Space Emblem on Etsy

This is my 3D printed gold plated stainless steel emblem I designed as a lapel pin, it just needs a pin or magnet added to the back. Fans of Lego will recognize this from logo on the classic space sets, which it is based off of.

The planet diameter is 3/4″ (at .10″ thickness), the rocket is about 7/16″ long and 3/8″ wide (at .08″thickness). The length from tip to tip is just under 1 3/4″.

I added this to Etsy the other day in case anyone wanted to grab one at cost rather than with the Shapeways markup. Figured it could help recoup some money spent on recent preorders of mine since it’s just sitting on my shelf for now.

never voluntarily use UPS

They delivered a package to my house last week: the website said the carrier had “left it at the back door” – but my back door is behind two locked gates. Turns out they just threw it over the fence. At least it wasn’t anything fragile or easily damaged by a couple days of watering. They could have at least left a note.

weekend recap

Last Saturday & Sunday was my first trip down to the builder’s mecca that is Legoland, and it was a blast. Not so much the park itself, since all the rides are geared towards kids, but the fact that the “Star Wars Days” event was more like a mini convention than a trip to a theme park was well worth the 7 hour drive. I got to hang out with two of the other coadmins from FBTB as well as about two dozen other Lego geeks I’ve only really talked to online until now (I’d met a handful at other cons too but there were plenty of new faces to match up to their builds and screen names). Also, I got a behind the scenes look at the model shop inside the park, which is awesome. I will definitely be heading back down there next year and with any luck I’ll have something built by then to show off with the rest of the models on display. Here’s a couple shots I put on flickr:

(Still no sign of the video clip where I get thrown around by a giant robotic arm though.)

sifting

No particular reason, but I decided to change up my blog template and clear out some older superfluous posts. Just a heads up on the off chance you landed here and were confused by the changes. I’ve been in sort of a slump lately on and offline so don’t expect any updates on any projects any time soon.

how to replace a door in 20 easy steps

Disregarding the first step in this process since it was taken care of beforehand (which would be measuring and purchasing the replacement door), here was the bulk of my Memorial Day weekend:

1. Begin painting new door.
2. Remove old door.
3. Paint other side of door.
4. Paint door frame.
5. Install hardware on door (hinges, deadbolt, doorknob).
6. Hang door.
7. Attempt to close door. Notice door stop molding prevents door from closing. Rage.
8. Remove door.
9. Find a pry bar and remove door stop molding.
10. Hang door again.
11. Attempt to close door. Notice giant gap between edge of door and strike plate. Rage.
12. Remove door again.
13. Improvise shims from old door hinges and scrap wood.
14. Hang door again.
15. Close door.
16. Buy new door stop molding, cut to size, and install.
17. Repaint door frame and touch up door.
18. Attempt to lock deadbolt. Notice bolt is misaligned and lock cylinder is jammed. Rage.
19. Remove and reposition deadbolt, and grind a larger opening on the strike plate.
20. Close and lock door. Rejoice.

Subsequent door replacements went much quicker and easier, though I only managed to replace 3 so far (out of 9). But yeah. That was a pain. Looks great now though and everything works as it should, so I’m quite happy. Still not looking forward to the rest of the doors I get to replace, but at least they’re internal doors and much lighter than the garage entry I started with. And now that the old door is off I can turn it into a workbench as planned.

Also, I figured out the mass of wires in my irrigation control box finally, so with the main valve repaired by my step dad and replacement heads of the front sprinkler lines on standby I’m on track to have a green lawn again.

technical difficulties

For a while now my widescreen has been acting finicky: when I turn on my computer, it would show the loading screen for a couple seconds, then go dark, but I could still see a faint impression of the image on it so I knew the backlight was having problems. Restarting the system or making a blank white image on the laptop’s screen and dragging it over and full-screening on the LCD it would revive it. Until tonight. Tonight it just gave up completely. No more brief on period, no more faint image, just black. The status light remained green though, so at least it thought it was working… but it obviously wasn’t. And smacking it didn’t help either.

So, I Googled the model number (I-Inc TW191D) to see what could be done… and discovered that the most likely cause is dead capacitors in the power supply. So I opened it up and confirmed the issue. They probably overheated – causing the bulge on the tops – and shorted out. I’m going to look into some new ones and try my hand at replacing them since it’s a lot cheaper than buying a new monitor (and I really hate working with just one screen now) but until further notice I’m stuck. /sigh

Build Your Own Viper!

Remember this?

Well, someone finally made a full fledged instruction book for the model, so if you have the parts you can make your own. Check it out! There are obviously some variations from the “official” model (the original that everyone tried to copy) but this is to be expected when reverse engineering such a design based on pictures alone and trying to work with your own part collection with as little Bricklinking as possible. And of course some changes were made out of necessity, while others out of personal preference… so feel free to switch up some details as needed. That’s part of  the fun of the ChiefLUG project – building a cohesive fleet of personalized starfighters. And even though you may be late to the party it’s still a great build.

edit: as Remi noted below, the instructions were based off his green variant…

and with the especially limited part selection in green, he got pretty creative with the alterations to make it work. He recolored the instructions to look like the standard MkII Viper but didn’t remodel it to match Andrew’s original.

[obligatory Portal reference]

Random amusement – note the caption next to title on the 404 error page at Shapeways.com. Well played guys.

This is especially funny to me since, as I mentioned in my last post, I recently ordered a couple more Weighted Companion Cubes. It makes me wonder if they printed a few spares for themselves… or more likely they saw my order and thought “oh look, another Portal fan” since I’m sure I’m not the first person to design & order one from them.

I’m still waiting for those to arrive btw. Apparently the new material is in their Netherlands based office, so my prototypes are on quite a journey. I hope I get the order soon, I want to see if I like the material enough to order more before the 14th in case they discontinue the material.

I’ve also got my 2×4 brick drawn up and waiting to order.

instigation

Shapeways, the on-demand 3D printing service I wish I used more, just got in a slick new material they call alumide. It’s powder based so like most of their materials it should have s slightly grainy texture, and it looks sort of silvery grey because aluminum dust is mixed into the compound. It’s not actually printed metal like their stainless option, but that means it’s gobs cheaper. So I ordered a couple cubes to see the finish and detail for myself.

I’d like to draw up a Lego brick and order samples of each material, just for reference, for when I get other ideas about what I’d like to have printed. I’ve been wanting to do a bit more small model designing but haven’t gotten around to it, but this cool new option sort of re-sparked my mind. Maybe I should finish my turret.

new stuff on Etsy