Adaptive Curmudgeon

I have an addiction to Milwaukee Packouts. There is no cure and I’m perfectly happy about that. As addictions go, attraction to irrationally overspecialized toolboxes is pretty tame.

I began by using Packouts for everything but tools. As soon as they hit the market I bolted a half size Packout to my dirt bike (a Yamaha TW200 named Honey Badger). That initial foray into Packout-land was just meant to hold tools and “survival” gear. But Packouts stack and I had to test that out! I added and swapped various “modules”, a soft cooler, extra space to carry more stuff, etc…

No sane person expects anything to stay stacked while bouncing around on a dirt bike. Yet somehow it works! I’ve stacked Packouts in all sorts of configurations, then rode my bike like I hate gravity. I’ve fucked up and hit trees and sunk into swamps and so-forth, but the toolboxes never fail. Aside from one I into which I drilled holes, they stay sealed; internal contents are always dry. The individual boxes never fly off. It’s uncanny how such highly abused boxes hold together like dirt bikes are their true purpose.

Here’s a post from 2021. I was testing a 1 gallon RotoPax gas container* and a 1 gallon RotoPax water container in addition to the Packouts (in this case a stack of a regular half box and a thin half box). (*Links are for Amazon, they may still be valid or they may have expired. If you go to Amazon via a link on my blog and buy anything, I get a small kickback. You won’t pay anything more. So feel free to buy a bar of gold or something.)

This photo is from (Dirt Bike Americana: Pics Or It Didn’t Happen):

Here’s a post from eleven months ago. (I was a much healthier Curmudgeon just that short time ago. It’s hard to imagine how much can, and did(!), change.) I was wandering around the Wyoming high country like a man with zero shits to give. I had the usual Packout and matching set of RotoPax but it was buried under Nelson Riggs Hurricane Dual Sport Saddlebags a Tusk Olympus (Large) tank bag, and sleeping bag & tent. I looked goofy but my unkillable little TW200 did an admirable job under difficult circumstances.

It was a good time. I was riding solo, living my dream, and happy. Eleven months can be a very long time or the blink of an eye. I will be that strong again; I’m just not sure when. The post was called WYBDR: Seeking The Groove:

In addition to the bike, I’ve been using bigger Packout boxes in my truck as “camping gear boxes”. I posted about using one for a “chuckbox” in early 2024 (For No Apparent Reason, I Went Camping: Part 6: Chuckbox):

If I ever join a cult, it’ll be based on Packouts.

As to details, the chuckbox is a Milwaukee Packout 22 inch Modular XL Tool Box. (I’d offer an Amazon link but for some reason Amazon sketchy about that one piece of Packout kit). It’s identical in size as the Packout Rolling Tool Box which I use for “tent stuff”.

Based on all that, you might think I’m missing the point. They’re toolboxes. Am I so obtuse as to not put tools in them?

Of course not! I just didn’t post it when I used toolboxes to hold tools.

In fact, I fiddled with my 3D printer, and made a thing called a “Gridfinity” base for some of my Packouts. “Gridfinity” is nerd-speak for a modular system of organizing space to hold stuff (like tools). 3D printing your own “Gridfinity” bases for Packout boxes is two dimensions deep into the deep well that is American nerd-ness.

In case you’re wondering, Gridfinity within a Packout works exceptionally well.

I didn’t take any photos because… well because 2025 has been a tough year. Also I just wasn’t ready to share. A man posting his opened toolbox might as well be posing in his knickers. I’m well aware the internet is awash in such things, but y’all don’t need to see my socket set just yet. That day may come, but it isn’t today.

(*Do I date myself saying “knickers”? I feel like that makes me sound like an extra from the Beatle’s Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. In 2025 should I say “thong”? In my Squirrels story I refer several times to “mink speedo”. Where was I?)

I just recently did another thing. I used my 3D printer to make stupidly simple Milwaukee Packout labels… and they look fabulous!

If you wandered into some dude’s garage and saw Milwaukee Packouts you might think he’s actually capable of using all those tools. If the Packouts were sporting the silly little labels I just cranked out you might think he’s a “pro”.

