Author Archives: paulwallich

Right Hand, meet Left Hand

Posted on January 9, 2016 by paulwallich

I am trying desperately not to use the word “stupid”, especially in conjunction with intensifiers such as “incredibly”, “unbelievably” or “predictably”. My delightful spouse got me a new camera for christmas this year. It’s waterproof, shockproof and a bunch of … Continue reading →

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Downcycling

Posted on January 8, 2016 by paulwallich

Those random pieces of plywood that had a bunch of stuff lasercut out of the middle? Save them. You never know when they might come in handy. For example: the other day I needed to make a simple camera mount … Continue reading →

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Blinkinlabs Rocks

Posted on December 21, 2015 by paulwallich

I’ve liked Blinkytape ever since it came out. Sure, you can hook up LED strips with an arduino or whatever easily, but sometimes having the controller built into the tape just makes things so much easier no wiring, no mounting, … Continue reading →

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Sometimes it’s just nice to have the right tool

Posted on December 11, 2015 by paulwallich

It’s holiday-cookie time, and the new beater we got for our 15-year-old stand mixer didn’t fit. It went partway on the shaft and then jammed. Grr. So this morning I went down to the basement and over to the old … Continue reading →

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More Big-Nozzle Fun

Posted on December 4, 2015 by paulwallich

This may actually be useful for other people. When I went to test different extrusion speeds for my 0.75mm nozzle on the Ubis13 I was concerned about how fast I could go and still have the heater keep up with … Continue reading →

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Pinbox 3000!

Posted on December 3, 2015 by paulwallich

Arrived just in time for the 11-year-old’s birthday. Delightful. He’s been wanting one of his own ever since he got to play with some of the early prototypes. Takes about an hour and a half for a kid to build … Continue reading →

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3D printer nozzle wars

Posted on November 30, 2015 by paulwallich

I finally got around to trying the  0.75mm nozzle on my Metal Plus. It arrived before the holiday, but I didn’t have the time to make a custom wrench for it (the flats appear to be just a hair too … Continue reading →

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Belt and suspenders

Posted on November 17, 2015 by paulwallich

I really like the idea of Yourduino’s RoboRed: gobs of 3-pin headers for almost all the arduino I/O pins, with n-tuplicated power and ground connections. Heavy-duty regulators built in for two amps of 5V and half an amp of 3V3 … Continue reading →

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I need a better CAD program

Posted on November 13, 2015 by paulwallich

Or to get really good at creating polygon coordinates in my head. My new fan duct is an improvement over the old one, which was an improvement over a bare fan with a dab of packing tape. (I made something … Continue reading →

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Bending acrylic is easier than I thought

Posted on November 11, 2015 by paulwallich

This summer I took the little radiant space heater down from the ceiling of the woodshop — it really wasn’t doing much to keep me warm out there.  And we’ve had the scraps of a bunch of broken acrylic storage … Continue reading →

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