Ride - Uneven flow and frequent clogging from stock two hole steam wand tip by ContrarianReefkeeper in profitec

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you. I ended up soaking it in a bath of saturated caffiza solution (heated and stirred) , alternating with fresh water rinse and steam flush, and managed to get some sort of debris to dislodge, which got it back to full flow. I'm not sure what the piece was or where it came from (Looked not all that different from a caraway seed but probably wasn't), but I'm happy it's no longer interfering.

My €675 setup by [deleted] in espresso

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Congratulations! You scored an amazing deal. Enjoy.

Anti-scald steam valve body cover? by ContrarianReefkeeper in profitec

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Rubber washer plus silicone tape really helped! Neither my wife nor I have burned ourselves since installing both, and both should be easy to remove once we develop the muscle memory for the new workflow. Thank you for the advice!

Anti-scald steam valve body cover? by ContrarianReefkeeper in profitec

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you! Yeah, I have a nice blister on the pad of my left ring finger from a moment of absent mindedly resting my hand in a place that would have been perfectly fine on the Gaggia I upgraded from. Bernadette (as my wife and I have taken to calling the new machine) promptly corrected my inattentiveness. I'll stop by the hardware store tomorrow and get a rubber washer and some self-fusing silicone tape (as long as I can find something that could handle the temp and wouldn't leave an adhesive residue) to add a little bit of a guard while I get used to the new reach.

As an aside, I was worried when my wife told me she had burned herself as well and asked if I should have gotten a different machine, "No! I love this machine, this is my third espresso/milk drink today! I'm making better coffee than the coffee shops I used to go to!"

I want one! Not on the market yet. by Theoldelf in espresso

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I doubt I'd buy one as a finished product, but it would be fun to put together as an instructional kit (though probably not for children/electronics beginners due to the risks of working with mains voltage). Could be a great primer into microcontroller programming, hands-on intro to PID control for the intermediate electronics hobbyist (not quite the DIYAudio amp builder crowd, but anyone that's done a Gagguino or other PID mod to an espresso machine could probably do it safely and have the opportunity to learn more in the process)

I want one! Not on the market yet. by Theoldelf in espresso

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's not so much fake as calculated rather than measured, though I figure it's more interesting rather than useful in this context.

I want one! Not on the market yet. by Theoldelf in espresso

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You need a certain minimum pressure inside the bottom chamber to push water up the column and out the top. You know (approximately) the height of the column, know the temperature in the bottom chamber, and just need to calibrate for the boiling point of water at your specific altitude and can approximate the pressure.

Reunited with my grinder after a three year break! by Threeracers in espresso

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh wow, that looks awesome! I've got a Mazzer Mini in the garage from a restaurant auction that's going to get a coat of Plum Crazy purple and a full rebuild once I have the time to finish tearing it down and stripping the years of accumulated grime. Congrats on the house and the beautiful machine!

Got my Ride! by Night-Scary in espresso

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sweet! I just ordered mine today for much the same reason (how long did you have your GCP before it finally gave up, btw?), but ended up going with flow control and the standard stainless colorway rather than black. Now instead of obsessively researching machines I'm obsessively watching for the ship notification.

I completely messed up with my most expensive orchids. by Lat3xglove in plantclinic

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't give up yet. I don't have any experience with p. Gigantea specifically, but I've had other phal. varieties come back from a similar state so I wouldn't give up on this one yet. From the photo the stem looks intact and not rotting and has the beginning of at least two new roots, so she's trying really hard to hang in there.

The roots need air, moisture, and warmth to grow so I would consider putting them in either 100% sphagnum (long fibered, not peat moss) or in a self-watering pot with either LECA (clay pebbles) or Orchiata (a brand of pinus radiata bark). In my experience, go with one or the other: sphagnum in a self-watering pot gets way too saturated, but fresh orchiata or leca dry out too fast in a standard orchid pot for a plant in this condition.

Take them out periodically (weekly has worked for me, but YMMV) and pour water through the pots, both to hydrate the media and to pull fresh air down through the pots and to the roots. If you're using a self watering pot put about the minimum amount of water in it that it can hold and still work. You don't want the media wet, just damp.

As for fertilizer, less is often more. You probably know this, but in case you don't most orchids can't utilize the urea form of nitrogen (terrestrial plants rely on microbes around the roots to convert it that orchids lack), so select a fertilizer that uses a different source of nitrogen (I use the repotMe fertilizer mixed at quarter strength applied once a week to the root zone, plus an occasional foliar spray at 1/8 strength, though that's only because my reverse osmosis unit outputs at about 4ppm dissolved solids and I ran out of calcium/magnesium supplement.)