Of course, I’m hardly a “pro”. I might very well be just some goober with fancy toolboxes and a high opinion of himself. The best I can say in my defense is that when I made a boat, it floated.

Anyway bask in the glory of cheap 3D printed labels and how they make nice tool boxes into awesome toolboxes!

Here’s an generic stack of Packouts. (Forgive the dirt, I actually use them.)

Looks pretty good, but could it be better?

Here are some labels coming out of my 3d printer. A nerd details is that some labels stick out forward when mounted on the box. For those the text is invisible because it’s on the downward side of the print. Other labels nest deeper into the box when mounted. For those you can see the text as it prints.

3D printing, when done well, isn’t expensive. I used my cheapest PLA filament which is plenty good for this application. The slicer says the cost of filament for this “plate” was around $1.20. I’d suspect each plastic label costs a bit less than a quarter.

Here are the same toolboxes as before but with the pretty new labels. I think it spiffs things up nicely.

Here’s another set of Packouts with labels. They look great!

I was fooling around with some labels sticking out forwards and others nesting in backwards. I think the nested ones look cooler. Also notice that the “inter-handle-hinge” width of various Packouts varies. You need to pick the right size, which isn’t rocket science.

Final note, I didn’t design these myself. I downloaded them from MakerWorld. (It’s easy to edit the text within the Bambu slicer.) You can find them there too. If you do, make sure to “boost” the designer. He earned it!

Happy garage-ing y’all.

I’ve been ill and unable to camp or wander the forests… though that’s improving. Summer fades but hope is not lost. My traditional camping season is just starting!

Traditionally, I stampede to the forest immediately after Labor Day. I do this for two reasons. First, it’s a good season. Most mosquitoes are dead and it’s not yet winter (though you need to be prepared in the high country). The early hints of fall are so very enticing!

Second, and this is sad, the children are all gone. I selfishly benefit when many fine places are “empty”. Indeed the Tuesday after Labor day, the summer tourist season is officially dead. It’s like someone killed it. It’s like that because that’s precisely what public schools do.

Labor Day is the transition weekend before school kicks in. If you go to a State or National Park on Labor Day you’ll see swarms of families getting their last hurrah of the summer. I’m all for it! Families taking their kids into nature is good for society and the kids!

On the other hand, I avoid crowds. I rarely go to a “Park” or “tourist” location on Labor Day. For a solitary guy like me, Labor Day crowds are a pain in the ass. The traffic and the tourists cramp my style. Trailheads are unnaturally crowded. Restaurants are harried. Gas stations are hectic. Etc…

Labor Day tourism all ends in a big rush. One day after that I’ll practically “own” the forest. It’s “mine” clear until big game hunting season brings a different crowd.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It simply is. Public schools in America start up more or less after Labor Day. I’m not a fan of what public schools have become. Kid are penned up beginning in September for utterly arbitrary reasons. Once school kicks in, Moms and Dads just don’t have the time to drag the tykes off to nature (possibly to their relief).

Being an odd thinker like I am, it reminds me of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. (An excellent children’s musical from 1968.) Part of the story is the fictional land of Vulgaria.

Time to review the relevant parts of the story:

Vulgaria is a shitty place ruled by shitty people. The Baroness of Vulgaria is a bitchy Karen who hates children; basically a 1968 version of your local HOA manager. She henpecks the hell out of the equally shitty Baron Bomburst; a selfish and childish soyboy dipshit who should have been “French Revolutioned” by his people.

The Baron, trying to placate his asshole wife, outlaws children, just exactly like your neighborhood HOA would like to do. To get rid of the pesky kids, they hire “The Child Catcher””

Yes, that’s how I see it in my mind. I think of public schools as child kidnapping shitheads. They don’t imprison young minds at the order of a bitchy Baroness, they imprison them for money.

Schools are financed by butts in seats. Every child ass that gets chained down in a classroom is money in their accounts. They get the same money whether the kids are little geniuses learning calculus or clueless illiterate nincompoops; which is why we’ve got so many clueless nincompoops coming out of them.

