Between 265 & 485 SQ/FT Nick's Two-Car Detached Vdub Garage

[nicholam77]

Thanks! I think my nightstand project will be a lot more simplistic than yours, but that seems to be more a function of my preferred aesthetic than anything else. Yeah, that's it...

Nothing wrong with simple!

Yeah I hear you. I hated the baby phase when I was in the middle of it, but it's astonishing how fast it goes. I read a while back about dealing with the amount of time kids take up. Try to never say no if you've got the capacity mentally. Sometimes we all need a break, but try to always say yes to spending time with them. You'll never regret the time you didn't spend enjoying your hobbies, but you'll always regret the time you didn't spend enjoying your kids.

100%. I always say yes to spending time with them, maybe even to a fault. I quickly realized how fast they grow up and then you can't get that time back. In that respect I actually don't mind the baby phase. Both of my kids were terrible sleepers so that sucked, but babies learn so many new skills at such a rapid pace it's pretty much always something new and exciting.

My wife works retail, and her schedule is pretty much opposite mine a lot of the time, so I'm on the same page there. It's tough sometimes but you make it work. Just don't forget about each other. That's something I've seen far too much.

Ah yes, very true. There are some weeks I feel like I barely see my wife. And when she is home we are both scrambling to do chores or focusing on the kids. Not all the time but it can be like that. With our 1st kid we left her at home with Grandma when she turned one year old, and took a week long vacation just the two of us to Hawaii. It was an important moment to reset. That was just before Covid, and I feel like we've been on the grind ever since.

Ha! As someone with an entire family tree in Minnesota, I can confirm I prefer the scenery here, but I do love it out there from time to time. We don't have the lakes and thick woods you guys do. I prefer Montana to Colorado because you get all of the beauty at half the price with a quarter of the people. But then you have shorter summers and longer, colder winters. Everywhere is a tradeoff.

My wife and I love to travel, we did a fair amount before having kids. Montana / Glacier National Park was always on the list but never made it there. Someday.

 

[nicholam77]

Kid's Bookshelves

A very small project, but why not. My wife has been asking for some book shelves in my daughters room for quite some time. If only she knew a woodworker. It seems like there was always something higher on the priority list (pantry??) and apparently I failed my duty to make some because one day a package showed up from Etsy. They are maple, but simple **** joints and I'm sure they were entirely too expensive (I didn't dare ask).

First thing was to find the studs. For all the times I've had to do this I really should own one of those cool Franklin sensors, but I use a magnetic one to find the drywall screws. After removing it from myself, of course. #dadjokes





The studs were slightly off from where I wanted so I resorted to drywall anchors. Of the many types or drywall anchors, I only use the screw in spiral type (left).



The pound in type (right) are utter garbage. That's what came with the shelves but I keep on hand a variety of the spiral type to use for stuff like this.



I installed one side of the shelf, held it up and threw a level on it.



Then holding it in that position marked the other hole.

After the first one was up, I used a spacer (in this case a picture frame) to set the position of the 2nd shelf parallel to the 1st.



Maybe this process is super obvious, but just my method vs trying to measure and mark all the holes on the wall.





Another thing checked off the to-do list.

 

[isonic]

Nice job on the shelves. My kids are respectively 1-2 months in age behind both of yours (daughter then son as well). I have read Goodnight Gorilla a few dozen times

 

[fourmotioneer]

Shelves look great. Nice appearance from Little Blue Truck there.

We talked about installing wall-mount book shelves today and all I could imagine my brawny toddler torquing them off the wall. Your design does sort of avoid that issue

 

[nicholam77]

Nice job on the shelves. My kids are respectively 1-2 months in age behind both of yours (daughter then son as well). I have read Goodnight Gorilla a few dozen times

Thanks! That's cool, it's a great age for both of them. I'm usually the one to read books to my daughter and I've read every book 100 times. There are definitely those books that get read a little too often, as I'm sure you know.

Shelves look great. Nice appearance from Little Blue Truck there.

We talked about installing wall-mount book shelves today and all I could imagine my brawny toddler torquing them off the wall. Your design does sort of avoid that issue

Thanks! Yeah we have most of the Little Blue Truck series. Beep Beep!

To be clear these shelves were bought on Etsy, I did not make them so they aren't my design. But... after installing them I don't think a toddler could pull them off the wall. I don't see any fasteners in the shelves but I would hope and assume the joints are reinforced with tenons of some sort, like Dominos. The drywall anchors I used are rated at 75 lbs. The other solution is to just hang them high enough where your kid can't get to them haha.

 

[nicholam77]

Summer business has continued around here. I actually had a burst of momentum on the night stands project yesterday, but I'll save that for the next post.

4th of July was a fun but exhausting weekend. My wife worked Friday night, and then Saturday, Sunday, and Monday day shifts. So I was a single dad all weekend haha. Despite being like 100° F I managed to make the most of it and got out of the house a bunch with the kids. Here's a snap of my daughter's favorite ride from a competing car show to Cars & Coffee, "Caffeine & Octane". Because it matched her dress:



I do know how to do her hair, she just insisted on having it down on the hottest day of the summer for some reason. Kids...

Then last Friday my son turned 1 yrs old.



I cannot believe it's already been a year.

Last weekend we were up at the in-laws cabin again and I got some time on the lake for the first time there. I love being on the water.



Vegetable garden at home is starting to provide some veggies. All I care about are the hot peppers.



Tried grilling a spicy pizza with the serranos (yes I know the pic is a jalepeno), and I've decided I really need a pizza stone, pizza peel, pizza oven, or all of the above. A bit messy but tasted good.



