While I haven’t printed many actual modifications to my printers themselves, I have printed a pretty good set of storage bins for the various tools and spare parts that I have for working with my printers.

Originally, I had made about an 8-inch square box, 2 inches tall, with a lid, and I just let all my tools and parts rattle around in there. But then I came across the Gridfinity system. I started by printing a 4×4 base plate, which fit almost perfectly into the box. Then, with a variety of bins (see in the photo below), things got much more organized.

The latest piece I added to this collection is the first one in the collection that I printed using my CORE ONE printer. When I got that printer, it came with a number of tools that I needed to keep organized, which meant I needed a new holder for them.

For this model, I took an existing Gridfinity 2×1 block and modified it somewhat extensively in Fusion 360. First I made it into a solid block, and then I sketched holes to match the sizes of the tools that I wanted to store in it. I then cut down through it the block, so that I could stand the tools up in it, as the following photos will show much more clearly than I’m probably explaining in words:

Here’s this new block added to the red box mentioned above, along with a similar block I’d made while I only had my old printer, plus several other smaller standard Gridfinity bins I’ve printed:

Here’s the STL. On the top you can see the extruded holes that the tools go into. If you flip it over, on the bottom you see the Gridfinity “feet” that fit into the base (inside the red box).

I actually had to print this piece twice, as the first time, a couple of the holes were a little too small. The first time I printed it, I took a time-lapse video, which is my first time doing that! You may notice the colors were different in the first print (on the video) – I’m just trying to use up all of the original multi-color pack of filament that I got back around 2017 – a lot of it has gotten pretty brittle and not the best for printing with anymore, but I’m too cheap/pack-ratty to throw it out, hence, random parts around the house will get it!

As I recently mentioned, I have a pretty good system for organizing my computer cables. It’s easily the best system I’ve ever had. Which isn’t saying much, since all previous systems were simply huge tangled rats nest messes, with zero actual organization.

The approach is simply to use gallon-sized zip lock backs, labeled with the connector types; then place those bags in a plastic storage bin.

I’ve got the following bags in the collection today:

• USB-C → USB-C
• USB-A → USB-C
• USB-A → Lightning
• USB-A → mmmble-USB (no idea ever if mini or micro or what – just rando non-A or C USB)
• USB-C → Lightning
• Miscellanous

Pretty exciting stuff!

So as of last night, I’ve completed the migration of this site, kelkhoff.com, to be running on my mac mini.

Here’s the full stack:

• hover for kelkhoff.com DNS →
• linode for load balancing, and TLS →
• linode running an nginx docker image, doing a reverse proxy →
• erro Dynamic DNS and port forwarding →
• mac mini running wordpress and mysql under docker compose.

Hopefully that doesn’t give away too much infosec

From a different point of view, here’s a different view of the full stack. Yes, I am using my Apple Vision Pro box as a rack, while I’m pending the purchase of a new 3D printer…

Anyway, I think the site’s performance is improved – but, I still do see some initial-connection delays when wordpress wants to download 50 images at the same time, or 100 javascript files. So, hopefully I can tune that, either at the linode or nginx side. Or, I might try to simplify the stack some. I do like having the internet hitting the linode balancer instead of coming DIRECTLY into my house, but at this point, I’m probably over-paying linode for what I’m getting from them, so I might be searching out a new cloud whatever-you-call that provider (like a cloudflare?)

Anyway, I had one in my cart for some number of months (see above). And I finally pulled the trigger last night, with overnight delivery – so, now my MacBook Pro is flying too

Not entirely sure why I did this? Maybe it was because my Mac Mini which is coming today might temporarily live below my MacBook?

Or maybe it was to correct this serious alignment issue that I had been dealing with for like 3 years now:

Better now, eh?