Repair

A bunch of random little things from the last week or so. 304 Stainless This is the first time I'll be doing anything substantial with 304, so I expect to learn a few things. It's for a project I can't talk about yet. I need to knurl, face, and part it. I think the lathe is up to it, so we'll see if my skills are, too. A 12" bar of 304 stainless, 2" in diameter. Big Blue Gets Away From Someone We had an unfortunate incident at Nova Labs: a job got away from the user on "Big Blue", the 4x8 CNC router. I helped out with the repairs on it and on the other large CNC machine this weekend. I didn't get any pictures of the repairs (I'm still working on remembering to take more pictures), so here are some pictures of the damage instead. The router bit went through the spoilboard and into the phenolic-and-linen sheet underneath, plowing a pretty good groove until the bit snapped. Another view of the damage. ...

I had a long weekend, and a lot of small things happened in it. None of them is big enough for an entry of its own, so here they all are. Personal Maker Time I'm still working on the project I can't talk about yet. Soon. A small brass part for that project, on the lathe. The Espresso Machine 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. Inside the machine. The suspect, out of its sleeve. 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. The new fuse, crimped on at one end. Then the other. The finished repair. Back in business. ...