Photopea

 I just came across this brilliant site - photopea.com 

For those who can't afford Photoshop, or for whatever reason can't put it on their computer (maybe a Linux user?) then this site is essentially a free, online version of Photoshop.

It does have a few limitations (you need a stable, decent internet connection for starters) but it gives you most of the functionality of the best image editing program out there without having to fork over a whole bunch of cash. I wouldn't rely on it as a main editor, or attempt any large or overly complex projects with it - but it might come in handy for quick little things or for opening up a .psd file and saving it in another format.

And as a bonus - no watermarks!

Edit: I've just gone through and deleted a bunch of old comments, specifically a whole bunch of spam comments from this blog - some from 2008! In my defense, I only recently got my proper login working again on this blog, I've been using an alternate account for over a decade which was accidentally created when Google bought Blogger. Over 150 comments deleted, about 48 comments left. For a blog that's been running long enough to be considered a teenager, that's not a lot of engagement...  

Salt Etching, successful proof of concept

 Woohoo! Took a bit of time (most of that was waiting on my dry film to arrive), but I have a test of salt etching that I'm happy with. :)

I had one limited result test earlier today, my first go with the dry film. I was using a single-layer toner onto tape transfer as a mask, and the toner from my printer prints too thinly to be a decent mask. Plus the image that I was attempting to use was too ambitious for a first go:

My printer gave out reasonably sharp detail, which I was happy with, but the post-exposure results on the aluminium came out too blotchy (as in, the parts covered by the toner should have been a uniform colour, but were not). The result was that when I put it through the soda wash, the solution wasn't strong enough to remove the bits that were supposed to come off, and making it stronger took off the bits that were meant to stay.

Simple solution, get it all off and try again. For my next attempt, I made a much simpler mask with some bold text.

This gave a much cleaner result after the initial exposure. Removing the fill with the soda wash produced a very clean result.

Finally, into the salt water and electricity bath to etch the aluminium. I wasn't too sure how long to leave it in there for (should have timed it!) but I wanted it to be deep enough to be a decent etch, but shallow enough that it didn't start going sideways under the fine details (like the middle bits in the A's and the R's). I kind of winged it (and kept pulling it out to check it) and after it looked about right, it was moment of truth!

With this process, you can put it back into the salt water to keep etching if you think it needs to go deeper, but once you start taking off the resist - you'll never get another layer of resist back on there! So get it right the first time.

I'm pretty happy with how that came out! :D

The process is rather brutal on the metal, so I'm not sure how fine detail will work out, but I'm hoping that I'll be able to have a go tomorrow. I figure one more test with fine detail to see how that goes, then I might have a crack at a real task. Fingers crossed!

Plank, take one

For those who don't know, a trackable (or travel bug, usually abbreviated as TB) is a GeoCaching thing, and is essentially a game piece with a unique number (like a license plate). Normally, people use the actual metal TB they buy, but some people will copy the code onto something else and keep the original metal tag at home (to try and reduce the number of TB that go missing).

For whatever reason, I thought I'd make a little Plank model. No idea why, I never really watched the Ed, Edd and Eddy show, maybe saw parts of episodes when I was younger and channel surfing.

Below is my first attempt. It doesn't really show it in the photo, but the varnish I used came out waaaayy darker than I wanted it to. Plus the ink that I used for the eyes and mouth ran into the grain, giving it a slightly creepy look. Good for making a Plank / Joker crossover, but not the look I was after.

So back to the drawing board, I'll have one more crack at it.

In other news, I picked up some Hot Wheels cars with the intention of maybe doing some customization on them or using them as TB, but cars tend to go missing pretty quick and I don't have all the tools needed to properly convert them.

Reaching crescendo

For several years, I've been playing a game called OGame. It's a space ship, battle type online game which really, it's rather dull. I don't know why I play it.

I have ten planets on there, and for the last year or so I've been funneling all resources to one planet to build defences in order to make it into a super-fortress.

Now, I've switched it up and am just pumping all resources into it and letting them pile up there. At time of writing, there's about a hundred and seventy million resources on there (the game divides it up into metal, crystal and deut).

We'll see how big the pile can get before another player (or team of players) smash it in order to steal the lot. What a shame there isn't some big scene showing the awesome battle, my numbers will just change from a lot to zero.

Seventy seven point four

Just got back from two weeks running around in the heat and the dust of the woods and weighed in at 77.4kg. Bit of a loss after only ten days or so, though I suspect much of that is water weight as I sweated heaps. Was drinking loads of water (and electrolytes and eating salts with food) but I still feel mega dry - especially on the skin around my fingernails which is all retracted.

Going to take a bit of time to recover (it usually does) so I'm glad we came back in a bit early. Normally we go where it is cold and muddy rather than baking hot. The humidity didn't help either!

3D print

Well, the 3D printed coins I'd ordered back in … June … finally came in.

At 80c each, they aren't too bad. However, I can't say that I'm happy with the level of detail. I'm assuming that the printer (I used the local library) has their settings set up for maximum number of prints with minimum acceptable level of detail (they do after all charge very little, almost less than the cost of the filament as far as I can tell) so can't really complain.

However, I'm not happy with the stepped look and finish on them. If I had my own printer then I could tweak the settings for maximum resolution and just leave it printing overnight. For larger, less detail-intensive prints then it should be pretty good - but for the small, detailed items I want to make, this isn't what I'm aiming for.

I was able to pick up a bunch of plastic poker chips today dirt cheap, they average out to 10c each if I buy them new as part of a set. With these, at 80c each (more if I paint or decorate them) then they aren't really feasible. I had been hoping to get a master or two printed, then use epoxy resin to cast more from a mould. But with the stepped look that these came out with, I don't see that being viable.

The larger things like the lettering came out ok (mostly), but the stars at the top are very stepped, and the little "1" I put on there is pretty much illegible.

Looks like I'm pinning my hopes on the photosensitive film I've ordered, hoping that works with salt etching aluminium. If that works as advertised, I should be able to get the level of detail I'm after.

Hopefully.

Signature item (still)

The last thing I though of to try as a signature item was clay coins.

It would be relatively easy to make poker-chip sized coins with a good relief. The dies could be 3D printed (at the totally reasonable price of $3 an hour, so probably under $20 for a set), then use a wooden base and pusher with a metal collar to keep it all together. The collar sits on the base, the bottom face drops inside. Put in a pre-weighed blob of clay, the top die goes on top and wooden pusher squishes it all together so the clay gets mushed into the design.

That's still too expensive.

The cheapest clay to get hold of is 500g of air drying clay for about $10, which would net me about 30 coins (average 14g per coin, plus wastage). That amounts to 33c per coin, not counting the cost of the dies or paints / sealers to make the clay last longer once dried.

Considering the number of caches that are available locally, it does not look like it is going to be practicable to have a signature item to drop in. Other than just signing. It kind of takes away from the point of doing geocaching, though I guess I can just keep at it for a while until I've done the majority of the caches in the area. Which roughly speaking, seems to be about a thousand or so (roughly guesstimating) within about an hours drive - though around 30% to 45% of those are either nano sized which wouldn't take an item, or are decayed caches awaiting archival.

So looks like I might use up the plastic tokens that I ordered and leave it at that. I'll need to find some other outlet to try and be creative. On the plus side, if I swing around to using epoxy to be creative with, then I wouldn't be limited to small little coin type things.

Or I could just buy a damn 3D printer. :)