Heating the milk. I was tired of losing the thermometer into the milk to I clipped it to the side of the pot.
Cooling the milk down in the sink because the pot was so large
Saturday, 29 December 2012
Yogurt take 2
So everyone seems to have loved the yogurt I made :) I personally loved it with fruit so this afternoon I decided to make some more. The one concern that my mom mentioned was that I was using milk with 3.8% fat so I wanted to see how it would work with less fatty milk. But I still have 1 leter of the heavy milk so rather than just dump it and try with skim milk I decided to mix the fatty milk with the 1% milk that I have for cereal. I also decided to make a double batch since my parents loved it and so did Talia.
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Yogurt and Sour Dough bread
I love strawberry yogurt and so last night when Talia and I went shopping I made sure to get some strawberries. For breakfast I decided to go and try and favour the yogurt I made the other day.I started by getting some strawberries and slicing them up into small prices. I then tossed them into a small pot with a couple tablespoons of water and a tablespoon of sugar and started them stewing.
Once the fruit was nicely bubbling I took it off the heat and mixed it into the yogurt. I tasted it and it was still a little sour so I added 2 more teaspoons of sugar and mixed it all together. Talia loved it for breakfast. The one thing that I noticed was it turned a little too liquidy after I added the fruit. The extra water I added to stew the fruit caused it so next time I will see about making the fruit without as much water.
Bread: The other day I started making a sour dough starter. It was really simply, take flour, add water, and wait a couple of days. Every couple hours give it a stir. This kind of went crazy. In less than 2 days the batter had turned into a giant bubbly mass. I actually had to divide it into 2 containers and put it in the fridge to try and slow down the growth. So this morning after making the yogurt I decided to make the bread. The one thing I forgot was that the fridge would have stopped the yeast in the batter from continuing to grow. I ended up guessing as to how much salt and extra flour to add but it turned out very nice. I left it to rise for 3 hours because it was so cold and that was my big mistake. The yeast just didnt rise that much, I should have left it out for a couple hours to come to room temperature. But even then after 3 hours I rolled it out and put it into a pan and it turned out quite nice.
The flavour is very subtle and its really soft.
Once the fruit was nicely bubbling I took it off the heat and mixed it into the yogurt. I tasted it and it was still a little sour so I added 2 more teaspoons of sugar and mixed it all together. Talia loved it for breakfast. The one thing that I noticed was it turned a little too liquidy after I added the fruit. The extra water I added to stew the fruit caused it so next time I will see about making the fruit without as much water.
Bread: The other day I started making a sour dough starter. It was really simply, take flour, add water, and wait a couple of days. Every couple hours give it a stir. This kind of went crazy. In less than 2 days the batter had turned into a giant bubbly mass. I actually had to divide it into 2 containers and put it in the fridge to try and slow down the growth. So this morning after making the yogurt I decided to make the bread. The one thing I forgot was that the fridge would have stopped the yeast in the batter from continuing to grow. I ended up guessing as to how much salt and extra flour to add but it turned out very nice. I left it to rise for 3 hours because it was so cold and that was my big mistake. The yeast just didnt rise that much, I should have left it out for a couple hours to come to room temperature. But even then after 3 hours I rolled it out and put it into a pan and it turned out quite nice.
The flavour is very subtle and its really soft.
Monday, 24 December 2012
Planters in winter
While I am here and on a blogging roll I figured I would also type up what is happening in my garden. I have a new planter thanks to my fabulous father. I had this idea a couple weeks ago to provide more light to my plants without taking much more space and a couple of weeks ago I talked to my dad to hear his thoughts on how to go about building it but I never managed to find the time to try and build it. Thankfully my dad took it upon himself to go and test it out and build a prototype my planter light stand.
Rewind: So winter is always depressing for plants. I have to bring them all inside in order to keep plants growing and with the way our apartment is its almost impossible to get enough light. The only place where a decent amount of light gets in is in the bedroom and even with that I have had a lot of issues with growing things. So the other day I was trying to figure out how to set up some extra plant lights. The idea was simply, build a box (that can hold the planter pots) with 2 poles running up opposite sides. Attached to the poles would be a florescent light. Piece of cake...
What my dad created was FABOULOUS!!!! it was a nice box on the bottom the poles and a box on the top that contains 2 light bulbs.
The upper box contains the lights and provides the perfect place to hold extra smaller plants that don't need as much light.
Now you may be wondering about why I put the planter pots sideways in the light box. The simply answer is that the lower box is too large for my pots and I wasn't going to be able to fit all the plants on the dresser even with the added space on the lights. That being said, Talia came up with a brilliant idea that will look amazing and allow for the perfect fit. Ikea glass décor pots!
We are planning to put 10 of these under the lights. The fit perfectly with a small amount of space around the pots. The glass will look amazing and the depth will be really nice for starting plants in. The best part, we have a coupon for ikea so we can go and pick them up in january. I can't wait until My dad and I can make more of them so that I can start growing all my herbs and even start planting for the spring early :)
~(' ')~
Rewind: So winter is always depressing for plants. I have to bring them all inside in order to keep plants growing and with the way our apartment is its almost impossible to get enough light. The only place where a decent amount of light gets in is in the bedroom and even with that I have had a lot of issues with growing things. So the other day I was trying to figure out how to set up some extra plant lights. The idea was simply, build a box (that can hold the planter pots) with 2 poles running up opposite sides. Attached to the poles would be a florescent light. Piece of cake...
