Adaptive Curmudgeon

Yesterday I shipped all my “by Christmas” orders. I’m open to new orders. “By Christmas” orders are first come first served and it’s only December 9th. I think it would make it. Then again we’re talking about the USPS here and there’s a blizzard going on; so I could be wrong. “After Christmas is OK” orders are also very welcome. If you’re interested please go to https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/sawhorses/.

Yesterday was so chill. How was I to know today would go “full apeshit”? One crazy thing after another has hit in rapid succession. In lieu of a logical progression I’ll just relate random things.

First story is just a follow-up. The grouse that ran full tilt into my house was delicious! Mrs. Curmudgeon baked it with some sort of citrus. Yum! It made my day!

“House based roadkill” is the exact opposite of the whiny woke Karen-world that hassles us so much. There’s a redneck out there that eats birds that fly into his house! The whole planet would be a happier, mellower, less uptight, place if we all could say “a gamebird pancaked into the window… lunchtime!” No handwringing. No bullshit. Just a resource thrown at me as if God decided I needed a chicken dinner.

I nicknamed Mrs. Curmudgeon’s recipe “house grouse”.

Second, I installed the snow bucket just minutes before a snowstorm hit. Win!

My tractor’s front bucket is super handy but I need to swap to my “snow bucket” to plow snow. I put that off as long as possible.

Last year I waited too long! The snow bucket froze down. I’d already removed the regular bucket and done the painstaking hassle of hooking up the snow bucket only to find out I’d pinned my tractor to the earth. It was a struggle akin to pulling Excalibur from the stone. (You’d think my tractor would just yank a frozen bucket off the ground. It can’t.)

I learned from that. This year I rolled up to my snow bucket and gently nudged it with my still installed regular bucket. Was it froze down? Yep. Dammit!

Since I’d left the regular bucket on I had persuasion! Without leaving the cab I nudged here and pushed there and lifted a smidge and otherwise used every axis of rotation and torque factor on slippery snow. The ice gave way after a couple minutes. With the regular bucket I flipped the snow bucket, then flipped it back. Boom!

After that swaping implements was no big deal. Last year’s multi-hour struggle became this year’s 10 minutes of tricky driving.

Not ten minutes after I’d swapped the skies opened up and dumped snow like heaven was pissed at humanity. I’d just barely swapped buckets in time.

Next strange (odd?) event? I bugged out of our kitchen to my workshop.

Here’s the story: Our house is a shambles and ignoring a decrepit kitchen floor and ceiling had gone about as far as it could go. (No regrets! My house may be a dump but that’s why I can afford the mortgage.) We’ve got a contractor who knows our situation. We’ve been begging him to deal with it. After ignoring us for months he showed up hammer in hand. Nice! He disassembled the floor and ceiling like a total boss!

Then he vanished.

That was five days ago (I suppose the weekend doesn’t count.) I get it. He had an emergency frozen pipe situation to handle. Plus the weather has been a pain to everyone. But our kitchen is stuck in limbo somewhere between inconvenient and unusable.

What’s worse, the coffee pot was unavailable!

To stay alive, I’ve been cooking coffee with my camping percolator. Percolators make the best damn coffee but reaching for the kitchen stove over construction debris was a hassle. On the other hand, “no coffee” is simply unthinkable!

Eventually I got too stressed out over the kitchen. I bugged out for my workshop. Betsy the stove was ready to serve (just as she’s been for longer than I’ve been alive). Today’s breakfast and coffee was cooked on an antique kitchen woodstove in my “cluttered but cozy” workshop. Inconvenient? Yes. Delicious? Absolutely. Appreciated? Deeply!

I’ll probably make dinner there tonight too. (Update: I did.)

I have another story about a stuck truck… but it’ll wait.

My last post was about all hell breaking loose at my homestead. Life is never boring!

As a palate cleanser and ray of sunshine, I have positive news. In theory (and assuming I don’t break my 3d printer overnight) I expect to mail out every remaining order that specified “I need this by Christmas” on Monday. (Obviously I can’t send USPS on Sunday.) I’m well ahead of the “drop dead” Christmas shipping date.

