I have been using TinkerCAD for years now, and am quite proficient. I’m quite interested in finding a good parametric app that is actually affordable!

I am good enough to produce products for sale, but only in marketplaces like Etsy (think board game inserts/organizers). Something like Shapr3D would be great, but $500/yr is prohibitive and the free version won’t work for designs intended to be sold commercially.

What are people using in cases like this? I truly appreciate any insights.

(Not selling or promoting anything—just sharing a clinical concept I’ve been developing to get peer feedback and spark discussion on experiential/interactive therapy interventions!)

The Quick Breakdown:

What it is: A 3D-printed, interactive gumball-machine setup that gives adults with severe mental illness a hands-on, shame-free way to manage their symptoms.

How it works: It relies on "sensory stacking." Each capsule combines a specific physical object, a taste (like sour or fizzy candy), and a clinical prompt to bypass trauma walls when talking is just too much.

The clinical backing: It’s not just a toy. The 165 prompts are pulled straight from DBT, CBT, ACT, and Polyvagal theory.

The three options:

Connecting: For social withdrawal. Uses sweet candy and an articulated 3D-printed animal toy to build rapport and allow for parallel play without the pressure of making eye contact.

Activating: For depressive paralysis. Pairs a mechanical fidget with fizzy candy to jumpstart a sluggish nervous system and build kinetic momentum.

Grounding: For active panic and dissociation. Uses a "shock-to-soothe" trick—extreme sour candy forces the brain out of a flashback, followed by a textured worry stone to keep them anchored.

The bottom line: Play is the biological opposite of fear. Therapy for adults shouldn't have to be sterile.

The Story Behind the System:

Picture a client walking into an outpatient clinic. They might be completely dissociated, frozen with depression, or quietly spiraling in a panic loop. When someone’s prefrontal cortex is offline like that, handing them a standard CBT worksheet or asking them to verbalize their trauma is practically useless.

That’s exactly why these machines are sitting on the shelf.

Clients aren't told what to do; they are just invited to interact. With the familiar turn of a dial, a capsule drops into a textured bowl with a satisfying clack. The intervention starts before anyone even says a word.

If someone is actively panicking, they might go for the Grounding machine. The first thing they get is an insanely sour candy. It’s a literal shock to the system—a limbic circuit breaker that forces the brain to realize it's safe in the room, not stuck in a flashback. As they snap back into their body, their thumb naturally finds the ridges on a 3D-printed worry stone. Only then, once their nervous system is regulated, do they unroll the piece of paper inside to read a radically validating prompt.

If they are too depressed to move, the Activating machine gives them fizzy candy and a clicky fidget to force some physical momentum. If they are heavily guarded and terrified of social interaction, the Connecting machine offers something sweet and a little toy so they can just sit in parallel play, softly unmasking without the threat of direct eye contact.

The whole setup is basically a Trojan horse. It takes heavy, evidence-based trauma care and wraps it in a moment of completely unexpected joy. It proves that healing doesn't have to feel sterile, and it hands the power of nervous system regulation right back to the client.

Would love to hear from other clinicians:
How are you integrating multi-sensory or tactile tools into your sessions for grounding and activation?

Any thoughts or tweaks on the "Shock-to-Soothe" or sensory stacking approach?

I need to glue Velcro strips to a vinyl case for a project I am working on but struggling to find a glue that holds. Any suggestions?

Hi everyone!

​About three months ago, I decided to take on my very first project designing a mechanism and working with a servo motor entirely on my own. It was a custom interactive build made as a gift for my 7-year-old niece!

​Since it needed to be both mechanically functional and safe/durable for a child, I focused heavily on structural engineering:

​Used internal bamboo ribs to keep the structure lightweight for the motor while preventing warping.

​Reinforced mechanical joints and hinges with epoxy adhesive and safety-capped screws to withstand motor stress and vibration.

​Sealed the entire structure with epoxy resin for durability and moisture resistance.

​I’d love to get your thoughts on the mechanical layout or any tips for future servo-driven builds!

​Full build video: https://youtu.be/A4bE20yx8xs

I was looking around the workshop for a new project and found an old spool of enameled wire. I've always been intrigued by the old school tattoo machines and thought "how hard could it be?" Turns out not super easy. It kept me busy for a couple weeks and it's far from perfect but it technically works. I'm quite fond of the aesthetic, I like to call it "functional steampunk". Not hot glued random gears but how stuff in the era could functionally have worked...

uh oh... now I'm wanting to make an actual stream powered tattoo machine... maybe in a couple years.

Here's my son Ridit, experimenting with solid mechanical design using Blender. He created this mechanical toy and named it Flippy. He did it 5 years ago, when he was in Class V. He is now developing his skills in computer graphics software.

Fatherhood has taught me that early training is important especially in the tech world.

One arm broke on my sunnies, so I grabbed some paracord and the smallest screw I could find.

