Random Nonsense – Page 2

Going for a Record

I’ll go months and not post anything on this blog – and then post a ton as I work through a project or just need to get something off my chest. There’s usually an uptick around the time Maker Faire applications are opened and most years I have a few dozen posts with the notable exception of 2020.¹

Publishing my old blog posts might get me in striking distance of a personal best from February of 2010 of 106 posts. ² They weren’t all bangers. Here’s the last one from that month – a haiku:

Clear PLA sits
Mendel languishes alone
Plastruder hates corn

MakerBlock – 02/28/2010

Beating 106 blog posts this month seems entirely possible. Even if I try to beat my record and fail, I’m already way ahead of my usual blog post count. MakerFaire is coming up, the kids are out of school, and, as always, I’m working on a bunch of random projects. Right now I’m at 28 posts for the month of June 2026. I’ve got 20 more days in the month to go, 293 unpublished draft posts of varying degree and quality, fresh page in my notebook, a strong internet connection, a quarter tank of gas, and a credit card.

Let’s fucking go.

Just the one! I can’t imagine what was going on in the world back then… [↩]
With so many posts during that month, it’s almost unbelievable that 8 of my unpublished posts were from February 2010! [↩]

The nuances of time travel [10/31/2010]

[Ah, Botacon! You can watch the introduction from Bre here and catch the listing of the talks here. Mine wasn’t listed in that post, but the presentation was about being a dad and making stuff for his family, getting kids involved in the process. There were several blog posts on the MakerBot blog at the time discussing some of these items. :) ]

As I plan out my travel to Brooklyn, I have to take into account the impact of traveling through time. I live on the west coast, so there is a 3 hour “time difference” to be taken into account when traveling to New York. The plan is to fly out on Thursday, arrive Friday morning, duck the restraining order, hang out at the Botcave for the day, go to Botacon the next day, and fly out on Sunday morning.

Given the

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Dream jobs [10/29/2010]

[Yet another entirely blank blog post. I just started it and then abandoned it, I guess? I’m not sure what my dream jobs would have been back then. Pizza and ice cream taste tester, science communicator / science museum enthusiast, naptime commentator?]

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Halloween costume too [10/27/2010]

[Just a bit of Halloween silliness. In recent years my go-to Halloween costume has been “mad scientist” since I can wear a comfortable white lab coat and LED goggles over my regular clothes.]

In all likelihood, I’ll probably wear the same costume I’ve worn for the last several years. It consists of two small horns I sculpted out of modeling clay and painted to look like bone. I use spirit gum to affix them to my forehead and try to slightly obscure them with my hair. I then print off a page long contract that starts off at 20pt font and gradually shrinks to 4pt font, entitled, “Contract for the Sale of Intangible Goods.” The contract has a large blank space in the middle where the person can specify anything they want and a spot at the bottom for them to sign. I dress in a suit and carry a small black satchel with a red pen¹ , a stack of those contracts, some candy, some play money, some stickers and other minor knickknacks. When someone asks me who I am, I insist that I’m a broker for a party that wishes to remain anonymous but who is nonetheless still interested in purchasing any spare intangible goods they may have. When they ask about the horns I simply say that they’re a birth defect I’m very self-conscious about and politely change topic. When they ask about the nature of the intangible goods, I assure them that it’s nothing required for their day-to-day existence and that most people get along quite happily without such baggage.

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Blood? No, of course not. That’s just silly. Red just shows up better on my photocopier. It’s more of a symbolic thing anyhow. [↩]

Printing with PLA again! [10/18/2010]

[I’ve been printing in PLA pretty much exclusively for several years now since it’s got way less particulates and VOC’s compared to ABS. However, back in the early days of MakerBot, printing with PLA was fraught with problems. It printed inconsistently, it was hard to dial in temperature and speed settings, and it caused constant extruder clogs. I think a large part of this was probably due to the design of early extruder nozzles. You had to very carefully build and wrap your own extruders back then and if heat creeped up the nozzle into the filament, it was easy to create a blockage. Modern nozzles have huge heat sinks which help prevent these issues.]

