Category: Uncategorized

After ordering a second laser chiller to replace the DOA one I received, I am close to seeing a refund for the first one.. at pennies on the dollar. More than I expected to be honest, a lot of dispute resolution requires a reasonable seller, and mine was nothing like that at all.

So Patricia and Stacey came to visit this past weekend. I’ve known Patricia since I was .. 16? Stacey I didn’t know at all. It’s been at least 13 years since I saw Patricia last, and when I did catch up with her, she was married to a guy named Garnet.

So, a few little changes then. I have to admit, I worried it’d be awkward — and by that, I mean I worried I would be a poor host, or insensitive.. or something. I’m not really sure what I was concerned about, but I invited them none the less, and I was determined to be a good host.

Unsurprisingly, it was a great visit. They are of course lovely people. Their relationship is simple and matter of fact, which suits me just fine.

In case you haven’t gathered, I’m not homophobic. I’m in a permanent relationship, so who anyone else sleeps with is none of my business, NOR SHOULD IT BE. That being said, I’m a big fan of positive relationships and happy couples, and they certainly fit the bill. I was amazed at how quickly the time passed, before i knew it they had to go to their next destination.

It was nice to see that there’s another friend from my childhood I can still consider as a friend — that I met a new friend as well is something to not dismiss. They offered their hospitality next time, I think we’ll make the effort and visit, if not this year then certainly next.

I bought a trampoline.

Yeah. Really.

Why not? I’m not getting any younger, and I’ve always wanted one (Christina’s never been on one even). A few years ago I’d assumed one would be in the works eventually, back when we thought we’d be having kids. That time came and went without producing much other than grief, but that is not the end – not of our lives, nor our ambitions to seize our youthful impulses while they still remain with us.

We assembled it today, and it promptly rained. Christina still had a chance to bounce on it briefly, so it wasn’t a total waste. Now I’ll be watching for sunny periods I think.

I think I’m going to start to get busy soon, but I’m going to try to remember to keep writing here. I write a bit into some of the 3D printer and laser groups I’m in, but I do not tend to write much in depth on Facebook, primarily because it brings what I’ve written to the attention of people who otherwise wouldn’t look for it, probably do not care, and might even spend time being offended.

This is better for me. You, dear reader actually had to come find this. Well done.

There’s quite a bit more I could write about, but it’s all observed toxicity, and none of it affects me directly. Moreover, none of it can be affected by me. No point in cluttering up the one place I can write about my life with things that don’t have anything to do with it.

Laser has been ordered, and will be here at the end of april.

I’m discontented. I think I need to find a good book. I’ve started and abandoned about 15 over the last week, primarily because they were .. horribly uninteresting. What the hell?

I’m likely going to be forced to pick an author I know, and choose among the unread from that group. Picking unfamiliar authors has about a 17% success rate at this point.

This morning I woke up to a failed SSD. Worse, it was in my primary storage node. Worse, it necessitated reinstalling my hypervisor on THREE servers.

End of the day, everything works, minimal loss, more irritation than anything.

So no, I can’t think of a title. Thank goodness for status updates.

I’ve been cleaning. I have discovered quite a few items I forgot I had, including (regrettably) a set of short distance j-heads just AFTER I ordered some, convinced I had none. I mailed out a package of various printer bits to a friend who’s building his first non-kit 3d printer.. I’ve discovered I get almost the same amount of enjoyment vicariously watching someone else create something cool.

I’ve ordered a direct drive hotend, since I have .. none. It’s coming from China, and with their new year holiday, it’s going to be a while.. so I’m going to try printing the wilson extruder again. Maybe this time will be my lucky break, who knows? I’ve had bad luck with it so far, which is unfortunate, because it’s quite a nice design.

I’ve decided I’m going to build a Wilson2 printer. Of course, that requires a bedplate large enough for the new 300×200 heatbed, which in turn requires a nicely cut chunk of MDF. I’m going to wait to try and cut that until either the Glowforge appears, or until I purchase and get the big 6090 laser I have pinned to my whiteboard. That should be a march purchase, and an april delivery (I hope) — Glowforge? Who knows at this rate. I make a poor kickstarter backer, I am not patient enough.

 

I have spent part of this week getting pricing and information on laser cutters. I almost purchased one last year, but the groups I was talking to offered systems that were well above what I could honestly justify. Don’t get me wrong, I could’ve made the purchase. I would have been able to get back to zero pretty quickly. Not acceptable.

The more I thought about it, the more anxious I became. It would have meant taking a financial risk. If anything had concurrently gone wrong with my employment, or any big expense had arisen, we could have been in real trouble. I decided not to make the purchase, and continued on with other plans.

This year it’s a bit different. I’ve been researching different models, and starting to talk to Chinese suppliers. Such nice and helpful folks. I have a space in my garage, I’ve even measured it. I know exactly how much room i have available, where I’ll need to run vents, and roughly the cutting area/power I will want. I now know what some of the extras actually do, and more importantly, why I would want them (or not).

It still won’t be a cheap purchase. I am hoping it won’t be more than 5 or 6 grand, and part of that depends very much on how the US dollar is doing when I’m ready to purchase. I have a few quotes in hand, I plan to get at least 3 more quotes before I make a decision (probably near the end of march).

Maybe by then the Glowforge I ordered will be here. I know, it’s a laser too right? I seem to iterate my purchases. First one’s usually easy and not quite enough, and it gets better from there. Christina will probably find all sorts of uses for the Glowforge, just like she found all kinds of things to do with the 3d printers I’ve given her.

For now, window shopping is quite fun. Knowing I have time (and more importantly, probably wouldn’t be able to really use the laser yet), is helping to keep buyer’s anxiety at bay.

 

Wired up the remote start for the central vac/shop vac. Works really well, and looks good. Ran the water pump on the cnc for a few to cycle the water, and moved the axis a bit. All looks good. Started connecting up the surgical tubing i’m going to use to hold the vacuum tube out of the way while using the cnc .. i think it needs to be higher. Cleaned up the garage some as well.. rediscovered some tools I’d forgotten about. Christina handed me one of the spare heaters we have kicking around, which made being out in the garage a bit more pleasant. This is going to be a fun year.