That’s the version of “the matrix” I envision around Labor Day. YMMV. I enjoy that children are happily running around campgrounds on (and before) Labor Day; even if I have nothing to do with it. I hate to see empty swings and deathly silence when the kids are locked up; even though that frees up “my” forest for my private recreation.

If you’ve got kids and they’re still in the clutches of Public Schools, give them extra hugs and watch the Public Schools like a hawk. Keep a suspicious eye on those bastards!

And maybe take the kids camping in October? Check them out of school, they ain’t learning much anyway. If you see me out there (likely you won’t) I’ll be happy with the laughter and shouts of happy children even if I’m avoiding everyone like the plague.

The forklift I made functions exactly like this one. This isn’t my video, someone else made their own forklift and added a soundtrack like a 1980’s workout video (which is awesome!). I loved making my forklift and I am sure the video maker loved making his. It’s super fun.

I’m too lazy (or too paranoid of YouTube) to post a video, but I’m super happy someone else did it. Have fun watching and give the dude a thumbs up if you want.

It didn’t take long to make the forklift, and it was super fun. That last part is key!

Do you remember when you were a kid? Did you make model cars or model airplanes? I think I made this one (it’s long gone). I don’t remember much about it other than it was fun and I had to be very careful to avoid glue getting out of control. (Which I think I did.)

I also recall the cat ate a few parts. Some things are the same forever.

Anyway, my point is that we treat “fun” as “optional” or even with disdain but fun is good for ya! We’re now grown ass men and women. Unlike when we had kid sized finances, we can afford a basic level of fun shit. But most of us are failing to pursue enough “fun”. We’re busy at the office, or fretting over taxes, or doomscrolling on social media (which will genuinely fuck you up!).

Why not indulge in good clean stupid enjoyment? If you had fun gluing shit to other shit when you were 12, why are you denying yourself now that you’re… ahem… vintage age?

Of course, part of your “fun” activities will be due to unplanned circumstances. In my case I’m gluing shit to other shit because I just ain’t healthy enough to ride a dirtbike across Wyoming (what I was doing almost exactly one year ago). Is making a toy forklift as fun and wholesome and uplifting as crossing mountains solo on a little motorcycle? Hell no! Even so, it’s fun to build stuff and it’s better for ya’ than passively watching the idiot box.

The remote was surprisingly simple. It’s 2025, people have been making remote electronic shit for many decades and it’s easy now. Here’s the electronic bits.

Here’s the 3d printed bits:

Here’s the two together:

Poof! All of a sudden you’re done!*

I printed out some pallets because why not?

(*One caveat, you need to link the gadgets you’ve made to something that uses Bluetooth. You can use a computer but the universe assumes this will be your phone. The B0rg will not be denied. You link to both the remote and the forklift (sequentially, not simultaneously) via Bluetooth, download simple little, premade, pythonish, scripts to the forklift and the remote respectively, teach them to play nice with each other, and then you’re done programming. It took me half an hour total and someone who’s done it once before could do it in 5 minutes.)

[I interrupted this series. I was rambling away about my little nerd amusements when I got a negative comment. That’s not a big deal. Anyone who’s done anything on the internet (or in life) has gotten negative comments. But for some reason, probably because I’ve been sick half the year, I just… disengaged. What can I say? It’s my blog, I can ghost it if I want.

As a counterpoint, I got several positive comments, which is both normal* and appreciated. (*No kidding, in a world that’s practically tearing itself apart, my small audience has been the nicest sweetest most supportive group anyone could imagine. Over years and years of posting about all sorts of shit, I’ve gotten less negativity than I’d hear on a random trip to Walmart. For that I thank y’all!)

Anyway, it dawned on me that “even if it is boring, it interests me”. I mean for God’s sake my wife watches TV shows about people cooking. Like, lots of them. I like to eat food, I’m not interested in watching food be made that I can’t eat (or even smell). Stuff that bores one person is riveting to another and that’s a good thing. Thank goodness we live in a world of options where us free people can always change the channel!

So, here goes with the rest of my nerdy little project…]

(Starting right after Cyberbrick #3.) After the TPU adventure I loaded some simple PLA and went back to using the AMS Lite. This was the same material as the pre-TPU components, just a different color. In this case PLA Yellow.

