It didn’t start off to be broken – but therein lays a pretty interesting tale.
From the Top: Why?
A whole series of “Why?” questions, I suppose. Like:
- “Why is a 75-year-old man in the woods building what will be his third 3D printer?”
Well, for one, I was in the midst of putting a new Swiss Micro NG series hot-end (the extruder where the plastic filament is melted) on my CR10 V2. and I happened to visit the Devil’s Store (eBay). There was a seller there unloading a bunch of Creality/Ender CR10 V2 printers. Good price. And like a Fool, I bit.
I enjoy 3D printing because – next to ham radio and building rustic furniture – it’s very enjoyable to have a brain fart (idea), which gets reduced to a drawing, which then loads into a printer and comes out a real thing you can use out here in (shared, nominal) world.
I have a smaller (Ender 3) which is likely to be upgraded too. The time you want more than two printers, is when a project is big. Some will eat an entire 2.2 lb/ 1 kg roll of filament at a time. Those kind of prints can take a day, sometimes two or three…
“So, What Went Wrong?”
Come along – I will go through the assembly, and you can look over the shoulder as we go.
We begin with a reasonably clear workspace at the electronics workstation. Here, you open the manual (SainSmart) and try to figure out how this will go. Having first watched builds on YouTube, it’s not that hard to follow along.
The unpacking of the box is done so everything needed will be right at hand.
There are a couple of other parts and a mess of small things that get sorted into some of those (earlier, printed, parts boxes) that give the illusion of competence and organization.
While minimal tools are included, once you get into 3D design (and its companion addictions CNC milling and CNC laser projects) you will want to acquire some better tools. Especially the screwdriver handled Allen wrenches in “RC sizes.”
If you’re tracking, we have a unit base (where the bed moves back and forth) There’s a “U” shaped assembly (the gantry) which will screw into the base. There’s a control box. And several what look like pipes which will eventually become reinforcing arms.
When “Slides” Ain’t Working
There is a “sweet spot” in this 3DP and CNC world that’s hard to put into words. The closest English comes is “All parts, like the printer bed – on which things will magically appear from your brain in due time – should smoothly move with no obstructions. Flow. Not a hint of looseness, and certainly no flexing. Just so…”
It was here I discovered one of the reasons for the “Sold as repairable” disclaimers on the unit. The bed was all kinds of jerky and grabby and that led off into a 20-minute block of “monkey motion.”
Once the bed was mobile (and not lame) it was time to put the *upside down* “U” gantry on.
Oh-oh. Another reason for the cheap price: No screws. Fortunately, operating my own fantastically over-stocked boy-toy store, I went to the 25 mm M4 cap head screw department and got to work.
The bolt (two on each site) come in from the bottom in the booked area here:
This is more efficiently handled by turning the whole shitteree on its side to avoid excessive foul language.
Returned to the upright position with the gantry now firmly attached, we go about installation of corner brackets on both sides of the gantry top:
Once these are in place, we go down to the (front) of the printer. And it’s here we run into one of those inscrutabilities of Asian engineering. You see, in order to present a good-looking product and unboxing, the very ends of the extruded aluminum frame you will screw the reinforcing rails into is covered with a small plastic whizzy.
Not sure I understand why? Someone who hasn’t built a printer before may not be prone to grabbing the (everyday carry) sharp knife and working the plug out.
Eventually, though, it’s all together and we start plugging in plugs.
And there we were – just under an hour and ready to plug in the controller and run calibration sequences.
Well, except – now we get to the Big Reason this printer was so cheap:
Yes, dammit! A BSOD (blue screen of death).
Well, to the merchant’s credit, this was not sold as a working machine. So, I went on a Holy Quest for a replacement board.
Turns out, that despite being one of the most popular printers out there (CR10 V2) it is also nigh-on to impossible to find a motherboard for one. I found a couple of listings on Alibaba – and that felt doable ($89.95 and a come-on of “free shipping”) but when I went to check out, this $96 dollar shipping charge kept showing up.
I went snooping on eBay and turns out this board rev (2.5.2 mobo) is about as common as a Biden witticism. Unobtanium.
It was time to roll up the sleeves and delve deep into the controller.
A half-hour with the electronics gear and it became clear that most everything checked out. One more nit today is to see if there should be any jumpers in place on the mobo (did I mention that means motherboard, or have you had enough coffee to follow?).
Another wait while Amazon finds me a hundred 2.4 mm computer board jumpers, assorted sizes. (Why I have managed to avoid needing to stock these in the past is a testament to low tech problem solving.) My concern was that a jumper could have fallen out in shipping.
