Always tooting for th'antihero @Momentrabbit@awoo.space

Need a radius gauge to calibrate hardware at work, come home and print my own on the threedee because work ain't gonna buy one, ting-a-ling motherfuckers...

The sensor prototype is a qualified success. Had to modify it extensively on site - not uncommon - thankfully, PETG drills like a dream. A little more tweaking and it should be just abound perfect - I'll accept 99% reliable. XD

Or, y'know, I could iterate through another two or three revisions before going to bed.

3d printers/modelling software have certain difficulties with properly dimensioning holes unless you take a great deal of care, or use a proper library. Probably a rant for later. Just one of those little things.

Saturday was lovely. Meetup with friend, movies, far too much sushi. Sunday was recovery, from that and the week before. Accomplished little of what I wanted to, for work. But the fourth version of a sensor mount for work is about to print - went through 1-3 over the last hour - and I look forward to trying it out on the machine its been designed for tomorrow. Actual rapid prototyping with a 3d printer. Living the dream. XD

The upside of ADD is a somewhat-aimable monomaniacal focus that I can only bring to bear on topics that I find very interesting. I can usually tell it's been engaged when my coffee goes cold between sips.

For the last few days, I've been in full immersion 'training' - communing with, and tinkering on, an antique CNC machine. That's my new assignment.

I forgot my coffee.

And both of my breaks.

And my lunch.

And quitting time.

Status Lapine: Tired, But In My Happy Place.

"Y'know, you're kinda... different."

It took every erg of self-control to keep from pulling a Scar and "You. Have. *NO* idea."ing my boss.

Home. I'm too tired to be playing at this job right now, wasting as much metal as I get right. I only get eight hours of focus a day, and it ran out seven hours ago. Grab seven hours of sleep and a showrt, go in earlier, get it done before the world wakes up.

On the other hand, been at work since 6 and 13 hours later no idea when I'll be done.

Heee.

Feel like I'm learning a lot in the new position. Going to have to take up weightlifting as a hobby, as reloading the mainspring-unwinder is a heavy thing, and happens many times a day.

Nobody said bending rules was easy.

Well! Good news. Finally moving to maintaining the sub-orbital doom beam and rule-bending by degrees as my full-time position(s), rather than intermittent.

Bad news? My day now starts earlier, if at least consistently so. But I really ought to have been abed about an hour ago... <.<

Still, it's the best job I've ever had. I'm looking forward to developing some task mastery.

G'night, all. Dream well.

The scribe is, technically, a knurled aluminum stylus-holder for 1/8" diameter carbide inserts. Works fine for other 1/8" shank tooltips: currently have a .1mm double-flute endmill installed so I can pretend to be a tiny CNC router.

What. Don't judge me.

(whirrrrrr)

There are hardware stores, and then there are places that supply tools to the manufacturing industry. The latter has things like keys to a Jacobs taper 33 chuck in stock - and a $25 minimum order, and ordering techniques that haven't changed since the early 80s. Involving paperwork.

So I bought two chucks and a carbide-tipped scribe for work. Minor inconvenience for precise stuff on demand. n.n (Once I just bought $25 of hacksaw blades. They're good blades, Bront...)

My key fits my chuck *perfectly*.

This is not, sadly, a euphemism. But it makes me happy, nonetheless.

... or I can puzzle at it online for a while longer, figure out that a J33 chuck with a 1/4 pilot should take a Jacobs 3666 key - which explains a lot - and find a local supplier so I can just get a new key tomorrow afternoon. Hooray. Bed now.

Drawer front falls off TMoTM's vanity. Turns out they've reattached it so many times that the backside is basically bored out. Easy fix, drill out the holes, install dowels, glue, trim, drill and install proper machine screws. But!

Can't find the damn drill press chuck key.

Never liked this press's chuck or key. Wobbly fit, chewed up more knuckles than I could ever hope to count. So, now I'm looking for a new J33 taper 3-jaw keyed chuck.

And they wonder why I never get simple repairs done...

The print was a complete success. o.O 350,000 faces, 8" head to toes, 8 hour unattended. Supports broke off cleanly, and for a .2mm vertical print resolution on a .4mm extruder, the curvature was quite smooth. Finished surface was like wood grain.

Sadly, the model is *way* too complex to simplify down to something easily edited - but there's the failure from which I shall learn. Next model will start simple, not tool-generated.

Well, it's been a few hours, lets see how that print is DEAR GHOD IT'S THIRD IMPACT https://awoo.space/media/AQnkq-JdVnz0F6CpCVg

The printing continues.

... and then I spill a can of diet cola all over the keyboard. This was not a failure modality I planned for. >.<

(Although it *is* alarmingly close to a 'Weird Science' style origin story...)

Reprap-based 3D printers speak a dialect of gcode, which CNC machines have been using for decades. It's a human-parseable series of control instructions and locations - point to point in 3space, extruding filament along the way. The more complicated the object being printed, the bigger the file. The rings were a few hundred kilobytes.

Tonight, I'm trying a 30mb file generated off a MakeHuman model. I don't expect it to work, per se: I do hope the failure is informative. n.n

Last night's print. Second try: first didn't fully laminate, so I ran the second try slower without the fan shroud. Spins ok, for a one-piece print. Inner wheels don't have enough mass to really rotate freely.

I think I'm at the point where the printer is adequately tuned for production. Now to throw myself into modelling software... https://awoo.space/media/dShdv_rI-XyQZFPJlAI