Trying to get a better understanding on the whole tankie thing, found this study that seems unbiased. It looks at their online behavior. I would appreciate others review of the study, even if just bullshit or facts.

Jeebus these people are exhausting, they also spray so much disinformation. They remind me of MAGAts.

I don't yet have a feel for the dynamics like I do with MAGAts. How much of it is organized with handlers and such vs. organic true believers?

My son is about ready for his first printer. His school is running Cetus MK3 printers, he has a class using them, and his teacher has recommended this printer. He also has an educational seat of Fusion 360.

I'm proficient with Mastercam and hand written/modified G-code. I can help him with CAD no problem. Alignment, assembly, adjustment, and backlash are second nature for me. Have a little better than layman's understanding of printers. (Lusted over the Markforged printer that could do continuous carbon fiber.)

Eventually, will be building my own shop and hope my son might work with me. Hope to include printing, especially in metal.

I've seen some of the flap about Bambu and them closing up the software tool chain. I would like to avoid that sort of thing, for now, openness is better.

Top of my budget is around $500, with $200 probably being better.

Usable prints for tooling/spacers/repairs would be a bonus as would being able to print UV resistant plastic.

My goal for him is to get gud at modelling and get a feel for computer controlled movement. Another goal, harder to describe, is him finding the joy in mechanical tinkering and producing an idea made physical.

Thank you much! What do?

I have added a wifi repeater to the outside of my home so that my wife can watch her critter cams. It is a POE device that runs all the way back to my router.

Would like to install this surge protector but I'm getting conflicting information on grounding it. My installation is to the side of my house, not a metal pole.

Lowest effort options first, I can:

A. Place the protector inside near where the CAT5 enters the basement. Ground to a junction box that I installed that is grounded to the house panel and rod.

B. Ground internally to a water pipe or externally to the outdoor spigot.

C. Drive a ground rod where the cable exits the house and ground to it.

D. Repeat C and also bond to to the pre-existing home ground rod. (Least preferable option, rods would be on opposite corners of house.)

They hate each other so much.

Just looking up some DIY medical procedures and then the unwanted AI goes off the rails.

Found this broken piece in the creek bank. Southwest Pennsylvania. Farmhouse was built in 1922. Coalmining country.

Would have been about 18" in diameter. There is a rough coating in the glaze on the inside and outside of the bowl section. Abrasive enough that I figure it served a mechanical purpose. There are three grooves on the rim that aren't symmetrical to each other.

There might be a makers mark in the center of the glaze inside but I can't make it out. There is also a light blue/green stain on the bottom that might be a mark.

Any ideas?

The electric PTO clutch on my 1969 mini tractor is dead and discontinued.

Original winding is aluminum 18 gauge. Manufacturer specs were 2.88ohms, 237 turns. The manufacturer specs didn't quite physically match what I found when I took apart the old clutch. If I understand this correctly, the 2.88ohms is the most important part and will pull 4.17 amps.

I just attempted a coil with 18 gauge copper magnet wire. I made it to the max dimensions I can get in the housing with a scramble wind. I'm getting 1.2 ohms, which would pull 10 amps or so. Not good.

Was able to get 187 feet given the resistance.

If I go with 20 gauge copper, assuming I can get 235 feet (1.26 * 187) and I should get 2.319 ohms. Probably get a little more than 235 feet and get the resistance up a little more.

What does this do to the strength of the magnetic field?

Would I be better off putting a power resistor in series with my 18 gauge coil?

Any advice greatly appreciated!

So, I found this stone mantel behind the garage of the 100 year old house we just bought. It was mostly buried in the dirt. Fits our mantel perfect. Some sort of green stone. Was painted black at some point. I'm trying to strip the paint and want to refinish the stone. Area is southeast of Pittsburgh. Father of the man who built the house was an Italian stonemason that immigrated.

Don't think it's slate, has a tight grain and rings when you knock on it.

What kind of stone is this?

Like this is hitting me real hard. I can feel the sadness and the fight. They're good boys and and don't deserve what's coming down. They have some good religion. I'd like to be like these men. We fight for the ones we love.

In the final stages of moving from the deep south to a northern state.

I used to run a shop under a corporation. Long story, but I integrated the shop, and built something beautiful. I had to use a temp service to do a lot of my hiring, I hired lots of black folks because they were undervalued and I could give them a good environment and pay. Was just starting to hire women. COVID and Qanon blew it the fuck up.

Tomorrow I'll be having lunch with two of my former crew. One of them is the only man I've ever called brother. He was my neighbor and best friend for years. I would have trusted him to help me hide a body. The other feller was a kind and gentle guy, had a bad divorce but was a teddy bear, was on the road back up.

They both went down the rabbit hole real bad.

I miss who they were and the shop we had. It was fucking jazz. I protected all of them from corporate. We made shit happen. I fought to get them more money and got fucked over myself.

I've lost my parents, my grandfather, my aunts and uncles and cousins to the insanity. Thank jeebus my grandmothers and one grandfather are dead.

Tomorrow I'm going to hug my brother and tell him goodbye. He isn't really my brother anymore. I don't trust him. I love him. He's not the man I knew.

It hurts a lot. It broke my heart.

*Edit

Lunch was good but rough. My son got to see me cry for the first time, afterwards, so I guess that was good.

Then my closest former friend came over this evening. Texted my girl:

"Holy fuck. Joe has some sort of grandpa weed that he he'd be saving. I hit once and I'm all fucked up. They smoked a whole blunt. Then I learned about how taking ivermectin was a good preventative and that Susan is actually a Mayan priestess discovered through astral projection."

Have lived in the deep south my entire life. Things went really badly during 2020 and we realized we needed to get out. Started saving and preparing, our plan was to move before the next election.

We have bought a 1920's farmhouse that still has 9 acres. 100 year old apple trees, blueberries, vineyard. It's amazing. Part of the land is industrial zoned with power and I'm going to build my machine shop there. We got a steal of a deal, it would be a $500k house and land here.

I bought a '98 Chevy box truck. The boy and I will be making our second trip tomorrow.

We're preparing to move about 1000mi.

I'm getting my truck ready to tow a trailer for our three potbelly pigs, two cats and a dog.

'98 Ranger XLT with 4.0L V6, auto trans. Rated for 5900lbs tow, 9500 gross. Even has the overdrive disable and good rear end ratio.

I'm adding a Redarc Liberty brake control. The 7-way plug kit I got includes 30 and 40 amp auto reset breakers for the control and trailer power.

Here's the thing. I don't like the idea of an automatically resetting breaker at 30 amps or more due to the risk of fire or frying the electronics in my truck. I would prefer to install manual reset breakers. I understand that an auto reset might allow some brake capability in the event of a short and that is why they are used. I just don't feel like the auto breaker justification is that likely vs the other risks of auto breakers.

How long does it take the auto breakers to reset?

What are the real world risks using manual reset breakers?

Opinions/thoughts greatly appreciated!