Aaron's Status

6:52 am

Climb

My belay buddy and I went to our other area gym on Friday, which my wife goes to all the time because it’s near her job but I don’t get a chance to go to as often. They have three overhang areas and I really need to work on my overhang strength so I wanted to do a session focusing on that.

It was productive! I sent a few things, but absolutely failed out catastrophically on at least a couple of overhung problems at my current grade, which just goes to show how much of a challenge it is. We spent around two hours there, climbing pretty much constantly, and I did an number on myself for sure.

The big win for me was flashing an intermediate comp problem with a heroic forced heel hook. You gotta love a heel hook. The rest of the climbs I sent were under my grade but great practice.

I had the house to myself for the rest of the day so I began assembling the Prusa MK4S!

That assembly ended up taking the rest of Friday and more than half of Saturday and my back felt so sore the entire time. PT helped briefly but I think I was just really fatigued from all the hanging upside down. I’m hoping to be in good enough shape to do some more climbing today.

Printer stuff

Assembling a Prusa printer is, generally speaking, quite gratifying. I love seeing how each little design element evolves and improves over time, now that I’ve assembled three different versions (the MK2S, MK3S, and now MK4S).

There was one step where you have to insert the X axis carriage rods into the 3D printed end pieces and I just could not get them to go all the down into one side by like 1-2mm. I was so worried that the thing wouldn’t all line up and run smoothly, but to my surprise it did work out okay.

I was taking a hammer to the thing, which really felt bad. Apart from that little challenge everything else went perfectly fine. I did somehow lose a couple of screws, or possibly I used the wrong length on a step. Fortunately, 1) every pack of screws includes one spare, and 2) I have similar M3 screws in my stock so I was able to just use one of mine and I got lucky that it was a superficial connection anyway.

As with every Prusa printer I’ve assembled, it leapt to life and immediately worked perfectly. The guided setup and calibration is even nicer with the full-color LCD screen and the machine is so fast and quiet it’s slightly mind-blowing.

As soon as it was calibrated I printed the “bonkers benchy” off the included USB drive, which is a standard-size benchy that prints in eight minutes. I just sat there and watched it. You can basically watch the object appear out of thin air at that speed, it’s a little bit insane.

I got Octoprint working and everything and loaded up the 2cm XYZ “calibration cube” model and checked the estimated print times in PrusaSlicer.

On the MK3S at 0.2mmr"speed" the estimate is 34 minutes. On the MK4S with the same settings, it’s 17 minutes. Exactly twice the speed! As a thoroughly impatient person, I am looking forward to prototyping on this thing!

Car talk

A couple of weeks ago I had that brake issue and I was also due for a regular oil change at the same time. I took my car to my local mechanic, a totally sweet guy who always tries his best to help. He was able to sort out the brake problem (needed a replacement sensor) and do the oil change, but when I picked up my car, he was so overwhelmed and flustered that he told me we would “settle up next week” and just sent me away.

I was (and am) unsure if he even knows who I am. Does he remember my name or number? I have texted him before but he almost never responds.

So it’s been a week since then and I have heard nothing. I guess I have to go chase this guy down to give him money!