This group of parts required more “support”. The support settings were pre-programmed into the project. They instructed the slicer in what to do. My job was to pry the supports off with small needle nose pliers; a task which was oddly satisfying.

I also printed a second “plate” that would become the handheld remote. I stuck with yellow.

These are the printed parts that became the remote (a few parts of the remote are black PLA).

I geek out about variations in material even as I don’t care too much about color. One tiny bit of the project involves lenses for little LED “headlights”. The lenses are clear translucent PETG. I made a mistake and bought a whole spool of clear PETG. I already had a partial spool. Whoops. The lenses are about the size of a dime and now I’ve got a ton of leftover filament. The lenses are installed on the end of a black PLA “light bar”.

The first part of the actual build was a surprisingly complex set of reduction gears and a little motor. I made two, one for left and one for right. The forklift steers like a bulldozer.

Very quickly the forklift came together.

The lift itself has just one tiny motor, but it has a “gear and pulley” mechanical advantage system. This is pretty similar to how certain real forklifts function. Notice that I kept everything corralled in a box and had to resort to a magnifying lens. (Having a separate motor means it can be controlled separately from the remote. This is all dirt simple, but it’s another place you could plug in a cable incorrectly.)

I’ll stop here before I wear out my welcome. I’ll do the controller in the next post.

I’ve been off line long enough to lose some physical fitness. My Dr. encourages me to go to the gym… which is just the kind of bullshit doctors say. Looking at a guy like me and thinking “this bearded maniac ought to be on a treadmill, in an air conditioned gym, getting his mental shorts in a wad because CNN is blasting propaganda at him” is missing… everything! My whole way of being just ain’t that way. It infuriates me when a Dr. sees a widget and not a human. I’d at least consider wrestling alligators for exercise and this dweeb thinks I ought to go to a gym… in a mall. (Actually I live so far in the hinterlands there is no mall.)

On the other hand, I’ve taken a hit and can’t deny it. One year ago I was riding a dirtbike solo across Wyoming at high altitude. That’s technically not “safe” for anyone but I did it. It’s certainly strenuous (especially in the thin air) and (at the time) I had more to give but just ran out of time. Last year’s accomplishments are a baseline I’m clearly not up to yet.

As a “compromise” I’ve been cutting firewood… cautiously. I’m only doing small amounts while I build stamina. Short “sessions”, only a few days a week. But it’s something. At first I was using my little electric saw, but as I got more “into it” I was working harder and needed to switch to gas. (Don’t get impressed, moving up from battery saws to gas is progress but I’m still slow as shit compared to true production logging, or even me a few years ago.)

I have a Stihl MS361. It spent many months ignored but it’s a loyal friend and I’m glad to be using it again. I’ve had it about 15+ years. I’ve worked it like a rented mule.

Unfortunately, it got a little out of tune. I’m not sure why, only that it did. It would start easily and run strong, but it would stall out on any extended pause. If I felled a tree and the saw was idle for 30 seconds while I waded through the brush to get to the first part of bucking the log… it would be dead when I got there. It would start up right away, but stalling was an issue that I could no longer ignore.

I looked online and found the instructions to tweak the idle speed. Here they are. Looks simple to me:

I carefully turned the low speed screw (L) 1/4 turn. Then started her up to adjust the idle speed (LA). Except I couldn’t. She wouldn’t start.

Here’s the thing. Saws are finicky and my saw is peculiar in that it’ll either start right away or not at all. I know what you’re all thinking. You’re leaping to give advice about blowing off, replacing, or gapping the sparkplug, cleaning the air filter, checking the fuel intake, etc… Please spare me. I’ve been through it all before. The saw’s just got personality. Works great but you’d better set the choke right when you start it cold or your day is over before it starts.

That said, it has been flawless for years. Starting every damn time! I had the routine down cold. Full choke, on the third pull it’ll try to start. Go to half choke, on the second pull it’ll fire right up. That was happening with perfect regularity, but if I forgot to set the choke or something it would get flooded and I’d be fucked.

I know all the tricks to start a recalcitrant saw, but for some reason my MS361 just won’t listen to reason. 99% of the time it cuts wood like an ape on crack… 1% of the time it’s on strike like a New York City unionized garbageman. No middle ground!

