and with me is my talented but sleepy co-host, Al Schultz of New York Woodbricks. How are you doing tonight, Al? I'm doing well. How are you, sir? Oh, not too bad. A little cold here, otherwise, you know,
00:00:44
Speaker
normal for a Minnesota winter, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Sucky, but normal. Yeah. Yeah. We just, we just had a day and a half of plowing here. So that's why I'm sleepy. It's too cold for snow here. It usually doesn't pull that shit unless it gets up over 20. Yeah. Anyway, let's fire off the disclaimer so we can get going here. Yeah.
00:01:13
Speaker
Even though we pretend to be experts on the internet, I would like to point out that neither of us have any actual training and our guys just winging in at our shops and learning as we go. All advice provided is based on our personal experience and possibly inaccurate assumptions and is worth exactly what you pay for it. If listening to this show causes you to take out a loan to buy new and expensive digital tools, you may tell your spouse that it was our fault, but do so at your own risk.
Meet Pete Parisi: CNC Artist
00:01:44
Speaker
So tonight our guest is a guy who knows how to sort Legos, switch vacuums and cast shadows. But recently he's been teaching his CNC to paint. Welcome to the show. Pete Parisi from Pete squared 23. Hey guys. Thanks for having me. How are you doing now? Hi, Jeff. what Good, good, good. Thank you for coming, sir. course Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it.
00:02:12
Speaker
ah Well, you're doing fun things that I think people like to hear about so that qualifies you for The prize of the week I guess Well, I don't you why why don't you give us a basics, so you know um You know, maybe who you are What kinds of stuff you do and what kinds of fun tools you like to use on a regular? sure, um I I started this probably three or four years ago but I've always been making stuff but I started social media about three or four years ago as I was exiting my job at Apple and needed something to kind of relax and unwind and do and my entire family is full of artists and makers and
00:03:06
Speaker
all all the way to my grandparents who were doing stained glass and Traditional artwork to my parents who were into ceramics and my dad was doing woodworking so a lot of inspiration there and then I started really wanting to get into doing CNC work and one of the big
00:03:29
Speaker
inspirations for me was the guy on YouTube who does the marbled machine, Marble Machine X. I'm not sure if you've seen that guy, um but he's making this incredibly interesting musical instrument on his CNC, or he used to on the CNC, where balls or marbles are dropping on musical instruments, and he had an avid CNC, and I was like, oh wow, I wanna do something like similar to that, that's so creative.
Pete's CNC Journey and Collaborations
00:03:57
Speaker
and is that Is that, I'm sorry, is that Wintergotten? Yeah, Wintergotten. Yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah and ah me And me and my wife, Pam, we used to watch that ah every week when he used to come out with a new video, him and his team. And it just, I told myself whenever I got some time, I was gonna buy one of those and and teach myself how to use it. And eventually we did, and I broke a lot of bits and wasted a lot of material.
00:04:24
Speaker
but ah finally got got got the hang of it and started building a relationship with Avid CNC. And then now that's kind of taken off into doing more stuff like 3D printing or laser cutting or anything that's like digital fabrication type work. It's kind of a spreading addiction.
00:04:44
Speaker
I mean, once you dip your toe into the digital fab, you find yourself needing a printer and a laser and a CNC and then, oh, maybe another type of laser and what's next? It's an addiction. And Jeff, you mentioned fiber lasers a little while ago. I mean, I haven't one of those cut metal or something like that. That's, that's down the road, but that would be amazing.
00:05:13
Speaker
Yeah, that's so that's something I'd like to they just the the price entry point for a fiber laser that has enough power to do any good is just a little it's been a little high for me. I mean, I guess I kind of picked last summer between buying a bamboo and a fiber laser and I ended up with the bamboo. Yeah, but you know, there was there was budget for one.
00:05:43
Speaker
and I went the other way this time. Are you pretty happy with your bamboo? Yeah, really I am. i'm I'm a little less happy with them based on some of the stuff that's come out this week. There's been a lot of drama about a new firmware that's going to block out third party slicers from being sent directly to the printer. And, uh, they seem to be doing some weird stuff by being the printer itself. I'm super happy with, um, it does an amazing job.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah, I love it. I i used to have a Creality, one of the cheap Creality ones. And all I did was calibrate that thing and try to get the print nice. And then as soon as I got one of the bamboo ones, I haven't really done any maintenance hardly at all. And it's and the prints are always usually pretty good. Yeah, the the thing that I...
00:06:43
Speaker
The thing I hear people that have the worst problem are the people who used to have to tweak their machines to the nth degree to get shit to print right because they try to bring that mentality into bamboo and it and it throws their delicate calibrations out the window. Whereas if you don't have any idea what the hell you're doing with a printer and you start with a bamboo, you throw in a model, you give it a couple of basic parameters, and you leave 98% of this shit as default values, and it prints beautiful every damn time. And
00:07:27
Speaker
As long as you don't have any bed adhesion problems and remember to, you know, make sure your bed is super clean or occasionally glue if you're doing something super thin like a hue forge. But I mean, other than that, you it basically just prints it beautiful shit straight out of the box every time. Yeah.
00:07:49
Speaker
unless you try to adjust all the damn settings manually because you think you know better and then it really actually works worse from what I understand. Yeah, yeah I hate to turn this into an ad for bamboo but and I'm really I because I have two of them sitting right next to my desk right here and I'm constantly just throwing things at it. And I'm always 90% of the time it just comes off flawlessly. It's really nice. Beautiful cabinets too.
00:08:18
Speaker
Yeah, I keep mine running too. I just keep throwing shit at it. And I mean, I may, I, I'm not even doing super useful stuff most of the time, but I mean, I've, I've got a teenager and a toddler in the house. So there's a nonstop stream of little flexy toys and fidget kind of shit coming out. And then I'm covering the entire house with freaking hue forge pictures.
00:08:47
Speaker
um um... but i mean every once in a while i try to do some custom stuff you know and uh... it's been a gradual process of just transitioning from the guy that downloads shit telling me telling it i want four copies and pushing print to the guy who's designing some stuff and modeling and you
Workshop Setups and Space Management
00:09:10
Speaker
know i've recently i've done some of the suspended thread art kind of stuff. Oh, yeah, I learned how to do the threads. Those are not super hard, but there's a couple of hard rules and you got to follow to get them to work. But I've i've seen the lion one where the all the threads are the lion's mane. And not after it's done printing, you heat gun it and kind of
00:09:37
Speaker
comb the hair back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. that yeah I did a Christmas tree that had that loopy kind of just draw it in space kind of shit that worked out. I get so excited when I see ideas like that that are totally out of the box and people are right doing something totally different. I don't know. I get excited about that stuff. Yeah. The the suspended by threads is a really fun thing to play with.
00:10:07
Speaker
<unk> I've got a few more ideas. But I mean, I did a custom flying fuck a couple of weeks ago, where it's just ah and the the the word fuck with wings and it's suspended inside a cloud with some threads. It's it's sort of fun. That's cool. You have it? You have it there? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Oh, wow. That came out awesome.
00:10:35
Speaker
it's It's not that hard to do, really. You you just have to learn how to model the threads so they actually work properly and don't just fall right off when you touch them. You have to make sure the threads go through the frame, not just up to the frame. Otherwise, they'll just fall right off.
00:10:57
Speaker
ah My friend Luke from Luke in the Garage. I'm not sure if you know Luke, but everybody knows Luke. He printed a Millennium Falcon that had all the, it was like suspended by the wires and the threads. Yeah. that old for that That's a, that's a two day print right there. Is it really? Probably, probably two and a half. I don't remember. It was, yeah, that's a big one. um Yeah. i I think I've got a.
00:11:24
Speaker
a couple of those files in a folder I haven't done yet because they just take a long time. But it's okay. I'll get there eventually. and the l do you order three aldi i No, no, when you guys got these big fancy 3D printers, I went the fiber laser way. Oh, nice. That coin I showed you was one I did. Oh, with the Darth Vader on it? Yeah. Yeah. When James Earl Jones passed. Yeah. Yeah. I see you're in Laguna CNC in the background too. Yeah. That's a Swift 4x8. Nice. You get a lot of use out of it? I do. I do. I use it all the time. And then this over here, and here we you can do a quick, there, there.
00:12:10
Speaker
That's a hundred watt CO2. Oh, wow. And then this is the 50 watt fiber. nice ah cool Thank you. Thank you very much with CNC. And then on the other side is a 18 inch band saw, saw stop, big dust collector, um, drum sander kind of.