Summer events aren't really going to let up for me. We are celebrating my son's birthday with family this coming weekend, other trips to the cabin planned, and I'm starting a project at work that will consume my August.

I need to get the night stands veneered in reasonable temps, so I'm looking at September as a good time to get that going (as of now, anyways!).

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

 

[nicholam77]

Night Stands Prototype

So yeah, I've been busy, but like I mentioned in a previous post I've wanted nothing to do with woodworking after finishing my dad's pantry. Well, yesterday, I had some down time and a sudden urge to make some sawdust.

Since it's been a minute, here's a refresher on the Fusion360 model and what I want them to look like:



I already made a cardboard model, but I wanted to do a dry run of the waterfall miters and joinery and see how accurate I could be.

So I sliced up some 3/4 MDF I had on hand.



The dimensions are 20" wide x 14" deep x 7" tall. But the nice thing is it doesn't really matter if they are exact. I just mark one part and use a fence or sled for repeatability.

I started setting up to do the rabbet for the inset drawer on the router table, but realized it was a lot of material to remove and decided to do it on the table saw.

Next I cut the 45° miters. I was concerned about the accuracy here. I have one of those Wixey digital angle gauges, but I had trouble dialing in a 45° reading on my saw. I think I ended up at 45.3° and went with it.

One annoying thing about the Woodpecker extrusion I use on my fence is the miter went into the bottom slot, so I had to clamp an auxiliary fence.





With the rabbets and miters done, I used the "blue tape method" for a dry assembly.





The miters actually came together pretty nicely!





The blue tape method is really easy for glue ups, but I really think I want to reinforce these joints. Built out of MDF it's already quite heavy even without a drawer. I'll be using baltic birch plywood for my veneer substrate, and I think that might be almost as heavy.

Here's a look at the case and a demo of the inset drawer front and the "thin edge":





Then I brought it inside to get a feel of its proportion against the bed, and to show my wife and have her "sign off".

My plan is to have these "floating" on French cleats, so I set it on my little replica Eames LTR table for now. But putting that in place I did think... maybe I should just use these and save myself some trouble!



Too late.







I think it's a bit on the large side, but good design is also practical, and I think having the extra space on the top to set stuff will be awesome.

Lastly I made an attempt to see how biscuits would do as the miter reinforcement. Back to the garage.







Not bad. Getting the clamps in place and everything lined up was more fiddly than the tape method. I imagine this will be compounded x10 with glue sliding around.

I did make most of a jig to route Domino tenons into the miters. I haven't tested it, but I think seeing it through might not be worth the effort seeing how the biscuits worked (and they would be so much quicker and easier to do).

Not sure if those box strap clamps would be better to clamp it up, but I don't own any.





Somehow even with this small box it's not perfectly square, but as long as the joints appear tight I don't really sweat it.

So that's where I'm at. I feel good about the design and think I can pull off the build reasonably well. The veneering will be an adventure, but I'll get to that down the road.

My back injury paid the price for the 4 hrs of work I put in, but all-in-all it did feel good to get back out there for a bit!

 

[bdbecker]

Tried grilling a spicy pizza with the serranos (yes I know the pic is a jalepeno), and I've decided I really need a pizza stone, pizza peel, pizza oven, or all of the above. A bit messy but tasted good.

Looks tasty!

Did you preheat the skillet? I usually get it fairly hot, then hit it with a little olive oil, and then carefully drop the pizza into the pan and put it back on the grill. Comes out perfectly. If you try to put it in a cold skillet, it does make a mess.

 

[jbrentd]

I love some homemade pizza, in fact, that's what we had for dinner last night. We have a small Ooni pizza oven and like it a lot. It runs on pellets and heats to 900* in about 15 minutes.

 

[nicholam77]

Looks tasty!

Did you preheat the skillet? I usually get it fairly hot, then hit it with a little olive oil, and then carefully drop the pizza into the pan and put it back on the grill. Comes out perfectly. If you try to put it in a cold skillet, it does make a mess.

Yep, skillet was preheated with the grill. Grill only got to ~500° F though before I threw the first one on. I did oil it a bit, but with Canola. I'm a weirdo and don't like the taste of olive oil, plus low smoke point.

The tricky part for me was "and then carefully drop the pizza into the pan" haha. I floured the bottoms of the dough but it was still really sticky/stretchy and not easy to get on the piping hot skillet in a uniform shape without tearing it. I have made my own dough, but this was from Trader Joe's so maybe that had something to do with it.

Another thing that happened is the bottoms cooked really fast at risk of charring or burning after a few minutes, but the top wasn't fully melted.

I love some homemade pizza, in fact, that's what we had for dinner last night. We have a small Ooni pizza oven and like it a lot. It runs on pellets and heats to 900* in about 15 minutes.

Me too. My wife is a pizza fanatic and we have a handful of really good pizza restaurants near us. I just looked at the Ooni's and while still expensive, they are cheaper than I thought. I don't think I'd need more than the 12". Hmmm, I'll have to think about this!

 

[Bob Heine]

I did oil it a bit, but with Canola. I'm a weirdo and don't like the taste of olive oil, plus low smoke point.

Nick, if you want an oil with a high smoke point and very little taste, try Safflower oil. Avocado oil also has a high smoke point but does have a flavor of its own. I use these oils a lot because they make cleanup easier.

 

[nicholam77]

Nick, if you want an oil with a high smoke point and very little taste, try Safflower oil. Avocado oil also has a high smoke point but does have a flavor of its own. I use these oils a lot because they make cleanup easier.

Thanks Bob, that's a really helpful chart!

