As MarkForged is still quite small, we all wear many hats. Today I spent a few hours doing a detailed failure analysis. It is important to document the process with good photographs and as my eyes get worse, I study the photographs to better see what is going on. In this case, our contract manufacturer failed to align a part properly before press fitting into another part. This resulted in the metal shavings that can be seen at the bottom of the receptacle. The loss of that material from the sides caused the press fit to fail allowing one part to rotate within the other. There is something very satisfying about solving a mystery and even more so when I get to use photography to help me do it.

I found this photo among the ones taken in California by either John, Rory, Mario, Kyle or Nicolai during their cousin reunion. I think it is an exceptionally good photo and would like to know which of the boys made it and the details of where it was shot. It appears to be some type of automated storage system with a robotic gantry used to retrieve entire boxes. Will the creator please step forward?

Every now and then Jeanine invites her friends over for a “leftover” party. In theory, each brings leftovers from their respective refrigerators to share. Of course these “leftovers” are anything but. I generally try to keep a low profile and pop up only to sample the food. This evening, I was specifically instructed to forget anything I may have overheard of their conversations. What is said on the Calabria’s sun porch, stays on the Calabria sun porch, so to speak. No such admonition was issued regarding photography, however, and I will leave it to the viewer’s imagination to extrapolate from this photograph.

The weather was distinctly crummy today and I spent a good bit of the day catching up on work stuff and doing chores around the house (hung new blinds in Maya’s room and replaced a leaky hose on our kitchen sink faucet). I also found some time to document an idea that I had yesterday. Normally, I communicate my design thoughts on a whiteboard. Now that I have learned 3D CAD, I can quickly do so on a computer.

Although I probably have the days wrong it looks like the cousins made their way to both the coast and the redwoods. I still have not heard any direct reports (Jeanine is the major conduit of communications) but I believe they had to abort their plans for camping. I am glad they still had a chance to enjoy some time in nature.

Not pictured is Nicolai who took this photo of his cousins and brother during their California reunion. To a man they are excellent cooks and judging from all the photographs they took, food was the organizing principle of their time together.  What I do not understand is how they eat so much and stay so trim.  It must be all the exercise they get including the yoga workout led by Rory, the youngest and tallest of the cousins.

The male, Calabria side cousins have gathered in northern California at Kyle’s invitation for what I hope will be the first of many similar reunions. The boys (technically, men; I will withhold the use of that term, however, until a review of their behavior over the next few days suggests it is warranted) are very similar in age and have been very tight-knit since early childhood. My understanding is that they will spend at least one-night camping (Big Sur, I believe) and one day touring San Francisco. Johnny, visiting California for the first time, has lined up a couple of job interviews and will stay on for a few extra days.  Should Maya one day choose to extend this tradition, she will have an equal number of female Calabria side cousins to invite.  Adding Jeanine’s side of the family would bring the total number of first cousins to an even dozen.

The nature of working at a startup is that you wear many hats. In addition to my other responsibilities, I am occasionally pressed into service as the company’s photographer. Today I took some photos that will be used for a company blog posting which speaks to our obsession with strength testing of our materials. Pictured here is one of our top scientists (affectionately nick-named the Bone Crusher) conducting a strength test on a small carbon fiber beam that we printed.

I have been testing a new thermal imaging device that connects to my iPhone. Pixels within the image are mapped to a color palette that reflects the temperature at that location. Pictured here is one of the machines we use at work to produce nylon-impregnated carbon fiber.

Jeanine and I enjoyed an exquisite dinner with former neighbors Gabby and Stephan aboard their Gunboat catamaran off one of the Boston Harbor Islands this evening. The 60 foot carbon fiber sailing vessel is a thing of beauty, equipped with state of the art electronics and all the amenities you would expect to find in a luxury home. The crew of Sebastian and Sophie prepared dinner and saw to our every need as we enjoyed the sunset over a distant Boston skyline. A better way to spend a late summer evening I cannot imagine.

On a bike ride this morning I traveled under the railroad bridge on Main Street where work is underway to increase the height of the bridge over the roadway. The decapitation of more than one truck by this bridge has been well documented on this blog over the years and it is about time that something is being done to address the situation. It would have been far easier to lower the roadway, so I can only imagine that the water table was too high to permit doing so. Pictured in the foreground is the new bridge which has been staged on temporary supports. I imagine it will be lifted and placed by cranes when the old bridge is removed. What is not at all clear to me is how they will increase the height of the tracks to match the new bridge height without disrupting daily commuter train traffic. Rest assured I will be monitoring the situation carefully.

MarkForged, the startup I recently joined is expanding rapidly. We have totally out grown our current facility, an extremely funky converted machine shop in Somerville. Locating a new facility fell to my team which worked on a very short schedule to secure space in this building, located a stone’s throw from the Alewife station in North Cambridge. We will occupy the first floor (production and shop area) and half of the second floor (offices). We will make the move in phases starting in about 6 weeks. The location is as near perfect as one could hope for. The northern terminus of the MBTA Red Line, Alewife station is a short walk from the office which is equally accessible by car from Route 2. Bike riders will have easy access to the Minuteman Bikeway, Cambridge Linear Park, and the Fitchburg Cutoff Path. We will be right across the street from Fresh Pond which is surrounded by several parks and a golf course. The most important attribute of our new location is that it will greatly increase the pool of talent from which to recruit. Our current location is very attractive to urban dwellers (predominately recent college grads) but not very attractive to suburban dwellers (mostly more experienced folks with families). The new location strikes the perfect balance. My commute will be shortened from 17 to 15 miles. Amazingly this will cut my commute time in half because of the terrible traffic as you approach Boston.

Caught this little fellow outside the kitchen bay window this morning. He and his buddies are frequent visitors to our back yard where Jeanine sets out her own hummingbird nectar recipe. When things settle down a bit at work, I will endeavor to get a nicer photo rather than shooting through the window.

Jeanine requested a photo of this magnificent Cobb salad which I am posting a little delinquently with apologies. A lucky man is wise to know he is a lucky man.