u/MasterChiefmas

It just registered with me, while re-listening to Welcome to the Horizon(the actual episode)....Frank must have an actual brother or sister...do they ever get mentioned again?

Context:

>!While the duplicate parents are arguing, Stephanie Sturgis mentions she gave birth to 2 of his kids, presumably one is Frank. June is a sister-cousin, not an actual sister...I can't think of where a sibling has ever been mentioned again, but maybe I missed it?

Hello!

While I wait for my IR laser module to arrive, I thought I'd try the tempera trick on brushed steel. I've been able to get marks that stay, but not particularly dark. I've done the moly spray trick, which works very well.

I'm wondering if tempera is just not really good on steel, whereas it works fantastic for glass. Maybe it's my mix or paint though? I'm currently doing a grey-mix of white and black paint, the white to increase the TiO2 content, with a tiny bit of ox gall to improve application(using an airbrush).

It's not really a long term issue since I have the IR coming, more just an experiment, since I was impressed with how well tempera worked for glass.

Thanks!

Hello,

I'm new to airbrushing, and I've picked up a Paashe H airbrush. I very specifically went with an external mix, as I'm actually only doing this in support of the hobby I've actually picked up, laser engraving/cutting etc.

A common technique here is to use thinned tempera paint to allow the laser I have to work on particular materials. Applying a thin, even coat is important here, and spray can solutions were clearly going to rapidly add up in costs, so I immediately went looked at the airbrush route. I'll sometimes be putting coverage over a fairly large area relative to a small airbrush like this, like multiple dinner plates, I don't need fine detail, and the paints I'll be using sounded like they'd be potentially more problematic with internal mix airbrushes.

Due to the use of the thicker paint, I went the external mix option, it sounded like it would be the better approach for what I want, which is just large even areas, no detail work, and I have no plans to use it for anything other than this at the moment.

The questions I have right now are mainly:

• is there any particular cleaning methodology I should use for the airbrush? Most everything I've found from searching is based around internal mix airbrushes, and I see the similarities, I'm not sure the approaches should be completely the same. Right now, immediately after I've finished painting, I switch the bottle to warm water(I'm using water based tempera), and just spray a lot of that through. Then I just spray a lot of air through. I'm not sure about cleaning the rest, the paint nozzles I think I'll do the same as internal mix? I'm not sure about the other parts of the brush since that's just pushing air through it?

• more generically, are there any techniques/methods/tools I should look at for mixing the paint well? I've read many times about the chance of chunks/clumps, so I spend several minutes using a small spatula trying to make sure I mash up any chunks if I see any, like I'm making bechamel sauce. I then strain that through a nylon mesh filter into the bottle. But I am wonder if I should be using a brush to do the initial stirring or if there's some other method? I'm starting to think maybe I should just add the distilled water, stir, then shake the crap out of it and then filter, as I'm not sure if the extra effort I'm putting in to mash bits is worth it or not. But it feels like maybe I'm trying to figure out solved problems? So, suggestions?

• The bottom feed bottle...it just seems to be a friction attach to the airbrush? Is that right? It didn't seem like there was anything else to do but stick the pipe into the feed hole?

• Anything else it'd be useful to know? As I mentioned, pretty much everything I find in search tends to be around internal mix and fine detail/models, which isn't a concern at all for me. I'm sure some of it probably applies, it's just I'm not sure which bits will and won't, besides the obvious mechanical differences.

Thank you!

First thing I thought, "Oh look, a juvenile Croeller"

https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fid8jk99ah98h1.jpeg

hello!

When I was a kid, my mom used to buy these preserved tofu snacks, I'm trying to find them again. None of the asian markets I've went to had them, and I don't know what they were really called.

So, they were a dried snack, almost like jerkey. Color-wise, they were a reddish brown, like smoked tofu, but with a reddish tint, but they were that color all the way through. They were a spicy snack, and I assume the tint was from chili oil or the like.

The characteristic that most defined them to me though, is they were like rectangular sticks(like a carrot stick). Most snacks I see are flat, I've never found one close to this. Texture was dried, semi tough, almost like a meat jerky, but there was a solid bite to them. Search for tofo jerky of course isn't helpful, because you get back stuff that's a substitute for regular jerky, which these aren't.