 

[nicholam77]

Some quick simple car stuff

I've had some BBS lip decals on my CO wheels for a couple years (just one per wheel). Since they don't actually have a "lip", I put them between the spokes. I think this is usually done with the LM's or other heritage / racing wheels, and with 3x decals per wheel. I thought I read some history about it once but I can't find it anymore. Anyways, I just think they look neat. My wheels have an odd number of spokes so you can never line up an equidistant 3-decal pattern, but recently I decided to get some more and arrange them "close enough".



But first I had to clean them because they were so covered in brake dust you couldn't even see the decals I already had.



Here's the result:



I like the extra splash of red and I think they add at least +10hp each.

Unrelated... about 2 yrs ago I ran into my garage like a dumba$$ and scraped up the front fender crease. Most of the paint washed out but there's been a white scratch on the driver's side ever since:





My dad lent me a buffer and some compound (I've never used either before) and gave it a shot.





There are still a few specks but I was shocked to find it took most of it out!





Now if only I had something to magically remove the dents in my passenger rear door from my wife banging her door into it getting the kids in and out.

 

[Mr. Roboto]

Now if only I had something to magically remove the dents in my passenger rear door from my wife banging her door into it getting the kids in and out.

I worked really hard for the first 2 years keeping my wife’s car clean inside and out after we had our first daughter. We purchased her Subaru brand new shortly after she was born. I couldn’t take it anymore….most girls just don’t seem to care. So I gave up. It’s horrendous in there most of the time now. I can’t even ride in there, it gives me anxiety!

 

[nicholam77]

I worked really hard for the first 2 years keeping my wife’s car clean inside and out after we had our first daughter. We purchased her Subaru brand new shortly after she was born. I couldn’t take it anymore….most girls just don’t seem to care. So I gave up. It’s horrendous in there most of the time now. I can’t even ride in there, it gives me anxiety!

Ha! Yeah, as soon as kids came around I stopped keeping up with both cars. I do the oil changes and that's it. These days I barely even wash mine, it's embarrassing. My wife takes hers through the car wash regularly, and I'll vacuum out all the goldfish snacks once it gets atrocious, but sadly it hasn't been clayed or waxed or anything like that in years.

To add insult to injury, my "garage neighbor" across the alley has not one, but two 911's. Both silver. A 996 Carrera S and a 997 Turbo. Him and his adult son are out there detailing them like every other day. Making me look like a real slacker!!

 

[Denwood]

Nice work on the paint repair and rim detailing One of the best investments in my paint correction arsenal was a variable speed 10" polisher, 3M Perfect-it foam pads, and the 3M Perfect-it (1, 2 and 3) compounds. With that and some 1000/1500/2000 grit paper you can address just about any paint issue, polish head light lenses etc. I use them all the time...highly recommended addition to your shop

Your pics and methods on the word working side are excellent. You are definitely giving me ideas on new uses for my Dewalt biscuit cutter too

 

[nicholam77]

Nice work on the paint repair and rim detailing One of the best investments in my paint correction arsenal was a variable speed 10" polisher, 3M Perfect-it foam pads, and the 3M Perfect-it (1, 2 and 3) compounds. With that and some 1000/1500/2000 grit paper you can address just about any paint issue, polish head light lenses etc. I use them all the time...highly recommended addition to your shop

Thanks, Dennis. I'll likely consider that down the road. I think when the kids get a little older and I can reclaim a bit of time here and there, I would find that detailing sort of process cathartic. Both of our cars could use a paint correction I'm sure.

Your pics and methods on the word working side are excellent. You are definitely giving me ideas on new uses for my Dewalt biscuit cutter too

Thanks! This was my first time using the biscuit joiner for case miters. Biscuit joiners seem to get some hate, but I'm a fan. In lieu of a Domino they go a long way in providing some quick and easy alignment, as well as some structural integrity depending on the joint. I would argue in the case of a 45° miter a biscuit actually would add some strength to the joint.


____________________________


Not much has been going on around the garage and house. I rebuilt my outdoor hose spigot this spring, and now it's leaking again. I need to address that, plus a couple other nagging house issues.

I've been selling some stuff on Craigslist and similar, to make some cash to offset some other purchases and clear out some things I'm not using anymore. One of those things was a 55" Makita guide rail that was basically brand new. I had used it to connect two 55" tracks together a few times for ripping 4'x8' plywood. But then I picked up the 118" Makita rail, and the 55" LR32 rail, plus I have my original 55" Makita rail and the 39" Makita rail for the MFT. So I'm pretty covered on rails and this one was more or less redundant at this point.

Only got $60 for it, but after sitting on the marketplace for 3-4 weeks I was ready to make a deal and be done with it.

I have a pair of TSO guide rail connectors (also essentially brand new, only used a few times) for sale as well with no takers. If anyone on here is interested, let me know.

Summer feels like it's almost over and I still have a lot of weekends booked through August and the first half of September. I'm really hoping I can slot the bulk of the night stand build into late September and October before it gets really cold. That's the plan anyways. Until then it feels like I'm tied down with obligations and projects at work, lot's going on.

 

[Matias]

Lot of updates since the last time I visited. Nice work on the ratchet/tool holder and the cabinets! You definetly have found good use for the printer. I think it's all these little things that I actually bought the printer in the first place, not some big plastic objects or models.

BBS rims look nice, really had some brake dust with that purple from the iron remover. And the scratch remover worked a treat. Very nice to get so good results with such a simple thing. It's so tiny now you can forget it

Son is already a year old? Time sure flies...

 

[nicholam77]

Lot of updates since the last time I visited. Nice work on the ratchet/tool holder and the cabinets! You definetly have found good use for the printer. I think it's all these little things that I actually bought the printer in the first place, not some big plastic objects or models.