After numerous attempts at flashing new (Tiny Machines) code into the controller, and using what the seller recommended (PrusaSlicer – which is great at flashing boards with new hex code) I was still stuck off in the weeds.
I t0ok the seller up on his offer to sell me a (good, working CR10 V2) controller for $85. He volunteered to update to new Tiny Machines code.
I know – there are other ways I could have solved the problem (assuming this actually does…). One of which would have been to haul out the flush cut pliers and rewired everything inside while dropping in a BL-Touch bed leveling system.
But, when you’re of a certain age (ahem…) and you have competing priorities, sometimes you spend money in order to buy back time.
There is absolutely no doubt that I could find some board and install it and make it all work. But there is too much to do and we’re always a project or two back of where we should be.
For now, we wait for the new controller to show up and we’ll have (hopefully!) something worth writing about next weekend.
The Home HandyBastard’s Paradox
Life is like going through the process of getting a meal.
- If you just “want food” you find whatever and eat.
- But (like LOOB) if you like cooking too, then you want to cook then eat.
- If you’re (like Ray, for example) you might happen to have a library of a zillion antique cookbooks. This suggests a read, research, then cook, then eat approach.
- Another reader though is a farmer. Which gives him time to grow, slaughter, age, research cook, then eat.
- And Ure’s curse? I like to make my own fire to cook on. So, I end up growing the tree for firewood, cutting and stacking, building the greenhouse, then growing the food, while reading from Ray’s amazing library, and wondering what LOOB’s latest cookery would be like.
If I ever got time to eat.
One for the Road
I am on the verge of concluding that reader Ray may be the only person I know with a cookbook in poetic style on cookery from 1864. A useful bit ahead of next week’s holiday.
Burma-Shave? Um…er…. 1864? Have we stumbled, perchance, on some remnant of ancient Making that may have seeded the mass consciousness such that Burma-Shave could arrive in 1925?
Now back to projects with more useful deliverables…
Write when you get rich,
George@Ure.net
From the Top: Why?
The Magnificent Seven (1960)
[Calvera has just captured the Seven]
Calvera: What I don’t understand is why a man like you took the job in the first place, hmm? Why, huh?
Chris: I wonder myself.
Calvera: No, come on, come on, tell me why.
Vin: It’s like a fellow I once knew in El Paso. One day, he just took all his clothes off and jumped in a mess of cactus. I asked him that same question, “Why?”
Calvera: And?
Vin: He said, “It seemed to be a good idea at the time.”
One of my favorite Burma Shaves:
“Around the curve
Lickety split
It’s a beautiful car
Wasn’t it?
Burma Shave”
Remember garlic.
Pulled the garlic with help and set to chop the stalks off and put into trays in my drying shed. Very nice sized this year.
The early spring fertilizing makes big happen.
Vic
I actually made and have Burma Shave signs on my twisty 1/3 mi driveway! About 100 ft apart.
Ben met Anna
Made a Hit
Neglected Beard
Ben – Anna Split
Burma-Shave
well its time for me to head to the colony… pick up some cucumbers.. ( mine haven’t started to produce yet..)
This year I want to go back.. back in the time of the summerians… Pickling has gone down through history as the most favorite meathod of canning fruit.. I always had a mess when I tried to pickle.. pickles were always mushy and nasty.. and unappealing.. so how did they pickle three thousand years ago.. I tried to imagine how my mother did it.. she went by and old colonial book on pickling for hers.. A huge crock ..
during the ancient days and the days of the pharaohs they used sea water and wine.. wine was a big thing in ancient cultures.. for the brine.. then added different spices to gain the different flavors..
since we like both sweet pickles and dill pickles.. I will make a little of both.. when my older mini me was in foot ball I had to make a ton of pickles.. the whole team would stop over and eat a jar a day per child.. they never had leg cramps..
https://www.amazon.com/Fodmor-Electric-Sealing-Canning-Regular/dp/B0CTBWHPZD/ref=sr_1_6?
How I make my pickles..