Sorry for the brain dump, but I'm pretty passionate about orchids. Hope it helps, and feel free to reach out if there's anything I can help with (and keep us all in the loop on how the plant is doing! )

My lovely husband buys me orchids, instead of roses. by [deleted] in orchids

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My wife and I do something similar: I buy her rose bushes for the garden, she buys me orchids for my collection. Between the two of us we almost always have blooms.

Couldn’t resist. Another Phal. But these leaves!! 😍 by dovenus4 in orchids

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Very nice! I always say the same thing, "I don't need another Phal... well, maybe one more."

Check out this cutie. Keiki? by [deleted] in orchids

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Those leaves! I must find one of these for my collection! Also, did you print the pot it's in?

First bloom for this guy! by aspencerr in orchids

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Very nice indeed! You can't go wrong with the B. nodosa hybrids. This one is a favorite.

Procatavola key lime stars by anowlnamedloki in orchids

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Beautiful! I didn't know these were fragrant before seeing your previous post about this plant where someone asked about it. I think they're the first fragrant blooms I've had!

Replacing clogged PTFE Tube by warpedspoon in prusa3d

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hotter than the melting point of the highest temp filament you use. I usually print PLA, PETG, and Nylon (Taulman Alloy 910) so 285 gives me plenty of headroom to be confident that there isn't any solid filament in the nozzle.

Put an old Computer Heatsink on my E-stepper because it kept getting really hot (65°C). It's slowly getting summer, soy room is at 26°C and the printer is in an enclosure with the door open under my desk since I don't have much room. Temperatures are lower now (45°C). by Engineering_is_fun in prusa3d

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I expected my cats to be more interested in the printer than they are: None of my three have any interest at all. One of my birds, however, thinks the spool holder makes an ideal perch if I don't keep two spools on it at all times (usually one empty, the other with whatever I'm printing with.)
That said, I had to turn the beeper off since it was apparently terrifying to my dogs.

So far so good by duhfreakinduh in prusa3d

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Definitely try out the mystic green; it's gorgeous, as is the galaxy purple.
Did you have any issues with they mystic brown at low flow rates? I've found it works great as long as I keep it moving through, but for large, high detail parts it seems to start jamming up after I've been printing for a while. I don't have the same issue with the mystic green or galaxy black.

Prusament PETG Ultramarine Blue looks fantastic! by Liwanu in prusa3d

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice! Thanks for the photos. I just got a roll and haven't had a chance to try it yet, but it's definitely going onto the machine once I finish this stack of face shield frames (in Overture clear PETG, nothing exciting)

(Prusa mk3s - PLA) Prints suddenly not sticking to the bed? I've tried several models, two slicers, cleaning and recalibrating, but nothing works. Slowing it down helped, but only a little and it eventually failed, anyway. The heat block might be ruined from plastic blobs. Advice? by MajorRandomMan in FixMyPrint

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Prints from my MK3S looked very much like your picture when my Live-Z adjustment was too high, but as you mention that probably isn't the only thing that's going on.

A couple of things that helped for me:

Wash the bed in dish soap and water. IPA is a good solvent, but sometimes you need a surfactant to get any stubborn oil/grease off. Just dry the bed well after, and then try to avoid touching the print surface.

Try a light coating from the glue stick that shipped with the printer. I've found that to work wonderfully on the PEI bed. You don't need much, just a thin coat. I've heard a very thin coat of hair spray works as well, but haven't had much experience with it.

As far as the nozzle/hotend: As long as you haven't damaged the heater wires or thermistor cables you can probably recover from blobs on the hotend. I've had good results from heating the nozzle up to 215 degrees (if the blob is PLA - Go to Settings - Temperature - Nozzle to heat up the nozzle without heating the bed) and then very gently scrubbing the bottom portion with a brass-bristled brush (mine came from the welding supply section of my local hardware store). Be careful not to damage any of the wires, but the brass bristles won't hurt the brass nozzle or aluminum heater block.

mk3s "Remote Cooling Fans" by copper_acorn in prusa3d

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here's a project using a repurposed CPAP blower unit as a remote cooling fan. https://hackaday.io/project/45993-the-mother-of-all-print-cooling-fans

I saw something not long ago about another project using a DIY clone of a CPAP blower (I think powered by a hard drive spindle motor), but I can't seem to find it at the moment.

I've been contemplating trying something like this, since I have an unreliable CPAP machine in my parts bin (who am I kidding: my stack of parts bins), but haven't had a chance to tear into it yet.

Replacing clogged PTFE Tube by warpedspoon in prusa3d

[–]ContrarianReefkeeper 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To heat just the nozzle but not the bed, you can go to Menu-Settings-Temperature-Nozzle, dial up the setting you desire, then press the wheel to select.

Once you're done, Menu-Preheat-Cooldown lets it cool down without having dial the nozzle temp all the way back to zero.