6" Rain, The Mast, Chimney Insert, YAGI Antenna Elements, 3D Printe...

A day without rain? Say it's so! After waking to another .3 inches of rain in the gauge yesterday morning we actually got tiny glimpses of the big glowy thing in the sky. Incredibly that put us at 6 inches of rain for the month and it looks to be all as the forecast calls for drier days to finish off November.

My whole day was spent waiting on FedEx to bring my printer so didn't want to go off the property as it would deliver the moment I left. SO I went and managed to do something super difficult which turned into scary.

That 23 foot long piece of 4" diameter PVC was in the chimney vertically and had to be removed. 20 feet of it was within the chimney and I had to pull the entire thing out by myself. I stood on the top of the chimney with my feet either side of the insert and pulled the pipe up. I got it to within a couple feet of being out but had to stop to stop the shaking.

My feet were plastered onto the bricks and squeezed against the insert so hard that my body was shaking from the effort. After catching my breath and steadying myself I finally got it to lift straight up and then lay down like this. I was standing 20 feet off the ground with my feet on sloped surface the width of my shoes and a 23 foot long tube lifted up in the air. I got this picture then climbed down off the roof where my body went into intense pain from the tensing.

You can see the sloped nature of the chimney top which was why I was working so hard to stay atop it.

That clay insert was the next step.

I grabbed my angle grinder and put a cutting disc on it then started grinding away at the clay insert. I blew red dust EVERYWHERE but ended up working great.

Soon I had the insert flushed to the chimney top and put my tools away.

Jax is never one to NOT get as comfortable as possible.

I decided on the element lengths for my YAGI antenna and chose the tubes for each.

I had to hack them all down to size but thankfully the bandsaw cut them like butter and I didn't even have to smooth the cuts as they just slid back together.

Then I used the vice to hold the tubes as I locked them together with the punch.

I cut the driven element in half and have all the elements prepared. I spent much of my day trying to find the boom for the antenna. In the end I figured I would just wait for the 3d printer as I can just print the pieces I need and can use 1/2 conduit.

I was hoping this could work as the spot for the 3d printer to live but after setting it up and running it I need something WAY more stable and solid. I will build that today.

Hive account@stryeyz got home at the same time as Fedex was finally dropping off my printer.

image(2).jpg

Printer, dryer, nozzles, and 8 kg of filament!!!!

Soon I had my precious out and began the setup process.

You can see what I'm going for here but I just need to have solid legs all around.

It ran its self checks which took minimal time. I got the baby roll of filament loaded and then I chose the very first print purposefully.

It is stupid easy to get going and soon the printer was layering down the Tardis.

I'm verging on naming it the Tardis since it will be producing so many cool things it will totally feel bigger on the inside.

Stupid 7pm NHL games. The Kraken played and the game went pretty well for the most part.

49 minutes later the Tardis was finished. This is a snap together card kit which would also make a perfect Xmas ornament... I got a spool of blue so will be doing this again, and likely many more times.

Got out to soak on the earlier side but I could feel my jaw starting to go south on me so was out and downing a muscle relaxer in hopes of heading it off.

I would like to put the kit together but NO, I'm saving the print as is like the bars/stores do with their first $ framed.

The Kraken managed to get the win which I didn't finish watching as I was in bed.

Then after an hour of sleep I was blasted awake by the pain in my face. It felt like a red hot poker was being driven into my chin and up into my head. Last night was not good at all. From 10pm to 1am I was writhing in pain on the couch, in my chair, stumbling around the house moaning in severe pain, massaging, and downing more muscle relaxers. I became aware that my moans were farther between so could tell the relaxer had begun to work so I headed for bed but only got an hour before I was back up in pain. I ended up on the couch for another hour or so but at 3:30am this morning I gave up and just got up. I feel like absolute hell but thank god I have my chiro appointment this morning.

So today I will get the boys to school, got to my chiro appointment, North 40 for parts and supplies, then gas in my truck. I'll build the stand for the 3d printer and likely get a print or two done.