Poke-walk

 Did a first walk with the new account this morning. Went up a few levels, caught a few more pocket monsters and tagged a few pokey stops.

I've got some wooden nickels coming in, blank. And a bit of photopolymer sheet which I hope I'll be able to use to make some nice stamps for the wooden nickels. I have an idea for the design I want to do, but I want to make sure that it doesn't come across as advertising (which lets face it, it totally would be). Might need to put a bit more thought into the design.

I've also got loads of ideas for hides, but I need a workshop to build stuff in. Too many targets, never enough hours in the day (or enthusiasm in the tank)... :(

And end to camping, by crossing a bridge

It's been "fun" but the camping trip is nearly over. Dirty, dusty and tired but heading home. On the down side, due to this being a work function, can't just pull over on the drive home to stop and smell the roses. And by roses, I mean log a cache. There's one on a bridge we drive across but won't be able to stop and look for it.

Oh well, maybe in another lifetime. I doubt I'll ever be out this way when it's not for work.

Wher I Go

 No, that's not a typo in the title - Wher I Go (with only one "e" in where) is a variant on GeoCaching and a new (was new back in 2008) cache type - usually abbreviated as WIG.

The short version of WIG is that Garmin wanted to get some more markets for their GPS units, and a select few models had extra processing power. These were WIG enabled, and they could be used to play WIG "games". However, smart phones took off, the variety and options for apps exploded and Garmin quietly dropped the idea.

WIG is now kind of in limbo, hobbling along and not really getting support from anyone. Groundspeak (the company  that owns geocahing.com) is half-heartedly supporting WIG but it is difficult to create games. Instructions and support are scattered, there's a lot of old or outdated information and a lot of the instructions were in flash videos, which is no longer supported.

Just because I'm a masochist (and I can see a huge amount of potential), I'm going to be trying to build a WIG game or two, depending on how I go. I have a few ideas that I think would be much better cache experience than just a box in the bushes.

So far, I have been struggling to even get a game to play on my phone! Most of the games are location specific, but there are some "play anywhere" games. I've downloaded one, but it isn't playing nice with my phone. There is currently one one WIG in Darwin, and I'll need to try and play that one before I have a go at building one myself.

Goals:

• Complete a play anywhere game.
• Complete the Darwin WIG game.  

Wet season!

 Well, this wet season certainly feels a lot wetter than last year. I don't know how it actually is, I haven't looked up the numbers. I think the difference for me is that this year I am into GeoCaching, and the rain is stopping me from going out. Actually, the rain isn't stopping me from going out - up here the rain is warm and more of an annoyance rather than cold and miserable like it is down on the south side of the country. No, it's wanting to make sure no water gets into the caches that is stopping me. Would be mighty rude to open one up and it gets a heap of water in it!

I can't remember how much I noticed the rains last year. I don't recall any times where I was looking out the window wanting to go out. Possibly was too busy with my head in my phone rather than paying attention to what else was going on around me. Or maybe it rained less? Let's go with that.

Geo-jog

Currently in Adelaide, and just got back from what I think is my most succesful geocaching jog yet. Covered just over 12km on foot, found 14 caches with a fifteenth that was a DNF.

Not too bad for one morning's jog. There are loads more caches in Adelaide with a heap near where we are staying, but only so many that I can reach on foot.

I doubt I'll go out again too much more while we are here, except for targets of opportunity if the situation presents itself.

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.

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.

Thingies

Apart from the options already mentioned in my last post, there is also lost wax casting. This can tie in with either pewter or aluminium casting and works well for complex shapes that won't work with a two part mould. Although the wax can be partially reclaimed and padded out with cheap candle wax (the proper wax comes in various grades, and buying softer stuff can be offset by melting in harder candle wax), it's still too expensive.

So it looks like we're back to the "custom poker chip" idea. Or something similar. I found a supplier of blank, white plastic tokens. I've ordered their smallest quantity, a ten pack, to test how well it works.

I had found a supplier of "blank" poker chips in baches of 120 chips for $12 - which amounts to 12c each. This is in line with buying the poker sets from BigW or KMart - they have 200 and 300 chip sets for $20 and $30 respectively. The ten pack of blanks cost me $3 (including postage) so that's 30c per blank, but they also have 100 packs for $16 (16c each).

That's still higher than the blank poker chips (which aren't blank, they have designs on the borders) but the poker chips have the big disadvantage that they come in sets of four colours. The white ones came out okay, the green ones looked okay, but the blue and black ones were very meh. So being able to buy all white ones makes printing designs much easier.

Second attempt at salt etching

Curses! I thought I might have been getting a decent result. But, I'm getting ahead of myself.

Current biggest issue is getting a decent resistor onto the aluminium with enough detail that I can get crisp lettering. I think at the moment the issue is that the printer that I have is either low on toner, does not deposit enough toner or is set up to maximise toner and I can't turn it off.

So the first thing I tried was the first method (glossy magazine paper) with a bit of nail polish remover. I also added pressure by using a clamp I picked up from the hardware store. However, I feel that my mistake on this attempt was that I used two bits of metal (the aluminium stock and bit of scrap steel) and it didn't put equal pressure across the toner.

Result: toner didn't stick.

(Also, didn't clean up the metal first either, which can't have helped.)

Second attempt today was using the second method (back of sticker paper - waxy type). This is the one that is supposed to give the best results. The immediate issue was that the toner didn't stick to it going through the printer. Not what I was expecting, I poked around the settings a bit and managed to get a bit of toner onto the paper. The result was … lacklustre.