Yesterday I printed with PLA until my MK5 Plastruder jammed. I could print off a single pawn piece from Cliff Biffle’s brilliant chess set, but when I tried 9 at a time it stopped extruding. ¹

I had the Skeinforge settings all fouled up. I thought I was testing print quality starting at 200 degrees Celsius and decreasing at 5 degree increments. Instead, when I stopped

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When using Skeinforge’s multiple feature, it’s easier to create an array of 3×3 pawns to fit on the platform than it is to create an array of 2×4 to get exactly 8 pieces [↩]

An open letter to Ms. Word [10/18/2010]

[So this post isn’t taken as pure misogyny, “Ms. Word” and “Ms. Outlook” aren’t real people, this was my referring to a personification of “Microsoft Word” and “Microsoft Outlook”, playing on the similarity between the initials for Microsoft as “MS” and the greeting/title. Chances are I was having a frustrating day, being frustrated with having to use Microsoft Word at work. I have been using LibreOffice and OpenOffice before that for years and do everything I can to actively avoid using MS products. Many of the blog posts I’m dusting off have no tags, no categories, even when they’re basically fully formed posts. This one has the tag “ms word is bad for you”. :) ]

Dear Ms. Word,

I’ve done everything in my power to sever our relationship. I gave up on you years ago. I know this sounds harsh, but I just need to get it off my chest. You are a bloated hog. When you’re around nothing else works. You are more a hindrance than help. ¹

I don’t want to see you at work and especially not at home. I’ve moved on and I wish you could see that.

Believe me, I only put up with your good friend Ms. Outlook because my work requires it of me. But why Ms. Outlook thinks I need to have you around every few minutes is totally beyond me.

There’s no need to reply, just go.

Most sincerely,

MakerBlock

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Oh, and tell your yappy dog to quiet down. I’m tired of hearing of him too. [↩]

Weird new kind of spam [09/19/2010]

[Many years ago Phooky had mentioned seeing an odd kind of behavior online. I can’t recall if this was a phenomena on Reddit, Facebook, or Twitter… but I think it may have been on Facebook. What he saw was some accounts going into an insular online group, starting an argument, and then taking those replies, sending them to the ideologically-opposite group, taking those replies and sending them to the first group, then lather, rinse, repeating. This was a very long time ago – perhaps in 2010 or 2011? In any case, at the time I assumed it was juvenile hijinks. With the benefit of hindsight, now I think it was something far more nefarious. I think it was likely the initial testing grounds for the influencing of online groups. This was around the time of the rise of the Tea Party Movement around 2009, then the Occupy Wallstret Movement in 2011. Maybe this is all just conspiracy mongering. Or, perhaps there were online experiments, sharpening the science of influencing online movements put into practice in 4Chan, QAnon, and other groups originating in online forums. Anyhow, my guess this weird spam was designed to pick a fight – either to mine the replies for data or get authorized to post comments for spam, or perhaps… all of the above.]

I noticed a few months ago a new kind of spam that sometimes wasn’t picked up by my spam filter. People (or their ‘bots) were leaving highly politically/religiously charged comments. The comments read as if they were written by real people – but they didn’t make much sense in the context of the post.

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Getting my Plastruder MK5 running [09/06/2010]

[Only 300 draft posts remaining unpublished! What’s a little sad about these posts is that the things they used to refer to, no longer point to valid websites. The MakerBot store and all associated documentation links probably haven’t worked for more than a decade. But, I guess it’s just as well. I haven’t used my Cupcake CNC in a very, very long time and there’s not likely anyone building or upgrading a Cupcake CNC that could find the below of any use. That said… and when stupid legislatures decide to regulate 3D printers into oblivions, the only 3D printers people will have are those that they make themselves…]

When the Plastruder MK5 I ordered hadn’t arrived on Friday I was a little disappointed because I was hoping to build it over the long weekend. Luckily it arrived late Saturday! Huzzah! My weekend was saved! I had put off soldering the Relay Board I got with my heated build platform since I haven’t gotten around to picking up a hotplate yet. However, since the Relay Board was needed to run the Plastruder MK5, I busted out my soldering kit and got to work putting together the Relay Board, LED strip, and Plastruder.

