Post a Picture of Your Silly Purchase of the Month.

My desktop started acting up and it was five years so I thought.... time for a new laptop to replace it. So I bought an Alienware MX14x. Also I'm enjoying changing the LED lights on the system way to much

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/fzS8t.jpg)

Nice! Have you fired up a game yet that changes the lighting scheme depending on what you are doing in the game? Quantum Conundrum does it. I'm not sure about other games.

Distantsound wrote:

Also I'm enjoying changing the LED lights on the system way to much :D

X-Com hooks into and turns them that X-Com blue. Freaked me out when that happened.

I haven't loaded up a game yet, but changing per game sounds neat. Thanks for mentioning it.

Courtesy of that Woot deal a few weeks ago, they finally came in. Good timing, because my old pair had broken.

IMAGE(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8188/8128948118_4f7a7f7fb2_z.jpg)

I went in halvsies with Jonman on a lamb.

IMAGE(https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-92irVwJ11iE/UIx66huoWEI/AAAAAAAASn8/YWOeFmbX4Cs/s577/sheep.jpg)

Are you sure it's not a crab?

MeatMan wrote:

Are you sure it's not a crab? :mrgreen:

Is not crab! Is Siberian lamb!

Distantsound wrote:

My desktop started acting up and it was five years so I thought.... time for a new laptop to replace it. So I bought an Alienware MX14x.

2 GB of VRAM on that GT 650M. Nice. /oblique reference to another thread

I like meat. But pictures like that do make feel a little bad for eating it.

Mmmmm meat. Lamb - no thanks though, not a fan of the flavor.

I love all of God's animals.
Right next to God's mashed potatoes.

This will soon be in the "Post a picture of something you made" thread, but for now I think parts for a 3D printer qualify as a silly purchase.

IMAGE(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a254/Liquidmantis/2012-10-30_08-15-51.jpg)

Wait, you bought a 3D printer??

Yeah, that's all the stuffs to assemble a MendelMax 1.5.

Awesome! Let me know where to email my schematics.

Don't do it. We don't need anyone duplicating Q.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

Awesome! Let me know where to email my schematics. ;)

Don't laugh! Once I get it dialed in I plan on offering services to GWJ. I'm also hoping to have a laser cutter either by the end of the year or first of next year, depending on a Kickstarter project I backed. I'd like to offer those services to make a few dollars to ease the expense of then getting a CNC router and to help anyone that might want to design and make stuff but can't justify the equipment costs.

The problem is that even just trying to offer stuff to the community for materials and a minimum charge for my time and machine wear I don't know that I can much undercut the likes of Ponoko or Shapeways. I guess they get enough business now to really leverage economy of scale.

OMG, a laser cutter too. *swoon*

LiquidMantis wrote:

This will soon be in the "Post a picture of something you made" thread, but for now I think parts for a 3D printer qualify as a silly purchase.

IMAGE(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a254/Liquidmantis/2012-10-30_08-15-51.jpg)

It that makerbot, or one of the others.

I was following along waiting for the resolution of home units to get up to a good level. As of a few months ago, it was pretty good.

Did you see on Reddit, that there's speculation about patents holding up the development of the home 3d printing scene, and there was also some effort to save important patents from corporations and patent trolls?

Somewhere there was a home version of an SLS resin printer which was capable of professional resolution. I'll have to go dig that up. The guy was trying to raise money to start local resin manufacturing so he could bring the cost of the resin down.

here it is
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snOEr... (the one I saw)
http://3dhomemade.blogspot.ca/ (current)

It looks kinda like Legos.

LiquidMantis wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

Awesome! Let me know where to email my schematics. ;)

Don't laugh! Once I get it dialed in I plan on offering services to GWJ. I'm also hoping to have a laser cutter either by the end of the year or first of next year, depending on a Kickstarter project I backed. I'd like to offer those services to make a few dollars to ease the expense of then getting a CNC router and to help anyone that might want to design and make stuff but can't justify the equipment costs.

The problem is that even just trying to offer stuff to the community for materials and a minimum charge for my time and machine wear I don't know that I can much undercut the likes of Ponoko or Shapeways. I guess they get enough business now to really leverage economy of scale.

Post about this in the board game threads when you're ready. People love pimping out their games.

You underestimate how much we love the people in this community Liquid. You should have seen how much we paid for our penguincon pint glasses at auction.

Speaking of

IMAGE(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/486176_373679342721179_585047793_n.jpg)

reprap, yes, that was the one I couldn't remember.

http://wills-fabber-blog.blogspot.ca...

3d printing is too niche for it's own thread, isn't it?

Quintin_Stone wrote:

It looks kinda like Legos. :D

Please hand in your LEGO card.

Ghostship wrote:

It that makerbot, or one of the others.

