My friend “Antoine” at his house, relaxing in the south of France thinking only about our next tennis games our next beer or the next trip to the beach with the kids…
On my way to the annual Senior Management Meeting. Waiting for the plane to go to Orlando, Gatwick airport full of kids and 2 hours delay on the clock, this is a bad start to my day…
Done but of shopping, now officially bored.
Trying to stay away from my work computer, might have to clear my inbox just to occupy my mind.
During my last trip to France, I bought a ENO Plancha.
I did not buy the table/stand that goes with it because it would not fit in my car.
Because I live in the UK, there is no store selling Planchas and certainly no store selling plancha tables…
I decided to build one myself. I did browse for many different type on the web and then decided to build my own design. Below is the work in progress.
I has a few LEDs to provide minimal lighting outside.
During the design phase, I used openscad to test how to build the frame etc. I wanted to hide the gas bottle, have a drawer, have some lighting and have look of something robust, built to last.
I really struggled to find any good supplier of hardwood locally (Central London). I then found some wooden flooring OAK plank, which I thought I could hack into simple planks. I had to convert all the wooden floor plank to the correct width using a small jig on my festool table. Then I started building, freestyle as my brother wood say… I also added a few caster wheels to make it easier to move around. Given that the whole structure will be entirely made of oak wood.
It is getting closed to the day when I will be using it, that is if the weather gets better and rain stops falling.
[UPDATE]
Well almost finished now. It is now out of the garage and is ready for “finishing” with oils or varnish, not sure yet what I am going to do. Gas bottle fits neatly in the back and the cover fits as well…pfeew!…
I used laser cut small pieces of plywood to create spacers for the various planks and ensure that they would all look nicely spaced. you can see a couple in the picture here to the right side of the bottom.
Next on the list :
I might fit a proper plug to be able to bring a portable induction plate to put next to it and then I will have a full cooking Zone in the garden…
I have been frustrated at trying to get my 3D printer to work as it is supposed to.
Recently upgraded the various firmwares inside the machine to latest versions and doing some test prints of test cubes. Have been finding many small glitches in the various bits of software and it is driving me CRAZY !!!!.
The workflow for 3D printing is still VERY far from mainstream Grandma printing her earing aid to watch Murray win Wimbledon….
Not sure which one will make it first actually.
I am only trying to replicate a “wooden” spool to help a friend of Manu.
This friend makes customized spools with pictures etc…Her manufacturing process require plaster and building molds. She uses a wooden Spool but it deforms during the manufacturing process because of humidity etc.. She is therefore looking for a plastic spool. I offered to try to print one with my 3D Printer.
I created a spool in Openscad, then tried to print. 
However because of the overhang, it is better printed in 2 parts that assemble back to back.
I am now in Version 5 of the Openscad design and seem to be going backwards versus the very first version I printed. Trying to add to many detailed features created actually a more complicated shape which fails to print right.
Frustrated…
This is a toy rocket Launcher for SAFE take-off. This is for small rockets such as the ones from Apogee.
I built mine around an Arduino.
The code is very simple and good introduction to micro controller coding in general.
Also built a few parts with the Makerbot, using TinkerCad for the design.
This weekend it was the First communion of my youngest son, Noe.
We made a feast with the family, I roasted a small piglet in the BBQ. It was my first roast and it was very nice. Very sweet and nicely cooked all the way through but still very juicy and tender. I am very pleased with the results.
We also had some very nice wine…
Made some foie gras from a fresh duck liver. The recipe is very simple.
1- Leave raw foie gras in milk overnight in fridge.
2- Take out of fridge, let it rest 30 minutes then separate the lobes and remove the veins. There is a big lobe and a small one, the veins travel differently in each. Simply use fingers or small knife. This is an important part, a thorough job here will make a very smooth foie gras at the end.
3- Put all the foie bits in a terrine and poor a couple of table spoons of Ports and a couple of table spoons of Armagnac. Sprinkle a few spoons of spices as you like. (I like 5 spices and pepper). You can put salt now but would recommend salt on the finished product rather than in the cooking. Back in fridge for the liquids to get absorbed in the liver.
4- Cook in the terrine in the oven at 160 degrees celsius, “au bain marie” ( poor boiling water around the terrine in a bigger container). I cook with the terrine “open”, so I can see what is going on and check the temperature of the foie. I usually wait for the foie to get to at least 55 to 60 degrees celsius. This might take 20/30 minutes ()?
5- Take the terrine out and let cool down. You can press the foie slightly so that the meat is all at the bottom and the fat comes to the top. For this you can use a small piece of wood of the appropriate size wrapped in cling film and let it rest on top of the terrine with a small weight on top.
5- When cooled, put in fridge overnight. The fat will go solid on top and provide a “air-tight” protection for the foie gras.
6- Eat the foie gras on a toast of bread with a bit of salt and a sweet wine.
Just an other robot I purchased for Easter….from the evil scientists here….good fun, all Arduino based, open source and simple to use as an extension to Inkscape.
We had a few goes at CNC drawing on the eggs of we had in the fridge…including this Nutrition Facts for the eggs.
Less than an hour build time.
There is nothing like coming back home (in London) from a long trip down to my parents.
The car is always full of souvenirs to eat or drink…
Unloading the car is always a bit of a pain and always marks the end of some sort of holiday but the first drink from one of the “souvenirs” is always there to boost the spirit as a starter.
Cheers until next time.
A few days in Alpe D’Huez at the Club Med., very nice weather and great relaxing with the family.
Snow was rubbish and slopes disappointing because the nicest runs were closed. (Sarene and the Tunnel)
Next year, back to Park City.
I had a problem today, I solved it and I learned a few new skills, it was a good day.
I recently added a secure bolt to the bottom of one of my outside doors to make it more difficult to simply break-in for any wannabe thief.
Although the bolt is effective to secure the bottom of the door, the way it is setup is annoying as the bolt constantly catches the step at the bottom as you open and close the door.
Essentially it needs something to keep the bolt “high” so that when you open or close the door it does not drag on the floor.
I thought I could solve this problem easily with a 3D Printed Part of my Makerbot.
I started with a quick design on Tinkercad. What a great piece of cloud computing…
Then downloaded the part to my computer, send it to the printer and… “et voila!”.
The workflow :
Problem -> Idea -> TinkerCad -> STL File -> ReplicatorG -> GCode on SD Card -> 3D Printing -> Physical ABS Part -> No Problem anymore.
See the pictures for more detail.
I have recently discovered the Processing programming environment, following some more experimentation with Arduino hardware.
It feels like I am back in front of my TRS-80, but with GHZ of power, the door seems to open again to plenty of fun app.
The integration for Graphical fun and support for modern file management such as export to PDF etc… make it a great tool to learn a modern programming language with very little complexity initially.
However, the language is fully capable of more sophisticated behaviour once you include a few additional libraries such as the GUI of ControlP5.
I recommend. See an example here.
Simply wave around the mouse in the window and watch your creation….you will be gone for 10 minutes at least…