I use two cups of water.. and one tbsp of salt.. ( sea salt will give you a clearer bath..
this should be enough to do one quart jar .. anyway.my mother used a crock..
https://www.amazon.com/Stoneware-Gallon-Fermentation-Preservation-Crock/dp/B0718Y6W44/ref=sxin_16_pa_sp_search_thematic_sspa?
or you can use a plastic bucket.. cut a top around drill holes in it and get two big rocks.. and nice weight.. and a big towel.
wash your cucumbers.. or whatever you are going to pickle..
cut the flower end off of it..( I cut both ends off of it.. )
put them in the crock.. then cover with the salt water.. place your weight on top to hold them immersed … the ancients soaked them for longer periods of time.. but depending on how crisp you want them.. make sure this is put in a cool dry place covered with the towel.. let the lacto fermentation go for at least twenty four hours.. and depending on how crisp you want your pickles.. depends on how long you ferment them.. each day the pickles will get a little softer.. we like crisp pickles… so twenty four hours.. after the twenty four hour period.. take your cucumbers out of the brine.. the script on it from ancient instructions was to skim the top scum off of the brine as it ferments.. you really don’t get to much of that.. making sour kraught it about the same way done..
wash them up ice cold water..
now make up your pickling brine..
the simplest is one cup of wine or five percent vinegar and one cup of filtered water.. one tbsp of salt..varrying methods of making the brine from sweet to dill .. etc..
put your dill at the bottom and I personally like onions and garlic so I put in garlic pack with the cucumbers..
your brine needs to be hot.. once you have put your cleaned fermented cucumbers in it and your spices.. then cover with brine.. ( I use mrs. wages ) place a top on it and vacuum seal it take the jars.. put them in a sous vide chamber.. put water in it.. and bring it up to 165 degrees for fifteen minutes this will pasteurize the pickles inside …
the ancients used grape leaves and bay leaves to place on top of their crocks for the tannins.. I use a quarter tsp of alum per jar… Now I have done these without pasteurization and it was just fine.. the pasteurization process.. kills any bacteria left from the fermentation process..
NOW Pickle in a pouch…
for fast pickling.. I have a vacuum chamber.. so to do pickles in a pouch.. I will put the cucumbers in a jar or a container.. or the pouch itself if you have enough of them to line an ice cream bucket.. put your pickle sliced or in slabs is what I call them I like mine a quarter inch thick.. put them in the bag.. pour your pickling brine on top of the pickles just like you would your pickles in a jar..
https://www.amazon.com/MS400-Compatible-Commercial-Household-Operating/dp/B09FPPLSVS/ref=sr_1_3_pp?
put the top on the vacuum chamber.. hit it till you get your vacuum.. watch through the top when the bubbles stop.. your pickles are ready to be sealed..
take them out of the chamber.. top with the brine then seal without a vacuum.. your pickle in a pouch is done..
https://www.amazon.com/O2frepak-Vacuum-Sealer-Vaccume-PreCut/dp/B07H52M6X5/ref=sr_1_11?
It took me a long time to figure out the best way for making pickles.. it was by accident that I discovered it.. on the show how its made.. then all the old stories of ancient pickling came into focus.. it totally made sense.. the pre fermentation was the key and the clue..
Amazon has dill pickling brine by the gallon.
My idea of pickled is a cheap vodka
Actually alcohol and fresh lime juice, and a touch of salt was used in ancient pickling.. older recipes there was more references to juniper berries rather than dill weed.
Lightly crush the juniper berries to release their flavor.
Fit pickle spears into a clean glass jar.
Add the juniper berries and pour the liquid mixture over the spears.
Dill weed came from recipes from the early Jewish recipes.
the Vikings used a great deal of juniper in their food process.. pickled fish today we have kipper snacks etc.
cucumbers
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
1 tbsp mustard seeds
1 tsp juniper berries
Fresh dill
Herrings.. pickled fish
1 lb fresh herring fillets
1 cup white vinegar
1 cup water
½ cup sugar
1 tbsp pickling spices (such as mustard seeds, allspice, and coriander)
1 small onion, thinly sliced
Instructions:
Sprinkle the herring fillets with salt and allow them to sit for 5 minutes.
Press the cucumber slices between two sheets of paper towel to remove excess moisture.
Mix vinegar, water, and sugar together and pour over the herring fillets (and pickled pepper slices if using).
Brine preservation has been common for thousands of years..All the way back to the earliest records..modern refrigeration.
Salt was one of the worlds most cherished spices..our word salary comes from the value of salt..
As if salted cucumbers weren’t already having a moment: Gherkin-istas all over the US are traveling to a New York deli to try a sandwich that’s literally “in a pickle.”
“It has been pickle mania,” Anthony Fiorito, the owner of Seven Brothers Gourmet in Oceanside, Long Island, which sells around 250 of them a day, told Gothamist.