I’d messed it up! I panicked! I tried to turn the screw back the exact 1/4 turn and undo what I’d done. I left it overnight and gave it a shot at a cold start. Nope! The saw had gone on strike.

That’s when I did the wisest thing I’ve done in a while; I put down the saw and stepped away from it. I was starting great. Whatever I’d done didn’t “undo” right away. Time to pay someone smarter than me to fix it.

She’s in the shop right now. It’s probably for the best. It’s roasting hot out and I should be resting today. I have to constantly guard against my own tendency to overwork myself and it’s like the saw decided I needed a break. 🙂

What’s the point of all this? There is no point. Only that I like my saw and Sithl in general but it’s super sensitive to the damn carb screw. It hasn’t been “tweaked” in like a decade so I can’t complain… but I guess I am.

If it’s cooler tomorrow I might go back to the little battery saw and flog it mercilessly. We’ll find out if the batteries overheat before I do (which I doubt, I’m still weak). Or maybe I’ll listen to the wisdom of my chainsaw as it spends the weekend at the saw spa, and take a few days off.

I know that Ron Swanson is a fictional character, but I like this little story. It reminds me of yesterday’s post.

Jackie’s message is one we’ve heard a thousand times, yet maybe we need to re-hear it from time to time. I got real sick this spring. I was trying to muddle through, balancing job and time and everything. Doctors kept kicking the can down the road. There was a lot of “you have to wait 2 weeks for the results to come in and then another week before I read the results. Then I’ll schedule a follow up… how does six weeks from next October sound to you?”

One day I was thinking “this ain’t getting better”, and then the darker thoughts intruded; “how many ‘six week delays’ do I have in me?” Back at work it was the same old shit but it was piling up and my heart hasn’t been in it. I saw how they acted during COVID (especially HR) and I can never feel the same again. It simply is what it is.

I did something I’m still kinda’ shocked about. I changed everything.

I don’t want to spew personal stuff so I won’t offer details. Suffice to say I did the one thing most people don’t do. I dedicated 100% of my efforts to getting healthy.

I went at it with hammer and tongs. The first part was to overcome foot dragging. Every doctor’s office that said “I’ll get back to you in 3 weeks” got a steady barrage of calls. “If you’re too busy, who isn’t? Give me a referral to someone who can attend to this now.” I pestered schedulers and labs. “If you can’t do that lab test for a month, who can? Where are they?”

The second part was geographic blinders. I think most patients will only go to the most convenient medical location, I made it clear that I would go anywhere anytime and do so gladly. I wanted quality treatment and I wanted it now. No half assing and no excess delays. “Location X is booked up for months? What about location Y? Can you schedule me there? I don’t care how far it is. I have a truck and I’m still healthy enough to drive it.”

The third part was financial. Money is only good for the things you can buy with it. Also, I live like a pauper even when well employed… so I had emergency savings. One must remember what savings are for. Also, I have good insurance for which I pay mightily but, of course, they’re not the final say. The incentive of insurance is to draw things out as long as possible. I wasn’t putting up with it. People treat insurance like “daddy” instead of “a thing for which I paid”. I hassled whomever needed hassling. “You haven’t gotten insurance pre-approval? You expect that to take a couple weeks or more? Let me call insurance. I’ll get an answer or *die trying.” (*Possibly literally). Many times I asked “how much does it cost without insurance?” (Usually the answer is terrifying, but not always.) And I indeed burned cash like I didn’t care; “The co-pay is how much? You don’t really know if it’s necessary? Fuck it, I’ll pay.”

For a few meds that got held up I just plain bought them with real American dollar bills. This baffled the pharmacist but I was a bulldog. “Med X isn’t covered? Oh, you’re waiting to have insurance approve? It’ll take how long to hear back? That’s bullshit, how much does it cost with real money?” Here’s a shocker. We always hear about lifesaving medicine A or B that costs thousands of dollars a month and that’s tragic, but it doesn’t go that way all the time. I had a few medicines that insurance held up that were “old”. There’s one (I’m not saying which one) that was something like a $10 co-pay but insurance was being a bitch about it. The dr. had changed my dosage and insurance was like “you too recently refilled at the old dosage so you will just have to wait”. Turns out it was $10 co-pay or something like $13 if I paid cash. I handed the pharmacist a $20 bill. She looked at me like I was the biggest drug dealer in the county, but I got my meds. I’ve also driven dozens or hundreds of miles from Pharmacy A (which is sold out) to Pharmacy B (which isn’t). This is apparently something nobody else does.