What my dad created was FABOULOUS!!!! it was a nice box on the bottom the poles and a box on the top that contains 2 light bulbs.
The upper box contains the lights and provides the perfect place to hold extra smaller plants that don't need as much light.
The full dresser :)
Now you may be wondering about why I put the planter pots sideways in the light box. The simply answer is that the lower box is too large for my pots and I wasn't going to be able to fit all the plants on the dresser even with the added space on the lights. That being said, Talia came up with a brilliant idea that will look amazing and allow for the perfect fit. Ikea glass décor pots!
We are planning to put 10 of these under the lights. The fit perfectly with a small amount of space around the pots. The glass will look amazing and the depth will be really nice for starting plants in. The best part, we have a coupon for ikea so we can go and pick them up in january. I can't wait until My dad and I can make more of them so that I can start growing all my herbs and even start planting for the spring early :)
~(' ')~
Home Made Yogurt
So for xmas Talia game me a book titles "Wild Ferments" by Sandor Kats. It's a book all about making fermented things like kimchi, tempeh, cheese, yogurt, and yes even booze... So with some time on my hands I decided to go and make some yogurt this morning. Thankfully my mother had the yogurt culture bucket thing for many years. It has never been used so when we were over at my parents 2 days ago I asked if I could borrow it. If all goes well then I will start making yogurt on a regular basis :)
The process of making yogurt is really simple.
Step 1: Take whole milk and heat it up to ~180F
Step 2: Cool the milk to 110F
Step 3: Mix in 1 tbsp of live yogurt
Step 4: Put the milk mixture in the yogurt bucket (basically Styrofoam therrmose to help keep the temperature at 110F) and leave it for 8-10 hours
So this is exactly what I did :)
I used the cheese thermometer that came with my cheese making kit to measure the temperatures and it took probably close to 45 minutes to get the temperature up high enough. This was mainly due to the fact that I was using a really low settings on the stove to gently bring it up. I probably could have used a higher setting but the higher the setting the more likely you are to burn the milk and that's just a pain to clean. I wasnt taking pictures this early in the process but I assume you can imagine what it looks like to bring milk to an almost boil in a pot.
After I brought the milk up to temperature I had to cool it down quite a bit. I started by simply pouring the milk from the pot to a measuring cup and back hoping that it would work the same way as cooling tea and it did some what. The temp dropped quite drastically the first couple of switches going from 180F down to about 150F but after that it was really slow so I decided to follow the books directions and just put the milk into a container of cool water. I added some ice cubes to help it along and in about 10 minutes it came down to about 120F.
I had already preheated the thermos using hot tap water (our tap water is very hot) which will help the milk stay warm because it wont lose heat to the thermos. I was still a little concerned with the thermos stealing some of the heat so I decided to switch the milk into the thermos when it was at 120F instead of 110F.
At this point I simply waited until it was about 115F and then I added the live yogurt. The yogurt was in the fridge so it was cold which is why I added it when it was still a little too warm. The starter yogurt I used was a Iogo probiotic strawberry yogurt mostly because it looked tasty. I am a little concerned because after I got the yogurt I read the instructions and it says to use plain yogurt.... Hopefully the extra sugar and fruit wont effect the culture. The other thing that I am concerned about was that I read somewhere that the container should read "Contains live culture" or something like that and none of the yogurts I saw in the store said anything like that. Hopefully the "probiotic" label means that its still alive and its not just some marketing term.
After I mixed in the starter yogurt (1Tbsp) I put the lid on the container and put it in a nice warm space to rest. I chose to put it on the heater because that should help keep the temperature up to allow the bacteria to eat the lactose :)
Now I just have to wait :)
~(' ')~
The process of making yogurt is really simple.
Step 1: Take whole milk and heat it up to ~180F
Step 2: Cool the milk to 110F
Step 3: Mix in 1 tbsp of live yogurt
Step 4: Put the milk mixture in the yogurt bucket (basically Styrofoam therrmose to help keep the temperature at 110F) and leave it for 8-10 hours
So this is exactly what I did :)
I used the cheese thermometer that came with my cheese making kit to measure the temperatures and it took probably close to 45 minutes to get the temperature up high enough. This was mainly due to the fact that I was using a really low settings on the stove to gently bring it up. I probably could have used a higher setting but the higher the setting the more likely you are to burn the milk and that's just a pain to clean. I wasnt taking pictures this early in the process but I assume you can imagine what it looks like to bring milk to an almost boil in a pot.
After I brought the milk up to temperature I had to cool it down quite a bit. I started by simply pouring the milk from the pot to a measuring cup and back hoping that it would work the same way as cooling tea and it did some what. The temp dropped quite drastically the first couple of switches going from 180F down to about 150F but after that it was really slow so I decided to follow the books directions and just put the milk into a container of cool water. I added some ice cubes to help it along and in about 10 minutes it came down to about 120F.
My milk in a reverse double boiler/cooler. The large white container on the left is the yogurt thermos
Down to 120F :) The bubbles were the result of trying to cool the milk by pouring it between the measuring cup and the pot
I had already preheated the thermos using hot tap water (our tap water is very hot) which will help the milk stay warm because it wont lose heat to the thermos. I was still a little concerned with the thermos stealing some of the heat so I decided to switch the milk into the thermos when it was at 120F instead of 110F.
