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Tuesday 25 September 2018

Clear out of valve gear

Well this started as just a query for where might be the best place to take stuff into a "I'd like that", "do you have one of these?" series of discussions and email pretty much got mobbed.

The R1155 has found a very good home and will be off to an RAF Museum where to be honest it belongs as it is part of our/their history. I am pretty sure this one was used on a launch which fished crews out of the North Sea.

The HRO-M I still have to find a home for it, this one was also marked as an R106 and did time as a VI set and I am aware it has provenance so this is not being just sold on.

Lots and lots of 60's and 70's era valve kit looks like will have a new home soon.

The 1920's and 1930's era valves for ARRL TNT etc (all old globe type valves) as well as a set of B2spyset valves will be off soon.

The Sussex valve tester will go too that looks like it has a good home as well.
A couple of new build parasets, using old components I have to figure out what state they are in. Lots of components as well.

I'll inventory what valve kit is left soon including all the relevant books etc. There are quite a few FT243, 10XJ et al crystals that I will find a home for.

Then will go through some of the more modern rigs, projects I have not really looked at for a while and quite a bit of test kit, so in the end I will have a much reduced shack/workshop. No not giving up the hobby just rationalizing stuff as I need the space as well.


Friday 7 September 2018

Dual Hotends on K8200


Going to see what this looks like on the old K8200 3D Printer a Chimera V6 dual head with remote bowden titans extruders will set it up for 3mm and 1.75mm. I have a feeling I might try some PVA dissolving filament as support material.  

0.2mm,0.3mm, 0.4mm and 0.5mm Nozzles for 1.75mm filament, also have some 1mm and 1.5mm for 3mm filament. Looks like the heaters can be either 12V or 24V and the thermistors are standard 100K NTC glass bead type.

I'll add a pair of silicon J6 clone socks to them as well so can differentiate between them.

The mount will almost certainly be an aluminum plate or 3D printeted backet.

Looks like RAMPS1.4 will happily accommodate the extra extruder and hot end.

The filament run out sensors will also be separate, not sure can have on both but will investigate.



Wednesday 5 September 2018

Fitted some longer arm microswitches to the Y axis of the PCB CNC

Set a job running, it was all running fine but found the CNC had happily reset it's origin after 1st PCB was milled (8 pcb on the same bit of PCB/FR4), As the shorter armed microswitch had not triggered when it was supposed to. The sacrificial table cover had been milled instead for the next 7. Oops.

So swapped out the Y axis micro switches for some longer arm ones instead.

Think I might look at 3D printer Raspberry Pi and Octoprint / Octolapse type functionality with a small camera so can catch issues. I think there is a Prontoneer Raspberry Pi CNC shield that is basically the same as the Arduino one but you aslo get the Raspberry Pi control.