The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

The New Hotness

  • Tek Circuit Computer: Cursor Hairline Filling

    Some cleanup and a fresh layer of double-sided tape gives the cursor milling fixture plenty of adhesion:

    Tek CC - Cursor blank on fixture
    Tek CC – Cursor blank on fixture

    This time, I diamond-scribed three PETG cursors through the transparent protective film, with two / four / six passes:

    Tek CC - Cursor hairline filling
    Tek CC – Cursor hairline filling

    It’s not a Purple Crayon, but it suffices for my simple needs.

    Scribbling a (soft!) lacquer crayon over transparent plastic still scuffs the pristine surface around the engraved line, so I tried scribbling the six-pass cursor before peeling the film, as shown above. Unfortunately, the film shreds left around the line either prevent a clean fill or pull the paint out of the ditch as the film peels back:

    Tek CC - Cursor lacquer fill
    Tek CC – Cursor lacquer fill

    Peeling the film and scribbling ever-so-gently left a more complete line, but, if you look very closely (perhaps opening the image in a new tab for more dots), you can see the scuffs left by the scribbles on either side of the line:

    Tek CC - Cursor 2 4 6 scribes
    Tek CC – Cursor 2 4 6 scribes

    When seen from the other side against laminated decks, though, the scuffs pretty much vanish:

    Tek CC - Classic Tek Logo vectorized - red hairline
    Tek CC – Classic Tek Logo vectorized – red hairline

    The red hairline isn’t historically accurate, but I like the way it looks.

    Give me some (heavyweight matte) paper and a (lacquer) crayon, put me in a basement (shop), and I’ll be happy for days …