The Lab

Welcome to my experimental playground! This is where I tinker, break things, and occasionally create something cool. Not everything here is polished or even working, but that's the point—learning happens in the mess.

🟢 Complete
🟡 In Progress
🔴 Failed (but learned!)

Currently Tinkering

🟡

3D Printing Adventures

Started: Jan 2025 Status: Learning Blender (send help)

Diving headfirst into 3D printing as a complete newbie. Currently battling with Blender to make simple shapes that actually look like what I intended. Using a BambuLab A1, so at least bed leveling is automatic—one less thing to worry about!

Current Challenges:

  • Why doesn't my cube look like a cube in Blender?
  • Supports are still my nemesis
  • Getting smooth textures on intricate prints is a pain
  • PLA vs PETG vs ABS... so many choices!
BambuLab A1 Blender Fusion 360 PLA
🟡

Custom Water-Cooled PC Build

Started: Dec 2024 Status: Loop built, fine-tuning in progress

Because air cooling is too simple, right? Built a custom water loop for my beast of a PC. Went with soft tubing for maintainability (smart choice!) and running 3x 360mm radiators to keep my CPU and dual RTX 3090s nice and cool. The loop is built, but the journey continues...

Current Battles:

  • RGB sync is being an absolute nightmare
  • Finding optimal airflow for 3 radiators is tricky
  • Push, pull, or push-pull config? Still experimenting
  • Cable management with all these RGB headers... help
3x 360mm Radiators Soft Tubing 2x RTX 3090 RGB Chaos
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Smart Home Automation

Started: Oct 2024 Status: Automating all the things

Making my home smarter one device at a time. Running Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi and slowly connecting everything. The goal? Never having to flip a switch manually again. The reality? Debugging why the lights turned on at 3 AM.

Recent Wins:

  • Motion-activated lights that actually work
  • Temperature-based AC control
  • Automated plant watering (plants are still alive!)
  • Voice control that understands me 60% of the time
Home Assistant Node-RED ESPHome Zigbee MQTT

Actually Finished!

🟢

DIY NAS Build

Completed: Aug 2024 Status: Running 24/7

Built my own NAS because cloud storage is too mainstream (and expensive). Running TrueNAS with 4x8TB drives in RAID-Z2. It's been rock solid and hosts everything from family photos to my Plex library.

What I learned:

  • ZFS is amazing but has a learning curve
  • ECC RAM is worth it for data integrity
  • Proper backups are still important (3-2-1 rule)
  • Power consumption adds up over time
TrueNAS ZFS Docker Plex
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Beat Saber Modding Setup

Completed: Jun 2024 Status: Slicing blocks daily

Successfully modded Beat Saber on my Quest 2 to add custom songs. Now I can pretend I'm exercising while slashing blocks to my favorite music. The setup process was... an adventure, but totally worth it.

Key achievements:

  • Custom songs library with 200+ tracks
  • Scoresaber integration for competitive play
  • Custom sabers that look awesome
  • Wireless PCVR streaming working smoothly
Quest 2 BMBF SideQuest Virtual Desktop

Spectacular Failures

🔴

The Impossible Phone Stand

Failed: Jan 2025 Status: Back to the drawing board

Tried to design a "simple" adjustable phone stand in Blender. What could go wrong? Everything, apparently. The design looked great on screen but physics had other plans. Three iterations later, I have a collection of plastic pieces that excel at not holding phones.

Lessons learned:

  • Tolerances matter more than I thought
  • PLA is not great for spring mechanisms
  • Test with cardboard prototypes first
  • Simple != Easy
Blender 3D Printing Failed Prints Lessons