For those who know me well, it will come as no surprise that I spent 20 hours today (5 AM until 1 AM) refining the floorplan for our new house project. I must have completed at least two dozen versions before settling on this one. The massive effort was triggered when Jeanine and I agreed that we would move our main bedroom from the first floor to the second. Since we are hoping to age in place here, we initially decided that a first-floor bedroom would be advantageous when eventual infirmity makes stair climbing less desirable. When that day comes, in our new concept, we will move from the upstairs main bedroom to the downstairs guest room which is being designed for wheelchair accessibility. Hopefully, that day is a long way off and in the meantime, we will enjoy what are arguably the best views of the river from the second floor.

I completed my third model of our new house this evening. Each one has been a refinement of the previous one both in terms of design and fidelity. At this point, the basic shape feels right (plus or minus some roof pitch adjustments) and the next phase will be tuning of window size and placement. Although it will probably be a year or more before our new home will be a reality, it must be said, that I really enjoy the design process and the phase we are in now.

After many days of sub-zero temperatures, we finally got a small break from the frigid cold. Our collection of icicles were in melting overdrive. I was lazy and shot this image from indoors through a window. A more determined photographer would have gone outside and set up an off-camera flash to really freeze the motion of these streaming droplets.

On a walk through our neighborhood, I encountered no less than three snow people. This one was my favorite. I am a fan of the carrot for nose school of design and also felt the hair treatment was upstanding (outstanding).

Kyle with his girlfriend, Sabriya, on the Cape visiting his buddy’s airplane hanger earlier in the week. Jeanine is attempting to lure the kids home for Valentine’s Day with the promise of homemade lasagna. I spent a few hours building a foam core model of the new house. Doing so led me to make a few dimensional adjustments to the roof heights and I will make one more model when all of the window elevations have been finalized.

Jeanine is taking advantage of our recent snowfall to get some outdoor exercise. This morning she set out on her snowshoes for an early hike around the neighborhood. This is what happy looks like.

The fun continues at work as we continue to experiment with new shapes. Now that we have cracked the code on our metal deposition, we are printing a new part every day. This one is interesting because it would be very hard to machine using conventional methods given the hardness of the material and the thinness of the wall. It is just a tad smaller than a tennis ball. By next week, I predict we will have printed a part that is impossible to make using machine tools.

The Holy Grail for metal 3D printing. An unsupported 45-degree thin wall part. This morning, my team achieved what is arguably the ultimate milestone in our development journey thus far. Today, the uphill battle may have transitioned into a downhill sprint. While there is still much refinement to be done, we have without a doubt reached an inflection point in the life of the company. We celebrated at the office with Champagne and ice cream.

Using last week’s discovery, my team printed this cylindrical tube demonstrating our ability to print arbitrary shapes. Tomorrow we will go for broke and try to print a part with a cantilevered structure. It is the last hurdle we need to clear to demonstrate the ultimate value of our technology. Fingers crossed.

The icicle pictured here was hanging from our carport this morning. When I first noticed it, there was little to distinguish it from all the other icicles dangling from the roofline. Then I realized that what I assumed was a forming water droplet at the tip was actually frozen solid. As I scanned the other icicles, it became clear that this was a very unique occurrence, especially when one considers how necked down the pinch point is. The whole experience was a poignant reminder to me about how much beauty can be found around us if one simply pauses to look for it.

This morning we woke to more snow and further evidence of our resident coyote’s penchant for strolling up and down the frozen Sudbury River. While the ice is thick enough to support a coyote, I opted not to test it with my weight despite a great desire to make a closer inspection of the tracks. Jeanine suggested we set up her trail cam near the shoreline and perhaps we will see a future post featuring the results of that effort.

This morning, I spotted a coyote crossing the frozen river behind our house. By the time I got my camera, he was gone. Fortunately, one of our neighbors also spotted him and got a photograph which I am sharing here. Later in the day, Jeanine located some fresh tracks in the snow directly behind our house which were almost certainly made by the same fellow.

Yesterday was a super exciting one at work. Members of my team printed a single voxel wide perimeter wall using a new and very novel method. This breakthrough will allow us to print with a minimum feature size three times smaller than we thought possible, produces the best wall finish we have ever seen and should enable us to print cantilevered structures. I can’t overstate what a major breakthrough this is for the company.

Having embraced the DeWALT cordless tool family, I own more than twenty tools and half as many batteries. The relatively new one pictured above is a 60V 6AH FlexVolt which no longer takes a charge. Given it costs north of $120, I decided it was worth trying to repair rather than sending it to the dump. After opening it up, I identified a single defective cell of the 15 in this pack. I then carefully carved away the plastic holding it in place and removed the spot-welded tab from both sides. It slid out easily and I ordered a replacement cell on Amazon for $4. It should be here in a week and I will report out if the patient survives the surgery.