BBS rims look nice, really had some brake dust with that purple from the iron remover. And the scratch remover worked a treat. Very nice to get so good results with such a simple thing. It's so tiny now you can forget it

Son is already a year old? Time sure flies...

Nice to hear from you @Matias !

Yeah, I was starting to find a groove with the 3D printer, but it's been sitting idle for awhile. I think I've already forgotten everything I learned with Fusion360

The GTI oem brakes make a lot of dust. I definitely have neglected cleaning the wheels, but when I do they get dusty again quickly. I also find this wheel design a PITA to clean.

Yep I can't believe my boy is 1 yr, either, it's truly getting scary how fast the days fly by.

I need to catch up on your big move to Thailand, but it looks exciting!

____________________________________


No project updates (I feel like a broken record) but I've truly been super busy with work, kids, and we have been taking advantage of my in-laws new cabin a number of weekends in a row.

They got a pontoon boat which was delivered last weekend, and my son definitely thought he was the captain. Could barely pry his fingers away from the steering wheel and controls.





It's about 2 hrs away from home, and while that's not super far, traveling with the kids and packing all their **** stuff is always tiring. But I've really been enjoying the change of scenery and more nature moments than we get in the city.



My father-in-law was clearing some trees on the property so I brought some of these birch logs home for fires.



Another thing I've been working on, that's somewhat tangential to this thread only in that I've expressed my enthusiasm for Modernism in design and architecture once or twice before , is acquiring a Danish table lamp. Specifically a Poul Henningsen PH 4/3. I'm familiar with his whole range of concentric shade lamps, you might recall I have one of the PH 5 pendants over our dining table. But I was watching the Apple TV+ show "Severance" some time ago and one of the characters has a woodsy modernist house, and many of the scenes take place at night. It was chock full of various midcentury lamps from George Nelson, Isamu Noguchi, and Poul Henningsen — specifically a table lamp. I can't remember which model was in the TV show (there are a bunch), but I couldn't get it out of my head and started searching for one. They are still in production, but I knew I wanted to find a "vintage" one. I settled on the PH 4/3 because it has the same painted aluminum shades as the PH 5, and therefore less expensive than some of his other table lamps which use opal glass shades. And I really like the design. To cut to the chase, after several months I found one on Etsy. It was in Denmark and dated from about 1972. I bought it and it took about another month to get to me.

I opened the box and...



The middle shade was crushed and had a scratch. The top shade had some waviness to it. And the stem of the lamp did not sit perpendicular in the base, so the whole thing had a tilt to it.

I tried to file a damage claim with USPS, but they hadn't a clue on how to do that with an international package. I went to the post office before work and after dropping the kids at daycare super early about 4 mornings in a row, trying to get them to cooperate. In the end they gave me the wrong claim form, but kept the lamp because they said the claim wouldn't be valid otherwise. So now I had no lamp and no money.

Meanwhile I contacted the seller, who filed a damage claim with the originating mailing service in Denmark. They did not get back to him.

I felt like I was about to be screwed, but he says he actually has another PH 4/3, same thing, same condition, and agreed to send it to me if I sent the damaged lamp back to him. UPS wanted $350 to send to Denmark, FedEx wanted $600. So... back to the post office. I managed to retrieve the lamp but didn't have new packaging to send it that morning. $90 to ship it back. Got a new box and packaging and figured out how to to the customs slip etc, and then back to the post office. They are starting to get to know me there.

I can't even begin to describe what an archaic and bureaucratic mess the post office is. Any time I went in there I was guaranteed to waste 30+min of time and get very little information. It was frustrating.

Fast forward three more weeks, and the 2nd lamp arrives. The package looks beat up, squished, and has a rip in it. I'm actually freaking out because I know the seller doesn't have a 3rd lamp, not to mention wouldn't be willing to take another financial hit.



Phew.

It's not a perfect specimen, but then again it's 50 yrs old.

All-in-all it was about 6 months or more since I started seriously looking for one of these. It was stressful and a hassle, but I think it was worth it.



As I'm about to hit "send" I'm realizing this is not really related to Garage Journal whatsoever, but I've already written it so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe it will be mildly interesting to someone.

Until next time...

 

[bj383ss]

Yeah that right there is why I would never order anything international. They screw packages that don't even leave land much less go across oceans.

I found it interesting although I felt frustrated just reading your story. And don't worry about shop time. I haven't done a single thing since June 4th in my shop except change the oil in all 3 daily drivers. So depressing. But the weather is turning early this year and triple digit temps seem to be gone and we have even gotten rain 3 times now after a 2 month long drought. Only about an inch total but its better than nothing. Hopefully very soon with nicer temps and less stress at work I will get going on my bookcase project.

On the plus side my Lego collection has grown exponentially over the summer.

Bret

 

[Matias]

As I'm about to hit "send" I'm realizing this is not really related to Garage Journal whatsoever, but I've already written it so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Maybe it will be mildly interesting to someone.

Until next time...

Nice pontoon boat, seems like a very nice boat to just pass some time on the lake.

Glad that you finally got the lamp at the end, it looks good! And I'm sure you appreciate it even more now after that 6 months battle.

BTW, I think it's the case with most of us, summer we enjoy the weather, the vacations and pass some family time. We have long enough winters to pass time in the garage when it's cold and dark outside

 

[loganb]

traveling with the kids and packing all their **** stuff is always tiring.

As you're aware....you had it right the first time! We may be heading back home(3 hr drive) to my folks this long weekend but the amount of work it takes to load up the 2 of them for a couple nights away puts a damper on the thought of going anywhere as you're well aware.

Playing catch up here...

The nightstand prototype looks great as others have said...it looking so good would definitely cause me to drag my fight and say "good enough" for now and push off the real ones! Fortunately you care more about form and have a great eye so I'm sure it'll get done as soon as the kid's, work and life allow!