Last week I already had sent a few “Christmas” orders. USPS tracking indicates a few of them have already arrived and the rest are well on their way. Yay!

None of this is a big deal to a professional outfit, but that’s not me. I’m a guy who talks to trees and has owned a 3d printer only one year. I think getting well ahead of the shipping schedule is pretty awesome.

Some of my orders were listed “if it’s after Christmas that’s OK”. (Thanks for that!) I’m already working on those orders. However, I’m still open to a few “by Christmas” orders. Also, a truckload of “no rush” orders would be groovy. If you’re interested please go to https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/sawhorses/.

Any new “by Christmas” orders go to the front of the line. I’ll try to get them in the mail on time.

So there ya’ go. I’ve been joyously working my 3d printer like a rented mule and I have a big pile of filament that I’m glad to use. What more can a nerd want?

Merry Christmas y’all.

A.C.

P.S. In other “homestead news”, as soon as the kitchen is reassembled I’ll cook up a “luck grouse”! (My luck, not his.) The poor bugger flew into my window (didn’t break it) and it did him in. Who am I to turn down nature’s bounty? And yes, that means I hustled out into the snow to claim a prize the cats (who were circling like sharks) had in their sights. Will I outrun a cat through a snowdrift for a grouse dinner? Heck yeah! It also means the window is a better small game hunter than me. 🙂

[This post has nothing to do with 3d printing. You’re welcome to go to https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/sawhorses/ and order something.]

Homesteading is chaotic. So much shit can go wrong. God has a sense of humor and makes it go wrong all at once.

While I was asleep, the furnace ran out of fuel. We’d let the woodstove die down. The firewood I’d hauled to the house ran out. The house was 57 degrees.

How was your morning?

Before I was fully awake, a contractor showed up. He’d been avoiding my inside work until the weather drove him indoors. The cold snap (that coincided with no house heat) was prime time for his arrival. Before I had my first sip of coffee I had three situations to handle.

Some days are like that.

I pointed at the ceiling. It had sagged so much it was comical. The contractor started attacking it with a hammer.

The dog was royally pissed off at this assault on our house. I locked her in a room and moved on to the next challenge.

For the furnace, I thought I’d utilize a 15 gallon jug of tractor fuel.

If you don’t know how fuel works there’s things you need to know. Semis, big pickups, and the occasional old Mercedes run on diesel. Diesel ain’t unleaded.

Truck diesel is “on road diesel”. It has road taxes added to the price.

“Off road diesel” is the same material dyed red to show it hasn’t had road taxes. It’s meant for, wait for it… things that don’t go on the road.

Rural folks use lots of shit that doesn’t go on the road. Think of tractors and logging equipment and bulldozers and such.

Older style house furnaces (called “oil furnaces”) use diesel too. This is different from more common “LP” furnaces which run off huge white propane tanks that look like Godzilla suppositories mounted in rural yards. You need special equipment to fill an LP tank. City houses have natural gas furnaces. Natural gas is delivered by pipelines that, like mass transit and light rail, cannot reach deep into the countryside.

My oil furnace has a 250 gallon tank which had run dry. Why? I’m an idiot.

Usually, I pay a tanker truck to deliver furnace fuel. Mrs. Curmudgeon made many calls to the delivery company. They weren’t delivering today. In fact their truck was in the shop, so maybe not this week. Life is like that.

This ain’t my first rodeo. I have an oil furnace specifically so I can buy off road diesel at the local gas station if needed . A furnace that uses the same shit that powers a John Deere can be fueled in any society that feeds itself.

I put my tractor fuel jug in the back of my truck. I drove it through the snow and across the lawn to the fuel port. I uncoiled the cheap plastic filler hose and… nothing.

Diesel comes in two kinds #2 (which can freeze) and #1 which costs a lot more. My hose was froze solid. Shit happesn.