For the uninitiated, this briney Frankenfood entails cured meats, cheese and other ingredients sandwiched by two cored-out pickles — like a savory equivalent of the notorious Luther Burger (beef patties bookended by donuts).
https://nypost.com/2024/06/28/lifestyle/ny-pickle-sandwich-sells-out-due-to-tiktok-pickle-mania/
https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Chamber-Pump-Gallon-Stabilizing/dp/B0B9SJ61VM/ref=sr_1_4?
I forgot to share the vacuum chamber.. sorry.. here is a great vacuum chamber.. love vacuum chambering quick pickles..
I traded a commercial chamber vac to my granddaughters husband for a trash can garage.. instant trade.. nice unit.. I believe that both of us got a good deal..
https://www.amazon.com/Avid-Armor-Chamber-Machine-Packaging/dp/B0BG38NH3Q/ref=sr_1_10?
The man who drives
half asleep
is now buried
6 feet deep
Burma Shave
Moral of that story:
Make sure you’re fully asleep!
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804351460401.html?src=google&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa
Now I don’t have one of those.. I have the smaller round one.. but since I am planning on retort canning meals.. I have been considering this unit.. cheap.. easy.. and would make it seamless.. but for now I sill use a seaming iron.. I have one..
https://www.amazon.com/TruePower-709-1254-10-Inch-Seaming-800-watt/dp/B00UD2SRLO?
I will use the mylar and cut the bags down you can buy rolls of mylar embossed foil.. cut them to the length you need.. and then cut the seamed edge off.. this will give you two pieces for two units..
Aliexpress tray sealer: 220 V/50Hz
At dinner recently I mentioned to Diana that these new jeans she got for me are a little snug. She said I do seem to be expanding a little.
I find your process of getting a meal paradox thoughtful and timely. Agreed that while there are many different paths each of us follows in creating meals, I didn’t get this way by looking at the pictures.
Stay safe. 73
Yet, I can’t count the times Elaine has said (after cooking some elaborate meal) “I don’t know if I can eat – I’ got full just looking at all this stuff…” Usually pronounced at Thanksgiving as I am slicing the turkey…
Time to put it all back in the fridge!
where are they made…
lately a lot of clothes started to be imported from Vietnam.. they have an American size in them..but are usually a size or two smaller..clothing made in Balkan countries are a size or two larger…
Didn’t take long. The prediction was for TS Beryl to become a hurricane by Sunday night.., now – ??
Hurricane Beryl forecast to become a Category 4 storm by Monday morning, as it nears southeast Caribbean.
Expected to pass south of Barbados., as it enters the Caribbean.
However, it is expected ‘weaken’ as it transverse the Caribbean. – Friday they said it would strengthen.
The last hurricane to form into a category 4 hurricane in June was in 1956.
Wordslinger:
“I like to make my own fire to cook on. So, I end up growing the tree for firewood, cutting and stacking, building the greenhouse, then growing the food, while reading from Ray’s amazing library, and wondering what LOOB’s latest cookery would be like”
Possibly you will outlive me in the process. I have the helper bees cut, split and stack wood. It’s the fire I’m after, having done the prelims plenty in younger life. Love to cook, especially on the Barbie. But prefer eating.
Choose … Egor
Gozer:
Choose! Choose the form of the Destructor!
Peter Venkman:
Oh, I get it. Real cute! [to the others] Whatever we think of- if we think of J. Edgar Hoover, J. Edgar Hoover will appear and destroy us, okay? So empty your heads, don’t think of anything. We’ve only got one shot at this.
Gozer:
The choice is made!
Venkman:
Whoa! Hold on!
Gozer:
The Traveller has come!
Venkman:
Nobody chose anything! [turns to Egon] Did you think of anything?
Egon Spengler:
No.
Venkman:
[to Winston] Did you?
Winston Zeddmore:
My mind is totally blank.
Venkman:
I didn’t think anything. [All three slowly turn to look at Ray]
Stantz:
I couldn’t help it. It just popped in there.
Venkman:
[sternly] What? What “just popped in there?”
Stantz:
I- I- I tried to think…
Spengler:
Look! [They all look over one side of the roof]
Stantz:
No! It can’t be!
Venkman:
What is it?
Stantz:
It can’t be!
Venkman:
What did you do, Ray?!
Zeddemore:
Oh no! [They all see a giant cubic white head topped with a sailor hat]
Stantz:
[sighs, resigned] It’s the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Car in ditch
Man in tree
Moon was full
And so was he
Burma Shave
I’ll blame it on my crazy 24-hour career. I’m a ‘grazer’. When hungry I’ll eat whatever I can find that’s available. Beyond a Prego-based hamburger spaghetti sauce, I’ve never had the ‘cooking gene’. Takes too much time and I just want to eat.