After I mixed in the starter yogurt (1Tbsp) I put the lid on the container and put it in a nice warm space to rest. I chose to put it on the heater because that should help keep the temperature up to allow the bacteria to eat the lactose :)
~(' ')~
Sunday, 23 December 2012
xmas cookies
So we had xmas a little early this year all around so I already have my xmas gifts from my parents.
My Mom gave me the most adorable sugar cookie box so today I decided to make them. The box even came with a little snowman cookie cutter :)
My Mom gave me the most adorable sugar cookie box so today I decided to make them. The box even came with a little snowman cookie cutter :)
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
Super Long Hiatis
Yup, I know its been super long since I last posted. I haven't been doing much recently. My girlfriend would probably say its because I am so dissatisfied with my work right now that I am depressed and have been escaping reality to play video games.
I'm not sure she is wrong, I have been spending a lot of time playing Guildwars 2 (which is an amazing game), and work has been less than challenging right now. Not to mention that one of my co-workers is kind of a bully.
I know what you are thinking, "A bully? at work?". Well yes. not a jock bully like most of us were used to in high school but a teasing bully like in grade school. at least in my grade school. Mostly harmless but they have a mouth on them that sometimes you just want to smack. Take for example last Monday (a week ago). I have been going to physiotherapy for the last two months or so in the hopes of getting my knees to be able to handle karate. So a couple weeks ago my therapist (this always sounds funny to me) suggested I try some yoga. A perfectly acceptable exercise program that works strength balance, and endurance yet is low impact enough to not aggravate my knee. This sounds like a good idea as I have done some yoga in the past so last Monday I was going to go for an open class after work. It was right after work so I brought my yoga mat and a change of cloths and went to work. I walk into the office and right away I am barraged by a slew of comments like "hey look, he has yoga mats, are you gonna do that upside down dog thing?" in a very snarky tone. I know it may not sound like much but its annoying to be teased at work by co-workers.
So anyway, work problems have been building for a while to the point that I am now actively looking for a new place to work.
In other news:
3D Printer:
I just cant get it calibrated. The hot end is wobbly when it heats up so and now it appears to be jammed up. I have ordered a new one in the hopes that it will work better. Current status: "in several parts :("
Gardening:
Well the season is officially over but I still have some projects on the go. As per last year I have plants in the bedroom. the hot house plants and some herbs. I also have all the windows in the living room surrounded by plants. Several of the plants I actually left outside to see how they do over the winter. Those plants are the raspberries, strawberries and other "local" plants that are used to a harsh winter. I don't know if they will survive the winter but I am hoping they will.
I did come across 2 interesting articles (one via my parents). The first article was about pruning the root ball of plants to keep them small yet still growing. It also gives the plant some new soil to grow into which introduces new nutrients to the pot. Root Pruning.
The second article I didn't actually read or find online but my dad told me about something called Urban Cultivator. Think a mini fridge designed to grow small plants like herbs, sprouts, and lettuce. The price is way to much for me ($2200 for the small one) but it did give me an idea on a possible project combining an Ikea hack and growing plants. One of the problems that we have in my apartment is the lack of space. There are many hobbies and we do the best we can but right now we are basically at capacity. So my idea was to turn our Ikea lack coffee table into a mini cultivator. I want to put a bottom shelf on it, add some wheels and then install full spectrum CFL's into the bottom side of the table to grow some herbs. Not sure how well it will work yet but its an idea.
Well that's all the time I have for blogging today. I will do my best to stay on top of projects and keep going with the blog.
~(' ')~
I'm not sure she is wrong, I have been spending a lot of time playing Guildwars 2 (which is an amazing game), and work has been less than challenging right now. Not to mention that one of my co-workers is kind of a bully.
I know what you are thinking, "A bully? at work?". Well yes. not a jock bully like most of us were used to in high school but a teasing bully like in grade school. at least in my grade school. Mostly harmless but they have a mouth on them that sometimes you just want to smack. Take for example last Monday (a week ago). I have been going to physiotherapy for the last two months or so in the hopes of getting my knees to be able to handle karate. So a couple weeks ago my therapist (this always sounds funny to me) suggested I try some yoga. A perfectly acceptable exercise program that works strength balance, and endurance yet is low impact enough to not aggravate my knee. This sounds like a good idea as I have done some yoga in the past so last Monday I was going to go for an open class after work. It was right after work so I brought my yoga mat and a change of cloths and went to work. I walk into the office and right away I am barraged by a slew of comments like "hey look, he has yoga mats, are you gonna do that upside down dog thing?" in a very snarky tone. I know it may not sound like much but its annoying to be teased at work by co-workers.
So anyway, work problems have been building for a while to the point that I am now actively looking for a new place to work.
In other news:
3D Printer:
I just cant get it calibrated. The hot end is wobbly when it heats up so and now it appears to be jammed up. I have ordered a new one in the hopes that it will work better. Current status: "in several parts :("
Gardening:
Well the season is officially over but I still have some projects on the go. As per last year I have plants in the bedroom. the hot house plants and some herbs. I also have all the windows in the living room surrounded by plants. Several of the plants I actually left outside to see how they do over the winter. Those plants are the raspberries, strawberries and other "local" plants that are used to a harsh winter. I don't know if they will survive the winter but I am hoping they will.
