Tao of Mac

Jun 18th 2022 · 3 min read · #3dprinting #apple #covid #printing #resin #wwdc

Inverse Weekend

As it turned out the July bank holidays were too tempting to resist, so I just took a day off and am enjoying an “inverse weekend”, working only 2 days out of 7…

In the process, a few things happened:

  • We got at least one case of COVID among close relatives, and as a direct consequence I spent quite some time going to and fro (probably the most I’ve been out since last Summer) attending to various things.
Current best approximation to my charts, based on official data
I should probably post an update to my , but the gist of things is that the spread is still ridiculously rampant but nobody seems to care.
  • I finally watched the State of The Union video and a few other sessions, and was a little sad my daily occupation has taken me so far away from Apple development. seems to be coming along fine (although I’m very curious about Swift on servers), new OS features are interesting, and I still generally pine for the smoothness and polish of using Apple systems.
  • On the flip side of the computing mirror, I’m actually warming up to . I’ve used it for nearly all my 3D printing work (modeling, slicing and general tinkering) and it’s been quite impressive to almost absent-mindedly run Windows applications on it via modern WINE.
  • And as a follow-up to , I printed a dozen and change Gridfinity bins and tool holders of various kinds on my aging Prusa (enough to warrant replacing a couple of rolls of PLA). My tool drawers never looked nicer, but I’m still only halfway through my bench drawers…
  • I have discovered that resin printing (even with “mildly” smelling resins) is definitely not for me, at least not until I can do it someplace other than our flat. Long story short, I ordered (and returned) a very nice resin printer which (besides an unexpected allergic reaction to the fumes) made it plain that the resin cleaning process is not something I can do in my current home. Maybe if I had a cottage or a sprawling urban home, but a flat is definitely not ideal.
a man running away from a 3D printer
DALL-E 2's depiction of coexistence with resin fumes.
  • I have started looking for a new FDM printer, but most current models seem to be bulkier than the Prusa i3 to an almost comical degree (with footprints nearly twice their bed size). My current requirements are something with a heated PEI bed and a footprint around 45x45cm, so I’m actually looking at delta printers besides Cartesian ones.

This all resulted in a fair amount of fragmentation of my schedule, which I padded out by chilling out watching TV and playing games. This felt inordinately “normal” in a weird way but also terribly unproductive to my workaholic subconscious (which is driving me a little antsy), so I will definitely be resuming my personal projects ASAP.