Hey there, everybody. We are back with another Wednesday, and we've got a little bit to go over. I'm back in the office/print room this week, since vacation is over and I'm back to facing real life. Facing that started on Wednesday, as the post was scheduled to go out I was out with my kiddo getting our boosters for Covid and Flu, as well as some other shots we were both in need of. That kind of threw off the rest of the week, with Lizz and I mainly leaving the house to run errands but otherwise staying home, cleaning stuff up, starting to winterize Knox, and starting to get things prepped for VoltCon which is a week from this coming Saturday. Also, today is my father's 80th birthday, so happy birthday Dad!
On the 3D printing front, everything I've been doing the past week has been to prep for that. I've been taking care of some extra product, and I've been trying to figure out my table setup and printing pieces for that. I mean, if you look around, you can find retail displays for a lot of stuff. I have a keychain rack with trays for small little critters, I have a magnet display that will also have some matching keychains, I have an earring display with space in the center for extra stock, and I have stands for wood shelving that I need to complete this week so I can sand and stain the wood this weekend.
The Twitch streaming has been on hold because of the trip, the vaccines, and this past Monday was a work holiday, so Lizz and I went and cast our ballots early. By the time this posts, I should be wrapping up my Wednesday morning stream, and things should be back to normal on the Twitch account moving forward.
Speaking of Monday, after we cast our ballots and went out for breakfast, Lizz and I took a quick swing over to Spirit Halloween where I picked up a Ghostbusters Radio because I figured, if it's the wrong model, I don't want to put a lot of work into it. This one, I can print a replacement "Motorola" label to go over the Ghostbusters markings, make a new holster for it, and call it a day. After we got that taken care of, I got settled at the dining room table, pulled out the 3D print of the "belt gizmo" for my costume, and got to work.
Rant incoming.
While the file set looks really good, the tolerances are something that my machine is not set up for, because NOTHING on this piece is fitting right. On top of that, there are absolutely no instructions. I have been slowly going through all the parts and comparing them to images I snipped out of the Etsy listing, and assembling it that way. Of course, in assembling, once I figure out where a piece goes, I then need to start trimming and sanding down the base so it actually fits on the "circuit board" body, and some of these pieces aren't much bigger than a pencil eraser. I've put many hours into it already, and I'm only about halfway done and my hands are crying foul. Oh, and once I have it almost done, I still need to figure out what wires go on it, I need to figure out how to wire some lights onto it, and I need to make the holder and clip to attach it to the belt. I'm going to be honest, without the wires and lighting, this should have been a one-day build, max. I'm a little frustrated, but it's going to get done, and it'll work until I either find the real calculator used, or I get one of the $200 replicas.
This coming week, it's more cleaning and getting ready for VoltCon. I've still got shelves to build, I need to finish assembling the displays to see if I have everything printed, and I need to tape off the size of the table onto the dining room table so I can figure out if everything I have fits! Other than that, I'm going to continue to fight this belt gizmo so I can move on to other parts of the costume, like the Ecto Goggles and figuring out how to keep the hose from falling out of the holder.
With that, I'm going to wrap this up. I've had a full day, and my hands are still screaming from the hour and a half I worked on the gizmo this morning. Don't forget to take a peek at this week's photo album to get some WIP pictures of the gizmo, along with some vaccine selfies, the radio, and some other parts to the Ghostbuster jumpsuit. In the meantime, please remember the world kinda sucks right now. Try to avoid making it worse and, if you can, see if you can make it better.
Be excellent to each other, and I'll see you next week.
Tony
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