I did come across 2 interesting articles (one via my parents). The first article was about pruning the root ball of plants to keep them small yet still growing. It also gives the plant some new soil to grow into which introduces new nutrients to the pot. Root Pruning.
The second article I didn't actually read or find online but my dad told me about something called Urban Cultivator. Think a mini fridge designed to grow small plants like herbs, sprouts, and lettuce. The price is way to much for me ($2200 for the small one) but it did give me an idea on a possible project combining an Ikea hack and growing plants. One of the problems that we have in my apartment is the lack of space. There are many hobbies and we do the best we can but right now we are basically at capacity. So my idea was to turn our Ikea lack coffee table into a mini cultivator. I want to put a bottom shelf on it, add some wheels and then install full spectrum CFL's into the bottom side of the table to grow some herbs. Not sure how well it will work yet but its an idea.
Well that's all the time I have for blogging today. I will do my best to stay on top of projects and keep going with the blog.
~(' ')~
Wednesday, 24 October 2012
in a funk
Can't seem to motivate myself to do anything. which really sucks since between the last time i updated and now I have done a lot of creative things. i canned some peaches, i canned some tomatos, i worked on my printer (and almost got it working). I did a drawing a week for about a month... but for the last 2 weeks ive been in a huge creative funk.
~(' ')~
~(' ')~
Sunday, 19 August 2012
The KEY to a good print
So I went biking this morning (it's amazing outside) to go to home depot and get my missing alan key. Sadly they didnt have the set of 3 that I wanted but they did have another set that was small enough. Man, 1.5mm is small!
So I had to pick that up which was 8.98 plus tax, plus I had to pick up the missing screws yesterday which were 0.30 plus tax. that brings the added cost of:
$10.15 for the alan keys
$0.34 for the screws
This brings the total cost to:
$618.11 for the printer
$120.00 for the printed parts
$12.00 for the solder
$11.29 for the wire strippers
$79.04 for the crimping tool
$1.22 for the extra wire
$0.53 for the first set of extra screws
$0.34 for the 2nd set of missing screws
$10.15 for the alan keys
------------------------------------------
$852.68
So I have spent $852 to build my printer :)
~(' ')~
So I had to pick that up which was 8.98 plus tax, plus I had to pick up the missing screws yesterday which were 0.30 plus tax. that brings the added cost of:
$10.15 for the alan keys
$0.34 for the screws
This brings the total cost to:
$618.11 for the printer
$120.00 for the printed parts
$12.00 for the solder
$11.29 for the wire strippers
$79.04 for the crimping tool
$1.22 for the extra wire
$0.53 for the first set of extra screws
$0.34 for the 2nd set of missing screws
$10.15 for the alan keys
------------------------------------------
$852.68
So I have spent $852 to build my printer :)
~(' ')~
Saturday, 18 August 2012
Potatoes and Printers
First the potatoes. I have been noticing that one of my potato plants hasn't being doing so well recently and since it has been cold for a couple of days I thought that I would harvest the potatoes and see what there were like. Sadly I did not get many potatoes, only 6 and only really 1 that I would call new potato sized. All the others are just babies.
While I was harvesting I noticed that only the top later of dirt was wet from when I watered it this morning. That makes me think that the reason it was not doing well is because I wasn't watering it enough so the roots weren't getting much water. I will try to make sure I water the other potato more.
On to the printer. I am currently working at connecting everything and calibrating it. Things are going really well and I have calibrated all the axis motors and now I am working on the extruder motor. One thing I noticed is that the extruder motor apparently needs to be wires in the reverse order to all the other ones. That, or more likely, the motor is flipped from the original design expected because I am doing iteration 2 parts with iteration 1 hardware.
So I have finished putting everything for the printer together. Except I don't have the Alan key to secure the set screw to the extuder gear. I thought I it in far enough because all my tests had it running fine but when I tried to print something the motor started spinning in the gear. I am hoping to go to Home Depot and get a 1.5mm Alan key tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.
~(' ')~
While I was harvesting I noticed that only the top later of dirt was wet from when I watered it this morning. That makes me think that the reason it was not doing well is because I wasn't watering it enough so the roots weren't getting much water. I will try to make sure I water the other potato more.
On to the printer. I am currently working at connecting everything and calibrating it. Things are going really well and I have calibrated all the axis motors and now I am working on the extruder motor. One thing I noticed is that the extruder motor apparently needs to be wires in the reverse order to all the other ones. That, or more likely, the motor is flipped from the original design expected because I am doing iteration 2 parts with iteration 1 hardware.
So I have finished putting everything for the printer together. Except I don't have the Alan key to secure the set screw to the extuder gear. I thought I it in far enough because all my tests had it running fine but when I tried to print something the motor started spinning in the gear. I am hoping to go to Home Depot and get a 1.5mm Alan key tomorrow morning. Wish me luck.
~(' ')~
Friday, 17 August 2012
x axis test 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQPv3zq3XAw&feature=youtu.be
I managed to get it to move in both directions. the problem was that the end stop switch wasnt connected so I had to plug that in.