00:12:34
Speaker
got to do everything up here or you ah you can't do anything. Well, it might be the lens or something, but it looks like you both have really big workshops. Is that true? My shop is 24 by 28. It's a two car shed. It came in two pieces like the, like the, it was from the, it's from the Amish country. They build sheds and they haul them and just set it on the ground. It's got a wood floor. Cool.
00:13:02
Speaker
to took two 18 year old kids, I don't know, hour and a half and I had a had a building ready to go. It was crazy. I i just ah took over one end of my unfinished basement. So I've got, I don't know, maybe 20 feet by 15, something like that. And ah Basically I took as much space as I wanted and kind of put up a couple of barriers with some shelves and then allowed the kids to do whatever they needed to do with whatever's left. But I mean, I could expand or contract a little as needed because.
00:13:44
Speaker
It's my fucking basement. The kids get whatever I don't feel like using this year. What what do you use use? Are you in a basement? In a shop? or we It's a really small two-car garage. yeah But, you know, I live in California, so all the houses are really, really small here. Or at least ours is. And so um I'm always kind of fighting for space and room. And that's kind of one of the things I'm doing is I'm always cleaning out trying to find a place to put a certain tool or get rid of a tool or I'm about to give it get rid of some old jigs that I've made that are just taken up. Yeah. Yeah. I'm doing a, I'm, I'm doing a purge here. I kinda people are like, do you wish you had a bigger shop? And I think everybody does, but I really, it kind of makes you like to your point, you know, you, you can't, you're going to put
00:14:35
Speaker
If there's a flat surface, you're going to put something on it. So just control your flat surface. Don't make another flat surface. Cause you're just going to put stuff on that too. I've always been a fan of ah April Wilkerson and seeing her giant shop that she has. i' I've always wanted a space like that, but I know if I had like six tables, I'd be constantly be cleaning up those six tables. yeah actually getting up They'd just be stuff piled on them.
00:15:00
Speaker
Yeah, I don't even have a workbench. I work on the end of the CNC if, cause if I put a workbench in here, I'll just cover it with stuff. yeah i hear So speaking of April, um, what's, uh, why don't you tell us what you did with your Lego sorter and, uh, how that whole, uh, outsourcing went.
Lego Sorter Project and Collaboration Insights
00:15:25
Speaker
Sure. um I've always been a fan of Lego and when my daughter was born, I started buying her Lego sets and we started playing with Legos together. I had the idea from seeing other products out there because there's a ton of different Lego sorting type things, but we needed something because I have a lot of OCD. so She'd be playing with the Lego and I'd be organizing it and separating it. and categorizing it. So I kind of built that to help us with that. And it got really popular. People people really liked the idea. And I kept getting inundated with people saying, hey, can you build me one of these? can i Can you make one? And so I just reached out to April because she has a whole company that does ah manufacturing for makers. And they were really cool to work with. I worked with her assistant. Oh, man.
00:16:16
Speaker
ah Jordan was the one who was running the shop and then she has ah another guy. I forgot what his name was. But um he worked with me a little bit on the design, like optimizing it for the CNC so that they we could manufacture it a little bit cheaper, a little bit faster.
00:16:31
Speaker
And then they were doing all of the order fulfillment, the manufacturing and then shipping it out. And it was fantastic. They did a really good job. um they It was high quality stuff. Eventually we kind of moved away from the plywood and went with MDF to get the cost down a little bit more.
00:16:51
Speaker
But eventually, like we sold a bunch and it was really cool, but eventually it just became too much dealing with customer service and you know that the shipping companies there are so hard on on on their shipments. They're kicking them around and stuff. And so like one out of yeah one out of every four would come broken. And I felt so bad like disappointing people that they spent all this money on something. It would come all busted up. It wasn't April's fault at all. It was the it was like UPS and the postal service.
00:17:24
Speaker
So um I just kind of got tired of dealing with it and and we shut it down. They still wanted to make them because it it was good for their company and stuff. and And I really enjoyed working with them. But I got to the point where I just didn't want to deal with it anymore.
00:17:38
Speaker
and And like you you guys were talking about earlier, you want to make fun things. You want to have fun in the shop. You want to be creative. You want to do interesting things to keep your brain active. And um that's why I'm kind of moving in away from like trying to start a business and and do like generate products to for sale and have to worry about all that stuff. I'm getting to retirement age and I want to go out in the workshop and and just have fun and not have to worry about paying bills and stuff like that. I'm absolutely with you on that one. I have
00:18:13
Speaker
tried a couple of times to find ways to monetize my hobby and every single time I end up with almost no money and it's absolutely sucked all the fun right out of my shop time and I just I've come to the conclusion that while I can and could make money with my shop I could make more money per hour working at Walmart and then I could come home and enjoy my shop time doing things that I think are fun. And I would have more money and more enjoyment out of my life by making my money elsewhere and just having fun in the shop.
Monetizing Hobbies and Social Media Challenges
00:19:03
Speaker
yeah it's It's my preference too. and And I'm not trying to disparage anybody who's trying to make a go of making a business at this because it it is a really great place to make a business. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. yeah i'm ah um I'm a full time. This is my money. No, that's cool. but i'm i'm not living I'm not making money on social media. So you know i'm I'm a word of mouth, furniture finishing. I'm doing a big project for a golf course right now.
00:19:35
Speaker
you know, so it's like it's that kind of piece work, you know, louis smallman kind of like April only a tenth of a tenth. To be honest, I'm not sure a lot of people are making very much money on social media, unless they're on like selling stuff on the TikTok shop or stuff like that. If you were a medium-sized account or a little bit of a smaller account, unless you have millions of followers, I don't think you're making a whole lot of money from Instagram, to Facebook, and things like that. Well, Instagram doesn't pay anybody. Facebook, I amongst back channels that some months they pay really well and some months they don't I think if you get a lot of views most of the people that get a lot of views on TikTok pick up a decent amount of money but um I don't know I've I've never had that level of success and
00:20:35
Speaker
Actually, i've had I have. Well, we'll say it. I guess I probably sound a little bit bitter because I've made a considerable number of views on TikTok that have generated me no damned money. And it's based on their other arbitrary numbers that they need you to hit.
00:20:57
Speaker
And the the one I couldn't hit was the follower count, that until you get 10,000 followers, you don't get a penny, no matter how many views. So the fact that I've got, I had a couple of TikToks that were you know in the 100, 200,000 views, and I had one TikTok with 7.5 million views, which is generating an incredible amount of good revenue. i mean i I had people commenting and liking on that every day for a year and a half before I got sick of this shit and pulled them all down. But I generated a lot of money for those guys. And because I didn't hit an arbitrary point of 10,000 followers, the fact that I got maybe eight million views over my ah content generated me nothing but gave them money. Oh, yeah.
00:21:56
Speaker
I've eventually pulled the plug on that experiment and decided that I don't want notifications from a bunch of idiots that watched a video I'm not particularly proud of that I posted a year and a half ago. and I decided I don't want to generate money for them anymore. They're not going to kick me anything. so and just let the other people steal it and put it on Facebook if they want it, because I'm um'm out. And it's so random, too. Like, I'll post a video and I'll get 500 views, and I'll post another video that's very similar, and suddenly it's got 10,000 views. And like what is really going on? Like, why why isn't there more consistency here? And I have no idea. Like, stories on Instagram, if I post one, several hundred views. If I post four or five in a row, they each get like 30.
00:22:48
Speaker
Yeah. ah you but Instagram does this thing where they reach out and to different social media people and they try to give them training or tips or whatever. And a lot of times they want people to post pretty much at the exact same time every day. They want you to post two or three times every day. And unless you check all these check boxes, they they just ignore you. They're just like, Oh, whatever.
00:23:14
Speaker
<unk> you're not you're not part of our plan, so you're not gonna get any views. It could be the coolest thing ever. Just get buried. Well, it's not like they gave, it's not like they post this shit and say if you want our algorithm to treat you the best, then these are the practices that you should be following this year at this time. This is what our algorithm works best with. And they may tell a couple of influencers some of that shit for insider knowledge, but I mean
00:23:48
Speaker
God forbid if they just posted that shit somewhere on a freaking Instagram page and let you know what the fucking rules were instead of the rest of us just fumbling around in the freaking dark. Yeah, but then they'd have to pay us.
00:24:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, they're not going to do that, but, uh, I don't know. There's questions about like, do you need to post your shit first thing at eight o'clock in the morning? Is that when you get the best views or is it okay if I post my shit at f freaking 11 30 at night? Because that's what I want to do.