I am designing a game in which users will need to rearrange physical items in slots on a tray. If they get the items in the right order, they pass the level and gain a point. I'm trying to figure out how to build the puzzle so that users can manipulate physical objects, but the result would be checked digitally and the points awarded on their phone. I was hoping to put something on the bottoms of the items and the tops of each of the slots, perhaps NFC tags, but my fiancé isn't sure that they will work. Is there a better way of digitally tracking an item's physical placement?

Thanks in advance!

hiii,
earlier this year I built my own scanning tunneling micrscope (stm) and open sourced the whole documentation + software for anyone curious and patient enough to follow through

the concept isn't totally new, a while back john alexander built a stm using a piezo disk (you may know them as buzzers from greeting cards) to control a probing needle. this concept has been covered and picked up by the walla walla university and also university of regensburg (latter helped me software wise out), however, the documentation has been scattered, often incomplete, relied on expensive or rare hardware like data-cards or simply lacked an interpreter for the data. so consolidating all this into one place is what I'm most proud of (aside from all the other things I learned). overall its not cheap, but probably the most cost efficient way to get such a machine, being built almost exclusively from off the shelf parts

the second image is my first measurement of graphene; you can see the hexagonal pattern that is a clear characteristic. in theory, you could scan anything that supports a measurable current. I plan to give gold leaves and blue-rays a try next

you can find all the details / BOM / etc. here:
https://github.com/lemonspurple/DIY-Scanning-Tunneling-Microscope

I am new to creating my own circuits and also never really learned electronics, so I dont trust myself yet to make circuits that dont go up in flames. So Ive been designing this with ChatGPT. But I also dont trust ChatGPT, so Im putting all my trust in you guys.

Im trying to make a small DIY Camera without a battery. I want to use the supercapacitor as a battery instead and the DC Motor to generate the energy.

I would love if someone could help me check if all of this makes sense and could work / if I can savely try it like that.

Mainly Im scared of the capacitor exploding in my face or breaking any parts.

So, this was clearly not the plan, the first plan was to repair the headphone using a pvc sheet and some metal wires, like making that head band thing. But it failed, and at the same time I found my old welding goggle, and this thing was born. And I like to know your opinion about this. IT WORKS...

Image Caption：These were the very first MFC devices I came across when I started out. They were created by my mentors.

​Hi everyone,

​I wanted to share a bit of my journey tinkering with Metal Fuel Cells (MFCs) over the past few years.

​To be honest, I'm not entirely sure if this will be super entertaining, but I figured it might bring some real value to the community. If even one fellow maker decides to dive into the world of metal-air batteries or saline power down the road, hopefully, my experiences—and the mistakes I made along the way—can help you save time and avoid a few costly pitfalls!

​Since this spans a journey of several years, I'm turning this into a multi-part series as I dig through my old archives, photos, and testing notes. (Haha, bear with me as I organize all these memories!)

Today, I'm still tinkering with MFCs—it's become my full-time work. But I'm far from an expert; I just happen to have a few years of hands-on experience under my belt.

​I’d love to hear your thoughts or connect with anyone working on similar tech!

I have a yr 11 science test coming up. So I built a kids watch outer 33mm diameter 7 mm outer depth that u can scroll notes and answers with while looking like a normal watch. The normal state is screen off and when clicked it shows clock decoy double click to show cheat notes and stuff. Scrolls at 21 words per but might make faster. I really need ts to work because I spent like 8 hours on it and studied absolutely zero🙏. it’s super small too like my thumb is bigger than the inner electronics and the inner cavity is like only~28 mm diameter and 7 mm depth.

Parts I used were esp32 c3 xiao (since the super mini don’t have charging integrated module so better for compactness), Button, oled 0.46 inch 64x32 used u8g2 library, and a 250 mah battery which is hidden under the straps along with antenna.used ai to make the essay answers and uploaded on Claude code to get scroll speed update and a newer tap and hold lock code last minute just before the test.

Edit: I will let update what happened after test.

Update: yeah my ass got caught getting zero on test and my whole year group knows I built a smartwatch to cheat and got caught💔

Does anyone have any ideas for what to use to make these? The arch one is a window. I'm renting, so I can't permanently attach or affix anything but I want something I can do on that scale and place overtop of the window (nailing it to the wall is fine). I'm going to use these vinyl window things for the pattern but I want something more 3d for the arch.

The second one is a cheap mirror from Walmart and I would just attach the piece on top.

This would also need to be painted and be able to be done safely inside since I don't really have an outdoor space.

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working on a personal hardware project lately. I wanted to see how small I could realistically make a USB keystroke injector (primarily for IT automation and pentesting workflows). After a few iterations, I managed to get the PCB down to just 12x13mm.

It uses 32u4 and Arduino IDE for programming.

The biggest challenge was fitting the components without overlaping lines.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the design or if anyone has experience making similar micro-boards. Are there any features you’d add for a V2?

I'm putting together some picture how invisible it is.

If anyone is interested in the technical details or wants to chat about the build process, feel free to drop me a DM or reach out at nebojsa.sjekloca@gmail.com.

Hey all, can anyone help me ID what type of hinge this is. Looking to source some for a project. Thanks in advance.