What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

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fixed both our (work) 3D printers!

On the main printer, one of our designers printed some parts in ABS, but didn't put any glue stick down. so, they lifted and pulled up chips off the glass bed. it also heavily gummed up teh print head / hot end, so that also got replaced..
 
Yesterday, hauled 6 loads of corn for my brother, after driving the grain cart for a few hours. Then moved the tractor and cart to another farm just before dark. A full day.
 
Yesterday, hauled 6 loads of corn for my brother, after driving the grain cart for a few hours. Then moved the tractor and cart to another farm just before dark. A full day.

This time of year (and spring tillage) is when I wish I hadn't moved quite so far away from the farm. Would love to be helping out when I could.
 
This time of year (and spring tillage) is when I wish I hadn't moved quite so far away from the farm. Would love to be helping out when I could.

That’s what I do. I fill in on the weekends when needed. I have a (only) 40 hr a week job, so I can help out more now. I still like field work better than trucking, but right now, getting the crops out is first priority.
 
During a big meeting at work today discussing the construction of our new headquarters/lab. I was asked about how many compressed air, compressed nitrogen and vacuum turrets each fume hood needed, 1 set or 2. My response: "No one ever said 'I wish I had less hookups'"
:facepalm:

Immediately after the words left my mouth the waiting for who with the peculiar look on their face would break first, and set everyone of the 25 people in attendance to laughing...took about 3 seconds for the lab manager to lose it.

I am such an eloquent word talker.
 
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The price dropped on the Surface Book 3 15" after the new year's models came out - so I ordered one.

It seems to have come with a GPU that isn't even supposed to be an option.

:-(

Wait... it's in the base - redocking it seems to have woken it up.
 
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Installed a new garbage disposal after discovering the old one was dripping under the sink when we pulled stuff out to treat for little black ants in the kitchen. Replaced the old one with a similar new model, so for once the swap was straightforward with no curveballs thrown by the fact that we live in a manufactured home.

The old one was a least a decade old, probably older, so I can’t really fault its lifespan. It still ran, but it was dripping water out around the reset button on the bottom of the motor housing…..
 
Installed a new garbage disposal after discovering the old one was dripping under the sink when we pulled stuff out to treat for little black ants in the kitchen. Replaced the old one with a similar new model, so for once the swap was straightforward with no curveballs thrown by the fact that we live in a manufactured home.

The old one was a least a decade old, probably older, so I can’t really fault its lifespan. It still ran, but it was dripping water out around the reset button on the bottom of the motor housing…..
That's a seal failure for what it's worth. Your solution to the issue is the only viable option, so cause of failure is just trivia. I should mention the dishwasher hookup. Most disposals have a barb fitting on the side for the disposal discharge line. This fitting is plugged from the factory to prevent leakage if it isn't used. If you hook a line to it, you will need to break the knockout inside the fitting.

Jim
 
That's a seal failure for what it's worth. Your solution to the issue is the only viable option, so cause of failure is just trivia. I should mention the dishwasher hookup. Most disposals have a barb fitting on the side for the disposal discharge line. This fitting is plugged from the factory to prevent leakage if it isn't used. If you hook a line to it, you will need to break the knockout inside the fitting.

Jim
That was the most logical failure mode to me—the seal for the shaft going down from the grinder portion to the motor. I’m tempted to give the removed disposal to my grandson (age 15) so he can disassemble it and see…. :)

Understand about the knockout for the dishwasher. In this case the dishwasher feeds into the drain on the other sink of the pair. Since I replaced an Insinkerator Badger 5 with an Insinkerator Badger 5XL, the only part from all the supplied extra bits I used was the new outlet drain seal. It was about as simple a plumbing device swap as I’ve ever done, for once. I hate to just toss the new sink flange and hanger but I can’t think of anyone who would want it, so I guess it’s recyclable steel….
 
That was the most logical failure mode to me—the seal for the shaft going down from the grinder portion to the motor. I’m tempted to give the removed disposal to my grandson (age 15) so he can disassemble it and see…. :)

Understand about the knockout for the dishwasher. In this case the dishwasher feeds into the drain on the other sink of the pair. Since I replaced an Insinkerator Badger 5 with an Insinkerator Badger 5XL, the only part from all the supplied extra bits I used was the new outlet drain seal. It was about as simple a plumbing device swap as I’ve ever done, for once. I hate to just toss the new sink flange and hanger but I can’t think of anyone who would want it, so I guess it’s recyclable steel….
The Badger line is pretty reliable. 18 years of living in one house only resulted in one replacement, ours was originally a Bader 1 and got swapped for a more capable Badger 5.
 