He lit a match
to test a gas tank
That’s why they call him
skinless Frank
Burma Shave
Ebay lesson #1. “Needs Repair or for Parts Only”
Run the other way as fast as possible. Don’t waste money on your ‘fixit’ ego!
If you need the parts as a donor for your other machines, then make a super lowball offer, especially if you have to deal with offshore shipping!
“Write when you get rich.” -GU
The best place to be if ins you wanna get paid, and eventually RICH ?
Get job in Health Care . The largest and fastest growing busines-industry in the world .
The greatest PROFIT Maximizer ever invented ?
CHRONIC DIS-EASE .
All about dem POISONS, always has been since ..https://www.theburningplatform.com/
Who will win?
A – WW3 before the US Election
B- Good Guys & Gals
Different answer – if you bother to read attached article ; )
Pray Peace, Prepare for WAR or FEMA camp.
Good luck to ALL..
Medications.. as a worker the job is.. work short shift.. they already have to many administration staff..
It took me a while to realize why they implemented the drop and flop law..people have the right to kill themselves in any horrible fashion they want to..lol lol lol
I really wish I had a dollar for every time that I had to work as tag your it… I feared every shift when the outgoing shift would pat you on the back lol lol lol
Leaving the hospital after a dermatologist biopsy, in the parking lot across the road, an ambulance was delivering a female patient who was screaming and yelling. Everyone in the lot was looking across the road to see who was being murdered. My sympathies to the staff who had to deal with that. I learned from a nurse that a mild shot of Fentanyl will calm down an excessively unruly patient.
I must have lived a sheltered life! I never even heard of Burma Shave or its signs. I had to look it up. My dad wet shaved, though I have no idea what he used. I always used electric shavers I could use while driving to work in my youth, though more recently with the acceptance of beards among the younger set, I don’t bother with shavers at all.
Wow… I loved the Burma shave ads.. I was just a little boy.. Burma shave was right after the Winston cigarette ads..
And the id rather fight than switch Terraton cigarettes..
retort canning tuna
3 cups olive oil
2 sprigs thyme
2 tablespoons salt ( salt to taste)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 sprig rosemary
1 lemon peel, sliced into strips
1 whole clove
2 lbs of tuna steaks
Sam’s club has tuna steaks on sale.. now you have a choice here any white fish works.. a woman I worked with would get Carp..cut out the dark muddy section and bone it.. mix all the ingredients except the tuna or fish in a pan bring to a simmer..
let it steep with the lid on it..then put the fish in the oil making sure the fish is totally covered and bring it up to 150 degrees..fill the retort packages with what you need.. a 4 oz. retort package put 3 oz of fish.. skim any scum off of the oil in the pan then add 1 oz of oil..if the oil is to dirty then use fresh olive oil. heat shrink the bags and pressure can according to the direction for your region and elevation..if your using cans then pack the cans and double boil them to get to the 150 degree. seam the top on and pressure can. the ancients use to pickle fish ir pack the fish in salt and sugar..
a great pickling recipe..
2 cups white vinegar ( or dry wine)
1?2 cup water
1?4 cup sugar
1/4 cup of sugar
2 tbsp pickling spices
2 peppercorns
1 onion, sliced ( or chopped)
1 sprig of rosemary or dill
1 sprig of thyme
https://vacupack.com/shop/r103-retort-4-oz-canning-pouches-125ct/
there’s the bags tou can get 2 oz. bags to..your choice..
I see you finally began to explore the key to the kitchen…
Yup.. I love this stuff..
August… the book table of the gods comes out…did you ever notice that the ones associated with new kitchen discoveries.. are referred to as gods.. or angels.. such as XiCacao the goddess of compassion and love..
she felt so bad about the ones selected for the sacrifice and would give them a drink of the cacao wine at every step to the Mayan alter.. over a thousand steps..
They had to be pretty tanked and out of their mind drunk or in some delusional state by the time they reached the top… (Hey that sounds remotely familiar… oh yes Those in the Democratic Party maneuvering the shit show today sound like they have had a touch to much of hunters drugs lol).
BTW George, I found you a new toy:
Timed, dimmable, incremental, 600W LED Grow Light
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091XZ7N99
Too much of which an I would turn into an Annunaki
Mr Kitzel, “pickle in the middle”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVA8RuC9xsE