Lastly- I'm not sure if they were Chinese, it's possible they were a Taiwanese thing, but I'm starting here.

Sound like anything you know of?

Thanks!

I'm a beginner here, and did some searches, but I wasn't successful finding anything, even with other Xtool lasers using the RA...

Does the xcs software cope with if a mug/cup has a handle on it? I know the angle of the RA can be changes, but the only use-case I found referring to using this was for rings?

It would provide more space for a handle to rotate without hitting the base, but not with out hitting the module of course, but as I said, I didn't find anything saying if that would work or not.

It sounded like official materials were using a detachable handle?

Since I'm new to this, I'm still leary of just trying it, and seeing because I don't want to disk damaing a motor etc if I shouldn't do that.

Thank you!

What do you do if you have a new material, but not enough to do a test grid?

Specifically, I ordered some keychain blanks. They are black walnut. Since they are blanks, I don't have a large sheet that I can do an engrave test on, and I'd go through half of them probably to do the test one square at a time. Is there a way that's a useful, smaller test?

I was thinking maybe I'd burn some somewhat thick lines, with no labels, or very small labels on each line. Beyond that, I'm not sure what I can try besides guess + info I find on the web.

Thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

Thank you!

I'm in the 9.xx somewhere, and someone just used a sword skill that was referring explicitly to the Sword of Damocles.

Do we just figure everything like that has a parallel in Innworld? Or do the natives just kind of assume it's referring to someone they haven't heard of? It kind of suggests that the gods were also spying on Earth, not just the Fae otherwise.

I'm right at the beginning of learning how to use laser cutting/engraving, having just gotten an M2.

I think I need to acquire some skills with vector image editing. While I'm sure I'll need to get some understanding of xcs interacting with them, I'm trying to figure out if I should invest time in it as a primary tool for making edits and such. I suspect not.

I'm currently poking around with Inkscape, mostly because my daily driver computer is running Linux. But I have good Mac and Windows machines too, so I can switch over to those if there's a better software choice that I should be exploring there, but assuming I probably don't want to immediately run out and get Adobe Illustrator?

What are you using, and what recommendations would you have? I also started at looking at learning to edit, because I realized I would likely have to do some edits to the image that I'm trying to work with right now. I kind of jumped into the deep end, as there's some complexity to it(traced raster image).

From a time investment purpose, I wasn't sure if putting that much effort into figuring out if I can do it in xcs, or if I was actually hurting myself because the complexity would be better handled in a dedicated vector image program and then brought into xcs. I'm usually a believer in using more purpose suited tools rather then do-everything tools, but I'm not sure if that approach is what I should take right off the bat here.

Thanks!

Hello,

I'm extremely new to all things laser, having just gotten an M2.

I've imported a ping and converted it to a vector image in xcs, but I'm realizing I need to group/break out parts of the resultant image into sub-units. My goal is to create an image which has some parts cut out, and some parts left, think like creating a shadow candle.

However, due to the complexity of the image, I'm starting to think xcs isn't going to be the right tool for cleaning up the vector image and grouping things so I can indicate which things are cut out, and which things are not. Does that sound right, or am I missing something? I think I can see where I could do it, but it seems like selecting the related points would be very tedious. I saw a video that made a point of saying that xcs isn't a design program, and I suspect that's what I'm running into.

So I'm thinking I need to move the vector image over to an actual design program to do that work of grouping elements, and then re-importing the result?

Will xcs understand the grouped elements in an SVG file so I can then make those indications as to what is cut out and what is not on the individual elements? Is there a better image format I should be trying to use to move vector images between apps, if that's the route I should be taking?

Thank you!

One of the things that has been an on going frustration for me is the war in Rhir between the Blighted Kingdom and the demons but no real cause for it shown.

I'm a little ways into vol 9, and there doesn't seem to be a reason in sight so far, but I know I'm still far behind the current point. But it has become annoying to me, because at this point, so far in to the story, with the war being such a major backdrop piece, that everyone conveniently avoiding saying why makes it stick out even more. At least the whole >!gods!< thing had some hinting and suggestion that there was something else going on. Any description of a war, what is the first question you are likely to ask?

I found a thread from a year ago asking the same question, but there wasn't any explanation there either. I wondered if there has been any revelation since then.

Thanks!