I was following along waiting for the resolution of home units to get up to a good level. As of a few months ago, it was pretty good.

Did you see on Reddit, that there's speculation about patents holding up the development of the home 3d printing scene, and there was also some effort to save important patents from corporations and patent trolls?

No, the MakerBots are the box style printers that require lasercut wood pieces. The result is a more finished looking printer but it's not self-improving and self-replicating system like the RepRap movement. Or not as much at least. I can think you can print improved extruder heads for MakerBots. No, this is a kit to build a MendelMax and should look like this once complete. (Not crazy about the yellow, but it was cheaper this way and I can always print those parts in a different color if it really bugs me. It's also not so bad if you leave off those little wiring clips you that give the striped look.)

IMAGE(http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server3400/9b6f0/products/51/images/302/IMG_3455__80074.1349035721.1280.1280.JPG)

[Edit] I have seen a little talk about DRM and similar IP protection. I'm personally not worried right now but it's something to stay aware of. I played around with using a Kinect as a 3D scanner this weekend so I can see the concern. This technology is maturing fast and I don't think we're very far from most anyone being able to scan an object then replicate it much like someone would scan a photo to restore it and print a new copy. It takes some training and equipment but this is quickly becoming approachable by the masses.

On the 3D scanning, here is one of my initial attempts. This is a quick scan of my younger son. It obviously has issues, but this is also after just a couple of minutes of fooling around with the system and in an unoptimized space.

IMAGE(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a254/Liquidmantis/2012-10-30_09-27-55.png)

SixteenBlue wrote:

Post about this in the board game threads when you're ready. People love pimping out their games.

You'd better believe I will. There's a 3D Catan set on Thingiverse that I can't wait to print.

groan wrote:
Quintin_Stone wrote:

It looks kinda like Legos. :D

Please hand in your LEGO card.

Can't, I took it apart to make a spaceship out of the pieces.

Ghostship wrote:

Check out "David Laser Scanner".

I tried it a few years ago. It should be capable of really good results by now.
I build by background out of foam core, and use a poor quality laser level as my laser, and got OK results.
with a green laser, and a fabricated background, you should be able to do really well.

http://www.david-laserscanner.com/

Thanks! They're showing phenomenal detail.

LiquidMantis wrote:
Ghostship wrote:

It that makerbot, or one of the others.

I was following along waiting for the resolution of home units to get up to a good level. As of a few months ago, it was pretty good.

Did you see on Reddit, that there's speculation about patents holding up the development of the home 3d printing scene, and there was also some effort to save important patents from corporations and patent trolls?

No, the MakerBots are the box style printers that require lasercut wood pieces. The result is a more finished looking printer but it's not self-improving and self-replicating system like the RepRap movement. Or not as much at least. I can think you can print improved extruder heads for MakerBots. No, this is a kit to build a MendelMax and should look like this once complete. (Not crazy about the yellow, but it was cheaper this way and I can always print those parts in a different color if it really bugs me. It's also not so bad if you leave off those little wiring clips you that give the striped look.)

IMAGE(http://cdn1.bigcommerce.com/server3400/9b6f0/products/51/images/302/IMG_3455__80074.1349035721.1280.1280.JPG)

[Edit] I have seen a little talk about DRM and similar IP protection. I'm personally not worried right now but it's something to stay aware of. I played around with using a Kinect as a 3D scanner this weekend so I can see the concern. This technology is maturing fast and I don't think we're very far from most anyone being able to scan an object then replicate it much like someone would scan a photo to restore it and print a new copy. It takes some training and equipment but this is quickly becoming approachable by the masses.

On the 3D scanning, here is one of my initial attempts. This is a quick scan of my younger son. It obviously has issues, but this is also after just a couple of minutes of fooling around with the system and in an unoptimized space.

IMAGE(http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a254/Liquidmantis/2012-10-30_09-27-55.png)

Check out "David Laser Scanner".

I tried it a few years ago. It should be capable of really good results by now.
I build by background out of foam core, and use a poor quality laser level as my laser, and got OK results.
with a green laser, and a fabricated background, you should be able to do really well.

http://www.david-laserscanner.com/

IMAGE(http://www.david-laserscanner.com/gfx/gallery/highlights/04-Action_Figure_(by_Hal).jpg)

basically how it worked when I did it. The seem to have kits now.
http://www.david-laserscanner.com/wi...

LiquidMantis wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:

Post about this in the board game threads when you're ready. People love pimping out their games.

You'd better believe I will. There's a 3D Catan set on Thingiverse that I can't wait to print.

And I can't wait to pay you to print me one!

Seriously, let me know when\if you've got the laser cutter operational. We've been wanting to have an art piece cut for a while but I didn't know where to get it cut.