The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning
Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Who’d’a thunk it?
An unusually late two-day snowstorm laid down half a foot of snow starting in the evening of April 3:
Up until then, the weather had been running a bit warmer than usual, which seems to be the new normal, and this snowfall put more snow on the ground than we’d seen all winter.
The snow took some critters by surprise:
Most of the snow melted during the sunny 40 °F day after the storm, but overnight lows in the teens wiped out most of the spring flowers and buds.
The first pass at the lip balm holders suffered from a grossly overstuffed first solid infill layer:
The skirt measured the usual scant 0.25 mm and was level all around, so the platform alignment and home position were just fine. That’s rarely a problem, but it’s good to verify before proceeding.
Previewing the G-Code didn’t show any problems; all the second-layer threads looked just fine. With that said, I did create an issue for gcode.ws pointing out that the profusion of thread colors wasn’t useful and suggesting some alternative methods.
The first layer requires 15-ish minutes to print, so I decided to reproduce the problem in a solid calibration box sliced with the same settings as the holder:
That still life represents these tests:
All of those printed without trouble; every layer came out exactly as it should. In particular, the first solid infill layer atop the Hilbert Curve bottom layer had the precisely filled threads I’m used to seeing, each one butted against its neighbors without any excess plastic.
I modified the OpenSCAD source code to extract a 20x20x3 sample block from the lip balm holder model, including a snippet of the actual text. That worked fine.
Expanding the sample produced the irregular chunk in the front row, also 3 mm tall, including a section of the lilypads surrounding the tubes. Another successful print!
I’ll leave to your imagination a pile of half a dozen first layers topped with small sections of grossly overstuffed solid infill, printed in between the successful blocks and as a result of the variations mentioned below, with identical text and slicer settings. The test blocks work fine, but the actual holder and sections from it do not.
Having eliminated the obvious causes, it was time for more drastic measures.
I build OpenSCAD and Slic3r from the latest source files on GitHub. Nothing in this leads me to suspect the OpenSCAD models and using the most recent stable Slic3r version produced the same results.
Rebuilding the Slic3r configuration files from scratch produced the same results.
That’s where I gave up, set the 3D Honeycomb infill to start with Layer 2, and completed the mission.
Lacking any better ideas, I decided to throw all the balls in the air at once …
I enjoy exposing my tired old Kindle to random assaults, so I’m always on the lookout for FREE WIFI! hotspots:
You can’t resize the text, there are no linkies to the details of the Kohl’s Terms or Kohl’s Privacy Policy (viewing them would presumably require a browser, which would require using the WiFi, which you haven’t yet been approved to use), leaving a decision between “Hit me!” and, oh, maybe re-reading The Martian.
In the local Sears some months ago, I spent the better part of 20 minutes scrolling their lengthy T&C, following the links (which they provide through the same peephole!), and generally admiring their legal department’s sophistry.
I’m not a formal member of The Society for the Easily Amused, but I support their cause and, obviously, don’t get out nearly enough.
Quite by coincidence, a Pile o’ Stuff disgorged a 1975 Radio Shack Catalog listing three dense pages of vacuum tubes, including a 21HB5A:
These days, you buy New Old Stock 21HB5A tubes from eBay for about the same in current dollars with shipping:
I should stock up and light up!
For a variety of reasons that aren’t relevant here, I must dramatically reduce the amount of stuff in the Basement Laboratory / Machine Shop / Warehouse.
If you (or someone you know) has / is starting / will start a makerspace or similar organization, here’s an opportunity to go from zero to hero with a huge infusion of tools / instruments / make-froms / raw material / gadgets / surplus gear.
Think of it as a Makerspace Starter Kit: everything you need in one acquisition.
You’ve seen much of the stuff in these blog posts during the past five years, although I tightly crop the photos for reasons that should be obvious when you consider the backgrounds.
A few glimpses, carefully chosen to make the situation look much tidier than it really is:
I’m not a hoarder, but I can look right over the fence into that territory…
I want to donate the whole collection to an organization that can figure out how to value it and let me write it off. Failing that, I’m willing to sell the whole collection to someone who will move it out and enjoy it / put it to good use / part it out / hoard it.
We can quibble over the value, which surely lies between scrap metal and filet mignon.
As nearly as I can estimate from our last two moves, I have 6±2 short tons of stuff:
When we left Raleigh, the moving company estimator observed “This will be like moving a Home Depot!”
You must take everything, which means you must have the ability & equipment to handle 6±2 tons of stuff in relatively small, rather heavy, not easily stackable lumps. You’ll need 1000+ square feet of space with at least a seven-foot ceiling on your end to unload the truck(s) and create a solid block of stuff with skinny aisles between the shelves. This is not a quick afternoon trip for you, your BFF, a pickup truck, and a storage unit.
I plan to keep the Sherline, the M2 3D printer, various small tools, some hardware / parts / stock, most of the electronic instruments (antique-ish, at best) and components, plus odds and ends. I’ll extract or clearly mark those items, leaving your team to move everything else without (too many) on-the-fly decisions.
I can provide photos and descriptions, but, realistically, you should evaluate the situation in person.
Although we’re not planning to move in the near future, if you’re thinking of moving into the Mid Hudson Valley and always wanted a house with a ready-to-run Basement Shop, we can probably work something out. Note: all of the online real estate descriptions, including Zillow, seem confused, as the two houses on our two-acre property contain the total square footage / rooms / baths / whatever. Contact us for the Ground Truth after you’ve contemplated the satellite view.
As the saying goes, “Serious inquiries only.”
These look to be Maxell LR44 cells in OEM retail packaging, exactly as advertised, but … one cell seems odd:
A closer look:
The production values seem high enough to suggest that they’re Genuine Maxell products, hologram packaging and all, but you’d expect the Maxell end-of-line QC should pick out a flipped cell.
If one were the wondering sort, though, one might wonder why the Maxell USA website search function doesn’t return any mention of LR44 cells…
The library kiosk that handles paying your overdue book fines:
Now, you’d need to know a few things about what’s going on inside, but I’d say they’re pretty much rolling out the welcome mat for you to find those things out…
Wanna bet it’s running Windows, just like all the electronic voting machines?
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 