I am still having some problems in that it doesn't seem to jog smoothly. I have done a little research on it and it seems like the problem is most likely the power settings for the stepper motor. I will hopefully test that tonight or tomorrow :)
Thursday, 16 August 2012
My printer moved
Not much and not the way it's supposed to but I got the x axis to move in one direction. It wouldn't move in the other direction I unfortunately. I also had the y axis move but it just jumped around back and forth making a huge amount of noise. Hopefully this weekend I will work out the kinks in those motors
Wednesday, 15 August 2012
Printer build update
So I know it has been a while since I last updated. My bad. But Things are going very well. Today I was home for the morning because I have a Dr apt at noon so there was no point in me going to work just to turn around and leave. This gave me some time to work on the printer.
Last night I connected the last of the wires to the switches and connected the switches to the h shaped plastic pieces. Unfortunately I have realized that I am AGAIN missing some screws. That would yet another complaint I have with the mixshop kit is that there doesn't seem to be enough screws and not of the right type. This may be because my plastic parts of iteration 2 and the kit is iteration 1.
This morning I added the last of the wires and crimp ends and then I pulled out the power supply. Gotta say, I am a little intimidated by the power supply. I know its just a standard 350W computer supply which I have taken out of machines dozens of times but to have to short circuit a wire and then cut off ends was a little unnerving. But Everything seems to have worked out.
Now I just have to connect things together and see if it works. I am hoping to connect the motors and sensors one at a time and test things as I go. That way I will know exactly what is screwed up if I screwed something up.
~(' ')~
Last night I connected the last of the wires to the switches and connected the switches to the h shaped plastic pieces. Unfortunately I have realized that I am AGAIN missing some screws. That would yet another complaint I have with the mixshop kit is that there doesn't seem to be enough screws and not of the right type. This may be because my plastic parts of iteration 2 and the kit is iteration 1.
This morning I added the last of the wires and crimp ends and then I pulled out the power supply. Gotta say, I am a little intimidated by the power supply. I know its just a standard 350W computer supply which I have taken out of machines dozens of times but to have to short circuit a wire and then cut off ends was a little unnerving. But Everything seems to have worked out.
Oh I also forgot to mention that I installed the upper print bed
~(' ')~
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
wires wires, everywhere
Managed to work on my printer again last night (I'm on a roll). I don't have any pictures but I did manage to extend all the motor wires and attach the crimp ends and plastic plug ends. I also extended the wires for the heat resistors to pretty soon I will be able to finish the x axis carriage.
In order to do all of this I had to pick up some extra stuff. Specifically I had to pick up some crimpers (69.90 + tax) and I also grabbed some extra solid center wire for motor wires because the ribbon cable that came with the kit seemed kind of thin. Those wires cost me 0.09 a foot and I got a total of 12 feet.
In order to do all of this I had to pick up some extra stuff. Specifically I had to pick up some crimpers (69.90 + tax) and I also grabbed some extra solid center wire for motor wires because the ribbon cable that came with the kit seemed kind of thin. Those wires cost me 0.09 a foot and I got a total of 12 feet.
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Prusa build update
So it has been quite a while since I did an update on my 3d printer. Sadly it is not yet operational. I ran into a couple of problems.
The biggest problem was that the plastic parts I had were not the iteration 1 or iteration 2 of the prusa design but rather some type of current beta iteration that has not bee officially accepted. This cause a lot of confusion because I had no instructions for these parts.
On top of that the mixshop kit was specifically for iteration 1 of the prusa so I was missing several minor pieces like a couple screws. It took me a little while to find the missing screws but I eventually did at a cool little shop that I have probably passed a dozen times but never noticed. It is called Jacobs hardware and it right in the fashion district which I visit frequently with Talia.
The other odd problem I had was that the clamp that was supposed to attach the z motors to the z axis threaded rod was not small enough. With the clamp fully tightened the motor post would still spin around. To solve this I did a little drilling to add a set screw of sorts to hold the flat end of the motor post in place
But despite these problems I have the majority of the chassis built. Now I have started working on the electronics.
The print carriage is assembled (in the background by the external drives) but I have to put the heat resisters in so its not attached right now.
Now onto the electronics. I started doing the soldering a couple weeks ago while I was still searching for my missing hardware but unfortunately I ran into a problem right away. My soldering iron was not working the way it should. The thick bulky part of the tip would get hot but the precision part was not. It would take a long time for my to get any solder to melt and when it finally did it would immediately solidify as a ball on the tip of my solder.
Thankfully Talia's dad is an electrical engineer and had a really nice soldering iron with a super fine tip. It took a couple days for him to find it but it worked like a charm and I was soldering the in no time
The next thing to do for the electronics is to connect the motors to the RAMPS board. Sadly I am again missing a tool. This time it is a crimping tool to put nice plug ends onto the motor leads. My dad has one that should fit so hopefully I can borrow one from him. I also have to go and get some cables to extend the leads in order to attach them to the board.
Total money spent so far:
Prusa electronics and hardware kit: $618
Plastic parts: $120
0.8mm solder: $12
5 extra M3 screws: $0.53
Sadly I have completely lost track of how much time I have spent building this :(
~(' ')~
The biggest problem was that the plastic parts I had were not the iteration 1 or iteration 2 of the prusa design but rather some type of current beta iteration that has not bee officially accepted. This cause a lot of confusion because I had no instructions for these parts.