Any initial thoughts on the 118" track? I haven't found many ppl who regret getting it...haven't caught a free shipping sale myself yet when I was willing to spend the money but there is an Acme Tool in Des Moines who normally has them on hand so the next work trip I make back to the mothership which takes me right past their store may have to be planned with a stop there....

And the lake time looks very nice...enjoy it! Not many decent boating lakes around me without a multi-hour car ride...otherwise we might have a 21' or so in a couple years when the kids are older. A kayak/canoe lake is just across the street though and several neighbors have enjoyed doing that with their kids so I may have to try that next summer when the daughter is a bit older and see how she does and if she likes that.

And now that you've got the lamp....what's the next targeted vintage modern work of art disguised as something useful on the radar...as I know you've got something in mind! BTW the lamp looks great there....but your experience with shipping was enough to hopefully remind myself to never use USPS for international!

 

[nicholam77]

Yeah that right there is why I would never order anything international. They screw packages that don't even leave land much less go across oceans.

I found it interesting although I felt frustrated just reading your story. And don't worry about shop time. I haven't done a single thing since June 4th in my shop except change the oil in all 3 daily drivers. So depressing. But the weather is turning early this year and triple digit temps seem to be gone and we have even gotten rain 3 times now after a 2 month long drought. Only about an inch total but its better than nothing. Hopefully very soon with nicer temps and less stress at work I will get going on my bookcase project.

On the plus side my Lego collection has grown exponentially over the summer.

Bret

Good to hear from you, Bret. Yeah, 9x out of 10 the delivery services just throw the packages at my front door lol. I've seen Amazon drivers literally toss a box from 10 ft away because they are in such a hurry. I've had good experiences with international shipping. This was just an unfortunate one, and honestly if the seller had packaged it better it could have been avoided.

Your summer is like my winter. Hard to be out there with those temps. I can feel the weather starting to turn to fall here, too. Less humidity.

Well I'm eagerly awaiting your next project. And you can never have too many Legos!

BTW, I think it's the case with most of us, summer we enjoy the weather, the vacations and pass some family time. We have long enough winters to pass time in the garage when it's cold and dark outside

Yes, that's true. It's a positive thing to take a break and enjoy the nice weather and family. For me in the winter, I am generally a lot less motivated because of the cold and dark. I think this year I might try to do some work inside in my basement.

The nightstand prototype looks great as others have said...it looking so good would definitely cause me to drag my fight and say "good enough" for now and push off the real ones! Fortunately you care more about form and have a great eye so I'm sure it'll get done as soon as the kid's, work and life allow!

Thanks! I'm happy with the design, but still nervous to pull it off with the veneering and edge banding. It will be an expensive mistake if I slip up, and I don't really have a margin for error materials-wise. I'm getting the itch to work on something again, so I'm still looking at September to get these started.

Any initial thoughts on the 118" track? I haven't found many ppl who regret getting it...haven't caught a free shipping sale myself yet when I was willing to spend the money but there is an Acme Tool in Des Moines who normally has them on hand so the next work trip I make back to the mothership which takes me right past their store may have to be planned with a stop there....

I actually haven't used it yet!

The 118" and the LR32 were sort of revenge purchases after my parents' pantry project. I struggled with long straight rips off the track saw with connected tracks, and with the shelf pins. So it was like "if I ever have to do this again I need some better options". Now I'll probably never make floor to ceiling cabinets again haha.

I got a smokin' deal on the 118" track though, at least compared to new. Although it is new... local guy FB marketplace bought but never used. Was still in the shipping crate and everything. Think I paid $170, so maybe $50+ less than a new one with tax and shipping. And the original plan was to sell a 55" to help cover it, which I've done now.

Its only real use will be ripping the long side of 4'x8' plywood. Is it worth it for that? Maybe if you're making tall cabinets. Otherwise I think another good solution would be well-calibrated parallel guides and just sliding a 55" down for the second half of the cut.

And the lake time looks very nice...enjoy it! Not many decent boating lakes around me without a multi-hour car ride...otherwise we might have a 21' or so in a couple years when the kids are older. A kayak/canoe lake is just across the street though and several neighbors have enjoyed doing that with their kids so I may have to try that next summer when the daughter is a bit older and see how she does and if she likes that.

It's been good! Having a baby around does make it less relaxing. We're going again this weekend for Labor Day and it will be our third weekend in a row up there.

They have a canoe and some kayaks up there as well and my daughter (almost 4yr) and her cousin (just turned 3yr) have been out on the canoe and both enjoyed it. I bet your daughter would like it.

And now that you've got the lamp....what's the next targeted vintage modern work of art disguised as something useful on the radar...as I know you've got something in mind! BTW the lamp looks great there....but your experience with shipping was enough to hopefully remind myself to never use USPS for international!

You know I don't really have anything on the horizon. There's a lot of furniture and stuff I admire, but wouldn't necessarily want to own, or is too expensive, or I don't have room for at this house.

One thing that's a long term goal is lounge chair for the living room. Right now we have two upholstered chairs that I think were from West Elm, and they are fine, but eventually I'd like to find something more unique. But that's going to be a slow burn.

Thanks for checking in!

 

[nicholam77]

Socket Adapter Tray

Ok, here's a small project to keep things going.

I had an hour of time and thought I would continue my 3d printed socket drawer organization. I jumped into a really simple one, a small tray for a few adapters. I added an extra "bin" to make the tray a little larger and hopefully not slide around or fall over in the drawer.

Into Fusion 360 I went, and I'm happy to say doing something as simple as this, I haven't forgotten it all. In fact this was the easy part, this model only took me about 15min to make.


