While I haven’t made any progress now in months, I’ve made related progress.
First, Artoo got an “official” space in our apartment. He’s got his own shelf in our spare bedroom. This means I’m not catching grief from the wife unit about having Artoo parts spread across the living room. It’s a big shelf with enough clearance above it that Artoo’s body sits on top with his skins taped around him, and his legs sitting on the shelf beside him. He’s also high enough up that if the kids come to visit, he’s basically out of reach.
Second, we’ve been house shopping. Each of the houses we’ve put a bid on (or tried to put a bid on, in one case) had phenomenal workshop space. The first one (Lindley) had a 900 sqft detached workshop, but it turned out there was water damage and there was likely to be more water damage to the house in the future; it was built next to a hill that would drain against the side of the house, and North Carolina has lots of clay in the soil, so water doesn’t soak into the soil very quickly. We were really interested in a second place (Brenrose), that had 2 garages and a carport; with one of the garages even having a hydraulic car lift in one of the bays. It sold before our realtor could get us an appointment in to look at the place. The third place (Marly) had a nice detached garage. The garage wasn’t as large as place #1, but it was big, was open to the rafters, which could have added storage and usable space in some odd ways, but didn’t have power run to it. We loved the house and the location, but when we started looking deeper, we realized the place needed about $15k in repairs, but was still listed at $240k. Then there was the fourth place, Holder. It was really nice inside, in many ways too nice. My workshop would have been inside, with white carpet. The master bedroom was small, and the seller wasn’t willing to budge at all on the price, and absolutely against offering any closing cost assistance. Cori fell in love with it, and was crushed when we walked away. I’m not sure why she loved it so much; to me it almost seemed too formal for us. The location wasn’t awesome, but it certainly had a country feel to it that I liked, but I didn’t love it. The fifth place (Wayne) had an awesome workshop in the basement, along with storage areas down there, and a bathroom. It also had a small (approximately one car) detached workshop and a shed. I think we would have removed the shed sooner or later because between the workshop and the out building, there was plenty of storage and workshop area, and the shed was sitting where we’d put a pool in. It turned into a bit of a bidding war, as we lost right away. So we’re still looking. It’s safe to say that the housing market in Durham is a little crazy.
Third, Ian upgraded his 3d printer so it’s has dual extruders. This means he can use water soluble plastic for supports and finishing becomes a bit easier. This is really cool. At some point, I’ll have to get some pics of some of the stuff he’s printing now. I keep wanting to pick up a 3d printer, but the amount of work he had to put into this makes me glad he’s doing it, and not me; I don’t have the time for a whole extra hobby, and don’t have the space for a 3d printer right now either. Part of me is tempted to pick up an SLA printer to compliment his FDM printer, but there’s less use for an SLA printer, other than printing minis, as SLA prints tend to be pretty brittle. SLA printers also have a high cost when it comes to consumables, as there’s significant parts (resin basin and print bed, ~$150) that are considered “consumable”. So it’s on the “want list”, but it’s very far down in priority, especially while we’re still in an apartment.
McArgent's Astromech Build Log 