As an adaptive Curmudgeon I didn’t despair. I wheeled the little fuel tank into my wood shop and fired up Betsy the woodstove. I her firebox with 2″x4″ end cuts and the dregs of pallets. Soon it was 60 degrees in the shop. The hose would thaw.

Meanwhile, I busily hauled ceiling tiles to the truck. They’ve got to go to the dump. Trucks are for dump runs.

Did I mention my kitchen floor is shit? The contractor was already pulling up the old floor. Good riddance. The floor was terrible when I moved in two decades ago and it’s complete shit now. The load of debris in my truck bed was growing.

I pushed and shoved to make squeeze the tractor fuel jug back on the truck but I managed. I drove back across the lawn, uncoiled the hose, and now the fuel flowed. It’s just gravity flow. I stood holding the safety nozzle and slowly freezing. Disappointingly, all I had was half a tank.

Something is better than nothing but I couldn’t start the furnace yet. I had to “bleed the line” to get it going again.

The house wasn’t yet freezing up and I was running out of daylight so I ignored the furnace and started up my tractor intending to bring a “quick load” of firewood to the house. Cutting firewood is very hard. A labor saving device I like is IBC totes. These are steel cages originally used to haul bladders of industrial liquids. I chuck the bladders (which held anything from food safe vegetable oil to truck paint) and use the tote “cage” to store / move firewood.

IBC totes can be lifted and moved with forklift forks. How awesome is that? I have a 3 point hitch “forks” implement. Ideally, I can back up to 1/3 cord of firewood and move it to the house in just a few minutes. It’s a huge labor saver.

Unfortunately, the forks I own are cheap. They bend like a politician’s morals. There’d been an ice storm and the tote slid off the bent & icy forks like a cartoon slapstick joke.

It’s a setback but no biggie. Firewood in a tipped over IBC is just like any other firewood. I’ll use it a little at a time. It’ll probably be gone by Christmas.

I had one last tote left. It special wood meant for Betsy. Antique kitchen stoves need different wood than house heating stoves . I used a chain to keep it on the bendy forks. I moved it to my workshop and unloaded. That’s my last IBC tote this year.

The house was still unheated but it was 55 degrees inside; I wasn’t out of time. The sun had set.

I put the fuel jug on my truck (which was overflowing with ceiling and floor detritus). I  strapped everything down so shit wouldn’t fly out of the truck bed and headed to town to buy off road diesel. Mrs. Curmudgeon had gotten off work and suggested we meet at town.

I was freezing. I’d been outdoors most of the day. A meager 14 gallons of off road diesel filled my little tank. Mrs. Curmudgeon arrived as I thawed in my heated cab. She was concerned with one of her car tires. I took one glance and made a diagnosis. “That tire is flatter than a pancake. You aren’t going anywhere on that.”

Mrs. Curmudgeon was distraught. She likes her car. I don’t blame her. But I’m only one man. Fixing a flat in the dark in sub zero temps sucks. Doing it while the clock is ticking on a cooling house is too much. You gotta’ pick your battles. I coaxed her into the truck and we abandoned her car.

Back home I drove the tractor to my woodshed and hurriedly filled the front bucket with firewood (wood that’s NOT in IBC totes). I drove to the house and handed it through to Mrs. Curmudgeon who bravely helped stack wood. Soon she had a fire in the woodstove. Awesome!

I stayed outside in the dark. I put the tractor’s bucket near my truck’s tailgate and tried to swap the heavy, full, off road, tank smoothly from one to the other. It wasn’t smooth and it fucked up my back. Ugh.

Back at the furnace’s filler port I got the gravity flow going again. It still was just a trickle so I lifted the bucket head high, jammed a wrench in the safety nozzle, and left it there. I delved into the basement and bled the furnace line like a pro. I could hear the diesel tricking into the 90% empty tank. At least the furnace was running. How long will <20 gallons last? Dunno’. When will the fuel company repair their truck? Dunno’. Everything else was a tomorrow problem.

I slept in a house with a running furnace and cheery woodstove. I was tired.