Assembling the Relay Board v1.0 was pretty straightforward. I didn’t have a problem following the assembly instructions on the wiki. Follow the directions and you’ll be fine.
Unfortunately, the assembly pictures for the LED Strip v1.1 were… non-existent. (Do not be alarmed – this story has a happy ending.) For those first-time readers – I’m a complete soldering/electronics newbie. If I don’t have detailed pictures and directions, I’m completely lost. The good news for you is – if I can assemble a MakerBot and get it working, you definitely can. ¹ In any case, with the kind help from JohnA and Theron Trowbridge I discovered the secret to soldering this kit up. I haven’t tested it out yet, so I’ll hold off on posting the pictures. Once I’ve confirmed that I didn’t totally roast this kit, I’ll put up the pictures and some directions on the wiki.
The Plastruder MK5 assembly instructions and usage/troubleshooting guide were great as well. Once I get my plastruder online, I’ll add some notes.
- When attaching the thumb wheels to the bolts, definitely use a vise. I tapped the bolts into the thumb wheels – and smashed the threads just enough to make the bolts useless. :/ If I did this again, I would definitely put the nut partway onto the bolt and tap the NUT rather than the bolt itself. This would keep the force away from the threads and probably keep them from being damaged.
- When threading the nuts onto the retainer mounting plate, I found it easier to put the nuts about halfway onto the bolts – rather than almost all the way to the plate. If you put them halfway on, it’s easier to tighten each bolt individually.
- The MK5 thermistor preparation instructions direct you to the MK4 directions for wrapping the thermistor. The MK4 directions suggest you essentially sandwich the thermistor leads in between two long pieces of Kapton tape. This is exactly how I built my MK4 plastruder – and it’s not exactly easy to trap these two thin leads in between pieces of thin sticky tape. An easier way, and what appears to have been done in the MK5 pictures, is to separate the thermistor leads and wrap the Kapton around the leads – making sure they never touch.
- I would test the thermistor’s resistance and temperature measurement before attaching it to the plastruder. If there’s something wrong with the thermistor, I would want to know long before I taped it to the plastruder, insulated it, and mounted everything inside the ‘bot. Both tests are quick and easy to do before you assemble everything – just check the resistance with your multimeter then plug the unattached thermistor leads into the extruder board. This quick sanity check could save you a lot of time and supplies by not having to undo a lot of work. This would be a good time to test resistance on the power resistors too.
- With all the wires running from the plastruder and relay board, it can get confusing. I picked up some heat shrink tubing the last time I was at an electronics store and am using them to color code each of the sets of wires – one small band at each end. This helps me keep everything straight. By just looking at the end of the wires and doing a sanity check against the bands on the motor, thermistor, or heating element I can quickly verify I’m wiring everything up correctly.
- After adding a colored band of heat shrink to each end of the sets of wires, I braid the wires together to keep them all in check.
- Stupid mistakes I made that you probably won’t make:
  - I can’t believe this – but I actually mounted the drive gear upside down. The result was I couldn’t hand feed the ABS filament – since the base of the gear was blocking the filament’s path. Another symptom was that no matter how much I crunched down on the filament with the thumbscrew,² the filament would extrude about 1cm or so, then nothing for 30 seconds, and this cycle would repeat. The last symptom was that when I pulled the filament out it had some nasty chew marks in it. These are not the sort of marks I would expect to see from this drive gear with its super small teeth. Flip the extruder motor and the problem magically went away.
  - I replaced one of my threaded rods – the one that was the most severely bent. However, after installing a new threaded rod and

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And probably do a better job of it too! [↩]
The only thumbscrew to survive my testosterone driven smashing. [↩]

Open Source Makes You Smarter [08/27/2010]

[I mean, the chutzpah of a man who starts a blog post… for the purpose of linking back to his own blog post from two months prior? Oh, young MakerBlock… You rascal!]

One of the nifty things about examining the designs of others is that looking at those designs can give one ideas for ways to improve those designs or come up with my own. In short, open source tech makes you smarter.

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The ultimate in customer service [08/26/2010]

[How wild was it that I could write a blog post namechecking pretty much all the people in and around an open source project in a short blog post? All of the people mentioned below were super happy to help troubleshoot and get printers working. Gotta love open source – and the people committed to keeping these projects going. Plus, this was still the “wild west” of 3D printers. People were building printers, innovating, shipping, fixing, and trying new things constantly.]

There’s been some interesting discussion following We Alone On Earth’s post (Plus the updates)) in the comments. I think WAOE and the various commentors would probably agree that although anyone could build a working MakerBot Cupcake CNC from a kit with enough persistence and help, DIY kits¹ just aren’t for everyone.

It’s the “help” part that is the most amazing and enabling aspect. There are not a lot of products out there where the best customer service actually comes from the customers themselves. We’ve collectively built up wiki, posted problems and solutions, taken pictures and videos. It probably took me about three months before I progressed from total newbie posting basic annoying questions to being able to help others with their problems. ² With each shipment of MakerBots, the product gets better with customer innovations and input, customers improve the instructions and wiki, and there are even more people out there to help you.

Bre, Zach, Adam, and Marisol
Andrew Plumb aka Clothbot
Rick Pollack aka MakerGear for holding my hand in diagnosing a blown thermistor
Rick Pollack aka MakerGear and Neil Underwood aka Spacexula for talking me down from the ledge when I clogged my extruder
Scott Small aka Tox for PLA printing advice
Eberhard Rensch aka Zaggo and J. E. ‘jet’ Townsend for helping me create a mini-mug
Conrad Farnsworth for helping me figure out how to install my XY opto-endstops

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And all that they entail [↩]
It only took me about another month or so before I started posting regularly here. I find it’s a wider platform for annoying more people than just those that read the MakerBot Operators‘ group. [↩]