Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.
Tag: Improvements
Making the world a better place, one piece at a time
Mary wanted to haul seedlings started in half-gallon milk bottles to their destination and I figured they shouldn’t slide around while being transported:
Milk bottle seedling starter carrier
That’s a half-width drawer from the same salvaged collection that produced the Bike Rack Tray Holder and a few minutes with LightBurn adapted the wider cardboard bike rack mount to fit the narrower drawer:
Bike Rack Tray Holder – small – LightBurn layout
Basically, use Node Edit to delete the horizontal lines, move the sides inward by half the difference of the drawer widths, then draw a few short lines to close the gaps.
Hot-melt gluing four layers of cardboard with crossed corrugations, plus three flat bottom layers, got it done:
Bike Rack Tray Holder – small drawer – installed
Those are the same stretchy TPU straps, with an additional link on each rear chain to compensate for the slightly higher block mount and a slightly narrower front block to fit in the slightly narrower drawer handle:
Bike Rack Tray Holder – half-width drawer straps
Of course, the only way to know what didn’t fit was to make a pair of the original ones, try them on for size, then adapt the OpenSCAD code accordingly.
The new chest freezer’s interior has a rectangular lump on the right side over the compressor, atop which we’d been stacking foam trays of ground meat. To forestall a tragic landslide, I made a quick-n-easy rack held together with hot-melt glue:
Freezer Tray Rack – test fit
It doesn’t look like it grew there, but it’ll suffice:
Freezer Tray Rack – installed
The weird black things are silicone molds for 4 fl. oz. ice balls (known in these parts as “iceteroids”) suited for chilling the water used to quench veggies after steaming / blanching, prior to freezing.
The LightBurn layout arranges the parts in tool-layer rectangles matching a shipping box of 6.5 mm cardboard rugged enough for at least a prototype:
Freezer Tray Rack – LightBurn layout
The jawbreaker boxes.py URL adds 5 mm to the shelf height for a little more clearance. You’ll likely have different cardboard in your stockpile, so tweak as needed, add vent holes in the sides & back, and Fire The Laser.
Button 3 on the tablet fills in the fields for WordPress media images:
WordPress Media Fields
Which start out with only the Title field prefilled with the name I created when I saved the file:
PXL_20260826_234256883 - Chipboard Fragment Coaster - detail.jpg
I highlight everything to the left of “Chipboard” and tap Button 3 to fire this series of keystrokes into the browser to cut the highlighted file name, then copy-n-paste everything else into the other three fields:
Part of creating those image files in GIMP involves cropping the file to a standard aspect ratio (4:3, 16:9, rarely 32:9 for really skinny images), then scaling to make the widest / tallest edge 1500 pixels with this dialog (invoked by the * key on the numeric keypad):
GIMP Scale Image fields
For unknown reasons, Pixel 10a phone cameras have reverted to 72 DPI images, rather then the previous 300 DPI. Because some programs / browsers / whatever set the physical image size by dividing the number of pixels by the DPI, I prefer to set those fields to 300 DPI.
So click to put the cursor in the widest field, then hit Button 4 to fill in the rest with these keystrokes:
Fortunately, the Resolution fields are locked, so filling in either one sets the other to match, and the keystrokes work correctly in either the Width or Height field.