Epilogue: The next day my kid showed up and we enjoyed the pleasure of male privilege. We jacked up Mrs. Curmudgeon’s car in the icy parking lot, removed the tire, took it to be repaired, remounted it, and delivered the useable car to Mrs. Curmudgeon. Then, because we’re so damn privileged, we drove to the dump and yanked a half ton of building scrap out of the truck bed. I couldn’t help grabbing a few nail free wood scraps that I spied on the huge dump pile. Betsy loves kiln dried wood.

That was my day. How was yours?

[If you know the details of 3d printing, you’ll instantly know where this story is going. I present it here for the entertainment of people who don’t already know.]

“There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.” – Will Rogers

One of the cool things about 3d printing is that you can make (within reason) anything. However, it’s not always apparent (especially to a rookie) why you shouldn’t make object X with material Y under conditions Z.

You don’t know what you don’t know.

A year ago, when I first bought my 3d printer, I bought enough filament to get started. You can buy filament on spools or refills (basically a little cardboard tube that looks like a TP tube). The refills slide onto spools that you already own. You save a few bucks when you buy a refill.

Being the cheap bastard I am, I bought just barely enough spools to get rolling. I used some spool mounted filament to print more spools for the refills I’d cheaply bought. What a neat concept! You can print stuff for your printer with the printer itself. That never gets old.

The spool I’d printed was made of the simplest and easiest to use filament; PLA. PLA is fine for many uses but it’s not great at handling high temperatures.

Eventually I stepped up to PETG. It’s a bit more annoying to work with but it’s stronger and tougher and resists higher temperatures. Unlike PLA it should be dried in a little filament “oven” before you use it. I limped along with desiccant and luck for a while, but in due time I saw the light and bought a filament dryer. (Dry filament makes a better finished print.) My drier has settings for whatever material you’re using. I can set it for PLA or PETG or TPU or any of several other materials.

Over time, I occasionally bought  filament on spools (particularly when refills in the color I want are sold out). Once they’re empty they’re perfect to hold the next refill. Thus, I never needed to print another “DIY” spool.

Monday, a box of filament came in. As usual I’d purchased mostly refills. I scooped up a refill of yellow PETG but the only spare spool I had was the old DIY one from last year. Any port in a storm. Into the dryer it went.

Did you notice where I messed up?

An hour later I saw this:

Whoops! Heating a spool made of PLA at PETG’s higher drying temperatures was unwise! In retrospect I can’t believe I did that. Luckily, I caught it in time and the filament looks undamaged. Whew. (The spool is toast but that’s no big deal.)

While I’d been faffing about with the dryer, my printer had been running. By chance it had used up a different spool. Thus, a factory empty spool was available. I remounted the refill on the commercial spool and all was well.

I can’t blame anyone but myself. The factory spool has its temperature range clearly displayed.

The PETG refill has its drying temperature clearly displayed too.

Chalk it up as a learning experience.

It’s update time! I’m making prints on my 3d printer and selling them. My low tech ordering form is at https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/sawhorses/.

I make jigs that help you build a sawhorse. The jig has all the angles you need for a simple sawhorse. It also has the lengths you need to cut embedded directly into the jig. It also has a handy hole to hang it on your shop wall (an idea that came from blog readers!). My idea was a physical object that holds all the information. It works.

I also make little model sawhorses. Lacking a word for such a thing, I called them “rigs“. They’ve got measurements embedded within each specific part. They go together magnetically. You can pull them apart and pop them back together. It’s a fun thing and it’s also my second phase of creating physical objects that hold the information to make a real thing.

I suppose technically what I call a “rig” is a scale model. They really are to scale. If you’re uptight about such things, the X-axis is on a different scale than Y & Z. (I had to do that to make a manageable sized model that was also wide enough to hold 6 x 2 mm magnets.)

Someone requested a special jig to trim the sawhorse feet. I made that too. I called them “fancy feet“. (It’s a goofy name, but I needed to name the file and that’s what I typed. The fancy feet jig is optional but it does spiff up your sawhorse.)

