My Magic Mouse has gone belly up - mouse clicks are often missed. I'm hoping to get by without this one until Apple introduces the rumored new/improved model.

Well this is annoying. I recently re-ordered the vacuum storage bags for my filament. When I tried to use one today I discovered it was next to impossible to get the filament spool to fit. In fact for one brand of filament it was impossible. I checked and the vendor has indeed shrunk the bags. This is apparently a common size now.

It took some digging to find ones that were larger and even they are smaller than the ones I've used the past few years. 🤞🏻🤷🏻‍♂️

I have a Prusa hackerboard coming in the next few days. It was cheap so I included it an order from PrintedSolid with a couple of other things. No clear plan for what to use it for but the name suited me? 🤷🏻‍♂️

I did recently create a LED light bar for the frame. It is only white LEDs but a multi-color strip controlled by the hackerboard might be fun.

It suddenly dawned on me that if I want to print something longer than the print bed and if it is narrow I can extend theeffective printable length by placing the model on the build sheet diagonally. D'oh!

I started a long 3D print today. Initially it was doing fine. Then I started hearing a loud squeak, yikes! I just lubed the smooth rods 2 days ago so all I could think was a bearing was shot. Went over to the printer and put my ear down near the bed trying to locate which bearing was squealing and couldn’t.

I finally looked up and realized it was the filament spool as it rotated on the holder. Squeal depends on speed and angle to the print head. Whew! Gonna have to come up with a fix.

Closing the loop: after 2 rounds of acetone cleaning adhesion hasn’t been restored. I’ve tossed an order PrintedSolid.com way for a spare Smooth sheet and I’m also getting a hackerboard to play with.

For me, doing a 3D design of any complexity is like creating a software project: just as I get it to work I want to burn it down and re-do it with better or more elegant technique(s).

My original Smooth PEI sheet, with came with my printer 2 years ago, seems to have given up the adhesion ghost even after a couple of thorough cleanings. Fortunately I have a new one on standby.

But for educational purposes I'm going to try the "last resort" of cleaning it with acetone today. It was stored in the garage which is at 44ºF and I brought it in to warm up a bit first.

Snowfall makes me want to eat. I guess it is a primal instinct. Trying to resist but … resistance is futile.
☃️

The winter fun is continuing. After ‘enjoying’ days of 20ºF temperatures we are now told to expect sleet, freezing rain, and snow tomorrow. Schools and a lot of businesses have already announced closures.

Note our 16 y/o son thinks not having school tomorrow is a bummer and hopes it doesn’t happen again. 😆

Yesterday morning the temp was 66F, this morning it was 20F and on Thursday the NWS is confident we will see 2” - 5” of snow. Welcome to winter. On the plus side our 16y/o is hoping school will be canceled. No snow plows around here.

It's cool that my 3D printing journey is at the point my wife never hesitates to ask for a custom model.

Today's request was a simple cup/container with a friction fit lid. She's going to use it to store salt for a project by the sink. Naturally not for human consumption.
printables.com/model/1136527-c

A satisfying end…

I'm doing one of my infrequent Windows updates to my bargain basement Asus craptop. It is so annoying that Windows keeps want to force a Windows 11 install. There is no way the craptop could handle that.

I checked my log file. I made 977 QSOs in 2024 which is pretty good since I was offline until July.

Made a few more this morning but the bands are bit iffy.

First 3D model of 2025 created and printed before 8:30am New Year’s day. 🎉👍🏼

Yep, just sitting in this hotel room bed eating a Hershey’s bar with almonds. And I don’t even like milk chocolate. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I played Mysterium with my two kids today. The rules are pretty simple and the game play moves along well since there is a hourglass timer. It definitely provided some glimpses into each other’s thinking. Looking forward to playing it some more rotating the ghost character.

Mysterium - Libellud libellud.com/en/our-games/myst

Matt does some great hardware hacking videos but this one seems to have really caught the public eye. “Hacking a Motorola Automatic License Plate Reader”:

youtu.be/yvINGzIa2fg?si=ZFXOz6

It is a chilly day with a dense fog advisory and rain. Trying to motivate myself to do something other than curl up under a blanket. Current status: binging NHK 72 hour videos.

As per tradition I’m up early and first up on Christmas Day. We had a nice family dinner last night and as always used our china and inherited silver ware (which is not silver but looks kinda fancy). Usually we have a ham dinner on Christmas Day but this year we decided to go the open kitchen route.

As our kids have gotten older our best gift is they’re both still at home on the holidays. Best wishes on this Day to you and yours! 🎄🤶🏼🧑🏼‍🎄

Shawn Hymel in collab with Digikey has started a “Introduction to FreeCAD” video series. I found the first video focused on background info informative. I liked the comparison to other CAD packages, the FreeCAD basics and now I know what the topological naming problem is 😄

youtu.be/8VPYTTnqmfs?si=-pW0hT

Interesting filament experience.

Nothing groundbreaking but two days ago I printed hundreds of grams of yellow Prusament and it went great. Put it in one of my vacuum bags. Today I took it out to use up the last ~50g and got this.

Popped it in my dryer for 6 hours, tried again, and it printed perfectly again. I was surprised by the how quickly it went from “just fine” to “horror show”.

My day of printing dangerously: I have an 8 hour print to do but by my measurement I lacked about 40g of filament for it to complete. Played with several slicer settings to no avail. Then I resorted to lightning infill which saved enough filament for it to work, in theory.

I’m skeptical lightning infill will provide enough support but desperate times… At least I’ll learning something.

This is my chosen VPN provider FWIW mastodon.online/@mullvadnet/11