So I went back to the first method, but this time I put some padding paper between the paper carrying the toner and the steel sheet, and this time I managed to (finally!) get a decent amount of toner onto the aluminium. Yes!

So hooked it all up, got the juice flowing and the result was … about the same as the first time.

It's definitely an issue with the toner. It isn't on there thick enough to stop the salt water from eating away at the aluminium, which leaves it with that chewed out look and rough lettering. I can't think of any other way to get the amount of detail on there that I am after other than printing it. I was looking at the photoresist film, which could work. But that would require buying the film, plus some UV light(s) and who knows how much more equipment. I know we need to buy more toner for our printer, but there should be plenty of black.

I think for the next effort, I'm going to have to try a heat option. Which will either mean investing in a hot air gun or using the oven. Toner should need about 100c to melt the toner, the trick is to not burn it. More experimentation needed!

Custom stickers! Sort of...

Yes, this is another Geocaching post. :)

With Geocaching, there are different levels of commitment to people who want to play (read: decide how much money you want to spend), and one of the things which is "a thing" in the game is to drop swag in to caches for other people to find (and possibly move around). From what I've seen, swag can vary between something really nice and expensive like a collectible coin to assorted "junk" (cheap stuff from the dollar store like little plush toys).

As much as I would like go throwing around wads of money and buying toys and keychains and other cool little knick-knacks to give away, I simply don't have the money for it. So I figured I'd try and make (modify?) existing things to hopefully make them a bit more interesting. The level I'm aiming at is interesting enough that someone sees it and goes "that's interesting" but not so interesting that they decide they want to keep it and add it to their collection! It's a fine line to aim for (made a bit harder that one person might look at, say, a hot wheels car and go "meh" while another might go "yes, score!")

So a while back, we found one of those cheap poker sets that someone threw out during verge pickup, so I used this tutorial (YouTube, 2min) to make a couple of little stickers to put on the middle blank part of chips:

So far, the cost for these is:

• Poker chips: "free" (would be approx. 10c each to buy more, in blocks of 200)
• Packing tape: $6.45 (I used about 20cm and have about 60m left)
• Toner: negligible amount (though I need to buy more toner anyway)
• And an afternoon of time... free? I had some spare time...

With these little thingies that I'm making to release out into the wild, I'm trying to keep my costs down to a minimum, due to not having a lot of spare money. However, I'm classing this as both a hobby (having fun) and being creative (making stuff). I've already had a go at etching aluminium (which I need to refine, but the concept is sound) and now I've made these stickers (I was aiming for waterslide decals, but these will do for now) and odds are that I'll want to figure out how to make other stuff on the cheap.

With these, the only thing holding the tape (and toner) onto the plastic chip is the residual glue from the tape after dissolving the paper backing (and on these I wasn't as thorough as I should have been and found there was still a bit of paper on there after it dried). I'd like to add some epoxy resin over the top to really make them pop, but another consideration apart from cost is not getting involved with too many toxic chemicals. That's why I went for salt etching instead of acid etching (which is faster).

I figure that I might need to drop a few more dollars and get a can of spray lacquer or other sealant to make the stickers a little more robust … but that'll be something for another day.

Salt etching aluminium

Due to varied reasons (one of the main ones being a desire to create something), I wanted to try my hand at etching aluminium. I've had prior experience with it from one of the places that I used to work at and from College, but I was hoping to avoid having to use Ferric Chloride or other strong chemicals. After a bit of browsing I found that it is possible to do with salt water and a bit of electric current. That seemed like a better idea than to be using toxic chemicals (and then trying to dispose of them).

The first couple of prints failed because I was trying to print an Australian flag, but the detail was too fine. My very first print I rubbed the paper too hard and it ripped, so I scrubbed that one. The second one had many defects of missing toner or details covered by paper pulp. I used magazine paper, and that wasn't blank so some of the toner from that ended up filling in what was meant to be blank spaces.

For my third attempt at a print, I opted for large lettering, but even that was fairly dull and blurry once transferred onto the ali.

The setup … looked dodgy as anything!

Basically running a 5V DC power supply. A bit dodgy to have a stainless steel knife in a salt water bath along with the piece of aluminum being etched. I could see it not taking much fort things to shift around and get a short.

I did tape the knife to the side of the container to try and reduce the risk. Long term, I'd like to maybe get a holder 3D printed or something in order to make it safer and eliminate the chances of a short. But that's a long term thing - right now I'm trying to keep my costs down to a minimum. Current spend: $2. Not counting prior items that I already owned (such as a multimeter to check the polarity of the wires).

The result … is less than what I was hoping for.

I'm 95% certain that the reason for the failure was not enough toner on the print. I needed to use a destructive method (soaking in water) to remove the paper backing, I may need to explore other methods to get a cleaner deposit of the toner onto the aluminium. A pretty decent etch (depthwise, I mean) for only a few minutes of effort.

The end goal is nice crisp writing, and I think I am going to either need better transfer medium to get the toner onto the ali, or a better printer. I think buying toner is going to be my next step, unless I can find another option of paper I can use. Fingers crossed!

Geocaching

Went out today for my first geocache hunt. There aren't too many around where I am, but I was able to find my first two.

Currently planning to see if I can pick up a trackable traveller (they cost about $6 each, give or take depending on the type you get and where you get them from), and see if I can get it all the way out to a friend of mine who live in the USA.

We'll see how far into the hobby I get, money is always an issue and I tend to plan bigger than I can afford.