00:24:25
Speaker
because I'll come downstairs when my kids go to bed and I'll play in my shop for a couple of hours and I'll usually post footage of what I've been playing on and and have a snack and go to bed because that's what I've done and when I feel like fucking posting it now does that hold me back or put me ahead or I don't know. i I don't know what's best. So I've decided I'm just going to do whatever the hell I want. And even if it doesn't get me the most possible engagement and well, ah fuck it. um This is my game. I'm doing this to have fun. I'm going to do whatever the hell I want. Even if it's not the best possible thing I could do. Well, tough shit. This is me and what I want to do with my channel.
00:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, I'm with you, Jeff. like I just do it for fun. and I'm not trying to turn it into a business. And I met ah some really, really cool people, made some really good friends. So I kind of post stuff just to have conversations with them. And if you know if it gets a bunch of views, it's fine. But it's it's usually like 50%, hey, that's cool. And 50%, hey, you suck. but so So it's kind of a wash. Well. what are you Sorry. That's a popularity. Normally when your reels are in the first thousand or two or 5,000 views, you normally get a lot of good supportive comments from people in the community. And if your shit takes off and gets a lot more viral is when you get out to a wider crowd and then you get more of the negative shit. That's, that's when you get more of a general population that aren't actually makers and creatives.
00:26:10
Speaker
when When you hit the big numbers on the views is when you get the crowds of assholes that come in. And but that's when you know you're, when you start seeing negative comments is when you know that your view count is jumping drastically. ah Especially on Facebook. I have a love hate relationship with Facebook. There are so same many hateful people on that platform.
00:26:36
Speaker
I've given up trying to join any groups. Like i there was like I've I ah talked to a friend of mine who is I don't want to say marketing, but like trying to figure out the algorithm. And he said, just join groups that are like minded in your product. Like if you make American flags, you know, join patriotic groups and stuff like that. And then just, you know, he goes, you don't even have to sell like my market. Just post your stuff. Hey, look what I made today, you know.
00:27:03
Speaker
And he, he goes, I picked up, you know, 300 followers and, and, and sold seven, you know, products or whatever, and without even advertising. So I started joining a few different groups and man, oh man. Well, let me tell you.
00:27:18
Speaker
I am way too fat to own a CNC. I don't even understand what you just said, dude. lot of it just There's the spelling and the grammar is so bad. I can't tell what they're actually saying.
00:27:34
Speaker
It's like, what? Okay. I lost the love part of the love-hate relationship. and i I just simply hate Facebook now. um The only time you'll see me near Facebook is if a friend of mine sends me a link to a reel they want me to watch. And I will click on it. It will open in my browser because I refuse to install their app on my phone.
00:28:02
Speaker
and it'll open on my phone browser and then I'll watch it and then I will close the window. I won't look at a comment, I'll watch something somebody sends me but I'm not going there. It's a cesspool of ah assholes and idiots and I want nothing to do with the place. It was great 25 years ago when I could connect with my aunts, uncles, cousins and distant relatives and I could see the things that they posted about.
00:28:31
Speaker
But that algorithm disappeared right after I got bored with FarmVille. And I've really had no interest to go back in the last, I don't know, it's been and well over 15 years since I gave a shit about that site. Yeah, it's it's really hard to to deal with. But my friend Jason on Big Sky Maker, I'm not sure if you know who Jason is, but he's been doing really well on Facebook.
00:28:56
Speaker
And, uh, a lot of his stuff is, uh, he's in his garage, but he's doing a lot of things that you like normal people could do with a table saw and things. And, uh, he's really creative. Uh, he's been seeing a huge amount of success. Oh yeah.
00:29:14
Speaker
it's it can be a good place to get a lot of success and a lot of attention and uh even a lot of sales if you're doing it right but uh it's also a shithole just let's talk about something nicer let's go back to yeah printers and so so you said you had you got your 3d printer you had a you have or had an avid CNC I do I have uh five by five foot. Yeah. Nice. Nice. Yeah, it's my favorite tool The five by five so nice. I I so regret not buying five wide You know like because as soon as you get into baltic birch and you realize that five foot, you know is ah cheaper um or less expensive than four four foot, which is weird But somebody told me that's because the cabinet industry is based on five foot
00:30:06
Speaker
Oh, really? so So that's why there's five by five and five by 10 Baltic birch. Oh, wow. I didn't know that. But and I got the five by five, because doing toolpaths at 48 inches, if you're on a four foot machine, sometimes you'll hit the the proximity sensor. and And it's just kind of a pain. Yeah, yeah. yeah Yeah, i've I've been limited a couple of times at four foot wide. you know what do What are you using for software? like you're you're Your design work is amazing. I've been doom scrolling your Instagram in the background here. um it's you You have really, really nice design work. What what kind of software and or how does that work? what's What's the process to get from an idea to to to a product?
Designing with Fusion 360
00:30:54
Speaker
So I use Fusion 360.
00:30:57
Speaker
And I know a lot of people out there, they use a lot of the other programs, which is totally cool. But I know a lot of the Autodesk products like 3D Studio Max and Maya. I've been doing 3D Studio Max for 30 years because I'm a 3D modeler in the games industry.
00:31:16
Speaker
Oh, inner in the real world? yeah or i was i was Or I am for a while. um I took a ah break and was like a manager at Apple for a while too, but we we were still doing like 3D work for to train AI algorithms for the autonomous vehicle that Apple was trying to build and for other things too.
00:31:38
Speaker
like the My team was the first team to do a lot of the prototypes and demos for the ah Apple VR goggles that nobody cares about.
00:31:53
Speaker
Hey, hey can we can we talk about the photos in this last update?
00:31:59
Speaker
ah Sorry to interrupt, please. No, no, it's it's yeah inter internally there. but There's a lot of people who are very frustrated because the software is really suffering. yeah it's i I can tell you some crazy, crazy stories about that company. But I won't go into it. But Fusion 360, it's very, very difficult to get your head wrapped around it right at the beginning.
00:32:23
Speaker
But once you kind of understand the workflow of it, you can get so fast at building things in Fusion very, very quickly. it's it's I love it. I think it's fantastic. And and i I even like it better than like 3D Studio Max because of the way that they deal with their dimensions and their measurements and how things link together. You could do a lot of parameters. So you can basically set up a whole, right? Like let's say you wanted to do, you know, coffee mugs or something. You can set up parameters where you can say, Oh, I want a four inch coffee mug. Now I want a five inch coffee mug. And everything changes for you. and and Right. Paramedic modeling is twice as hard to be able to make sure
00:33:09
Speaker
that all of your measurements are linked directly to the previous measurements so that when you change the one number, everything else changes. It doesn't break. But yeah, that though the parametric modeling is a little bit more difficult, but it's super rewarding that you can go back and, uh, you know, change a couple numbers at the very beginning and the whole thing just scales crazily. I've been, uh,
00:33:38
Speaker
I've been working on a hue forge frame that's fully parametric. I can kick in a length and a width of the hue forge picture and it'll kick me the model for the frame that everything works the way it's supposed to and the picture pops right into it neatly no matter what size But that's a bit more of a pain to do, but I mean, it's super rewarding when you can pull it off. um do you use the do Do you use the cam as well as the CAD on that?
00:34:15
Speaker
Yeah, um I do all of the toolpaths in Fusion 360 as well. and okay ah Mostly I use the Amana tool. They have a Fusion 360 library of bits with feeds and speeds. So I'm not an expert at feeds and speeds at all, but I generally just use their there's stuff to start with.
00:34:38
Speaker
But it's really easy to install and then you just get in there and um some of the tool path can get pretty complicated and figuring out, like, do I want to select an edge or a face to get the right kind of tool path but once you kind of get the hang of it.
00:34:50
Speaker
It's so fast. Like I just designed a bench, a rolling bench for this new laser that I just got. And I did it in like an hour and and send it to the CNC machine, cut out all the parts with very, very minimal mistakes. It was just a really fast process. I just, I'm not a fusion user yet. And I literally today, just before they started the show here, I was telling,
00:35:20
Speaker
Uh, yeah, Jeff. Um, I just, I just, uh, bought Bob Claggett's, uh, fusion 360 class. So I'm going to try it, try my hand at it again. Yeah. Bob's really, Bob's really awesome.
00:35:36
Speaker
That is the way I wrapped my brain around Fusion as I started with Bob's class as well. um Yeah, you said it's it's it definitely has a learning curve to get started. But I would say specifically that every option in the dropdown menu has its own hump to get over because fusion thinks in its own way and you have to understand how it thinks and then you can once you once you grasp the basic concept of how it thinks
00:36:16
Speaker
everything just falls into place and starts happening for you. you but There's that learning curve on the modeling side. If you're doing the CAD, you have to learn the idea that they want you to make a two-dimensional sketch and then exit out of that and then extrude pieces of that sketch in different directions to create the 3D model, and of course there's like three other ways you can do things, you know, with the revolving and the extruding and the pure shape. So I can, I can write toolpaths or create toolpaths, rate infusion, and take them right, right to the logo. Absolutely. And it'll export the G code.
