Late to the party, but to add on:

• the glamor shots of finished prints that you’ll see in photos and videos are super misleading. Shine a harsh light at most prints at a steep angle and you’ll see a fairly rough exterior finish in the z-axis
• Ellis’s tuning guide is a good thing to run through. It’s pretty straightforward and will give you a feel for what to tweak and when to tweak it
• I’ve been printing for something like 8-10 years and have never bothered with a filament dryer. I tend to buy 3 kg spools and some of them sit open for quite some time as I work through them. They live in my basement, which does have a dehumidifier in it but is usually around 55% humidity
• keep in mind that FDM printers are basically a CNC hot glue gun and keep your expectations in line
• 45° print orientation can be a cheat code if you have crazy overhangs
• watch the first layer. If you get a good first layer odds are your print will be fine
• different filaments have different physical properties and will print differently. This is true across polymers (ie PLA, PETG, ASA, ABS, TPU, etc), but can also be true across brands, colors, and blends (PLA vs PLA+, etc)
• don’t get hung up on things like acceleration or velocity. Speed is all about flow and the best way to bump that up is bigger nozzles, thicker layers, and wider extrusions

For real advice: get a pair of calipers and print some radius gauges. Then jump into CAD, even if it means learning it. The real magic of 3D printing is in making custom designs. I’m personally a huge fan of functional prints. Once you start seeing opportunities to print replacement parts, make jigs and fixtures, and make your own designs for things you’ll find tons of opportunities.

In my experience, sage will flower year 2+ if it survives that long.

Sage in the ground is a perennial around us, but it only lives 3 or so years. It usually flowers in year two. If I had to guess why it’s not more common as an ornamental plant it’s because of its lifespan and no flowers the first year. People gravitate toward annuals and perennials, not biannuals.

The level of precision that goes into every day items is truly amazing.

I’m sorry to hear that friend! I’m happy that you’re still finding outlets to engage with.

Macro photography might be worth a quick glance at depending how mobile you are. Life in miniature can look otherworldly.

Odds are very strong that you have a phone in your pocket with a camera in it. The best camera in the world is the one you have with you, so you’re off to a good start.

What you’re describing is another good application for stacking/compositing. You can totally take multiple photos, put them into layers, and selectively remove content from each photo. There might even be automated tools that can do this vs doing it by hand. The more steady you can keep the thing taking the pictures the better off you’ll be.

The only real hurdle would be things like parked cars, or very high traffic areas where you never get a clear shot of a specific portion of the frame, but if you choose the right spot this could lead to some very surreal looking photos.

Great success! I made a post to share.

TIL that IBM designs and/or fabricates ICs.

Sounds like an interesting after work test! You’ve got me very curious. If I’m doing this hand held there will likely be some wind, so things are going to move a tiny bit naturally. That and most of my lenses exhibiting focus breathing, so even if the camera were stationary the perspective would change slightly.

I’ll hopefully follow up soon.

Nice shot! Thanks for sharing the technique.

I’m pretty sure my body doesn’t support in-body bracketing, but it does have a fast burst rate. I wonder if a slight front to back rock would be enough to get the shots needed for focus stacking.