The boys have returned to the nest for the Thanksgiving holiday. Nico arrived late last night and Kyle early this morning on the red-eye. Both looked pretty exhausted and happy to be home. Nico was in dire need of a haircut which I was happy to administer. He is pictured here before and after.
All three kids had homework to do and it was fun to see them gathered around the dining room table again.
At the risk of boring followers of this blog with yet another build project for my shop, here is a nice little holder for my pliers. For a change of pace, I resisted the temptation to 3D print this part and constructed it out of Baltic Birch plywood. I also ordered myself a new set of Wiha pliers to replace my aging Craftsman set, some of which I have owned for 30 years. Be forewarned that my soon to arrive bright red and yellow handled plier set will be featured in an upcoming blog entry.
The feather board I designed a few weeks ago has received 667 views and been downloaded 44 times on Thingiverse. It was posted there by our marketing guys. As a result of its popularity, they asked me to print and assemble another one for use at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) where we will be exhibiting in January. I decided to create a larger version and used Kevlar instead of carbon fiber for reinforcement.
When I designed the dust collection system for my shop I ensured that every major piece of dust-producing equipment had a dedicated drop. The one thing I forgot to provision for was a simple vacuum hose. Why not use my 3hp cyclonic vacuum with 55-gallon bin capacity instead of my 6-gallon shop vac with expensive bags for general clean up. In order to make this happen I had to tap into an existing 8″ drop that services my table saw. Normally this would involve a lot of shopping around and cobbling together the right combination of pipes and flanges. With access to a 3D printer, however, the entire project was a breeze. It took 20 minutes to CAD a flange that would mate perfectly with the 4″ blast gate I use to control airflow. I also designed a step-down adapter to interface the blast gate with my 2 1/2″ vacuum hose. It took less than ten minutes to cut a hole in the existing pipe and install the components. The new vacuum line works perfectly with no air leaks and could suck the underwear off a nun.
Maya returned from Washington D.C. this evening and I was at the airport to pick her up. She had a tremendous experience at the Anti Defamation League National Youth Leadership Mission conference which she has been attending for the last three days. She shared her impressions and take aways during the ride home. Key among them was how exciting it was to interact with equally passionate kids from around the country all committed to building a society free of hate. Hearing from and speaking directly with survivors of the Holocaust was the highlight of the trip for Maya. Her generation will be the last to receive first hand accounts of what happened to the Jewish people at the hands of the Nazis. She also enjoyed speeches from Archie Panjabi (actress who played Kalinda on The Good Wife) and Taye Diggs (the actor who played Dr. Sam Bennett on Private Practice).
Having finally obtained our building permit, MarkForged is preparing to move to our new facility at Ten Fawcett near the Alewife train station. I am not going to miss the crowded, noisy, and distinctively low budget location we currently occupy. Using my car as a phone booth was fine on rain-free summer days but extending the necessary practice into the winter months would have been a drag. Sitting next to our frequently operating CNC milling machine has grown positively tiresome. Not having enough room for a proper workspace or meeting is probably my biggest complaint. If all goes to plan we will move to our new location on November 28th. As happy as I will be to make the transition, it is clear to me that the shortcomings and idiosyncrasies of our current location will one day be the subject of epic tales about our humble beginnings. I decided to take a few minutes and photograph the entire location for posterity.
The weather was magnificent this noon hour so I decided to walk to Felipe’s for a burrito. As I was returning through Harvard Yard, I paused for this photo of a self service leaf raking station, something I have never encountered before and wondered if it would work in our backyard. Minutes later, police and SWAT officers began appearing everywhere and two helicopters could be seen hovering over the campus. Everyone in the yard and students in four adjacent buildings were asked to exit immediately as the area was cordoned off. I later learned that a bomb threat had been reported and the magnitude of the emergency response was not surprising in light of the recent attacks in Paris. Fortunately the threat was deemed to be unfounded after a 5-hour search of the buildings.
Temperatures dropped significantly by early evening when I drove to Lynn to watch as the Concord Carlisle Girl’s Soccer team won the D2 state title.
Maya had a busy day in Washington D.C. at her National Youth Leadership Mission conference. In the morning she heard from the ADL’s National Director, Jonathan Greenblatt, who discussed the importance of speaking up when you see injustice. The lunchtime speaker was Marion Ingram, a Holocaust survivor and civil rights activist, who talked about her experiences in Germany and the US. Workshops focused on the relevance of the speakers’ stories to the lives of the student delegates, to the delegates’ encounters with prejudice, and to their roles as leaders in actively promoting respect for all people. In the afternoon the New England contingent toured the Washington Mall before attending ADL’s National Concert Against Hate at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts later in the evening.
Maya is one of 60 students in the country selected as a representative to the Anti Defamation League National Youth Leadership Mission . Founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” the ADL is now a civil rights/human relations agency whose mission is to fight anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry, defend democratic ideals and protect civil rights for all. Maya is pictured here with fellow students representing the New England Chapter upon arrival in Washington D.C. where they will attend a conference and visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
I am very fortunate to have a very spacious workshop that also doubles as my photo studio. Each year at this time I like to organize my shop in preparation for the winter months when I generally do most of my woodworking. Pictured here is one section of the shop which I like to think of as my hardware store. For the last several days I have spent an hour or two organizing everything so I can quickly find what I need. This morning I completed the task and will soon turn my attention to adding a new vacuum outlet to my dust collection system.
Even while using the navigation system built into my car, I like to use Waze on my iPhone for real-time traffic conditions and early warnings for speed limit enforcement. I have struggled for some time to locate my phone where I can easily see the screen without taking my eyes from the road. Not able to find a commercially available solution that I liked, I decided to design my own. The biggest challenge was finding a point of attachment for the stalk which positioned the phone cradle in the optimal position and at the ideal angle. I achieved a robust and easy-to-install solution by designing a perfectly sized insert for my center column cup holder. I used carbon fiber in the stalk and made two matching inserts for my other cup holders. This invention of necessity was good enough for first place at today’s Part of the Week contest. When Jeanine spotted the new addition to my car she immediately requested that I build her one.
Jeanine alerted me to a beautiful sunset that I caught at the last second.
I have been developing a prototype for an improvement to the way we dispense Nylon from a large spool. Our current approach uses a hub and axle. If a strand of Nylon filament comes off the spool, as it is prone to do, the print will be ruined when the Nylon gets tangled around the axle. The new approach uses rollers to support the spool. It does not prevent Nylon from coming off the spool but it self-clears every time with no negative impact on printing. This entire assembly fits inside of a dry-box which prevents the Nylon from being degraded by moisture.
One of our very talented mechanical engineers created this prosthetic hand on our 3D printer. Nylon is a wonderful engineering material but it is really hard to photograph in a pleasing way. I like the way this one turned out based on the background selection (a tool drawer where we store drill bits). It should be no wonder why it is so difficult to win Part of the Week when you are up against this caliber of design talent.
With my new Festool Kapex miter saw fully setup it is off to Craig’s List for my trusty Makita. It cleaned up very nicely and should bring a good fraction of its original price.