00:37:03
Speaker
I wouldn't need a spire anymore at all. You would not need a spire at all. And it's free. Fusion's free if you're using it for non-business use. Until you get a rotary, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There's a line there that they they're they're not willing to acknowledge that I might have a rotary as a hobby.
00:37:26
Speaker
They figured that anybody that's got the money to throw at a rotary is probably going to be making money and they should probably pay for the full version plus the goddamn machining extension, which brings your annual cost right up to what you're paying for a spire.
00:37:47
Speaker
Unfortunately, they're probably trying to recoup some of their costs for developing all of that because it's yeah, but but fusion is pretty extensive. You can do electronics in there. You can set up. I don't know anything about electronics, but you can basically set up a lot of ah like circuits and things like that. Will it talk to lasers too? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:38:09
Speaker
It'll talk to lasers. green printers im I model things and send them straight to my bamboo slicer. um that's That's a huge one right there. I see a lot of people that are, they'll they'll create a model and then they'll have to export it as a mesh. And then they'll import that into the slicer when there's actually a 3D print button. You can send that shit straight from the model to the slicer.
00:38:39
Speaker
And with multiple colors and multiple objects all in one file, in one chunk, it's just a beautiful thing. When you start getting involved in exporting like DXFs or what's What's the other 2D or 2.5D format? STL. So it gets a little bit tricky when you start getting into that point, but um one of the companies that makes the the robot router thing ah
00:39:10
Speaker
Shaper yeah, so they have a plugin that will that totally streamlines the process of exporting stl. It's really easy So but that and all that stuff is like for fusion you mean yeah out of fusion. Yeah. Yeah, so you you could design laser projects in fusion and then kick those out as an stl that you could put into your laser and at least, you know, the two dimensional, I'm not sure about your
00:39:44
Speaker
yeah your fiber and your three-dimensional shit and your depth maps. I'm guessing that's possible, but I don't know how to do it. But I mean the the the exporting just a simple thing that would go to your CO2 laser just to cut out stuff in two dimensions is absolutely a regular thing it does.
00:40:07
Speaker
yeah So if you're using VCarve or Aspire where they're kind of like a pseudo 3D, it's more like 2.5D, you get the height of everything, you can do all that in Fusion. It's just a little tricky getting it out, but once you learn a couple of techniques, it's a no-brainer. It's really easy. So would you go right from Fusion to the CNC or from Fusion back into Aspire toolpath and then to the No, I go straight from Fusion, export G-code, and then I load it up in Acorn, ah Centroid Acorn. I used to use Mach4, but I worked really closely with the team at Avid, and they moved away from Mach4, and they sent me a new Centroid license instead, because we were finding bugs all over the place with Mach4. The machine would just stop right in the middle of a toolpath for no reason at all. And it was just, they just,
00:41:02
Speaker
the company just could not fix their bugs. So Centroid Acorn is what we're using now to to run the CNC and to process the G-code, and it's fantastic. I haven't found any bugs with it at all, and I've been doing all kinds of crazy stuff. Is that their controller, or is that an Avid controller that I see under your pictures? The controller box is from Avid, and then the but the software is from Centroid. A copy, yeah.
00:41:28
Speaker
But you need an avid controller box that works with centroid you can't take up the mock box and you have to like send it back to them and they'll send you a new box or something. I really like the guys over there at Avid too. they're They're really really helpful. They're working on some new stuff coming up hopefully It'll be out soon. um But like most of the guys over there, like Corey, I think he's the owner. He's fantastic to work with. And then I work with Eric a lot, who's kind of their social media like tech person that that also works with people directly. And I just text him and say, hey, I don't know how to do this. And he instantly just sends me a tutorial on how to do it or tells me, oh, click this button over right here. and
00:42:15
Speaker
Yeah, they're very nice. Nice. Pretty easy to work with. Good relationships or service relationships are almost more important than the product itself. You know, if you can't get it fixed, it doesn't matter how good it is when you got it.
00:42:28
Speaker
Well, their old social media person, Sammy, she actually works at the fusion three so on the Fusion 360 team now. So she moved over to Autodesk, but she was the one who got me my five by five machine. I originally bought a two foot by four foot machine to still learn. And they've been the super, super supportive. She pushed for me to get a new machine and they were they were all about it and really really owe her ah a lot.
Creative CNC Art and Shadow Projects
00:42:55
Speaker
ae so uh let's see what else have you been doing with this cnc oh i want to hear how you did the the the the shadows for like you did like the house numbers where the light was on top and it shone through a cnc cut board and then the light that comes through the holes displays on the wall as the actual house numbers and
00:43:27
Speaker
You know, I've I kind of wanted to do that when I saw you do it a while back, but I'm not sure if it would work with my house and the where things are and where I've already got lights. It might not really. So I have a tutor tutorial for it on Instagram. It's pinned to my Instagram account if you want to check it out. But I used to live in Dallas and there was a really cool nightclub. And on the side of their building at night, they had ah Excuse me. They had a light shining down on some planes that were sticking out away from the wall. And it wrote the name and of the nightclub in shadow on on the side of their building. And you could only only see it at night. I thought it was really, really cool. And I've also seen it in hotels and things like that. But the nightclub did it in such a way where they distorted the letters so that it would be undistorted on the wall.
00:44:22
Speaker
And I was trying trying to think of like how you would do that. And I went into 3D Studio Max because they have real-time lighting and shadows. And I just put a plane up, a simple geometry plane, and then wrote out the numbers in as a stencil in geometry, and put it up against that wall plane, and then put a point light.
00:44:43
Speaker
shining on it, and then I just started distorting the mesh and like in a trapezoidal shape until the numbers were undistorted on the wall. And you could probably do it with math or trigonometry or or something else, but... No, I can't. I can't either. But because it's a point light, you know all the rays of the light are coming out of that one single point, so you know you can distort that in in order to get the correct shadow.
00:45:12
Speaker
and And it worked, it worked really well. So I took that shape out of 3D Studio Max, brought it into Fusion, set up the toolpath, milled it out. But then I also took the measurements of where that point light was in 3D space, and then got a single LED light. Because some of the flashlights for LEDs, they have multiple LEDs, and that will that will make a lot of different shadows. You want one single LED to to shine most of the light out.
00:45:40
Speaker
and then that will give you a really nice crisp shadow. it's I actually use my phone, the flashlight on my phone to test with, because that's a single LED and a really nice crisp and clear shadow. But what I'd really love to do is to figure out how to do it on a piece of acrylic or a piece of glass to where you can have really intricate shapes and you don't have to make it like a stencil.
00:46:07
Speaker
So um you could coat the glass with like a piece of black plastic and then use a laser to etch it out and like peel it back. And then when the light casts through that, you get even more detail and more, you know, stuff hanging on the wall. You can even do stuff where you animate certain parts of it so the shadow is moving around. It wouldn't be crystal clear, but it would it would be kind of neat. Yeah. Like the, have you seen the,
00:46:37
Speaker
they'll do sculptures and dependent and as the sculpture turns it makes a shadow turns into a landscape and all this kind of stuff and then you look at the sculpture and it's like uh, coat hangers with post-it notes and and nice they have a nightlights for kids now that has like the body of ah an owl, but then all the wings are the shadows that come out from behind it. I've seen those as 3d prints that you can do. Uh, seeing those on a few of the 3d sites where you can download
00:47:11
Speaker
like the the owl body and then it comes with the box in the back and you just have to put the light bulb in the right spot inside and then as the light shines out it broadcasts the lights as the feathered wings sticking out on either side. I've seen I think I've seen eagles and owls and I'm not sure what else but I've seen a few of those and those are definitely some smart modeling You know that there's also a type of puppetry that you see. I think it's in Thailand where they have these really intricate stencil puppets and they shine light through them onto a canvas and they can animate them. And that would be really interesting to do, too, if you had some motors that would move a character around and the shadow would dance on the wall or something like that. That'd be cool. I I wouldn't mind making some moving thing where
00:48:10
Speaker
you know, like a little animatronic, you know, the 3d print CNC whatever some parts together and then hook it all to a slow motor that will turn the main gear underneath and then all the little pieces animate on top. I wouldn't mind doing something like that. um and It's it's it's one of 746 vague thoughts in the back of my head that I'd like to do one day like like a marble machine. I've wanted to do a marble running machine for years. Will I ever get around to it? I don't know. I've got 700 vague ideas tossing around. Will I ever get to that one? I hope so.
