Long Weekend Odds and Ends

I'm still working on the project I can't talk about yet. Soon.

On Saturday I opened up my Gaggia Classic espresso maker, which had stopped working. The power light came on, but it wasn't heating and the pump wouldn't run. A look inside wasn't particularly illuminating at first. But my friend Paul, whose hobbies include repairing, augmenting, and rebuilding espresso machines (yes, really), pointed me at a thermal fuse as a likely culprit, and a quick check with a multimeter confirmed it. I ordered a replacement.

My brother called it an emergency repair, but I still had pour-over to get me through. It did take a few days, since I had to wait for the part. On Tuesday I put it in.

On Sunday morning I once again volunteered at Nova Labs, where I was given a special mission: repair the sink in the Studio. Both the faucets and the drains were leaking, so replacements needed to go in. The first order of business, which took almost an hour, was finding everything. Tools and parts were scattered all over.

The work was moderately successful. I got the faucets installed, but the drains defeated me. They're frozen in place, and I couldn't see an obvious way to undo them.

I eventually found a tool that we can buy, or make, since it's an easy laser job. It looks like it should fit between the tabs in the first photo, but it's really the other side of the tool, which looks different, that fits. I think the drain is nearly welded in place by whatever sealant the installer used, but the tool is worth a try, so I laser cut a template out of hardboard.

I have no idea what all the tabs are for.

On Monday I cut the real thing on the M3, out of 1/4" mild steel.

That's an indication that I need to work on either cut speed or gas pressure. It's still totally good enough for its purpose. I'll find out when I go back whether the purpose is served.

I printed the manufacturer's cutting table for the M3 and laminated it. Sometimes it's the little things.

Ever since the water main break and repair last week, the backflow preventer on our sprinkler system has been pouring water on the ground. I figured there was some debris stuck in it, so I took it apart and cleaned out what little dirt I found.

No improvement. For a while the system worked the same as before, which is to say not well, and now it doesn't work at all. My suspicion is that grit worked its way into the system somewhere and jammed it completely up. I'm out of time and ideas, so our sprinkler maintenance company will have to fix it. I'd like them to do it soon, since we put down grass seed.

On Sunday evening at the FRC meeting, the router was busy cutting parts for the new pit cabinets we're building for travel. The students designed them. It was a good opportunity to train up one of the other coaches on one of my favorite Nova Labs tools, the 4x8 CNC router. Mmm, vacuum table.