On top of that the mixshop kit was specifically for iteration 1 of the prusa so I was missing several minor pieces like a couple screws. It took me a little while to find the missing screws but I eventually did at a cool little shop that I have probably passed a dozen times but never noticed. It is called Jacobs hardware and it right in the fashion district which I visit frequently with Talia.
The other odd problem I had was that the clamp that was supposed to attach the z motors to the z axis threaded rod was not small enough. With the clamp fully tightened the motor post would still spin around. To solve this I did a little drilling to add a set screw of sorts to hold the flat end of the motor post in place
One thing that has me a little concerned is the quality of the printed parts that I have. I actually managed to partially split of of my motor gears by screwing the set screw in too far :(
Glueing the lower layer of the print bed down
My assembled x axis
But despite these problems I have the majority of the chassis built. Now I have started working on the electronics.
Now onto the electronics. I started doing the soldering a couple weeks ago while I was still searching for my missing hardware but unfortunately I ran into a problem right away. My soldering iron was not working the way it should. The thick bulky part of the tip would get hot but the precision part was not. It would take a long time for my to get any solder to melt and when it finally did it would immediately solidify as a ball on the tip of my solder.
Thankfully Talia's dad is an electrical engineer and had a really nice soldering iron with a super fine tip. It took a couple days for him to find it but it worked like a charm and I was soldering the in no time
One of the 4 POLO stepper motor controllers that I had to solder together. It comes with the Polo chip and the 16 pins to be soldered in order to connect it
To solder the chip I had to cut the pins in half to make 2 8 pin connections and then solder the short ends to the chip
The Ramps 1.4 board that the Polo get attached to
2 down, 2 to go :)
All 4 Polos soldered and plugged in.
The addition of the heat sinks on the chips complete the RAMPS chip assembly.
The next thing to do for the electronics is to connect the motors to the RAMPS board. Sadly I am again missing a tool. This time it is a crimping tool to put nice plug ends onto the motor leads. My dad has one that should fit so hopefully I can borrow one from him. I also have to go and get some cables to extend the leads in order to attach them to the board.
Total money spent so far:
Prusa electronics and hardware kit: $618
Plastic parts: $120
0.8mm solder: $12
5 extra M3 screws: $0.53
Sadly I have completely lost track of how much time I have spent building this :(
~(' ')~
Jam
I know it's been a while and I have lots of things happening with lots of pictures and updates but I will post about them individually as time goes on. In the mean time I made Jam :)
So the other weekend Talia and I went to the cottage which was amazing and my parents let us borrow their car to go up. On the Sunday when we were going back home we dropped by their place to return the car except we arrived while they were still out so we just hung around and waited so we could say hi. While we were there we went into the back yard to look at how the garden was doing (not bad) and we noticed that the red current bushes were FILLED with nice ripe red currents so we started to pick then. We had some adventures because it started to down pour on us while we were picking. But we managed ok with the help of my 3rd cousin Thomas who is visiting from Germany for a month.
So after our picking frenzy we managed to walk away with about 6 cups of nice red currents. Sadly things got really busy for us with helping friends move and stuff but the currents sat nicely in the fridge for two weeks until today when I finally had time (and energy) to make some jam.
I used a modified recipe off the internet. I used 6 cups of red and black currents and 2 cups of water which I brought up to the boil and let simmer with a cover for 10 minutes.
Then I added 3 cups of sugar, the juice from 1 lemon, and a couple slugs of some French brandy (yes I bought brandy to cook with, should be fun times to come). I brought it back up to the boil and cooked it "HARD" <- recipes directions for a while, probably about 30 minutes. I also added a large piece of agar to give the jam a little more thickness. I don't know exactly how much was added sadly so reproducing this exact recipe could be a problem for me.
While the jam was boiling up I proceeded to set up the jars for canning. I started by turning the oven to 200F and sterilizing them for about 20 minutes. I also grabbed my pressure canner and filled it with some water to boil the canning rings and lids. Then it was off to the races and I filled 12 jars with delicious jam. Each jar was only a 125ml jar so I ended up grabbing out a left over 500ml and putting the extra jam in that.
~(' ')~
So the other weekend Talia and I went to the cottage which was amazing and my parents let us borrow their car to go up. On the Sunday when we were going back home we dropped by their place to return the car except we arrived while they were still out so we just hung around and waited so we could say hi. While we were there we went into the back yard to look at how the garden was doing (not bad) and we noticed that the red current bushes were FILLED with nice ripe red currents so we started to pick then. We had some adventures because it started to down pour on us while we were picking. But we managed ok with the help of my 3rd cousin Thomas who is visiting from Germany for a month.
So after our picking frenzy we managed to walk away with about 6 cups of nice red currents. Sadly things got really busy for us with helping friends move and stuff but the currents sat nicely in the fridge for two weeks until today when I finally had time (and energy) to make some jam.
I used a modified recipe off the internet. I used 6 cups of red and black currents and 2 cups of water which I brought up to the boil and let simmer with a cover for 10 minutes.
Then I added 3 cups of sugar, the juice from 1 lemon, and a couple slugs of some French brandy (yes I bought brandy to cook with, should be fun times to come). I brought it back up to the boil and cooked it "HARD" <- recipes directions for a while, probably about 30 minutes. I also added a large piece of agar to give the jam a little more thickness. I don't know exactly how much was added sadly so reproducing this exact recipe could be a problem for me.