00:48:57
Speaker
but It's not in the up and coming queue, so probably not this year. But you never know. yeah You never know when I decide I'm super fascinated in, oh, look, this thing. And that's what I'm going to be doing for the next month or so. And then it's something shiny over here. Maybe it'll be marbles next time. Maybe it'll be shadows. Who knows? I think that's why we're makers, because we have all these crazy ideas and we want to explore the ideas and be creative.
00:49:28
Speaker
yeah i think so what like having your cnc paint for you is that what ah can you go into that a little bit where does that come from so there's a bunch of accounts that are already doing that uh one of my friends who's who's actually near me uh he his account is called robots draw and he does a lot of uh Architectural plotters um that that used to put architectural designs on paper and a bunch of other like robot machines where he's always doing designs and really cool.
00:50:03
Speaker
like a spirograph type stuff. And then there's another artist that I've seen. I forgot what his name is. I follow his account. He has a paintbrush that follows, it's it's almost like a racetrack on a canvas. And then he plops down paint every 10 inches and the paintbrush will hit that glob of paint and drag it and create this really cool design effect.
00:50:28
Speaker
I think I follow that one too. yeah it's I don't remember the name, but I'm pretty, I follow an account that does exactly that and it's cool. um And just seeing that stuff and it's how creative it was, I wanted to try to do my take on it. And I have a new version of it. I haven't filmed yet and put it out. um I'm trying to get it to where instead of using a paintbrush, it's scraping the paint across, like squeegeeing the paint across.
00:50:53
Speaker
Um, and I'm still trying to dial it in. It's, it's kind of working in some parts and kind of not in others. This, this is the the red thing, the red on your Instagram. Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:06
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. yeah so But it's it's fun. it's i mean you're it's It's almost like one of those sand tables where they have a magnetic ball and they're creating this design in the same table. So it's just it's just another way of creating art and trying to be creative and and trying to figure out how to use the CNC.
00:51:27
Speaker
Are you just changing direction on the controller, or did you just go in and just draw a bunch of lines and and make a toolpath? I made a toolpath. I set up a whole grid of points and fusion, and then I'm just drawing lines on that grid. It doesn't have to be a grid. You could do whatever you wanted to, but it yeah it's one long um ah toolpath,
00:51:48
Speaker
and the toolpath is set to basically like you would carve out a sign. It's a trace trace toolpath, essentially. Well, here's an idea to do your pattern like this blue and white, which is beautiful, by the way, and then and then have your CNC do it in iridescence.
00:52:09
Speaker
but distorted so that when you shine your light through, you use a single point black light. That's cool. That's a cool idea. Oh, I didn't think of shining a black light through that. Glow in the dark paints. Anything that's UV reactive would be a really fun to mix in there. i i I like the way that you've got, what is it, three or four colors that are dripping down into your, I mean, it's okay. For the people who can't see this right now, well, first, I mean, obviously go look at Pete's page and you'll find this pretty quick. but
00:52:51
Speaker
the you seem to have designed in 3d printed, it's like a square bucket that fills with paint. And then as you drag it around on the canvas, it kind of just leaves a trail behind of whatever paint happens to fall into the But then into the square, like a screeching window. What is it? Three or four different containers that can hold the the paint and it drips from those three or four containers down through separate tubes and then drop and i found the bottom.
00:53:29
Speaker
yeah so that you could adjust it so that there's more blue on the left side as it moves around and more red on the right. and you So was that a fun thing to model? um Oh yeah, it was a lot of fun. it It doesn't work as well as I made it seem though. Like the valves are very finicky. It's tripping a lot of paint or it's not tripping anything.
00:53:54
Speaker
So I'm kind of trying to mess around with it a little bit more to figure out how to to really adjust it because I want to be making decisions while it's working. I don't want to just make it automatic. If it's if it's not giving the the right kind of look, I want to be able to tweak it as it's going. but Go to an aquarium supply shop and you'll have a knob instead of a lever.
00:54:18
Speaker
yeah that you can really dial your air well in your case paint. Yeah, that's a good idea. I try i think better valves is is a definite answer for that. Because right now I'm using I started out using those brass valves and that was just on or off. And now then I went and switched to rain bird for your your outdoor sprinkler systems and their hour still well i don't see any reason you couldn't three d print your own damn valves and make them however you want that maybe you might just have to Jets and a carburetor, you could do a 0.3, 0.4, 0.5. Oh yeah, that's a good that's a cool idea. or if if're full of good ideas but got hang out with you guys some more often I mean, I suppose if you can get the different streams of paint to come down the way you want to come out the end of the tubes,
00:55:22
Speaker
you might not even really need to drag the bucket around. You could just drag the four dripping streams around and then not have it be scraped would probably, I mean, just just as another, yeah see how this looks different, you know, option. We could set it up to where it's like a drag knife. Have you ever used a drag knife on the CNC for cutting like cardboard or leather? It's on my list.
00:55:53
Speaker
So Stupid Simple Tools makes a great drag knife. They sent me one and I messed around with it for a while. It's fantastic, but it changes orientation depending on where the CNC is traveling. So yeah, and having like a squeegee or a paintbrush or whatever that kind of shifts around as the CNC is moving could give a really cool effect as well.
00:56:15
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. A little bit closer to the guy that's dragging the paintbrush through the globs. That'd be more like what he's doing than the effect you've gotten so far. There's just not enough time during the day. Oh. Matt, you got my brain going. Because I'm like, now, OK, you could use a.
00:56:36
Speaker
you could use a like an Allen wrench basically put the brush out on the arm so the longer the arm the bigger the sweep you get in a corner or the tighter the sweep you get in a corner or the shorter one using the drag knife theory or or a few different things you could have different trails going around that are kind of mixing together as it's moving yeah yeah there's a lot of options So so next like next week when we next week when we record Hannibal back here is going to look like a Jackson Pollock painting.
00:57:12
Speaker
Hey, why not? It could. I mean, it might look really, really neat. Yeah. It's almost like an epoxy pour in the sense where if you use, I don't know if you were seeing fluid acrylic paint. I'm used to using the tube acrylic paint, but this stuff is fairly new. It's fluid. It's for doing, you know, dripping paint stuff. But if you did use enough of that, you could have everything kind of undulating together and mixing together. Beautiful. Yeah.
00:57:44
Speaker
Yeah, it would be crazy. um But if you're using a CNC, are you really an artist? So i happy I got a couple comments like that. And I'm just like, people are like, you're not a real artist. You're, you know, or a woodward ah you real artists are going to vomit all over you. and It's just like, it's creative. Who cares what kind of tools you're using. If you're you're kind of problem solving, thinking of ideas, thinking how to to move something in a certain direction. Yeah, of course it's art. That's what artists do.
00:58:22
Speaker
yeah but well not to admit Not to mention your paintbrush was $10 and mine was $10,000.
00:58:30
Speaker
The confusion seems to be where the art is at. Now, the question of if your CNC is all queued up and you just push the magic go button,
00:58:45
Speaker
Are you creating art there? And the question is, well, maybe, maybe not. Maybe the machine's doing it. But if you set the machine up to do what you want it to do,
00:59:00
Speaker
Maybe it was you creating the art when you were in the software. It's the the week of planning to set this shit up, to make it do exactly what you want it to do, how you want it to do, and how you can get your tool to get you the output desired that you want.
Technology in Art: Enhancing or Diminishing Value?
00:59:20
Speaker
The art is in the software, not the hardware stage, and that confuses some people.
00:59:27
Speaker
And it really, it really bothers people that just work with their hands and go with the flow and feel the wood underneath their chisels and this and that and the other. They just don't seem to understand that.
00:59:44
Speaker
There's art and skill and lots of work that happens. I mean, it could take you a week or so to to to design the models and to create the paths and to get this shit before you push the button and watch the machine do all the fucking work for you. There was a week worth of work, skill and art to get to the point where you could push the button and it will do what you fucking wanted it to do and they don't see that part because if you try to film yourself designing a digital project for a week
01:00:26
Speaker
That's going to be boring as shit. Nobody's going to watch that. Nobody posts that because it's not interesting. It is super hard to do any kind of a software tutorial and not have people fall in the sleep right away. It's not an easy thing to do. So and they don't see where the art comes in because they don't they they see what's pushed the button and watch it roll.
