gallery

Nine views, none of them staged

The assembly holds eight configurations as keyframes over one set of parts, from shut to fully exploded. These are rendered straight out of it, headless, from a shot list that lives in the repository next to the model.

The case open on a bench, the lid carrying a 4.3 inch display reading 208 degrees C, the soldering iron docked nose-down in a printed stand that rises out of the upper tray. — in useOpen, stand deployed out of the tub, iron docked through the 608 bearing at 19.29 degrees.

The case shut: a rounded rectangular printed shell with a latch at each end and a hinge along one long side. — stowed closedShut. Two latches, four M3x20, and an optional TPU seal.

The whole case drawn apart vertically: tub at the bottom, then the lower tray, the upper tray carrying the iron, and the lid assembly floating above. — explodedThe whole stack drawn apart: tub, lower tray, upper tray, lid.

Flat lay from directly above: the lid, the empty tub, and both trays in a row, with the iron, bearing, stand, flux syringe, solder reel, item lid and three spare tips laid out in front of them. — inventoryEvery item lifted out and laid in front of the trays.

The lid assembly drawn apart in reverse assembly order: outer shell, display carrier, the Waveshare display board, the control PCB, and the encoder and button caps below. — lid explodedThe lid stack in reverse assembly order: shell, carrier, display board, control PCB, front parts.

Straight down on the open lid, showing the recessed display reading 208 degrees C, the encoder knob and two softkeys beside it. — stowed openStraight down on the lid. The panel is recessed into the inner ceiling, so it faces you when the lid swings over.

Straight down into the loaded tub, showing the upper tray with the iron in its clips, the flux syringe, spare tips and the solder reel. — stowed openStraight down into the loaded tub: the upper tray with the iron, flux syringe, tips and the solder reel.

The case open and empty with both trays lifted out and set on the bench beside it, the upper tray with its stand deployed and the iron docked. — tray in use outBoth trays lift onto the bench. The stand works with the tray nowhere near the case.

Close view of the iron resting nose-down in the printed stand, its barrel wedged into a 608 skate bearing that forms the ring. — in useA 608 skate bearing is the ring. The barrel wedges into the 8 mm bore and seats on the collar.

how these are made

The spec is committed, not the framing

Hand placed cameras rot. A shot written as "aim at this point, 457 mm wide" is a snapshot of the geometry on the day it was written, so moving a tray silently crops parts out or shrinks the subject into the middle of the frame, and nobody notices until the images look subtly wrong months later.

So a shot here declares only which configuration to look at and which way to look. The aim point and the orthographic width are computed from the geometry that is actually visible at that frame, every run, against the camera's own axes. Change the model, re-run the command, and the pictures on this page are correct again.

All nine take about five seconds in total, because they are Workbench renders rather than a path tracer, which is also why they read as a CAD model and not as a photograph. That is the honest look for something that has not been printed.

regenerate every image

blender -b --factory-startup \
  mods/pinecil-case-assembly.blend \
  --python scripts/render_site.py

the shot list

{
  "out": "hero-in-use.png",
  "marker": "2_IN_USE",
  "dir": [-0.76, -0.26, -0.60],
  "res": [2400, 1360],
  "pad": 0.06
}