For unknown reasons, the Huion tablet appears once in the lsusb listing:
Bus 001 Device 017: ID 256c:006d HUION Huion Tablet
But dmesg shows many variations:
[ 2.826523] input: HUION Huion Tablet Pen as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0004/input/input15
[ 2.826632] input: HUION Huion Tablet Pad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0004/input/input16
[ 2.826723] input: HUION Huion Tablet Touch Strip as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0004/input/input17
[ 2.826816] input: HUION Huion Tablet Dial as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0004/input/input18
[ 2.826941] uclogic 0003:256C:006D.0004: input,hidraw11: USB HID v1.11 Keypad [HUION Huion Tablet] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.2/input0
[ 2.834767] uclogic 0003:256C:006D.0005: hidraw4: USB HID v1.11 Device [HUION Huion Tablet] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.2/input1
Those devices (endpoints, whatever) change as various other USB devices get plugged / unplugged / enumerated:
12986.011937] usb 1-4.2: USB disconnect, device number 16
[12986.359640] usb 1-4.2: new full-speed USB device number 17 using xhci_hcd
[12986.579858] usb 1-4.2: New USB device found, idVendor=256c, idProduct=006d, bcdDevice= 1.00
[12986.579876] usb 1-4.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[12986.579882] usb 1-4.2: Product: Huion Tablet
[12986.579887] usb 1-4.2: Manufacturer: HUION
[12986.642042] input: HUION Huion Tablet Pen as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0014/input/input50
[12986.642609] input: HUION Huion Tablet Pad as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0014/input/input51
[12986.643357] input: HUION Huion Tablet Touch Strip as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0014/input/input52
[12986.643699] input: HUION Huion Tablet Dial as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:14.0/usb1/1-4/1-4.2/1-4.2:1.0/0003:256C:006D.0014/input/input53
[12986.644245] uclogic 0003:256C:006D.0014: input,hidraw0: USB HID v1.11 Keypad [HUION Huion Tablet] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.2/input0
[12986.707886] uclogic 0003:256C:006D.0015: hidraw1: USB HID v1.11 Device [HUION Huion Tablet] on usb-0000:00:14.0-4.2/input1
[14148.081803] input: HUION Huion Tablet Pad as /devices/virtual/input/input55
On some occasions, based on no events I understand, input-remapper will recognize the tablet as any one of:
drwxr-xr-x 2 ed ed 4.0K Feb 18 2025 'HUION Huion Tablet'/
drwxr-xr-x 2 ed ed 4.0K Sep 1 10:43 'HUION Huion Tablet Pad'/
drwxr-xr-x 2 ed ed 4.0K Apr 3 2024 'HUION Huion Tablet Pen'/
The dates show it’s been ‘HUION Huion Tablet Pad’ for a while, but ya never know what tomorrow will bring.
The Elecom Deft Pro trackball at my right hand has seven buttons (three hidden around the ball) and a scroll wheel with up-down switches (called Wheel Right and Wheel Left from their horizontal mouse ancestry):
Elecom Deft Pro trackball
Yeah, I oughta scrub that puppy more often.
The wheel up-down switches map to the Home and End keys with the Ctrl key held down to jump to the beginning and end of the page:
KEY_LEFTCTRL+KEY_HOME
KEY_LEFTCTRL+KEY_END
The wheel also has a push switch (the Middle mouse button) that I find inconvenient, so Button 6 (labeled Fn1 on the button) under my forefinger does that:
BTN_MIDDLE
Closing a browser tab happens so often it’s mapped to the small square button just over the resolution slide switch where my thumb can hit it:
Slightly modify the OpenSCAD code to suit thinner chipboard:
include <BOSL2/std.scad>
fn = "Printed Fragment Coaster - 5 in Set B - Inkscape paths.svg";
FragmentThick = 0.8;
BaseThick = 2.0;
RimHeight = 0.4;
union() {
linear_extrude(h=BaseThick)
import(fn,id="Perimeter");
color("Green")
up(BaseThick)
linear_extrude(h=FragmentThick)
difference() {
import(fn,id="Perimeter");
import(fn,id="Recesses");
}
color("Red")
up(BaseThick + FragmentThick)
linear_extrude(h=RimHeight)
difference() {
import(fn,id="LipOut");
import(fn,id="LipIn");
import(fn,id="Island");
}
}
Run the solid model through PrusaSlicer:
Chipboard Fragment Coaster B – slicer preview
And have a baseplate an hour later:
Coaster Printing – in progress
While that’s buzzing away, tell LightBurn to cut chipboard instead of metallized paper, stick some craft adhesive sheet on the chipboard, and Fire The Laser:
Chipboard Fragment Coaster – chipboard cutting
Remember to mirror the fragments, because you’re cutting them bottom-up.
Do the same for the cork sheet going on the bottom, which does not require mirroring.
