Hacker News: metal_am

New comment by metal_am in "A modular impact diverting mechanism for football helmets [pdf]"

metal_am — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:46:04 +0000

MIPS is a one and done kind of thing for major impacts.

New comment by metal_am in "Gemini 3.1 Pro"

metal_am — Thu, 19 Feb 2026 17:18:55 +0000

I'd love to hear some examples!

New comment by metal_am in "A modern 35mm film scanner for home"

metal_am — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 13:10:09 +0000

Developed film has a bar code type of encoding for DX info. The talk about the whole roll is the ability to scan the entire thing in one go vs having to load in multiple strips.

New comment by metal_am in "No science, no startups: The innovation engine we're switching off"

metal_am — Mon, 13 Oct 2025 17:14:01 +0000

This is a very surface level analysis like saying that the automobile was just an iterative improvement over a horse. Or a computer is just a better abacus. Fundamental research is all about diving into the weeds and finding new problems to solve. It's true that some of the "low hanging fruit" no longer exists (you won't see someone like Euler or Newton who's names pop up all over the place), but I can promise you that real gains are being made on a lower level. These small gains in fundamental research snowball into bigger advancements. As an example, the transformer architecture used by LLMs was first published in 2017.

New comment by metal_am in "Figure 03, our 3rd generation humanoid robot"

metal_am — Fri, 10 Oct 2025 16:26:24 +0000

If you found one for that price with the controller and pendent, please send me a link. I’ve looked a lot and have not seen any UR for remotely that cheap.

New comment by metal_am in "iFixit iPhone Air teardown"

metal_am — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 20:22:39 +0000

Looks like spot melt laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF). Electron beam doesn’t make sense for something on a smaller scale like this; it wouldn't have the resolution. Spot melt is interesting. Renishaw is the only manufacturer I’m aware of that uses a pulsed laser vs continuous wave (and I’m not even sure if they’re still doing that for their newer machines). I would’ve guessed it would’ve been printed on a Farsoon since it’s in China. I just wish the images had scale bars to give a little more info.

New comment by metal_am in "Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?"

metal_am — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 19:28:27 +0000

I have both a resin and FDM printer. The FDM is hands down easier to work with than dealing with resin. FDM ABS is also a far better material than ABS-like resin. (Disclosure: I've never tried a proper industrial resin from LOCTITE or something.)

New comment by metal_am in "Ask HN: What's a good 3D Printer for sub $1000?"

metal_am — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 18:59:25 +0000

I've been very happy with my Qidi Q1 Pro. I paid about $350 pre-tax off Amazon almost a year ago (Black Friday). For me, it was the most machine for the lowest cost I could find. It almost fits your desired print volume (245 x 245 x 240), but it is fully enclosed and has a dedicated chamber heater. I have almost exclusively printed ABS at a 60 deg. C chamber temp. It runs open source Klipper firmware, but I'd imagine repairability wouldn't be the best. Best of all, I have not needed any calibration. It seems pretty spot on out of the box.

My Voron is hands down a better printer but also required significantly more investments in components and especially time.

New comment by metal_am in "iPhone Air"

metal_am — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:44:35 +0000

You're making me wish I still had access to a CMM. I wonder what the tolerances are on an iPhone.

New comment by metal_am in "Reverse Engineering Bambu Connect"

metal_am — Tue, 21 Jan 2025 18:21:22 +0000

Chamber heater is really nice for ABS

New comment by metal_am in "Inside the university AI cheating crisis"

metal_am — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 21:51:12 +0000

That's how grad degrees are done. But there's simply not enough time to do this at an undergrad level with potentially hundreds of students.

New comment by metal_am in "MIT Aluminum Bicycle Project 1974 (2016)"

metal_am — Thu, 28 Nov 2024 03:44:27 +0000

Interesting. I haven’t heard of them. Joining would still be a problem for a bike frame. Any idea on how well they work with other severe plastic deformation processes?

New comment by metal_am in "Pi Chess Board"

metal_am — Sun, 10 Nov 2024 22:31:06 +0000

It must be. The part about minimizing the stepper motor power consumption is nonsensical. Steppers use the same current whether moving or stationary.

New comment by metal_am in "Openpilot – Operating system for robotics"

metal_am — Fri, 20 Sep 2024 12:15:49 +0000

I definitely thought it was a ROS clone based on that first line.

New comment by metal_am in "Have you ever seen soldering this close? [video]"

metal_am — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 02:38:30 +0000

Nicest light microscope I've ever used.

New comment by metal_am in "GM electric vehicles can now access Tesla Superchargers"

metal_am — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 20:30:19 +0000

Where I’m located, Supercharger prices are ~4x business electric rates. That’s something like $15 profit per charge. No idea on infrastructure costs or usage though.

New comment by metal_am in "How to build a 50k ton forging press"

metal_am — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 16:21:53 +0000

Electromagnetic stirring is used in continuous casting for grain refinement. It’s also used sometimes in welding.

New comment by metal_am in "How to build a 50k ton forging press"

metal_am — Fri, 23 Aug 2024 16:13:54 +0000

Most forms of metal AM require melting, which gives solidification microstructures. There are solid state (no melting) forms of metal AM though. Look up AFSD. MELD just got (part of) a billon dollar contract from the air force for it.

New comment by metal_am in "Next gen 3D metal printing"

metal_am — Thu, 27 Jun 2024 02:22:50 +0000

Absolutely. Printed molds and forging dies with conformal cooling channels can decrease cycle times.

New comment by metal_am in "Next gen 3D metal printing"

metal_am — Wed, 26 Jun 2024 21:50:44 +0000

A line has to be drawn somewhere because this is a rabbit hole. Without going into the specifics of ASTM standards, etc., there are metal AM parts flying today in both air and space. IMO, that counts as meeting standards.