Sliced it up and fired up the printer and the skirt didn't stick to the bed. Ok, I should have bed leveled. It's been awhile.

Boom, done. Hit print again. This time filament won't come out and the extruder keeps slipping. Aaaaargh, not this again!

Filament will not feed manually — it's a clog. I took off the fan shroud and I can see that there is filament oozing between the heater block and heat sink. You can see it if you look close at the below pic, between the red thing (heat sink) and the silver cube (heater block), there is black molten filament squeezed out:



Kind of a strange spot for this to occur.

There's been a few times I've had nozzle clogs and ruined nozzles because of it. I even did that Bowden tube spacer fix to keep a good seal on the nozzle, but that failed a few times, too. In fact, last time it failed, I ordered an all metal hot end from Gulfcoast Robotics. But never installed it since I got things working again.

I swore if it ever happened again I was going to install it. So here we are.

For those that aren't versed in this 3d printer bull-******, normally in a Bowden tube setup the blue PTFE tube that guides the filament (see pic above) goes all the way down through the hot end and forms a seal against the nozzle. With an "all-metal" hot end assembly, the Bowden tube just connects to the top of the heat sink, and the filament goes through the hot end on it's own. It can do this because, according to the Gulfcoast Robotics product description:

"The improved aluminum cooling block design offers better heat dissipation, removing the need for PTFE lining inside of the thermal barrier tube.

Instead, a polished Titanium Alloy heatbreak is used to replace the traditional stainless steel, which has considerably lower thermal conductivity than its counterpart. This creates a sharply defined point of separation between hot and cold zones, minimizing the chance for heat creep and clogs."

Installation was very easy, it's a bolt-for-bolt replacement.



As usual, my 3d printed screw sorting tray proved useful in keeping track of the small bits:



Fired her up again. Did a PID auto-tune of the new hot end. Re-leveled the bed. And hit print.



No major issues out of the gate. Getting a bit of stringing, which is mostly relegated to the inside of the model. The Gulfcoast website recommended printing at the high end of the filament manufacturer's range, or 10° C higher than with the stock hot end. I increased to 220° C from 215° C, since that's the top of the recommended range for Overture PLA. They also suggested starting the retraction distance at 3.5mm, which is a few mm less than what I was at before. So I might have some temperature and retraction tuning to do again.

The model is pretty smooth on the outside (no blobs) but does have a bit of layer lines in some areas. Not sure if they are really tiny layer shifts, or poor part cooling, or what.

After the 4 hr print, I attempted to fit the socket adapters, and none of them would go in the holes.



Whoops, I forgot to add clearance to the hole diameters. Back to Fusion 360. Back to Cura. Do another 4 hr print. This is suddenly taking a LOT longer than the "quick hour" I had planned to spend on it.

I think this is enough rambling so here's the result:





I have a handful of other sockets to make trays for, but as much as it pains me to say it, I think I need to do a bit more tuning of the print settings before doing any big models. This last one had slight bed adhesion issues where the corners peeled slightly.

I'm also not really a fan of the high-gloss PLA look. I might need to find one of those matte filaments and give that a try.

 

[isonic]

Lots of work on your part for me to come here and say, Hey, they look great .

 

[Bakafish]

Kind of a strange spot for this to occur.

It's actually a very typical spot. The interface between the bottom of the bowden tube and the top of the nozzle leaks (this is the area of highest temperature and stress on the PTFE) and the burned filament residue finds the easiest path out of the hot end, which on that design is often the threads between the heat break and the block since they are rarely retightened. They are also not a tapered thread, and the machining quality and dissimilar metal interfaces all add up to black goo there when the boden tube fails.

"The improved aluminum cooling block design offers better heat dissipation, removing the need for PTFE lining inside of the thermal barrier tube."

They are being misleading here. All metal designs are inferior to PTFE lined ones in performance, but can handle higher heat and potentially a better seal between the nozzle and heat break since it is metal on metal. But they have more friction, a regression which requires more aggressive retraction settings and possibly higher heat settings. I wouldn't discourage all-metal hot end usage, especially if you already have one and your original hot-end is borked, just understand that you will be trading off a little quality to reach temps that most common filaments can't use. If you print Nylon or PolyCarbonate you can rub it in my face

I'm also not really a fan of the high-gloss PLA look. I might need to find one of those matte filaments and give that a try

Print a temperature tower with that Cura plugin I mentioned first, and figure out where this new hot end is happy. It has a retraction settings object and script as well. I have found that shiny PLA is more often a sign that it is being printed hot. PLA is pretty forgiving as far as temps, and will certainly be more matte at the lower end of the usable heat range. My favorite filament is black PLA with carbon fiber, which adds some matte to it. I don't think the CF does much, but even a little extra strength can help.

 

[wreckdiver1321]

Great updates lately Nick! I really like how that nightstand is coming together, I think your design was solid. Makes me want to pick up a biscuit joiner for making cabinetry like that, might open up a whole new world of projects...

Uh-oh. Might not want to go down that road...

 

[bj383ss]

Yes You do.....

Bret

 

[nicholam77]

Lots of work on your part for me to come here and say, Hey, they look great .

Ha, thanks!

It's actually a very typical spot. The interface between the bottom of the bowden tube and the top of the nozzle leaks (this is the area of highest temperature and stress on the PTFE) and the burned filament residue finds the easiest path out of the hot end, which on that design is often the threads between the heat break and the block since they are rarely retightened.

Ah, gotcha. I've had the nozzle-bowden-tube-seal leak/clog multiple times and aware that's a weak point, but have never seen it overflow like that. But it makes sense if it has nowhere else to go and the nozzle is clogged.