I tossed the cardboard alignment fixtures I used to stick the cork onto the 3D printed baseplate, so make another one for each coaster.
The top layer holds the baseplate:
Chipboard Fragment Coaster – cork fixture – top
The cork + adhesive sheet is inset 0.5 mm from the edge of the baseplate, so the outline cut in the bottom layer of cardboard is just that much smaller:
Chipboard Fragment Coaster – cork fixture – bottom
Although the time used to make a fixture isn’t deducted from your allotment, I’m not sure about making two identical fixtures, so I’m saving these for the next time.
Then peel-n-stick the chipboard fragments in their recesses:
Chipboard Fragment Coaster – variety
The first baseplate didn’t have raised rims around the fragments (because there’s no need to retain any epoxy), but the result looked kinda … flat:
Chipboard Fragment Coaster – flat top
Fixing that was a matter of not setting the rim height to zero in the OpenSCAD code.
It’s perfectly functional even without a rim:
Printed Coaster – chipboard inserts – sweaty mug
Protip: White chipboard is a Terrible Idea™ in a quick-n-easy laser cuttery project. All the rest have only red or blue fragments for a good reason.
Conversely, white PETG makes a nice contrast to the deep red and blue.
Tomato Canning season has returned and my puny contributions involve maneuvering large pots of boiling water and, this time, cleaning up corrosion under the lid knob.
The corroded OEM screw vs. the shiny stainless steel screw:
Canning pot lid knob – OEM vs new screw
The dark rim under the washer remained after hitting the area with sanding pad grits from 320 up through 1200, which seemed sufficient.
The OEM screw had a self-tapping thread, but I’d rather use a machine screw with an insert. Start by lining up the existing screw hole on the drill press and clamping the knob firmly in position:
Canning pot lid knob – hole alignment
Then drill to fit an M5 brass insert, while testing the hole depth:
Canning pot lid knob – insert test fit
Slather the insert with JB Weld epoxy, seat it in the hole, cure overnight, assemble in reverse order, and the lid was ready for the next canning session:
Canning pot lid handle – in use
Yes, those are jars. The process is called canning:
Somewhat absorbent chipboard liners for the small trays / dishes under all the kitchen supplies in daily use:
Cupboard tray liners – installed
The tray bottom matched the flat surface of the top closely enough to let me lay a curve around the perimeter, with some attention to symmetry:
Cupboard Tray – LightBurn curve fit
Then Fire The Laser and it’s done!
For applications where actual symmetry matters, you’d want to lay a quarter of the curve and duplicate it across the midlines. In this case, however, an eyeballometric fit was entirely Close Enough™.
Having verified the brake sensors work and with some idea of their actuation distances, installing them on Mary’s Tour Easy involved no more than:
Remove the fairing
Unwrap three spiral looms from All The Cables
Wrestle the Julet connectors apart
Plug in the new sensors
Stick the sensors in the proper locations
Verify proper brake operation
Rewrap the looms
Install the fairing
The “proper location” put the actuation point about halfway between the brake lever’s released and pulled positions. Given that the previous sensors lacked indicators, I don’t know where their actuation point might have been, other than likely too close to their released position.
A slideshow of the front brake lever positions:
Tour Easy LED brake sensor – front released
Tour Easy LED brake sensor – front activated
Tour Easy LED brake sensor – front pulled
Similarly for the rear brake lever positions:
Tour Easy LED brake sensor – rear released
Tour Easy LED brake sensor – rear activated
Tour Easy LED brake sensor – rear pulled
Obviously, the rear brake lever sensor has the “dim” LEDs.
There’s not much to go wrong and the first ride was uneventful, so we’ll declare victory until the sensors or magnets shift their position, despite the wraps holding their wires to the brake cables.
The magnets come from power toothbrush heads, encased in urethane adhesive in 3D printed mounts.
Stipulated: I sometimes over-do things.
However, I am absolutely not going to back down from saying the lashup shown in this screen grab from the sensor installation video is utterly and completely wrong:
The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning 