What inspires you to make?

I suppose I tinker a lot, and that tends to involve learning something 'just enough' to get the job done, and then move onto something else.

Sometimes I'll pick up a component and find out how it works, like a temperature sensor, and figure out how it reads temperatures, what sorts of delays it has, how accurate it is, how to calibrate it, and then it'll sit on the shelf.

Then someone will have a problem or ask me for something, and it might involve that temperature sensor, and I'll go "aha, I know how these things work, I can put them together to make that thing you're asking for!" and then I make the thing.

This also means I have a lot of components that sit around until they have a purpose. One of those, for example, is a 3D Printer.

My nephew has been interested in Norse/Scandinavian/etc mythology recently and asked me about 3D printing, and if I could create mjolnir / thor's hammer for him.

After grabbing the 3D files from thingiverse and checking them out, I realise they're not quite fit for purpose, so I enact my OpenSCAD knowledge and edit the files, discover that the 3D models weren't 'closed' properly to be able to edit them in OpenSCAD, so had to find/learn some other tools to fix the 3D models, and then I was able to print.

Until I wasn't able to print because the nozzle had worn out on my 3D printer, which meant buying spare parts and replacing the nozzle.

Until I couldn't replace the nozzle because of a fault in the material of the nozzle which meant it snapped off in the heat block, which meant buying more tools to learn how to remove what was effectively a headless screw.

Then once that was done, calibrated everything, I 3D printed the hammer, bought some acrylic paint and leather, touched it up and glued it together.

Hopefully he'll like it - but it was quite a journey that relied on those little investigations I've done over time to learn the tools that end up coming together to make for a purpose.

I suppose I tinker a lot, and that tends to involve learning something 'just enough' to get the job done, and then move onto something else.

Sometimes I'll pick up a component and find out how it works, like a temperature sensor, and figure out how it reads temperatures, what sorts of delays it has, how accurate it is, how to calibrate it, and then it'll sit on the shelf.

Then someone will have a problem or ask me for something, and it might involve that temperature sensor, and I'll go "aha, I know how these things work, I can put them together to make that thing you're asking for!" and then I make the thing.

This also means I have a lot of components that sit around until they have a purpose. One of those, for example, is a 3D Printer.

My nephew has been interested in Norse/Scandinavian/etc mythology recently and asked me about 3D printing, and if I could create mjolnir / thor's hammer for him.

After grabbing the 3D files from thingiverse and checking them out, I realise they're not quite fit for purpose, so I enact my OpenSCAD knowledge and edit the files, discover that the 3D models weren't 'closed' properly to be able to edit them in OpenSCAD, so had to find/learn some other tools to fix the 3D models, and then I was able to print.

Until I wasn't able to print because the nozzle had worn out on my 3D printer, which meant buying spare parts and replacing the nozzle.

Until I couldn't replace the nozzle because of a fault in the material of the nozzle which meant it snapped off in the heat block, which meant buying more tools to learn how to remove what was effectively a headless screw.

Then once that was done, calibrated everything, I 3D printed the hammer, bought some acrylic paint and leather, touched it up and glued it together.

Hopefully he'll like it - but it was quite a journey that relied on those little investigations I've done over time to learn the tools that end up coming together to make for a purpose.

cstanton  wrote:

 

...it was quite a journey that relied on those little investigations I've done over time to learn the tools that end up coming together to make for a purpose.

That WAS quite the journey! but now everything is set up and ready again for next time

And I totally understand - I have loads of parts and pieces, and random tools now too, for that same reason. Some spouses might call it hoarding... I call it being prepared

Also, don't go into the Dollar Store... that always stings a little when they sell, what just took days to complete, for $1.

Best,

-Nico

mjolnir / thor's hammer - sounds like a cool project