Monday 4 December 2017, Amsterdam #1

It is Monday 4 December and I am on the train to Amsterdam. Today it is for work but I have nothing better to do than blogging. Yesterday I went to Amsterdam to paint Samanta and that went really well. I am so pleased with the result. After I came home I uploaded the post about Marieke 9 of April. It takes me 10 minutes to finish a blog post and upload it. It would be nice to get a couple of posts uploaded per evening.

I could work on the coaster. I created a modified design and started the printer and went to bed. This morning I had a look at the result and there where still parts that could not fit into each other. Perhaps I should look into the horizontal expansion setting. There is a setting in the slicer software, Cura 2.7, that lets you calibrate the horizontal expansion in such a way that parts come out more accurately. On the other hand, these challenges are an integral part of the process when you do prototyping.

Now when I started on electronics as well the idea of creating printed circuit boards came up again. The idea has always ended with the chemical process. I really do not want to fiddle with chemicals at home.

Last night I found two alternatives to chemicals. One way was to send out the print job to a manufacturer. Is it really possible to create the PCB without errors in one go? Will it not be frustrating if you make one error and then you have to send out a new updated print job and wait for the correction? I found people sharing this experience. Then I found another way of producing PCBs, with a CNC router mill.

This idea exploded in my head. I had problems sleeping actually because of this PCB milling stuff. When I woke up in the morning it was as if I already had a CNC machine. When I was completely awake I knew where I was and that I had not got CNC machine while sleeping.

I searched for CNC machines and there exist a number inexpensive CNC machines. It is a really compelling idea. With a CNC machine, you can create other things as well. Mechanics etc.

So there is where it stands. It is raining and I commute to work in Amsterdam. Normally I work in Almere. When I work in Almere it is 8 minutes biking to work. There is not much time for blogging when biking for 8 minutes.

There is a company painting my house at the moment. The painter, Erik, is almost finished. Tomorrow he will do his last work. Perhaps.

Now I am in Amsterdam.

This is just a short period before Christmas that I will work in Amsterdam.

Next time I go to Amsterdam is on Wednesday. Perhaps the painting of my house is finished then.