11 December 2025

While I've been waiting on the problems of actually sorting out the loft access, I've been tidying up a lot of the 'spares' and 'parts' that I've collected over the years. In the garage I had margarine tubs and Chinese meal containers all nicely labelled up, but they took up a lot of space and I don't need the quantities of some of the items, so have been decanting down into 9L Really Useful Boxes with 15 space trays or bags in the stock of plastic biscuit boxes. However things like the store of equipment wire has never really fitted in, although the broom handle rack over the bench was convenient. So I've been working on a 'module' to go with the workbench storage which follows a 30cm by 10 or 15cm format, and have hit the laser cutter for the boxes and sides to spools that match the ones that the 7x0.2mm wire are supplied on. Then the 3D printer provides the spindles and a holder for the cassette to keep ends tidy. I've got 5 colours in PLA, and have just ordered a 'sample pack' of 20 colours which will hopefully allow me to print the remaining coloured cassettes to complete the rack. Two rows of 7x0.2 and 2 rows of 16x0.2 and currently a single row of 32x02 but I will expand that and think I mya make the reels 70mm long rather than 45mm to allow more wire for each colour. I don't use all of the colours in the larger size anyway, but do have a few more to bring back from the current garage. That will just leave the missing violet and green/yellow 16x0.2 wire to complete the basic setup, and the whole lot can stand at the back of the new work bench ready when needed.

While progressing this project, I've got back up to speed on FreeCAD and have all of the parts fully modelled from which I've produced g-code for the laser and 3D printer and have a set of files so I can print just what I need quickly. The laser stuff is in 3mm and 1.5mm MDF, and the 3D printer is using PLA. I did try and do a blue set of cassettes using the ABS, but even with the bed at 120 degree and the small size of the part, it was not successful. It actually delaminated as well as curling up of the bed so still need to work out just how one does print ABS and some of the other esoteric filaments. The one thing I have now sorted is a roll of masking tape that actually works as a protective layer on the bed even at 120 degrees. I had a good roll in the past, along with an expensive blue one, but they had gone walkies. I been buying other 50mm rolls, and have an assortment now, but it seems to be the cheap ones which are best. A roll I picked up from the Range was doing a good job, but there was not a lot of tape on the reel, and it soon ran out, but the latest cheap option which I picked up in a CPC order is working well, and has not needed changing for many prints. The bed is also now almost perfectly aligned so that the files print straight after homing without my needing to 'tweak' the height. It does need replacing now as it's pulled in a little at the joints, but not enough to be a problem, and a quick rub on sandpaper tidies up any little ridge. I'd like to get back to some more prints for Liberator, but the replacement white filament from Banggood is anything but white!