12 December 2025

Pulled the last of the equipment wire from the garage and found a couple of bits that I was missing. Reels of green/yellow earth wire in both 16x0.2mm and 32x0.2mm so that ticks them off the list. Just need the purple in 16x0.2mm to complete that set. I've a lot of reels of 24x0.2mm and 32x0.2mm, but duplicates of the colours I had already sorted. Just Grey and Orange extra in the 32x0.2mm set and it's not worth worrying about the 24x0.2mm, as I can use the 32x0.2mm instead, but I'll leave them in the backup storage box for now. Using the lathe to spool the wire makes things easy, and the inverter allows me to run the chuck at a very low speed so things can be kept under control.

I need to do a proper crib sheet on the design material for the Wiring Rack components, but it was easy this morning to tweak the parts of the 45mm reels to produce a 70mm version, and it only involved switching a half dozen numbers to produce the now models and laser file. In under an hour I had all the laser parts for another level on the rack, and the 3D printer is currently running a batch off spindle cores. It will take half as long again to print the 70mm version, but it will be worth the extra capacity for the heavier gauge wire.

I've been getting the assembly of the boxes sorted now I'm nearly finished. The needle tipped glue pot really is the right tool for the job and allows glue to be applied just where needed. I've been watering it down a little as the neat PVA glue is a little viscous for the 0.4mm hole in the needle. Using a 0.4mm nozzle cleaner keeps the tube clear and keeping that attached to the bottle makes sure it's to hand when I need it.

The extra colours of filament rolled up today but unfortunately they have shipped the box of 5mt lengths rather than the 10mt lengths I ordered. Since the printers feed tube is 60cm long I will be wasting a lot of material if I can only use 90% of what is supplied. Time I think to look for a 'splicer' to join the ends of the left over bits of filament!