01:00:51
Speaker
but they don't see all the setup and the work and the the the planning the art before you actually do the art yeah but it's also a lot like photography a photographer is an artist They go out there, they they figure out why they want to photograph. they Part of it is using the device to get the best result, but it's also you know figuring out how to get the best composition or tell the best story with with what they're photographing. And it's it's it's with any tool. I'm sure that the cave people who who invented the paintbrush
01:01:34
Speaker
had a lot of people going, oh, that's not real cave art because you're not using your hands to clean the wall. that you're using that silly brush device to spread the paint around and that's cheating and you're not a real artist. Right, for thousands of years we just dipped our palm in the blood on the floor and ah put palm prints on the damned wall and now you're coming along with this fancy shit and you like used a bundle of leaves
01:02:06
Speaker
to dip into the blood and then pat that down on the wall like a freaking sponge painting and You you're fucking it all up. This isn't the way we do things here And that argument has been running ever since. Oh, yeah, like when they invented the table saw that's not real woodworking You're you're cheating using a table saw when somebody invented the hand plane. It's a same story. Yeah, it's it's not about management Yeah. Can you imagine what Norm Abrams had to deal with? I'm sure a lot of people told Norm Abrams that he's doesn't, he's not a real woodworker, even though he's one of the best ever. Yeah. He's the first person to use a chop saw commercially.
01:02:48
Speaker
you know but oh well somebody's got to be the first to do something and eventually but but see here's the thing is that eventually that these become so widespread that they become accepted by the society in general that the we're We're at a point where nobody tells you that a table saw is not woodworking anymore because you had a motor on your saw doesn't make you less of a woodworker and because you're using a powered
01:03:24
Speaker
router to do things that doesn't make you any less and we're I think we're approaching a tipping point where CNCs are so popular and so many people have them that There's a lot less negativity than there maybe was when people started using CNCs ten years ago Yeah Yeah, wait till it's not going to be long before we the big box stores are going to have CNC machines in the corner that you can buy. you know um I'm personally waiting for Walmart and Target to start stocking filament. Oh, I thought Walmart had filament. so Do they not?
01:04:04
Speaker
Um, not in a, not physically in the store, but I mean, they've got all that third party shit on their website where you can get anything. Including filament, I believe, but those are probably fulfilled by third party. I don't think they actually have filament yet.
01:04:23
Speaker
There's very few places, especially box stores, where you could like walk in and buy filament. But considering how many people have fucking printers these days, it just seems crazy that you can't just buy filament everywhere. You'd think there'd be a lot more demand for that.
01:04:44
Speaker
Back to the art stuff real fast. chair Have you guys seen the one artist who he paints on these really giant black canvases and there's one video of him hanging upside down by a trapeze with a giant bucket of rainbow paint and he rips off the duct tape that exposes the holes and he flies over the canvas and sprays all the paint on the canvas? Yeah.
01:05:07
Speaker
Sometimes the canvases are spinning. Yeah. So that went viral a bunch. And it's because of, you you know, he's really split everybody apart. It's like people were like, oh, I love that. It's beautiful. And people were like, that's not real art. It's a gimmick. But I personally, I think I don't care for the art myself. It's not my thing. But I think as an artist, he's fantastic because he's gotten people to talk about art.
01:05:35
Speaker
exactly and have a discussion about art. Maybe the art's not that great, but because he's bringing all this discussion together, I think it's very successful. And I think CNC does that. I think lasers do that. I think anybody who's creative and you can look at things and think about possibilities, like, oh, I can use that in my workflow, or that's a really cool idea, or you know or I don't like that. I don't want to do that. I want to do this instead.
01:06:02
Speaker
um yeah I think when it when you're doing something that nobody cares about and it's not getting any discussion or or nobody's talking about it, I think that's when you fail. yeah People can love it or hate it. That's much better than being.
01:06:17
Speaker
You're decisive about it and not caring. No engagement at all. If they don't care either way, they I mean, you yeah, well, art is usually about evoking a response in the viewer. And if the response from your viewers is, meh, you're not freaking doing it right. So you either need to you either need to be really good or really innovative.
01:06:43
Speaker
to get it's some attention and whether that pisses people off or amazes them is and remains to be seen. But you make me think of the and because I was I refuse to acknowledge it as art but by your Jeff and the definition you just said the banana duct tape to the wall which makes me furious, but by your definition, it is so engaged. So many people are have talked about it and have thought about it and had have discussed, is it art or is it not art? you know And you don't you don't have to like it.
01:07:21
Speaker
you don't right exactly You don't have to want to put that up in your house. It's just an idea, but if the idea has a you there's if' a conversation around it, then maybe it's successful. ah Personally, I don't like it, but I'd love to talk about it. yeah yeah yeah Oh, and the the the videos... um there were there were people like going into museums and they would like take a shoe off and throw it in the corner and eventually within 10 minutes there'd be five people just standing around just taking in the exposed shoe you know and they're and they're just over there filming it for TikTok going look at these fools but it's hard to tell what's art and what's not art when you're in an art museum
01:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, and that all stemmed from this guy, or her or woman, I don't know who did it, that taped a banana to the wall with Doug Babe. I went to art school, well, I got my art degree at Chico State, so one of the top five party schools in the United States.
01:08:23
Speaker
They had a pretty good art department there, though, some really good teachers. And you were exposed to that kind of stuff on a daily basis. People would come into a like a metal sculpting class and do an interpretive dance about what how they felt about their metal sculpture. And it's you know some of it, you just you if you have questions around it and you want to learn more about it, you want to understand where they're coming from and stuff, then I think it's it's interesting.
01:08:51
Speaker
yeah But a lot of the stuff, I mean, I wouldn't do a strange dance to do a metal sculpture, but artists for thinkers, artists for discussion and ideas.
01:09:05
Speaker
ae I I don't you know, I hate to say that the performative doesn't really work for me a whole lot because i've done some performative type stuff with my projects so I I can't really say that but I for the most part a lot of times art should be just there to be seen and had opinions on but I mean, I can't really throw too many stones because I've done a couple of projects where it was what I was doing performatively with the art that actually was the fun part for me. um It's like I made a, I took, was it about 13 C clamps, cut them apart and welded them back into a clampasaurus.
01:10:01
Speaker
And it had a fully functional jaw with nice sharp teeth in it. And I ran a rod in through the back of the neck that would push on the bottom of the jaw. so and And I hooked that to a and the the end of a hex bit.
01:10:21
Speaker
So I could take my Ryobi drill and hook it to the back of this guy's neck and when I slam the trigger into high gear it would crunch shut on anything that you know you wanted to crunch with it.
01:10:37
Speaker
And I had a series of reels that was me where I would like say something stupid and then the clampasaurus would eat something and sometimes make a comment about it in return. And I mean, that was kind of performative art with the piece that I'd assembled as a sculpture.
01:11:05
Speaker
But it was a functional sculpture and the little bits of real that I did of having him eat things and get progressively more and more um bloodthirsty as the week went on. I mean, i so I can't really throw stones at the performative side of what you do with your sculptures.
01:11:32
Speaker
i i can't keep putting it there and doing a dance around it though but i mean that's just because it's not me and i'm not a dancer i don't dance i don't sing that's just not my game but i'm a smart ass and i can make it eat things and make it funny So I got to see that. Is that on your Instagram account? It is on my Instagram account. That sounds really cool. I want to check that out. It is fun. And by like day seven, it ah takes off a couple of my fingers.
01:12:06
Speaker
Oh, not. Well, they were technically hot dogs covered in ketchup. But I mean, I and it's very, very obviously so. But I mean, i you know, I'm I did some, you know, the the Jurassic ringtone that says that that says that the the monsters coming after you.
01:12:30
Speaker
And he he got loose and next thing you know, is he's he's grabbing onto my hand and I'm. shaking the camera around and looking like I'm being eaten. And then, you know, the camera goes dark. So I. And God, that sculpture was a pain in my ass, too, because apparently cast steel is not really made to support the I mean, it's like with a C clamp and a cast threaded hole,
01:13:05
Speaker
those cast threads are only supposed to take so much power and so much strength. You're not supposed to crank a C-clamp down with with with the unending force of a ratcheting driver and because it'll strip your damn threads right out.
01:13:23
Speaker
and It got to the point where i would I would shoot a reel with it and then I would have to replace some parts with the threads before he would function again the next night. I'd have to do repairs before I could do the next scene. It it just wasn't made for that, but it was fun, definitely. Sounds very cool. I'm going to go on your account to check it out. That's awesome. Yeah, you have to dig. It's been a little while.
01:13:55
Speaker
Um, we should probably try jumping up to our thing of the week. Um, did, uh, either you bring anything interesting for a thing of the week? And this is just whatever's caught your eye this week is fine. Of our own stuff or, or just anything, anything. Yeah. Uh, just anything that you'd like to recommend people checking out. We've had anything from, uh, Hugh Forge prints to, uh, bands and artists and, uh, train travel and personal therapy. So really just anything that you think is interesting and has really got your eye and you'd like other people to maybe go check it out.