~(' ')~
Tuesday, 10 July 2012
SuperBetter
So yesterday I watched a ted talk (as I often do when I am having a not so good day) and the new one was all about games in real life. It was actually by a past ted talker from the game industry and it was really interesting. I will let people find the ted talk them selves (its by Jane McGonigal).
So this afternoon while I was waiting around for my girlfriend to come and meet me at my office I decided to check out the webpage associated with this irl game.
So for my first 4 quests i decided to
1) hold my fists over my head for 5 seconds: + 5 Physical Resilience
2) snap my fingers 50 times: +5 mental resilience
3) Watch this adorable youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr0): +5 emotional resilience
4) send Talia a text saying thank you (cause she is so amazing <smile>): +5 social resilience
Superbetter goal: To get SuperBetter by getting fit
I decided to go with one of the pre-made power packs that the webpage has. I decided to go with sneaky workout. Actually, I noticed this afternoon that I had space under my desk so I could do some leg lifts while I program which I think will be my sneaky exercise. The added bonus is that it will hopefully help my with my knees. My goal go 3 sets of 15 leg lifts.
Oh I also found that they have an "epic win" section so I said my epic win was to be able to go to karate without having knee problems
My quest for tomorrow: take a single step away from my desk every half hour
lets see how I do.
:)
~(' ')~
So this afternoon while I was waiting around for my girlfriend to come and meet me at my office I decided to check out the webpage associated with this irl game.
So for my first 4 quests i decided to
1) hold my fists over my head for 5 seconds: + 5 Physical Resilience
2) snap my fingers 50 times: +5 mental resilience
3) Watch this adorable youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr0): +5 emotional resilience
4) send Talia a text saying thank you (cause she is so amazing <smile>): +5 social resilience
Superbetter goal: To get SuperBetter by getting fit
I decided to go with one of the pre-made power packs that the webpage has. I decided to go with sneaky workout. Actually, I noticed this afternoon that I had space under my desk so I could do some leg lifts while I program which I think will be my sneaky exercise. The added bonus is that it will hopefully help my with my knees. My goal go 3 sets of 15 leg lifts.
Oh I also found that they have an "epic win" section so I said my epic win was to be able to go to karate without having knee problems
My quest for tomorrow: take a single step away from my desk every half hour
lets see how I do.
:)
~(' ')~
Sunday, 8 July 2012
Mushroom tea take 2
So I tried to make kombucha again after the first batch was way to vinagarry for us. This time I used an earl grey tea. After making it I found out that you shouldn't use early grey because there is oil that can cause mold but it looks like I was lucky and nothing went bad.
This latch only fermentated for 7 days and it came out much nicer. After fermentation I added a couple tablespoons of sugar and bottled them up. In total it made a little less than 2 letres.
Adding the sugar seemed to help the fizz of it but it still has a very strong vinagar after taste. Even when mixed with juice.
For my next batch I am being a little more careful in the measurements. I used a pearl river organic green tea from the tea emporium and simple hot tap water (approximately 45 degrees C). I also added 1/4 cups of sugar and Stealer the tea for several hours ( going on3 hours so far). Rather than putting the tea in a tea ball I just put it into the water to steep. There was approximately 3 tbsp of tea leaves
Friday, 6 July 2012
Build Blog 1
So I am starting my build of my new Prusa Mendel. And of course the wiki for reprap goes down right off the bat. Not completely down but the build page is giving me a 404 :(
Luckily it wasnt down for long.
Step 0: Good Music Playing..... check
Step 1: Frame Triangles
2 footed frame vertices... check
1 frame vertex... check
1 bar clamp... check
3 370mm M8 threaded rods... check
14 M8 nuts and washers.... check
That's one side, now I get to repeat with the other side.
I had a little trouble getting the not footed frame vertex into place on the seconds side but nothing that bad. I think it was because I didn't have the nuts tight enough on the footed rod.
Step 2: Front Threaded Rods
2 assembled frame vertex triangles... check
2 bar clamps... check
1 y motor bracket... CRAP. I dont have this piece yet :( lets see if I can move onto another part
Step 3:
2 assembled frame vertex triangles... check
2 bar clamps... check
14 M8 nuts and washers... check
2 M8x30 fender/mudgaurd washers... check
1 608 bearings... check
2 294mm threaded rods... check
Wait a minute, So I went back and watched the video associated with instructions and the missing y motor bracket looked different (and kind of like a part i did have) so I went and confirmed the part with they guy I got them from and yes, I have all the parts for step 2... back to step 2..
Step 2... Take 2:
2 assembled frame vertex triangles... check
2 bar clamps... check
1 y motor bracket... check
18 M8 nuts and 19 washers... check
1 608 bearings... check
2 294mm threaded rod... check
So I had to remove one side from step 3 in order to get step 2 connected but it all turned out ok.
Step 4: Top Threaded Rods
2 assembled and connected frame vertex triangles... check
2 z motor mounts... check
12 M8 nuts and 16 M8 washers... check
2 440mm threaded rods... check
Step 5: tightening the frame
2 bar clamps
4 M8 nuts and washers
1 440mm threaded rod
Unfortunately I dont have the recommended frame jigs, but I will get them if I need to rebuild.
