The proud parent thread.

The difference from 3 to 4 is crazy.
All they want to do is fish, swim, and drive their jeeps.

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I pointed out to my son (15) that our bathroom is too small for a good place to set a phone to charge and listen to tunes while in the shower.

He spent about 30 mins in CAD and printed this, made to match the charger we already had there.
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RatLabGuy said:
I pointed out to my son (15) that our bathroom is too small for a good place to set a phone to charge and listen to tunes while in the shower.

He spent about 30 mins in CAD and printed this, made to match the charger we already had there.
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You can buy outlet covers with a shelf just like that... Can even get some that will add charging ports.

Good for him for being creative though, and actually making an effort. That is alot more than some kids can say.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
You can buy outlet covers with a shelf just like that... Can even get some that will add charging ports.

Good for him for being creative though, and actually making an effort. That is alot more than some kids can say.
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Oh yeah, I know. In the kitchen we have a plug-in thing that has 2 outlets and 2 USB ports, and a cup shaped lip to hold your phone upright. And I coulda made it better, faster myself.

But this cost me $.50 in material and a great excercise for him.
With all of his summer activities cancelled and little opportunity to hang w/ friends, we're struggling for things to keep him busy, so it's going to be "project of the day" for awhile. He wants to be a mechaniscal engineer (Robotocist specifically) so dthings like this are perfect brain food.
Next project will probably be making a mount for a 7" Pi screen and case to mount on our home printer and package all together with Octoprint.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Oh yeah, I know. In the kitchen we have a plug-in thing that has 2 outlets and 2 USB ports, and a cup shaped lip to hold your phone upright. And I coulda made it better, faster myself.

But this cost me $.50 in material and a great excercise for him.
With all of his summer activities cancelled and little opportunity to hang w/ friends, we're struggling for things to keep him busy, so it's going to be "project of the day" for awhile. He wants to be a mechaniscal engineer (Robotocist specifically) so dthings like this are perfect brain food.
Next project will probably be making a mount for a 7" Pi screen and case to mount on our home printer and package all together with Octoprint.
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Oh yeah, this is great. Putting the desire for screen time to something useful. I could difinetly see my oldest getting into building things, if i decide to pull the chord on a 3d printer.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
Oh yeah, this is great. Putting the desire for screen time to something useful. I could difinetly see my oldest getting into building things, if i decide to pull the chord on a 3d printer.
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How old is he? We have students in our robotics education program doing well with CAD and using printers in 8th grade. And decent home hobby printers are super affordable now, you can get going w/ everything you could need for under $400. Hit me up if you want more info or to talk about it.
 
RatLabGuy said:
How old is he? We have students in our robotics education program doing well with CAD and using printers in 8th grade. And decent home hobby printers are super affordable now, you can get going w/ everything you could need for under $400. Hit me up if you want more info or to talk about it.
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He is 8. He loves building with legos and such, and is fairly artistic; when you can get him away from the screen. But when he is on the tablet, he is typically on an app where he can build things or researching how to use them better. I dont believe it would be a stretch in the future to point that in a beneficial direction.

I have looked some at 3d printers, and agree the prices have come down. I will likely buy one at some point, but really want one that can build parts of a decent size and hold a decent tolerance.
 
RatLabGuy said:
How old is he? We have students in our robotics education program doing well with CAD and using printers in 8th grade. And decent home hobby printers are super affordable now, you can get going w/ everything you could need for under $400. Hit me up if you want more info or to talk about it.
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Plus the cost of CAD...
 
Ron said:
Plus the cost of CAD...
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Fusion 360 is about the most economical program out there. May still be free for some but they're not advertising that as much as they used to. Sure it is for students though, even if it's not $500 for year (1/2 off right now and they run specials on the regular it seems.)
 
Ron said:
Plus the cost of CAD...
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Actually almost all major CAD programs are free for students and educational use, including informal home education, and insome cases "home hobby" as well.

Fusion 360 for instance your son gets free, and you do too to teach him how to use it.

Especially if either of you joins a FIRST robotics (FLL, FTC, FRC) team....
 
Hell, im teaching my 9 yo daughter how to use TinkerCAD, its perfect for kids and runs on anything.
 
RatLabGuy said:
Hell, im teaching my 9 yo daughter how to use TinkerCAD, its perfect for kids and runs on anything.
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While it isnt private, OnShape is free and 100% online, so you can basically use it on any machine. It wasnt very difficult to learn, and they have a ton of training videos.
 
paradisePWoffrd said:
While it isnt private, OnShape is free and 100% online, so you can basically use it on any machine. It wasnt very difficult to learn, and they have a ton of training videos.
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Onshape is also free for student and mentors on FIRST teams.
 
Our 15 yo starts drivers ed soon, we agreed he needed to start doing the maintenance on the Pathfinder since that'll eventuly be his wheels.
So he did oil, tires and fluids yesterday.
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And of course the obligatory guys dinner out afterwards to help reinforce the work
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My son took his tractor out this morning only to report he got it stuck aka it ran out of battery. I threw him a ratchet strap and told him to pull it up with his Jeep. With no help from me he made it this far.

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Not too shabby. It was losing traction so I had to help hold the rear down do it could dig in. He made it to the top of the hill and got it pulled back into the garage. #lifeskills
 
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RatLabGuy said:
Our 15 yo starts drivers ed soon, we agreed he needed to start doing the maintenance on the Pathfinder since that'll eventuly be his wheels.
So he did oil, tires and fluids yesterday.
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And of course the obligatory guys dinner out afterwards to help reinforce the work
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Looks like hes going to fall asleep in that sandwhich.

Also, if he turns that jug flat, it wont gulp the oil.
 
It’s become a bit of a night time routine to talk about gun safety, proper firearm handling, identifying different actions and cleaning guns. She likes looking through red dots and pulling bolts out. She wanted to clean tonight, I wasn’t feeling it, so asked if she wanted to try to disassemble. I told her to have at it and I figured there was no way in hell her fingers were strong enough...

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The wife was vacuuming, so the oldest went to the bedroom so the vacuum wouldn’t eat her. After a couple minutes I hear her making a ruckus. Turns out she was hosting a protest and she was chanting ‘smaller government’ to herself. I’d picket with her on that platform. Couple screen grabs of the video...

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I couldn’t be more proud of this young man. Dropped him off to start college at Duke this morning. Valedictorian in HS, graduated 2 weeks ago and never missed a day of class in 4 years. Very different interests than me but a Heart of gold always putting others first. Clearly genetics come from the mother. He earned the opportunity, now the rest is up to him. Go Benny boy!!!!

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benmack1 said:
I couldn’t be more proud of this young man. Dropped him off to start college at Duke this morning. Valedictorian in HS, graduated 2 weeks ago and never missed a day of class in 4 years. Very different interests than me but a Heart of gold always putting others first. Clearly genetics come from the mother. He earned the opportunity, now the rest is up to him. Go Benny boy!!!!

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Congrats dude.
A duke degree opens so many doors.
That's awesome
 
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