01:14:48
Speaker
It could be a channel, it could be an account, it could be whatever floats your boat this week. So i know I don't know how, I think this is really cool. I just found these LEDs on Amazon. They're like a solid color LED. and okay one This one's blue. I've never seen these before. Usually they're like jagged or they're like dots every, but this is just one. I'm gonna put this on the ah the new table we just built for the printer so it has ground effects like a car would have.
01:15:23
Speaker
It's really flexible, it's really heavy duty. it' it's It's more like a flexible rubber strip that's, it's almost like a flexible rubber neon effect. Yeah. what you get make signs out of it What's that? What's the power source? What's the power source? That's a 12 volt. Wired. true yeah yeah Just a wired.
01:15:43
Speaker
Like 12 volt, five amp thing. Okay. Does it, does it do colors or any smart functions or is that one just plain on or off blue? This was just blue, but they have ones that are RGB, which I think you can do programming on them and have them do animation and things like that. That's cool. This just came in the mail today and I thought it was pretty awesome. That is pretty cool. I will be watching. See where that ends up.
01:16:12
Speaker
See how that ends up lighting up things for you in the shop there. Yeah. Is it trimmable? Like, can you cut it shorter? Yeah. you And you can they also give you some wires to um put multiple ones together. Yeah. You can cut the end off yeah and wire it up. And they have a little clips from melting it too. Awesome. What about you guys? OK. Well, you have to make sure I get a link to that. I'll put them in the show notes later. What do you got, Al?
01:16:43
Speaker
Um, I actually sent this video to you. It's a, it's a real, uh, it's a German guy and and he is, uh, George Dietz, G E O R G D I E T ZZ, George Dietz. And he's speaking German, but what he's done is he took a CO2 laser and he cut cradles for, um, like a half size of a spray paint can.
01:17:13
Speaker
and then I don't know why I never thought of this I have can racks everywhere he just screwed two rare earth magnets into it and then he just has he has this just flat cradle on the ceiling and as all his spray paint cans are stuck to him exposed you can see the colors you can see the brand he's got Montana and Rust-Oleum and everything it's like it's just Because my my cans are up in rafters in little racks. oh Because spray cans, otherwise you got a laundry basket full of spray cans floating around everywhere. I saw that too. Did you? thought right Yeah, I thought it was fantastic. i And it's super simple. I'm literally going to screenshot it and make some.
01:17:56
Speaker
ah um Amazon has those rare earth magnets that you have a hole in the middle where you can screw things in. yeahp butve yeah yeah i've used them so Fantastic idea. yeah Really cool. I didn't know those cans were magnetic. I didn't either. No, but it makes sense.
01:18:12
Speaker
um yeah i don't I don't know that they're, I don't know if they'd be sturdy enough if they were aluminum, because they're more pressurized. you know, you're expecting it to be a lot more pressurized than say a pop can. So one would expect, there, al Al just found a paint can and stuck a magnet to it. And that's that that's proof positive, you know, spray cans where you've got enough steel in them that you could just hang them from the ceiling. And you probably could use the, this is much stronger, the crimp part. So you can put a but one top and bottom. How about the bottom? It seems like. What? what yeahp
01:18:53
Speaker
So so so technically, you could probably I mean, if you had a couple little posts, yeah, you you could have all your cans hanging straight down from the bottom. yeah That way, the color side is facing down and you can just see what color and grab the one you that's that's that's still pretty clever. Yeah, cool. Because this is my I don't know if you can see this. um Yeah, up there. That's my current ah They're just tipped on edge like they're they're, they're up, they're out of the way and they're very accessible. Yeah. but And I can see the colors and yeah. and And it's because you've got a higher spot in the shop that's kind of overhead range where you can walk underneath that without it being a problem because you've got a peaked roof in there. Yeah.
01:19:46
Speaker
But I mean, for the people that are in, the say say, the small two car garages and the walls are all full and there's no hanging spots that are really good for that, then just being able to put the stuff straight up onto the ceiling above you would be a good way to save a lot of space on things. For sure. A hundred percent. ye What are you doing? What's your thing of the week?
01:20:10
Speaker
Okay. Well, my thing of the week is a TV show that came out ah about five ish years ago. I think it was 2019, 2020. Unfortunately, they only got one season in.
01:20:28
Speaker
But everybody's favorite myth buster and internet maker is Adam Savage. Everybody knows Adam Savage. But ah he made one season of a TV show called Savage Builds.
01:20:47
Speaker
And there's about seven episodes or something like that. And he does some of the most amazing shit. I mean, one episode he makes a 3D printed titanium Iron Man suit that literally deflects bullets.
Spotlight on Adam Savage's Innovations
01:21:08
Speaker
And it was titanium printed using the, what is it? Centering, what is it? SLS, the centering technique where they laser the powder into solid areas and print a full Iron Man suit that deflects bullets. And then they hooked up with that gravity suit guy so they could make it fly too.
01:21:35
Speaker
ah And as another episode he gets an iron meteorite and works with a metal ah guy i don't remember what you call it when you pound on the metal blacksmith dude that specializes in uh swords and he made he made a fucking x caliber out of an iron meteorite and i mean this is the kind of stuff that he does i don't remember how many episodes it's just the one season but
01:22:07
Speaker
just in case you have not seen that yet it is absolutely maker crack it is really really good because i mean he he he's the maker guy so this is a this is absolutely a maker-based show where he's creating things that are absolutely fantastic and fantastical in, you know. yeah he's he's He's so amazing. I watched an hour video on YouTube on how he categorizes and organizes nuts and bolts in his shop.
01:22:44
Speaker
but i I don't know if it was an episode of his the TV show that you're talking about, but I did see one episode of something that he did where he um machined the pistol from Hellboy, the Hellboy movies, and because he he had the prop of it so he could take measurements off of it. But then he actually went through the whole process of doing a whole like metal, full metal version of it. And it was really fascinating.
01:23:12
Speaker
yeah i think that was probably from his tested channel i don't think that one was a savage build okay but it's the same kind of it's the same kind of stuff uh he he has an episode where he makes the the there's a movie called the fifth element That was an old classic and there's this fantastic gun in there where the the the gun Salesman is trying to sell this gun and it's got a net launcher and it's got an ice shooter and a flamethrower and a dart shooter and and a rocket launcher and a repeating feature where you shoot one thing and then all your other shots go to the same place. He actually built a functional version of that damn gun in one episode. It's about twice the size of the one they used on the show.
01:24:14
Speaker
But the one that used on the show didn't work. You know, it was a prop. He he actually made one that did every single thing that Gunn was supposed to do. It is about twice as big as it was supposed to be, but you could still pick it up and use it. And it was, and it's it's crazy.
01:24:32
Speaker
I gotta watch that. That sounds really cool. That was Gary Oldman, by the way. the That was Gary Oldman. He was the bad guy. And he's in the episode. Really? Yeah. That's so cool. Adam sends him his old ZF1 gun that he made that was just a prop.
01:24:51
Speaker
The one that didn't function, the one he just made as a, as a screen identical prop. Um, he actually sent that to Gary at the beginning of that episode. Oh, that's cool. And then was talking about having Gary come see his functional version, but they didn't get that far in the edit. So he, he did a, I don't know if it was an internet show through COVID or something where he collected and he did unboxings on like.
01:25:20
Speaker
125th scale models. Like he did the the Ghostbusters, ah they were like die cast, but they were like three feet long. ah wow And he had, it was a Ghostbusters one. He did, it was, ah one was like the car from the race. I thought he had a spider robot too that he unboxed. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but and they were like scale models of like actual Yeah, the the tested channel does all kinds of amazing stuff and they really have since basically since youtube became a thing is he he went to tech that about the time that uh they canceled mythbusters for uh budgetary arguments that uh
01:26:12
Speaker
He started the tested channel and it and YouTube was just really taken off. And he he was lots of fun to watch in those early years. I really hope they're, yeah, I hope they're recording his brainwave somewhere. And then someday when we can decode them into English again or language again, we can Because that's a mind that the planet will never get again, you know Yeah, ah you know i'd have to say the only regret i've got for adam savage is that he's never Really been part of the community in himself now that's not saying that tested and the channel hasn't been part of the community because
01:26:57
Speaker
Our guest from last week, Chris from route nine signs has actually been on tested with some of his signs. So, I mean, it's not, I'm not going to say tested really isn't part of the community, but Adam is never really been. I mean, he does the, like the maker fair thing where he's like up on the stage, but he doesn't really seem to be as much of a mingler as, uh,
01:27:27
Speaker
other people that are, you know, big in community, you know, like April or Jimmy, I don't think we can finish an episode without mentioning Jimmy. and i'd i'd hate think people I think people like Adam are are, they're just next level. Their brains are they yeah functioning.