Everything comes in a variety of colors. I have a box with lots of different filaments. Thus, changing colors is just a matter of changing filament spools.

This video is what inspired me. (Also, it’s pretty cool to be able to whip up as many rockin’ sawhorses as you want for dirt cheap!) Please like & subscribe if you watch it. Those guys don’t even know I exist and I want them to have a good opinion of me. I plan on sending them a free jig once I get past the holiday season but that will take a few weeks yet.

I still have to do some “arts and crafts” work to finish the 3d prints. It’s not hard but it has to be done. Frankly I’m loving it!

My workshop is happily dedicated to the project. Here’s a random photo of my messy workshop.

The “rigs” require 22 (!) magnets each. I made 3d designs with “pockets” for little magnets and I glue them in the pockets. In case you’re wondering, it’s more or less impossible to remove the magnets once they’re glued in. (Don’t let kids and pets chew on it though. These things are for adults.)

Here’s a shot of two rigs I’ve just finished. The assembled one is translucent turquoise and the disassembled one is translucent blue.

In case you’re wondering; yes. Yes I do have superglue all over my fingers. (BTW: I haven’t yet had to use the “goof off” but it seemed wise to buy some.)

Also the best news of all. I just shipped my first order. I put a paper on top for privacy but that’s a legit shipping label under there! I also found out I screwed myself on postage. This is about the smallest order and I estimated $7 for that. It cost $7.71 and most of my orders are bigger. Oh well, that’s on me. Plus you gotta’ try to learn.

I know it sounds very sappy but shipping out that first package made really made my day! I created an idea entirely in my pointy little head. I went through a zillion iterations in Fusion 360 and then 3d printing one prototype after another. Then I finally got it right and sent it out and someone will enjoy it as a Christmas present.

I know it’s no big deal. I’m not building a spaceship or anything. But still, I did a thing. It feels like everyone has an excuse why they don’t do whatever they think they ought to do. I ignored all that and flat out did it. Yay! It feels super cool to take an idea all the way from “hmmm… would this work?” to “it works and I’m mailing the finished product today”. That satisfaction is earned even if a sawhorse jig is pretty simple.

I truly appreciate all the orders. Thanks. There’s room for more. I hope y’all have as much fun this Holiday season as I think I’ll have.

Christmas came early!

I freaked out that I wouldn’t be able to make enough jigs and rigs so I ordered a large (for me) shipment of 3d printing filament. I didn’t know how many things I’ll need to print so I just ordered more. Lots. Extra!

It arrived yesterday and I’m elated. It’s not just what I plan on printing, it’s that (within reason) I have the materials to print anything.

A box of filament spools, a pile of fresh dimension lumber, a stack of weldable steel. It’s not just stuff; it’s what one can make with it. The possibilities are only limited by my meager skills.

I spent more time than I planned just gazing at all that filament and thinking about what it might become. It has been a great holiday season!

I didn’t plan my little “sawhorse launch” very well. My simple order form croaked and I had to go old-school. (Order at https://adaptivecurmudgeon.com/sawhorses/.)

Then, for a brief period of time, I was getting orders faster than I could scrounge the filament. I placed a huge order for more filament than I’ll ever need but there’s a delay in shipment. Then, to ease my fretting, I ordered a bit more filament on Amazon (which came sooner).

In the meantime, I started printing in different materials (colors) based on what I had in hand. That did a lot of good.

I also had a design issue. I thought it was perfect. Just turns out I’m “gentle with equipment”. Mrs. Curmudgeon is now my parts tester! I went through several design improvements (a couple burned well over 10 hours print time!). I finally hit on the solution and it’s proof that I’m a rookie. The solution is stupidly simple and very strong. It just took me a while to get to the place an experienced pro would’ve gone first. (I’ll put up details and photos in due time).

The upshot of this is that I’ve got the design nailed down, all the filament a guy could want, and the ability to ship however many prints I can jam out at 7 1/2 hours a pop. Ideally I can run the printer 24/7… in fact that’s the best way to use it!

