Category Archives: things that don’t work

First rule of holes

Posted on February 20, 2015 by paulwallich

I wanted to get something printed before this afternoon’s maker meeting, So when Repetier crashed (it does that on and off) I figured it would be no problem to just restart, reconnect and get the print going. Nerp. Apparently it … Continue reading →

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An organized workplace is a sane workplace

Posted on February 5, 2015 by paulwallich

One of my New Year’s resolutions was to build a bunch of the kits that have accumulated in the basement over the years. Among them a cheap 4-wheel-drive robot chassis (well, actually the previous version, which will become significant in … Continue reading →

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Too clever is dumb

Posted on January 30, 2015 by paulwallich

My nice new printrbot Metal Plus (of which more some other time) has a bunch of holes in the kapton film on the build plate, and it’s my fault. I was trying to be smart, but I ended up stupid. … Continue reading →

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30 years ago seems like yesterday

Posted on January 28, 2015 by paulwallich

Okay, no, it seems like 30 years ago. 20 years ago seems like yesterday. My spouse has wanted a Macquarium for years, and maybe three or four years back she got an old mac on ebay. And finally the other … Continue reading →

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The encrustation of the analog on the digital

Posted on December 8, 2014 by paulwallich

If Henri Bergson had been writing around the turn of the millennium, he would have talked about abstraction violations. In his time, it was about living beings acting like mechanisms. For me this weekend, it was about digital devices acting … Continue reading →

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Inside a scanning electron microscope

Posted on October 16, 2014 by paulwallich

Some of the parts I was able to salvage. I’m a sucker for big chunks of stainless steel. Also, I am thinking maybe I could turn the sample stage into the world’s smallest-working-envelope 5-axis CNC machine.  It couldn’t deal with … Continue reading →

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UV-curing resin as an extrusion material

Posted on October 8, 2014 by paulwallich

I’ve been working on a DLP printer project, and I’ve gotten to the point where it might be a good idea to know what kinds of layer exposure times I might expect. So I loaded up a syringe with Makerjuice … Continue reading →

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