Goal Update
This last week of February was a recovery week and I tried to take it a bit easy. Over the weekend, I did not do anything athletic (after getting fit for a Triathlon bike), but drink fantastic Michigan Craft beers and spend time with friends. After coming back from a booze filled weekend, I was shocked at how my Monday workout went; normally it takes several days to ‘sweat out the booze,’ but I crushed a 10.84 mile pyramid run (1 up, 2 x 1.5 miles with 0.5 recovery between, 2 x 1 mile with 0.5 recovery between, 2 x 0.5 miles with 0.5 recovery between, 1 down). Week has been great; just need to jump in that pool...
February Totals
Miles Swam: 0 [-44.4]
Miles Run: 120.97 [+38.77]
Tacos Ate: 91 [+9.2]
Miles Biked: 212.34 [+46.54]
Weekly update - Recovery Week last week
Miles Swam: 0 [0]
Miles Run: 30.41 [210.26]
Tacos Ate: 13 [183]
Miles Biked: 31.66 [401.08]
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Things I worked on
Over the past week, I have been putting the Z-Carve back together. Simply put, it sure has been an adventure! I took care of a lot of the sub-assemblies before my weekend extravaganza (replacing belt idlers and pulleys for wider 9mm-GT3 belts and cleaning everything). I also designed and utilized some beneficial access to a 3D printer to rapid prototype some parts (belt clips, drag chain mounts) which I will remake once the Z-Carve is alive. Monday, I finished the installation of the LED lights on my bench so I could see what I was doing and then began the build.
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| Z-Carve with Enclosure Lights |
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| Check out that clearance! Lucky or good? |
Wiring occurred Tuesday and I went to bed shortly after a quick test with the controller. Tonight I wanted/needed to carve a piece for a customer; however, I ran into some trouble during calibration. After tweaking a bunch of settings and the current to the motors, I began to further diagnosis the problem with one of my Y-axis motors which was acting like it was skipping steps. First I removed the belt (and any load on the motor), with the same result. I then did a resistance test on the wiring and found that I had accidently cut a wire when crimping on a connector! After replacing that broken connection, I tested resistance, then fired everything back up and continued with calibration. After adjusting the parameters for the new belt pitch the machine was dialed in within 1mm on 300mm runs! Good enough for tonight as I have to get this blog post done before midnight!
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| Calibrating using a 1000mm ruler and a v-Bit - Notice the Z- Clearance |
My plan for the rest of the week is to get the custom signs out to my Etsy customer, and then spend the remaining time and weekend actually wiring up the CNC control box, adding the waste board and t-slots to my bench and hopefully building the enclosure. One thing I do want to do before building the enclosure is lowering the torsion table ~4 inches. Right now, my Z-axis is limited by ~2 inches due not measuring the Openbuilds Z-axis correctly. Busy week as always!
Favorite Podcast of the Week
New podcast I am listening to: Strength Running Podcast
As I am spending a lot of time running, biking and avoiding swimming, I thought it would be good to expand my knowledge on running. Through numerous resources, I heard the Strength Running podcast is great. I have only listened to 3 episodes (started from the beginning - newish podcast with only 16 episodes to date), but I have already learned so much! Now, I have a more intense warm up and cool down that I use for each run along with some pretty intense core routines. If you want to take that next step with your running ability, I highly recommend listening to the podcast - you never know when you’ll be chased by a bear!
Favorite Quote(s) of the Week
“Get comfortable with being uncomfortable that's how you break the plateau and reach that next level.” - Charlene Johnson
“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” ~ Jim Rohn, Tim Ferriss, multiple others
Random of the Week
As I mentioned in last weeks post, this weekend would be an exciting and busy one! Unfortunately, I had some stuff at my full time job that required some extra hours this week, pushing back my workout and then my play time. Shit happens right? Anyways, this random section will be short so I can get some sleep and post this before midnight.
So last Friday - first, I gave a quick presentation at a local community college as a quick interview for developing and then teaching a 3D printing class to a bunch of manufacturing engineers! Over the next few months I will be designing a class (the first in a series of many) and then teaching the 8 hour course on a Friday sometime in June! I kind of like the sound of Professor Zach…
After talking through some of the details about the 3D printing class, I went home, packed and then drove a few hours to get fit for my first Triathlon bike. I went to Grand Rapids Bicycle Shop where the wonderful professional bike fitter, Alex, took about 90 minutes using a sweet Smart Guru fit system to dial in my perfect fit. Luckily for me, what ‘felt’ good also was right in the sweet spot of the bio-mechanically correct position - guess years of practicing good form and mastering mechanical systems has paid off! After the fitting, I purchased my first Triathlon bike, the highly regarded Cervelo P2!!! So excited to begin logging tons of miles on this sexy thing! More details about the fitting to come next week! Go out and do something you dream of - “By doing, it will come.” - Mihoko Ward.
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| My new Cervelo P2 with the Smart Fit Guru system |
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