Many roads.

Hey everyone,

I had planned to shoot a state of the workshop this weekend, but a trip to the dentist earlier in the week has condemned me to having two wisdom teeth cut out of my skull later this afternoon, so I won't be doing much of anything for the next few days I'd say. A bit of a blessing in disguise maybe - I feel like I've been teetering on the edge of burnout for a good while.

I'm so close to being able to wave goodbye to the day job, just a few more details to iron out, and of course making sure I can navigate the transition in a way that doesn't leave my employer, mentor, and good friend in the lurch. After all, I've learnt almost everything I know during my time at Macgyver Models. It's also just, really hard to quit a job you love!

Have been going nuts on the printer this last week, and even picked up an A1 mini (on my own dime) to sit beside it.

While I was at first quite sceptical of the Gridfinity system, it's turned out to work really well for organising these tooling drawers. I'll be sure to share the files for all my designs, as there isn't all that much oriented towards the machine shop out there.

The next few videos are still bouncing around in my head; there's a lot to do around the shop and I'm still not quite sure what to tackle first. These include: upgrading the headstock on the CNC to accept the new bt30 spindle hiding in one of my drawers, and maybe even an automatic tool changer (I barely even know 'er!) to go with it. Then there's the electronic leadscrew for the lathe - even the smallest jobs that require a bit of threading just keep getting put off in my avoidance of the change gears.

I've also got the idea into my head that I'd like to build another mill from the ground up.

Something a little more desktop sized this time around, but dedicated to 5 axis work. Think of the new pocketNC machine, except it doesn't cost $80K USD. To that end, I'll be doing some experiments with epoxy granite casting.

(Thoughts on colour?)

I can't get my hands on silimix here in Aus, but I figured road base would have the best chance of satisying the fuller curve, so I'm interested to see those results.

Any suggestions on how to actually test the outcome would be great!

I also picked up a few of these fairly cheap (~$200) harmonic drives, again interested to see how they perform. Thought I could cast the body of a 4th and 5th axis trunnion with epoxy granite, that accepts these units and kill two birds with one stone.

Anyway, I'm off to get my gums cut open, and thinking it's probably about time to jump back into Baldur's Gate 3 for a weekend while I'm recovering. See you soon!