Spent 2 days (Thursday & Fri) frantically trying to get work done on a tight deadline, while dealing with TARFU* software:
  • Webex continual crashes for meetings, ended up resorting to writing out & e-mailing 'explanation documents' with about 2 dozen screen shots.. Then talking about it / explaining it over the phone with one guy, then the same conversation with the next guy, and so on.. happily, I wasn't the only one with issues..**
  • Continuously updating a Creo model, 'cuze, well, it's Creo***. (And I add a hole, suddenly, lost an assembly constraint, 'cuze the hole changes the surface it's referenced to... and etc... one step forward, 2 steps back..)
  • Working in a Citrix environment, where we only have Citrix for excel, word, and outlook. Yet, for whatever stupid reason, I seem to randomly loose my server link / path for my M$ doc history, dictionaries, etc.. So I then need to restart Citrix (and close everything down.) IT can't figure it out, and I seem to be the only one that has this issue.. Citrix sucks!
  • spent the better part of the day at the office, waiting to have the meeting [with upper seniors] for the above design review, only to be told the final review, estimated for about 3:00pm, "has been pushed to Tuesday" (So, I came in for nothing... Grrrr!!)
  • bought a new car, and had to fit that in (picked it up on Thursday afternoon).. And we took the wife car in to be serviced (Friday). So, she had to squeeze driving me into the office for the above.. And drive my new car (so, her anxiety made her a basket case, on top of allergies & a sensitive tummy..
So, likely one of the worst weeks I've had in a very long time. Nothing worked right, and on a project that is becoming a nightmare /PITA in its own right, with people who are equally as burnt out as I..


Off to a friends' Scotch tasting tonight.. Much needed! :D

Had to vent.. thanks!

* go look it up! :D
** I assume Webex and/or Citrix (and/or Chrome) made an unannounced update, which ...
*** PTC Creo is a very powerful CAD program [in line with CATIA], but the user interface is a royal POS..
 
Got stuff out and double checked for my limited hunting seasons. Got a shotgun checked for ducks and geese, got a different shotgun checked for turkey and lastly my crossbow for deer. Next week, when it isn't raining, I'll take everything to a nearby DNR site that has a shootrange to test everything and confirm zero on scopes.

This is the first year my application for a reserved deer hunt at one of the state parks was approved. The county the park is in doesn't allow discharging firearms so the entire county doesn't get hunted much. The deer cause lots of damage so while I will enjoy the meat, I'm more interested in population control to ensure a healthy herd.
 
I'm taking today to recover from back to back 72 hour work weeks and a 19 hour duty day if you include drive time yesterday.

On a totally unrelated note, I think I'll start gathering bits and pieces for a L2 attempt in the next year or two and some more motors for the next time I can attend a launch.
 
Reading the Mexican wiring regulations for electrical installations (for work, not pleasure). One thing that frightened me was "Mechanical stress in joints and terminals. Flexible cords and flexible cables must be connected to devices and accessories in such a way that no mechanical stress is transmitted to the joints or terminals. Some methods to prevent the pull exerted on a cord from being transmitted to the joints or terminals are to knot the cord, fasten it with electrical tape, and accessories designed for that purpose". One out of three ain't bad :eek:.
 
Reading the Mexican wiring regulations for electrical installations (for work, not pleasure). One thing that frightened me was "Mechanical stress in joints and terminals. Flexible cords and flexible cables must be connected to devices and accessories in such a way that no mechanical stress is transmitted to the joints or terminals. Some methods to prevent the pull exerted on a cord from being transmitted to the joints or terminals are to knot the cord, fasten it with electrical tape, and accessories designed for that purpose". One out of three ain't bad :eek:.
Reason 1,763 to never go to Mexico.
 
In going through my files I found the instructions for the disposal I just replaced but not the receipt or any other info on the installation date. Neither my wife nor I could remember when it was put in, only that it was a replacement for the one that came with the house. We’ve been here for 35 years. So it might have lasted 20 years. I just can’t document it.

Ooops - I just looked in another place and found the bill from the plumber for the installation - June 29, 2004. So not quite 20 years. A little over 17.

The plumber charged us $107 for the disposal itself on that 2004 bill. I paid only a few dollars more for the one I got at Lowe’s ($119, less 5% for using the Lowe’s card), so quite a bit less on a purchasing power basis. And made (at least designed and assembled for the new one) in the USA to boot.

I can. Any such built in or other major appliance should last at least twice that long.
 
Most devices whose function involves water handling (disposals, appliances, water heaters, pumps, etc) are estimated to have a 10 year lifespan. At least that's the generic answer that techs and installers are told to give. Most devices do better, ten years is a pessimistic estimate, but water quality has a big effect on lifespan. Some seemingly real good water is actually aggressive and attacks metal. Not naming names.

Jim
 
went to my weekly foot doctor appointment to get more skin grafts put on the bottom of my right foot, we have been treating this for 3 months and have about two more months to go and hopefully it will get healed up. they came and installed all brand new vinyl flooring and created a dust cloud of concrete dust that is on every square inch of the condo so then two days later the painters patched the 6 holes in the ceiling where they condo owner above me ran his sink over .and flooded our condo. So that was all patched and all of the ceilings were painted ....now tomorrow the cleaning crew is supposed to be coming to get all of the dust off of everything.
My son picked up two new batteries and came over and removed the two-year-old lawn and garden tractor batteries that are in my power chair and installed the new batteries the first set lasted four years , the second-set less than two months, the third sets lasted two years, so we'll see how this one does.
 
I've been winterizing. I shut down and drained the irrigation well as well as the sprinkler system. I also discovered that the previous property owner seriously misinformed me about how that is plumbed. I got it figured out but not until I started feeling pretty stupid. Don't take the owner's word about underground pipe. Mulched a brush pile and spread that over plants. Not thrilling but necessary, we are supposed to see a freeze in a few days.

Jim
 
Scrounging parts so the company doesn't have a $5million hole in production in the near future. This electronic part shortage is affecting lots of products, not just cars as many people think. I have been doing it off and on for a year or two as part of my work, but it has been solid the last six weeks. This latest part has probably taken around six man-weeks of effort to mitigate. I am a bit over this currently.
 
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