Anyway, I just wanted y’all to know I’ve been having a blast. I was happily gluing tiny magnets in rigs today. It feels good organizing piles of “rig parts” into “shippable rigs”. In theory, my first real “out the door” shipment will hit USPS tomorrow. (I’ve got email addresses for most orders. When I ship yours I’ll mail tracking information.)

I’ve had more fun this “cyber Monday” than most years; probably because I was messing around with glue and magnets. Who doesn’t like a little “arts and crafts” break?

Happy post-Thanksgiving y’all!

Y’all know I’m happiest sailing my tiny boat, running a dirtbike on remote trails, or any of a dozen stupid outdoor hobbies. But all those things are just means to an end. They boil down to seeking “adventure”.

Mostly by accident, I’ve been having an adventure right now. My simple idea of selling 3d printed sawhorse jigs has been an absolute hoot! Like all adventures, I’ve encountered a thousand details I didn’t predict. Like all adventures, I’ve dealt with them as best I can and that’s been “good enough” to keep the ball rolling. By now I’ve (more or less) got things under control; filament is present, more filament is arriving, and my printer is running damn near 24/7.

I’ve bumped into a delightful array of logistics SNAFUs and learned more about 3d modeling & design than I knew there was to learn. How awesome is that?

I plan to write all about it but it’s Thanksgiving weekend and I’ve allocated most of my time for kicking back in a comfy chair by the fire. Everyone needs a rest sometimes. (I get a break but my printer does not, it’s cranking away as I type.) In lieu of reasoned discussion, I’ll leave you with a video montage that starts with Jeremy Clarkson.

First came my oversimplified understanding of an idea:

Then the hubris that comes from not considering / knowing minor logistics / materials science details:

Then I fucked up:

But eventually I figured out some shit and got the requisite elation:

First, my “unscheduled trip” was a success and everything is fine. Second, my “emergency unsupervised overnight print” came out great. I also have filament spools coming from two suppliers using two different shipping methods. And the printer is running right now.

However, I just haven’t had time to carefully plan all my production between now and a USPS shipping “drop dead date” for getting stuff into your hands by Christmas. I’m 100% sure I can fulfill everyone who has already made a “by Christmas” order. I’m 90% sure I can take more orders and get them out by Christmas too but I don’t know how many.

Starting now, all new orders “by Christmas” will be first come first served.

Everybody who checks the box “I don’t need this for Christmas” will get their order right quick too, but they deserve a halo for letting the pressure off. If you ordered like that previously or in the future… take a deep breath of satisfaction for being so awesome.

For filament supply reasons my overnight print was a rig in translucent blue. By the time you are stuffing a turkey in the oven tomorrow I’ll have four ready to go. I haven’t had time to add blue to the form but I’ll do so tomorrow. I’ll post a photo then too. (I’ve been driving all day and I’m bushed right now.)

Have a blessed Thanksgiving. I will! I dodged a health scare earlier in the year, Mrs. Curmudgeon is happy to see me hassling suppliers and messing with spreadsheets like my old self, and I’ll have a great time flogging my 3d printer like a rented mule all holiday season! What more could a Curmudgeon want?

I’ve been having tons of fun with my ad hoc sawhorse jig/rig situation. Half the time I think “nobody will want these”. An exact opposite fraction of time I think “I should buy a second printer to handle the rush. Unleash the Curmudgeonly print farm!”

I was going to post all sorts of things & ideas but life happened. I was in the middle of… everything. I was ordering too much filament that may arrive too late. I was on hold trying to find physical filament within driving distance. I had a spreadsheet up calculating print time available between now and Christmas shipping drop dead time. Priorities changed and I dropped everything.

I wound up driving hundreds of miles in a snowstorm for completely unrelated reasons. There was black ice everywhere and I spent the night in a hotel. Not an emergency, just life being life.

Just before leaving I turned the printer loose on an 18 hour print. Maybe it’s still going? I can’t post more because I didn’t bring a laptop because I don’t own one.

Isn’t is cool how things are always interesting?