They are being misleading here. All metal designs are inferior to PTFE lined ones in performance, but can handle higher heat and potentially a better seal between the nozzle and heat break since it is metal on metal. But they have more friction, a regression which requires more aggressive retraction settings and possibly higher heat settings. I wouldn't discourage all-metal hot end usage, especially if you already have one and your original hot-end is borked, just understand that you will be trading off a little quality to reach temps that most common filaments can't use. If you print Nylon or PolyCarbonate you can rub it in my face

I did read that, but hopefully it's not too big of a trade off. My main goal was to hopefully avoid the nozzle clogging and get rid of the bowden tube as the seal. The manufacturer's suggested retraction distance is actually less than what I was using with the stock hot end, so maybe that won't be too big of an issue. I'm not planning on any exotic filaments. I really just want to be able to print standard PLA reliably with good results and not have to take apart the machine.

Print a temperature tower with that Cura plugin I mentioned first, and figure out where this new hot end is happy. It has a retraction settings object and script as well. I have found that shiny PLA is more often a sign that it is being printed hot. PLA is pretty forgiving as far as temps, and will certainly be more matte at the lower end of the usable heat range.

Definitely planning on tuning with those plugins. Even with the manufacturer suggested retraction and temp tweaks, and the PID autotune, that first model came out pretty good. I'm pretty confident I can get it dialed in a little more.

With the old hot end, I was able to get better quality, and more reliable prints, at higher temps. Now with the new hot end it sounds like I'm definitely going to have to keep those higher temps (around 215-220° C). I think they make actual "matte" variants of PLA that stay matte even at the higher ends of the temp range. The reason I don't like the glossy finish as much, is it seems to show defects more in certain light, even unavoidable ones due to the nature of 3d-printing, like layer lines.

Great updates lately Nick! I really like how that nightstand is coming together, I think your design was solid. Makes me want to pick up a biscuit joiner for making cabinetry like that, might open up a whole new world of projects...

Uh-oh. Might not want to go down that road...

Thanks, Tom! I don't think you need a biscuit joiner to make cabinetry, or even a case miter like the night stands, but it is a nice tool to have.

And I agree with Bret.

 

[nicholam77]

My brother-in-law asked me to do a simple 3D print from Thingiverse, and I said yes and then of course I ran into problems.



I watched the beginning of the print, everything seemed fine. I go upstairs, and about 15-20min into the print I get a "Thermal Runaway" error pop up on my Octopod client app for iOS.



Which is awesome to be notified of such a thing. So I run down to the printer. At the moment it seemed to be going fine. Shortly after a Thermal Runaway Error alert shows up on the printer LCD and it starts beeping loudly. So I canceled the print. Then Octoprint reports "heating failed" "Heater_ID: bed" under the machine status.



I checked the Octoprint temperature graphs and can see the bed heater loses temperature around the time of the Thermal Runaway Error.



That's depicted at the first green line. You can see the light blue is the target temp for the bed and the dark blue is the actual temp and that's when they start to diverge.

I waited a bit, then powered the machine back on and reconnected to the Octoprint server. I tried the same print again. This time it was obvious even on the Ender LCD display that the bed heater was not reaching the requested temp for the print (60° C). You can see the same thing in the Octoprint temperature graph above at the second green line. It's still cooling down from before and not responding to commands.

Also, this second print, the printer beeped loudly about a minute in, and instead of a Thermal Runaway Error, it put this up on the screen:



Nozzle is too "lowperature"

I assume that means "Nozzle is too low temperature". However... looking at the same graph above as well as the LCD display in realtime, the nozzle temp was exactly where it was supposed to be, and maintained. So I don't understand why it's complaining about the nozzle. Additionally, Octoprint gave two of the same messages about the bed heater failure.

So it's pretty clear to me the heated bed plate is not functioning correctly. Why? I have no idea. I had no issues just a few days ago.

Maybe it's an easy fix, but it's seriously frustrating to have a hang up with this printer every other time I want to make something. I really enjoy and see the potential in 3D printing, but I'm about 3 more "troubleshooting adventures" away from chucking it in the trash.

Do I just buy a new bed plate heater? If anyone has ideas, let me know!

P.S. on the upside if you look at the temp graphs the new hot end is very consistent!

 

[loganb]

So no Ender specific knowledge...but seems similar to what I ran into on my Prusa when the bed temp sensor(technically a thermistor) developed an intermittent short at the transition from the bed plate to the wire loom running back to the controller. I could grab that bundle and slowly move it up/down and watch the temp sensor swing by 10C or greater. With the in/out motion of the bed 10's of thousands of cycles it is a definite stress point so might be where I'd start after grabbing a drink!

 

[Matias]

You sure have had you're share of the problems. It might be like with old cars, you always think that once I've fixed this, then I should get some trouble free miles as I've fixed nearly everything else. And then something fails again. Or not

Good luck finding the issue, hopefully a quick fix.

 

[kaymccampbell]

The wire loom at the back of the bed plate is known to have issues. One of the first things I printed was an improved support for it.

 

[nicholam77]

So no Ender specific knowledge...but seems similar to what I ran into on my Prusa when the bed temp sensor(technically a thermistor) developed an intermittent short at the transition from the bed plate to the wire loom running back to the controller. I could grab that bundle and slowly move it up/down and watch the temp sensor swing by 10C or greater. With the in/out motion of the bed 10's of thousands of cycles it is a definite stress point so might be where I'd start after grabbing a drink!

The wire loom at the back of the bed plate is known to have issues. One of the first things I printed was an improved support for it.

@loganb @kaymccampbell thanks — I'll start there and see what I can figure out. It does make sense, although I don't have that many hours on this thing. Kay, was that a pre-existing model or something you designed? I'm having trouble finding one.