Did it work? Yeah, kinda’. I was in very bad shape. Now I’m “shaky but recovering”. Well worth it!

Everything else? Ignored. No boat. No squirrels. No camping. The lawn looks like shit. My vehicles need an oil change. Not much motorcycle riding. I cancelled an important family trip. I chose to empty my cup and do just the thing that needs doing. No regrets.

Could I have done it all while juggling the old job and keeping politely to the insurance and medical monopoly timeline? No. I’m not sure if I’d have died. Maybe? Probably not. Unquestionably, the ensuing months would’ve been torture. I certainly wouldn’t be doing as well as I am in the time it took to get here.

We all say “health is everything” but our actions don’t show that. We treat health like it’s one of a dozen equally important things. I’m just sayin’.

There’s a second part to this story.

When I was a kid, my mom was captain of the volunteer emergency squad. She had a pager back when such things were rare and cell phones didn’t exist. She and several other (EMTs?) arranged schedules such that there would always be a crew of people “on call”. They’d be at home or in town but near their pager and near the firehouse (where the ambulance was parked). During “on call” hours if the pager went off shit got real. Mom would stampede for the car (often practically running over her clueless son).

As far as I know, she never got paid a penny. I don’t know how many lives she saved. I don’t know how many times the ambulance arrived too late. I only know that pager went off and I’d dive for cover. And I’d be proud of my mom.

Some calls were short. Some dipshit fell in a ditch and broke a leg; transport to the hospital and be back at home before dinner is too cold. Other calls were longer… much sadder. Farm implement accidents, car collisions, housefires, etc… Mom would come home worn out. She’d have either succeeded or not at what was surely one hell of a experience. She didn’t share the details with me, but of course I heard various stories. Ambulance crews see shit that horror movies wouldn’t show.

The thing I learned is that all things are relative. My mom, God bless her, was calibrated according to a baseline I can’t quite imagine. I’d come to her with a skinned knee and she’d be like “That’s not so bad, last Tuesday old man Wilson had his leg ripped in half. Here’s a band aid.”

She wasn’t wrong. Eventually I just figured out where the bandaids were and took care of things myself. Is that not part of growing up? It just was a thing; one does not come to mom with skinned knees and paper cuts when she recently witnessed some dude wrapped around an unshielded PTO.

So too with my illness. It was fuckin’ serious to me. Terrifying, painful, possibly final… and a thing that made me drop all other plans and activities. Yet it don’t mean shit to anyone else. And I get that. The people at a hospitals I went to have seen things. For that matter, so have millions of others. We (all of us) are surrounded by people that faced worse. My situation was not a heart attack. I didn’t get lung cancer. No appendages got ripped off. I expect to be my regular self (full recovery!) though it’ll take as long as it takes.

“That’s nothing. Here’s a band aid.”

It makes me laugh. God trained me at age nine for what’s hitting me now. I humbly know that my little tempest in a teapot is nothing. I browbeat some doctors and labs until it was figured out, then I scampered off and fully dedicated myself to recovery. Easy peasy.

For everyone, and especially the many of you are dealing with shit far more serious than this particular blogger, I wish you well.

A.C.

P.S. And put a shield on the fucking PTO!

You’re wondering when the Cyberbrick gadgetry ties in with 3d printing? That starts now! After I was done sorting and stashing “stuff” from the Cyberbrick kit (a dual kit!), I wandered over to MakerWorld and picked the project I’d build.

I started simple. I would make a remote controlled toy forklift and the remote itself. This is one of the basic, pushed by Bambulab, models. I figured it was plenty complex enough for yours truly.