Getting the threaded rod through the bar clamps on the sides was crazy hard because the bar clamps were slightly too small. In the end I ended up grabbing out electric drill/screw driver and drilling it into place.
And at this point is where things got a little complicated with the build because I am building a slightly newer version than the one that the instructions made. I added the 2 smooth bars the move the plate forward and back but those needed linear bearings instead of the PLA bushings. getting the smooth bars through the bar clams was a nightmare. I had to get the drill and drill the bars through and that only worked part of the time. Often I had to first drill through one of the threaded bars and then force the smooth bar through >.<
Also at this point I started to not be sure if I had the correct pieces so I decided to stop for the day (my head was starting to hurt badly as well).
I think there are some electronics that I have to start soldering before I attach the heated plate. Hopefully I will get a chance to work on that later in the week.
Start time: 5:40pm
End time: 9:34pm
~(' ')~
Luckily it wasnt down for long.
Step 0: Good Music Playing..... check
Step 1: Frame Triangles
2 footed frame vertices... check
1 frame vertex... check
1 bar clamp... check
3 370mm M8 threaded rods... check
14 M8 nuts and washers.... check
Check
That's one side, now I get to repeat with the other side.
I had a little trouble getting the not footed frame vertex into place on the seconds side but nothing that bad. I think it was because I didn't have the nuts tight enough on the footed rod.
Step 2: Front Threaded Rods
2 assembled frame vertex triangles... check
2 bar clamps... check
1 y motor bracket... CRAP. I dont have this piece yet :( lets see if I can move onto another part
Step 3:
2 assembled frame vertex triangles... check
2 bar clamps... check
14 M8 nuts and washers... check
2 M8x30 fender/mudgaurd washers... check
1 608 bearings... check
2 294mm threaded rods... check
Wait a minute, So I went back and watched the video associated with instructions and the missing y motor bracket looked different (and kind of like a part i did have) so I went and confirmed the part with they guy I got them from and yes, I have all the parts for step 2... back to step 2..
Step 2... Take 2:
2 assembled frame vertex triangles... check
2 bar clamps... check
1 y motor bracket... check
18 M8 nuts and 19 washers... check
1 608 bearings... check
2 294mm threaded rod... check
So I had to remove one side from step 3 in order to get step 2 connected but it all turned out ok.
Step 4: Top Threaded Rods
2 assembled and connected frame vertex triangles... check
2 z motor mounts... check
12 M8 nuts and 16 M8 washers... check
2 440mm threaded rods... check
Easy peasy :)
Step 5: tightening the frame
2 bar clamps
4 M8 nuts and washers
1 440mm threaded rod
Unfortunately I dont have the recommended frame jigs, but I will get them if I need to rebuild.
Getting the threaded rod through the bar clamps on the sides was crazy hard because the bar clamps were slightly too small. In the end I ended up grabbing out electric drill/screw driver and drilling it into place.
And at this point is where things got a little complicated with the build because I am building a slightly newer version than the one that the instructions made. I added the 2 smooth bars the move the plate forward and back but those needed linear bearings instead of the PLA bushings. getting the smooth bars through the bar clams was a nightmare. I had to get the drill and drill the bars through and that only worked part of the time. Often I had to first drill through one of the threaded bars and then force the smooth bar through >.<
Also at this point I started to not be sure if I had the correct pieces so I decided to stop for the day (my head was starting to hurt badly as well).
I think there are some electronics that I have to start soldering before I attach the heated plate. Hopefully I will get a chance to work on that later in the week.
Start time: 5:40pm
End time: 9:34pm
~(' ')~
Tea and Printers
So just a quick update.
1) Kombucha Tea - I let it sit for a couple days and Talia and I tried it out. Kind of tasted like vinegar :( After some researching I found out that its that I left it to ferment for too long. I will leave the next batch for only 1 week instead of 2.
2) I have most of the printed parts for my 3d printer. There are a couple still outstanding because the person I got them from had a printer failure and couldnt finish them but I decided to pick up the pieces I could so I can start building this weekend. Wish me luck :)
1) Kombucha Tea - I let it sit for a couple days and Talia and I tried it out. Kind of tasted like vinegar :( After some researching I found out that its that I left it to ferment for too long. I will leave the next batch for only 1 week instead of 2.
2) I have most of the printed parts for my 3d printer. There are a couple still outstanding because the person I got them from had a printer failure and couldnt finish them but I decided to pick up the pieces I could so I can start building this weekend. Wish me luck :)
My hardware kit
Hardware unpacked
Most of my printed parts.
Saturday, 30 June 2012
(Mushroom) tea time
So today I decided to harvest my lombucha tea which was exciting. It was a few days early but I was getting different times from different webpages so I figured it was good enough.
When I pulled the tea out I was very excited to see a nice thick layer of mushroom on top. The top of the mushroom was kind of leathery and felt like it would be chewy but the bottom was soft and slimy. Looked really cool
I saved the mother and some of the tea for my next batch in a bowl in the fridge but the rest went into a jar to be aged for 5 days. Then I will have about 750 ml of tea to drink
Im looking forward to making the next batch. I think I am going to try and get a Ph probe so I can monitor the fermentation. Etter
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)