You sure have had you're share of the problems. It might be like with old cars, you always think that once I've fixed this, then I should get some trouble free miles as I've fixed nearly everything else. And then something fails again. Or not

Good luck finding the issue, hopefully a quick fix.

Yep, pretty much. It has helped me learn more about the printer, which I don't mind, but sometimes I just want to print something without jumping through hoops! Thanks, Matias.

 

[kaymccampbell]

@loganb @kaymccampbell thanks — I'll start there and see what I can figure out. It does make sense, although I don't have that many hours on this thing. Kay, was that a pre-existing model or something you designed? I'm having trouble finding one.



Yep, pretty much. It has helped me learn more about the printer, which I don't mind, but sometimes I just want to print something without jumping through hoops! Thanks, Matias.

It was on Thingiverse. I may have modified it slightly, but I think what I would have done is insignificant.

Ender 3 Cable Chain by Jwhiskey3D

Update [10:53 PM 2018-06-16] Added parts assembly guide image cableChain_link_v3.stlNot constraint hinge to 1 direction anymore (But v2 still work fine)15 links for heatbed, 10-15 links for gantry.cableChain_bedCorner_v2.stl (and Cover)Easier Snap assembly and...

www.thingiverse.com

 

[Bakafish]

I concur with @kaymccampbell that the bed wiring is the first suspect. The alarm is happening because the thermistor isn't seeing the expected temperature raise, so the only safe thing to assume is that the thermistor is bad and send an alarm. If the bed is heating (you need to check this manually with a thermometer or your hand) but it isn't showing a temperature increase on Octoprint, then you need to focus on the thermistor circuit. If the bed really isn't heating, then we know there is a heater issue.

This is for the heater circuit, if the heater is actually trying to heat the bed I will write you up a procedure for the thermistor:

1) Check the heater terminals on the board. Tug on them first, then if they are tight, unscrew them and remove the two wires and inspect them for any melting or damage.
2) With the two wires removed from the board, use the impedance (Ohms) setting to check if the heater wiring and element is intact. It should show a fairly low impedance of a few ohms (but anything close to zero is a potential short. Move the bed back and forth and make sure it doesn't short out or do a full inspection of the wires.)

a) If the circuit is open then the wires have broken or the heating element is bad. The wires at the edge of the bed are often damaged because people put the machines close to the wall and when it homes it slams the wires into the wall everytime causing fatigue. I would repair such a breakage with a standard automotive crimp on **** joint, not solder, and print a better support and/or reposition the unit to give that connection some space.​

b) If the wires and heater are good, your board is suspect.​

i) The board may have a tiny automotive style fuse for the heater circuit, look for it and check continuity. If the fuse is blown, see warning below.​

ii) The boards mosfets controlling the bed heater may have blown.​

​

Do not just swap boards or fuse as the cause of the failure may have been due to a short. Make sure the wires at the bend point are intact and that the insulation is good everywhere first.​

 

[nicholam77]

@Bakafish thanks for the detailed procedure. From what I can remember from a few weeks ago, I don't think the bed was actually heating. I haven't had a chance to dive into this yet, but I appreciate the guidance, it will be helpful when I take a look!

It was on Thingiverse. I may have modified it slightly, but I think what I would have done is insignificant.

Ah it's one of those cable chain things. Thanks!

____________________


A week ago we spent a long weekend visiting my brother and his wife in NC. That made the 4th weekend in a row we've been out of town. He lives in Chapel hill but we stayed at the beach in Wilmington area. It was very nice.



I've been craving some shop time lately, but just haven't been able to make it happen. I had the kids to myself this past weekend, which was hectic as usual, but we got out and did some fun stuff.

One thing I took them to was a car show. An open house for Imola Motorsports in Minneapolis. (Plymouth if you're from around here). They had a sizable lot chock full of exotics. Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, all flavors of Porsche 911, McLaren, etc. So in lieu of a project post, here's some eye candy to look at.

Maserati MC20



DeTomaso Pantera




Not particularly exotic, but I had a soft spot for this 964 on BBS LMs:




This is all well and good, but the icing on the cake and my main reason for going was the handful of rare supercars and hypercars they had in back. We waited for 30min in a line in the hot sun to get into that section (they were letting a chunk of the crowd in at a time) and the kids were troopers.

Bugatti Chiron — I don't know the exact model but Google says starting at $3 million



Bugatti Divo — 1 of 20 produced, $5.9 million





Singer 911 — ~$1.1 million



Lamborghini 2022 Countach — 1 of 112, first one in the U.S. — $2.5 million base price





Pagani Huayra — somewhere around $3 million








There were many more interesting cars, but I'll wrap it up here.

My wheels are turning on the nightstand project, so hopefully I'll be getting into that soon.

 

[nicholam77]

double post — deleted

 

[bdbecker]

Lamborghini 2022 Countach — 1 of 112, first one in the U.S. — $2.5 million base price

I was kind of bummed that car wasn't on display at our show last week. The owner (Myron Stine) is from the DSM area.

 

[nicholam77]

I was kind of bummed that car wasn't on display at our show last week. The owner (Myron Stine) is from the DSM area.

That's interesting — I always wonder who owns these types of cars. I don't know anything about him other than the cursory Google search I just did. But I see he's ultra rich and was involved somehow ("vice chair") of the Iowa show you went to. I have to say, I admire him (and all the other owners) for putting their cars on display for the public to look at, especially a brand new one like that.

The Pagani got the most attention, but I was really looking forward to the Countach. My daughter approved of the purple paint spec, and yeah, I agree with her. Keep an eye out for it I guess!