The "New Toys" Thread

Awesome! Please do tell of your experience with the thing. A CNC of this size is something I might be looking into in the near future, too.

Banggood is one of my typical drone parts supply stores, and yeah, their shipping is quite hit-and-miss. But usually their stock is good, wide selection and rather cheap.

i want something like that where you can swap the active bit for a 3D print, a CNC or a lasercutter
i don't want 3 different devices...how hard can it be?
The BG 3018 CNC actually supports a laser attachment, and is also sold as a kit with both CNC and laser heads.

Combining CNC and 3D printing doesn't usually work out well. While the basic principle of a tool moving freely in 3D space controlled by stepper motors holds, the requirements to speed and axis ranges are quite different (eg. most CNCs have a rather short Z-axis, while a 3D printer needs a much longer one to have a decent build volume). There have been various projects attempting that, but it typically ends up being both a sub-par CNC and a mediocre slow-ish printer.
 
I could've purchased that machine with the laser attachment, but the higher power versions really pushed the price up. I really should've got it for Amazon, the 'upgraded' version is available on there with Prime delivery for a relatively small premium.

As Leviathan said, it doesn't have enough Z-axis travel for 3D printing. The Z axis is a standalone unit as you can see in the picture above so increasing this would be tricky.

I'll report on my experience with it, I do intend to push it and hopefully I can get it to (very slowly) machine some decent aluminium parts. I may swap the spindle motor for a Dremel or similar if it seems as underpowered as some reviews suggest.
 
can those lasers cut wood? or just write on it?

my gf is a boardgame adept, and is always on the lookout for inserts for the boxes. i'm looking for a way to cut them ourselves...
MR_Scythe_Packed.jpg
 
They certainly can cut it, my 3D printer is made from laser cut wood parts. The blackened edges give it away. I can't say what power you need though, I think the ones that you can get with the 3018 are a bit weedy.
 
They certainly can cut it, my 3D printer is made from laser cut wood parts. The blackened edges give it away. I can't say what power you need though, I think the ones that you can get with the 3018 are a bit weedy.

that's why concern as well, that the laser would overheat before scorching the wood...
 
Corsair K70 keyboard with Cherry MX Blues (red illumination only) for $30:
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Rosewill Cherry MX O-Ring Dampers:
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JVC KD-R960BTS with user-configurable illumination so I can get the BIG BLUE GLARE of a KD-R860BT out of my (mostly green) dash without having to rewire.
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Free (needed a $30 replacement roller; came with four replacement toners in addition to the ones in the printer) Brother HL-3170CDW color laser printer - these things are kind of crap and keep burning out rollers, but hey, it was free and it only cost me $30 and 90 minutes to fix it:
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Blue switches are best switches :)

On topic:

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This will come in handy on the coming roadtrip. Hypersmooth should also be quite sweet on the race drone, need to test that.
 
Browns are my current choice, that's a damn good price though for any mechanical keyboard. I'm on the fence about O-rings, I have some and have used them but I just can't decide if I like them or not.

Blue switches are best switches :)

On topic:

View attachment 3555748

This will come in handy on the coming roadtrip. Hypersmooth should also be quite sweet on the race drone, need to test that.

Ooh, I've been very tempted to upgrade while still keeping my Hero 5.
 
Browns are my current choice, that's a damn good price though for any mechanical keyboard. I'm on the fence about O-rings, I have some and have used them but I just can't decide if I like them or not.

I previously picked up a K68 with Reds and I found that with my typing style my fingertips started hurting after a few minutes of full bore use - MXs just bottom out too hard for my taste, but putting the O-rings on made it tolerable for me.

To put it into comparison, my personal favorite keyboard ever made is a tossup between the Apple Extended Keyboard II and the Apple Adjustable Keyboard.


I would still be using my AEK II on my current machine with the USB adapter except for the lack of volume controls (which I need in my current work.) Unfortunately, my AAK with the numeric keypad is too big to fit in my current keyboard space.
 
Followup: The K70 actually improved more with the same O-ring kit than the K68 (with Reds) did - shortening the travel and damping the bottoming-out feel combined with the tactility of the Blues seems to make the switches considerably more solid-feeling - no weighting change though, which is fine. With the Reds on the K68, it only seemed to reduce the noise and fix the bottoming.

The JVC KD-R960BTS arrived, but when I opened the JVC-dropshipped box it didn't contain the R960BTS; it contained a KD-R985BTS. The seller informed me that (much like how I got a K68 from Corsair when I'd ordered a lower membrane keyboard) the warehouse had been out of stock so I got the R985BTS as a free upgrade.

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Unfortunately, they changed the wiring harness between the 860 (that I have) or the 960 (that I ordered - same harness so fast swap) and this 985. It also has dual USB, so there's a port on the front as well as a fairly bulky cable bundle on the rear that I'll have to route or make room for. Oh well, guess it'll be a little longer to swap.
 
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am i the only one who simply doesn't care what keyboard he has?
i've never encountered a bad one either, from the moment it's mechanical, it types, just it's supposed to do?
 
A nice keyboard can be like a good tool, it just feels and works better.
 
It can also be a health matter, especially as you get older. A bad keyboard can do all sorts of things to me between tripping off an episode of carpal tunnel syndrome to simply making my hands from fingers to wrists hurt - and I'm not someone who hammers the keys as if my fingers were meat-sledgehammers. There's a lot of people out there like this, too - or that have it even worse.

The more time you spend using a keyboard, the more important the qualities of that keyboard become. And much like a good car, once you try out a really good keyboard, you won't want to go back to crappy ones.
 
The old 5S was getting really slow and laggy and when Junior borked his S7 Edge last week I decided it was high time he learned to look after things and buy his own phone in future now he has a paper round. He is now putting up with the iPotato and on the recommendation of a colleague whose previous role was 8 years selling cellphones I now have an Honor 10 Lite.

Yes, I know it's Huawei and their budget brand at that but it's one hell of a phone for just £160. 64GB of memory, fast processor and a 24MP camera all as standard.

If you're in the market for a new phone and aren't a diehard Apple fanboi or gurl I can seriously recommend checking it out.
 
My mom's DSLR was gathering dust in a corner, so last week I asked her how much she wanted for the stuff. So now I own a fairly decent set of 10ish year-old Olympus DSLR gear:
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  • E420 body
  • Zuiko Digital 17.5-45mm 1:3.5-5.6
  • Zuiko Digital 14-45mm 1:3.5-5.6
  • Zuiko Digital 40-150mm 1:40-5.6
  • Zuiko Digital 25mm 1:2.8 "pancake"
  • FL-36R flash
  • 2 CF cards (8 and 4GB)
 
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