shinyhappyrainbows

First there was the Tronxy, a Prusa i3 clone, which was rebuilt more than grandad's axe. Then there was some cheap-assed, no name brand delta printer with a tiny, circular bed that really couldn't take the size of prints I wanted. These two overlapped with my Ender 3 Pro which, quite frankly, wasn't as good print quality as the $150 nameless delta but it sure was reliable... well, except for the stock hotend. Those old hollowbox extruders with the hidden, red, undersized heatsink... ugh. Then there was the Ender 3 Pro II. Same shit extruder and hotend, but, yeah, 32 bit control board. Now we're taking. The Tronxy and the Delta are now retired due to beyond economical maintenance. You can only throw so much money or effort at a steamer, and the more you print, the more stuff wears out. They were also fire risks, no thermal runaway protection. The E3 Pro II churns out basic engineering prints up at Splodgenoodles' place, but nothing pretty, really, it needs work. and...

Making a concerted, pre-spring cleaning effort in the studio/workshop at the moment. Was going well today until I got to my "inheritance," 4 big toolboxes worth of metric thread machine screws, nuts and assorted supporting hardware. I say "inheritance" because they were on a deceased estate, nature strip, hard rubbish pile and the brother of Splodgenoodles (not her real) name scored them for me. Once I find a proper home for the collection, I may never need to buy threaded hardware ever again. At least, not M4 to M10. But OMFG! I'm broken! Half, no, two-thirds of my day has been wrapped arounf sorting, collating, bagging-pending-a-new-home and stacking what feels like a hundredweight of ironmungery from buggeration to buggery and this ballast still doesn't have a permanent home. Sure, the M6 bolts are now sorted to length. AFTER 10 HOURS OF SODDING SORTING!!! M4 and M5 are yet to be sorted. M8 to M12 are sort of only a couple of handfuls, but I have no ide...