It was super simple to download the “project” for the forklift. The “project” has several “plates”. I fired the first “plate” through Bambu Studio “slicer” and the printer without any effort at all.

I did nothing but pick out the filament color. In this case PLA Black. (PLA is the simplest and easiest and cheapest of plastics but it’s still plenty good for what is basically a toy.) BTW: There’s no reason why you need print only one part at a time. You can see that about a dozen parts all came out on a single plate.

Voila!

I did almost no “post processing”. I just popped the parts off the plate and tossed them in a box (lest a few parts vanish).

Then shit got real! PLA is so simple a monkey can do it. I’ve also “leveled up” to PETG, a plastic with superior traits that’s only mildly more finicky. But the design I wanted had “tank treads”. That requires flexible prints.

The most common filament that can flex is called TPU. All filaments are affected by relative humidity but some more than others. PLA can be managed with desiccant and luck. PETG needs a little more attention but not much. TPU requires drying. (At least that’s what they recommend.)

Lucky me, I bought a filament dryer months ago. I hadn’t used it much but it was there taking up desk space. Turns out it’s simple and easy to use. I took a deep breath, opened a fresh spool of TPU, and ran it through the dryer. My dryer is a Creality Space PI Filament Dehydrator for two spools. The dryer’s name is stupid but Creality is an established 3D printer company.

There are many dryers and I suspect they all work about the same. I like what I got but you can get by much cheaper (for example, my dryer can handle two spools at once but you can squeeze the price down by choosing a single spool model). Many innovators try experiments with toaster ovens and whatnot. But I’m hooked on 3d printing and was happy to just have the “wet filament” issue “solved”. I dropped just over $80. As always YMMV.

Oh you think I’m done? Nope! The thing about making actual existing things in the real world is that the real world has hidden complexity. I had to learn new techniques to print  TPU. First of all I have a Bambulab A1 Combo. The “combo” part of the equation is a device that allows me to run up to 4 filaments at a time through a handler called AMS Lite.

TPU is “squishy”. The AMS Lite can’t push a noodle. Don’t fret, there’s no single printer that’s perfect for all uses and there’s always (usually) a solution.

It’s stupidly easy to “bypass” the AMS Lite and feed the flexy TPU directly into the printer. (I’ll admit I watched a few YouTube videos to figure out the process. It takes like 30 seconds once you grok the situation.)

Here’s a photo of me running TPU from a cereal box.

Watch out when I say “cereal box”! This is not just any cereal box! It’s a super awesome spool holding box!

<At this point I went off on a tangent about my “fleet” of spool holding boxes and why they’re the greatest thing since sliced bread. I cut that out of this post and put it in the next. Forgive me in advance, I love my cereal box conversions.>

So now that I’m feeding dried filament straight from my special dry box straight to the printer (bypassing the AMS Lite), I’m ready for TPU right? Wrong!

For reasons I’m not entirely sure about, the nozzle that comes with the Bambulab A1 Combo is not good for TPU. I had to buy a different variant of what’s called a “hot end”. <Insert joke here.> Happily “hot ends” are cheap! <Insert raunchier joke here.>

Hot ends come in different diameters. The OEM hot end is 0.04. A couple months ago I’d bought hot ends in 0.02 (for fine slow work) and 0.06 (for thicker faster work).

Hot ends also come in “regular” and “hardened”. <Good grief, the jokes write themselves!> Apparently TPU is coarse or something and needs “hardened”. A few months ago, in anticipation of the TPU learning curve, I bought a 0.04 Hardened hot end. (They’re cheap… something like $7 I think.)

When in doubt, I always make a cool toolbox. I printed up a “hot end” holder so I wouldn’t lose anything. (I didn’t make this design, I just downloaded it.)

Since I had the parts there was no excuse not to swap the “hot end”. This is what the print head looks like with the cover on.

You can pop off the cover without tools.

You can swap the hot end without tools too. I was freaked out that I’d damage something but it’s actually no big deal.

So did the TPU work?

YES!

Flexible tracks! It’s amazing what a 3d printer can do.

There’s more cool stuff I’ve printed for the project but I’ve written too long about the TPU*. I’ll post more later.

A.C.