01:27:49
Speaker
They're functioning at this level and us us little people are down here. What's for dinner? Adam's like, how can I make the stove to make dinner? i gotta admit though I've met Jimmy a couple times at the workbench con.
01:28:06
Speaker
and he's the nicest guy man it's such an inspiration that he's seen that much success but he's still like really down to earth really nice he's i don't know if i could be as good as he i would think i'd start becoming a total asshole if i had his audience but he's he's awesome and he is he is literally huge If you drive up to his shop, he's just going to open the door and say, come on in. What do you want to see? Let's go. Let's tell you. I'll give you a tour. It's like, dude, you're working. He's like, no, no, no. What do you want to see? So it's, it's tough to like, I try not, I don't go up there very often because I know I'm interrupting, you know, I hate and.
01:28:49
Speaker
I feel bad because it's like, you know, people are just swapping there all the time. It's hard to get something done when everybody knows where you are and just wanders on in to say hi. Yeah. Yeah. And he is, he is the sweetest man you will, you'll ever meet. Yeah, I would definitely, you know, maybe I'll make it to the the the maker camp and get a chance to meet him in person. but Yeah. You know, if I get to meet Jimmy and get to see the barn, I, you know, I don't want a tour. I don't want him to be, I don't want him to be the puppet. I don't want him to be the puppet and the, the, the character on display. I just want to, yeah you know, as he said a few times on his podcast, I just want to be a good hang.
01:29:47
Speaker
Yeah. You know, I, I, I don't want him to give me a tour and I don't want him to perform like a puppet. I just want to, you know, chill. So you need to come to the go-kart. Yeah. Well, he does a go, he does a go-kart track, uh, usually the weekend after fourth of July. And that's.
01:30:07
Speaker
You're going to stand next to him and serve hot dogs off the grill. Yeah. that That'd be nice if I wasn't like, I don't remember what it is.
Maker Camp vs. Go-Kart Adventures
01:30:16
Speaker
14, 16 hour drive from there.
01:30:20
Speaker
It's a good ways. Yeah. Well, I see the odds of me making it out there for maker camp is a lot higher than me making it out there to hang out at a go-kart track for an afternoon. It's a little far of a drive for that unless you're a serious go-kart enthusiast.
01:30:43
Speaker
I've seen videos of those events, they look really fun. They they do look fun, but I can't see myself getting in a car and driving for a day to get there for it. It's a it's just a very personal,
01:30:56
Speaker
ah it's a personal ah what am I trying to say? Not romantic.
01:31:03
Speaker
It's it's it's very one-on-one like you're you're gonna stand next to him for an hour and a half and have full attention And he has your full attention. It's not like he's at a maker camp where he's Doing training and classes and shaking hands and being Jimmy DiResta, you know the God right but Right. You just, you just get to hang. You don't have to get Jimmy dressed on performance mode. Right. Right.
Dream Tools and Cutting Techniques
01:31:30
Speaker
Hey guys, I'm really sorry. i'm I'm running out of steam. It's yeah. Okay. Well, we're kind of gonna wrap things here. Last question for you. Um, I like to ask people what their dream tool is. And if you could have any one tool, just
01:31:47
Speaker
Dropped in your shop for free and magically had space for it. What kind of thing would you pick? And what do you think you'd want to do with it? I think we go back to the whole fiber laser like something strong enough to cut metal and like a laser that would cut metal and because I haven't done any welding in a really long time, but I would love to be able to throw a piece of Steel down and get some really cool shapes and tack things together and you know do stuff like that Okay I guess a water jet, a water jet could work there too. but Yeah. I hear there are real pain in the ass because of the, uh, all the, what ah what do you call the sand, uh, stuff that you've got to fight the abrasive sand that you've got to feed into it and then throw away and buy more sand next time. And I hear that's kind of a pain in the ass.
01:32:41
Speaker
And not as much fun as it looks. I watched the fireball tool guys a lot on YouTube. And he's got this giant water jet thing. And he's always cutting like one inch steel plates. And that's crazy. really Nice.
01:32:59
Speaker
How about you guys? If I want to cut the plates, I'm either going to go with a CNC plasma table or if somebody's giving me something ridiculously overpriced for free, I'd like to try one of those EDM wire that cuts the cuts with a wire that's a micron thick or some shit like that. And your pieces fall back together and you can't even see the lines.
01:33:28
Speaker
Yeah, those are amazing. I'd rather have plasma or the EDM and the water. That's me. I would I would really love to just upgrade my current fiber, not upgrade this laser, but like get a laser probably 200 between 200 and 300 watt for engraving because the The theory is you can do anything with a 10 watt that you can do with a hundred watt. It'll just take you 10 times longer. But then there is, there is a temperature and thermal loads that have to be taken into consideration and materials handle higher power and lower powers differently. Um, and where a lot of people are running into problems with these cyber lasers is engraving, uh, like a gun slide, you know,
01:34:23
Speaker
because manufacturer to manufacturer have different alloys and stuff like that. So not every X pistol is going to, you know, engrave the same because this brand is a different composite. This brand is a different, you know, devices of steel. So you really kind of need a ah high powered laser to handle the different ranges of metal quality. Yeah. OK. But so higher powered fiber laser.
01:34:53
Speaker
Sounds good. All right. Well, I guess we're running out of time. Everybody's getting tired here. So it's been a long day for everybody, I think, which is fine.
Closing and Community Support
01:35:03
Speaker
But, uh, definitely like to thank Pete for coming on the show. Thank you guys. And then thanks for waiting for me. I'm sorry again for being late, but I really had a blast chatting with you folks. No, that's okay. We appreciate you coming out.
01:35:17
Speaker
We, we, we had a, we had a little bit of time to kill for buffer and it was not a huge problem. Um, so everybody that enjoyed hearing about this should definitely go follow Pete and, uh, why don't you tell us where all we can find Pete?
01:35:38
Speaker
Uh, on Instagram, I'm i'm Pete squared 23 on YouTube. I think I'm just Pete squared Facebook. I'm on Pete squared 23 and tick.com. I'm pretty sure I saw Pete squared 23.com somewhere too. Yeah. We have some, uh, free plans. I think charging for a couple of free plans, but, um, got some designs up there if if you want to download them.
01:36:05
Speaker
But it's, it's kind of a hacked together website. It's not the most professional place. Yeah. Well, yeah what what do you need for a personal hobby page anyway, right? yeah Very true. Okay. So I'd like to thank Al for taking the time to hang out and ask good questions.
01:36:25
Speaker
Always a pleasure, sir. That's why we hire him to ask the smart questions. I can't come up with everything on my own. And I need to thank all the listeners for tuning in because without them, we're just sitting here talking to ourselves.
01:36:42
Speaker
So I also need to give a huge thank you to our current patrons for their support. So many thanks to Adam from BKR Customs and Ed Swanson of Ed's Clocks and More. We also have a new edition this week. We have Eric from Overall Maker Works. And you should definitely give his account a check and look because he has lots of fun with his laser and his 3D printer.
01:37:10
Speaker
However, the content he's making that I like the best is watching him learn how to use some lapidary tools that he got last year. And ah for those who are not familiar with that term, that basically means theyre that they're tools for cutting and polishing stones and gems.
01:37:31
Speaker
So if you were going to you know cut off a chunk of amethyst, carve it into a shape and then polish it down kind of smooth, that's the kind of tools we're talking about. And I really think cutting and polishing stones is cool. And that's actually the content he's been making that I think is the coolest.
01:37:55
Speaker
So ah thank you for the support, Eric, and go follow him. He is at Overall Maker Works on Instagram. So if you enjoyed listening and would like to help support the show, you can share it with your friends, you can leave a review, or you can join our Patreon. You can find our Patreon at patreon dot.com slash digifabricators.
01:38:21
Speaker
It's about a half a dozen places that you can leave a podcast review these days. And I don't feel like reading them tonight, but there's plenty of them. We do have a Discord server open to all of our listeners. Our patrons will also get exclusive to an exclusive Patreon channel in our server. And they will get to hear about our next guest before that goes public.
01:38:51
Speaker
So ah direct links to our Discord server and the Patreon page are in the Digi Fabricators Instagram bio, which you should also be following at digi-fabricators. And if you or somebody you know does cool things with their digital tools, please contact us and let us know. We've only got so many friends to invite, and then we're gonna need some suggestions to keep the show going.
01:39:19
Speaker
I can be found most places as a weird guy, and Al can be found under New York Woodworks, which is NY Woodworks with an X. So thanks again to everybody, and we will happily catch you on the next episode.
01:39:45
Speaker
Sweet. Nailed it.