Time:
Like space but more personal and precious, although you are free to use it as you wish, it will force you to travel in only one direction. Sharing time with someone is the greatest gift you can receive.
Repairing Stuff
My Dad came for a few days to our house in London.
He had a broken part for a sun shade for his house. A plastic part melted away in the sun and there is no available spare parts. The company making the sun-shade is either bankrupt or cannot provide spares.
I had a go at re-building the parts with a 3D CAD software and trying to print with my new Replicator 2X from Makerbot.
Below the results. I still do not know if the part works because I need to ship the part ot my Dad in France, if only he had a 3D printer in his house I could simply send him the digital file for him to print !! Maybe in the future….
Also below a 3D representation of the actual file. This is version 4, which is complete but not final until actually checking the fit.
I also made the part stronger in the area were the original file failed, by putting a couple of strong pieces of ABS.
The part is made of Natural ABS extruded at 230c. Printed a medium resolution. With layer thickness of 0.27mm, 75% infill, 2 shells, 110c heated platform with Blue sticky paper, the model is sliced in 103 layers, weigth is about 22grams, volume is approx 22cc, cost of ABS is approx $1.06 (with $48/kg retail price), time to print is approx 1h 50 minutes for the latest version 4.
Main problem encountered was to actually construct the part in 3D.
It required a lot of measurements using a micrometer (Mitutoyo are the only one worth buying…i bought other brands and are simply flimsy in compare)
We need a 3D scanner to be able to capture all the details and then some fancy software to recognise actual primitives in the file to allow for reverse engineering. There is still plenty of things to improve before 3D printing makes it to replace traditional manufacturing methods or goes into everybody’s house !!!
I also spent a “few hours” of my time on this which would make a single repair unaffordable for a business in my opinion. Nobody will pay more than a few $ for the new parts and it will still cost “man hours” even if the machine steps are now very short and accessible.
End of Post.
Posted in CNC & 3D Printing, Home Life
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Building a Bird House
This weekend, I spent some time building a small bird house for the garden.
It is all laser cut and then I added a small 3D printed feeder, which looks like a BBQ next to the chalet….
Enjoy…
Flat Sheet Drawing. ([download id=”2″])
Posted in CNC & 3D Printing, Home Life
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Productive Day
Today I had a productive day :
Trip to post office to pick-up package. Stop at coffee shop fro breakfast. Clear-up garage and trip to the dump. More clear-up of garage and sorting out winter things. Stop at the hobby craft place to checkout the “new things”. Bought only a couple of things. Run a washing machine, Dishwasher, clear-up. Eat Chinese left-over for Lunch. Update software on my recent “Barometre”, electronic thing. Clear-up of garden rubish and weeding of vegetable garden. Painted a door and the suspended garden with “Ronseal”. Check fish pond for PH/GH/Etc…Pond needs water to be less “hard”. (London is a dirty air town…). Did not change the light bulb of the front of the house, :(.
I deserve a beer and playing with my new 3D Printer…
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Recette Boules de Berlin – Tante Helene
The perfect recipe to lift the spirit when on the 23rd of March it is snowing in the UK…!!
Ingredients : (Makes about 20 boules)
500g Flour
120g Melted Butter
50g Sugar
1 tea spoon Salt
50g of “Levure Fraiche” diluted in 250ml of cold Milk
4 egg yolks and 1 full egg.
Recipe :
Mix all ingredients together using the Kenwood.
Adjust the flour if required to obtain a dough ball slighty wet.
Leave ball of pastry in a bowl in a warm away from drafts. (oven)
Leave to rise for 1 hour
“Abaisser” with a rolling pin to 3/4 cm thick.
Cut Pastry in circles with a glass
Roll into balls with hands. Do not crush the balls.
Leave balls on a floured tray
Let rise again for 30 minutes / 40 minutes
Cook in a deep fat fryer at 160 degres (4 at a time)
The balls will cook on one side and then turn on their own (or you might want to help a little bit) once that side is cooked.
Take out once they are cooked on both sides
put on absorbing paper to cool down
Fill the balls with “creme patissiere” (or use this ready made mix Imperial) or Home made Blueberry Jelly (! special ! recipe to follow) and sprinkle with icing sugar
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Bechamel Sauce
This post is to save for future reference the recipe for Bechamel sauce, the base sauce for French cuisine
Bechamel was a french financier during the reign of king Louis ivx, so I should know it by heart !!
Quantities :
The easy way is to decide first how much sauce you need, then use 1/10th of flour and butter.
so for 500ml of milk (enough for a small lasagna)
Butter – 50g
The same quantity of flour – 50g
salt, pepper, and nutmeg to taste.
Cooking:
Heat the butter until it is lightly brown, take off heat, mix the flour in one go, mix well to make a paste, and bring back to heat, cooking a little bit more until the flour is also taking on some blonde colour, add cold milk in one single go to avoid lumps (if you add milk too slowly you will get lumps), it will take roughly 3 minutes to get back to boiling.
It is very important to keep whisking the bechamel as it is cooking. The highest risk is that it will stick to the bottom of the pan. When milk and flour are boiling again, cook for approximately 3 minutes.
To find out if the bechamel is cooked. Take a table spoon and dip it into the bechamel, and make a line with your finger on the back of the spoon. If the path made by your finger stays clearly visible and the sauce does not drip to fill the path of your finger, then the sauce is ready.
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