- SKDB, the open-source hardware package manager, is being extended to include a neural-tissue scanner once IP ownership between UT-Austin researchers Mike and Todd is clarified.  
- A $75, wrench-buildable 3-axis CNC design was demonstrated using perforated square tube, drawer rails, skate bearings and threaded rod, with full BOM and construction details shared.  
- The channel debated how to encode real-world machine-tool failure modes—stress, fatigue, creep, resonance, chip clogging—into SKDB process constraints, referencing CUTDATA and Gupta’s process-capability databases as prior art.  
- STEP (ISO 10303) file-format limitations were dissected: major CAD packages drop user annotations on export, and OpenCASCADE ignores entity names, prompting exploration of STEPCAFControl_Reader/Writer and XDE extensions.  
- Tool-wear modeling was advanced via “wear maps” that correlate wear rates with cutting speed and feed, with discussion on whether workpiece geometry should be an explicit parameter.  
- Lego CAD data mining surfaced GPL’d Pascal sources for LDraw *.dat parsing, archived STEP models of Lego parts, and an old genetic-algorithm Lego-robot generator from Drexel’s National Design Repository.  
- DNA-origami logistics were outlined: thousands of 20–50-mer oligos required, questions on photolabile phosphoramidite synthesis, and cadnano.org recommended as design software.  
- The Autoscholar literature-mining tool (renamed pyscholar) and lukeweston’s open-hardware “Artemis” Arduino telemetry board for amateur rocketry were introduced as active open-source projects.  
- A curated list of learning resources was shared, including exemplary code from Hacker News, the PyBlosxom blogging engine, and Doug Hellmann’s “Python Module of the Week” series.