*When I bought the printer I was already looking forward to TPU. TPU can be printed as gaskets, Crocs, fishing lures, sheaths, etc… I’m super glad I’ve approached that part of the learning curve.

Cyberbrick is a (mild) challenge right at the start. It’s just a box, not even a big one. Crammed in that box are several dozen bits of “stuff”. The “stuff” is in plastic bags that only partially explain what they hell they are. There’s minimal documentation and all the “handholding” details are on-line. (There’s plenty on line!) Thus, the challenge begins as soon as you open the box and try to make sense of the ensuing mixed up pile of “stuff“.

It’s just a box of “stuff“. 

The “stuff” is a kit with sufficient parts to make one “thing“. You can buy a larger kit that has parts to make two “things“. Here’s where 3d printers are weird. You’re asking “what thing”? The answer is “whatever damn thing you choose”.

I bought the “double kit” because why not? I recommend that for anyone. Yeah it costs more but then you’re not screwed if you lose some bit or widget.

I realized immediately that everything is tiny and therefore must stay corralled. Given the slightest chance, various bits will fall off your table and disappear into an alternate dimension. Make yourself a workspace or you’ll lose half your shit before you even get started!

Trust me on this, if you can avoid losing shit you’re already halfway to complete success. Dump this complexity on the kitchen table and your cat will eat half of it before you’re done picking out the filament colors for your 3D prints!

In my case, I setup a magnifying glass with light to see the “stuff”. I have owned it for several years and used it for various other projects. You might not need that. Ya’ whippersnapper!

I also ordered a “kit” of tiny screwdrivers… which made me happier than a set of screwdrivers ought. They’re all the same and they all come from who knows where in China. I selected a “58 in 1 Cordless Eectric* Precision Screwdriver with 50 Magnetic Bits“. (*It is not I but them that misspelled “electric”!)

This kit is massive overkill for a single Cyberbrick project but just look at it… it’s shiny and colorful… it’s practically a trout lure for humans! How can you resist? I only used a few bits (and I didn’t need the electronic driver at all) but I have no regrets. Also, if you’re a normal human with a normal collection of normal tools you do not have the tiny hex and Philips bits you’ll need.

After that, get some smallish boxes. As a 3d printing nerd I have plenty of them lying around. (3d filament comes in boxes of just the right size!)

Put the stuff in the boxes and work from there. You’ll thank me.

Then, because nothing makes a nerd happier than procrastinating, I printed a super elaborate box to hold my “double kit”. There’s several of these lurking on MakerWorld and I picked one of the more elaborate ones. It has little nesting containers for every little bit and bauble. Some of the compartments I never quite figured out, others are obvious.

Just look at it! Is that not the most groovy “parts kit” you ever saw? (This is what it looks like after I used half of the kit.)

The kit came with some decals. I slapped one on the top of my little parts box.

Incidentally, the “parts kit box” (which is not necessary at all and merely me being a huge dweeb) requires six dowel pins for the hinges. It only needs six dowels and they’re cheap. Unfortunately, buying from MakerWorld requires shipping and I break out in hives paying shipping that costs as much as some cheap little hardware. So I bought 80(!) dowel pins from Amazon (it cost $6.99 for a box of 80 pins). I reasoned that I’d probably like to make more hinges in the future so why not? Here’s the link: M2 X 30mm Stainless Steel Dowel Pin. (This is entirely unrelated to the Cyberbrick project itself, the pins are just for the box.)

Have I dithered enough? I think so! Remember, this is for fun, it ain’t a job! Take your time y’all!

Plus, I’ll actually make progress in the next post.

A.C.

P.S. If you click an Amazon link and buy anything, I get a small kickback. Thanks. It’s not limited to things I pointed out (like obscure stainless steel dowel pins). If you had an enormous and expensive purchase in mind, start with my link and I’ll get beer money. Don’t fret that I’m selling you out to corporate overlords to make a buck. I’m only including links because it’s my way of “paying it forward”. I like when I see some guy doing a cool thing and he specifies he used part/tool XYZ and I can just click on the link and say “yeah, I’ll take one of them”. It’s not a big money thing. I cleared something like $4 last month. 🙂