• travel
• 3Dprinting
• jewelry
• home
• scuba
• asmbly Summary: Visiting the Bay Area, Back to Indonesia, Starting new projects.

Soon after the Spring semester ended, Adrienne and I headed out to Oakland for some friends’ “50th” birthday party. Neither of them is 50 yet, but that’s not the point. We went …

• acc
• jewelry Summary: What I did in the second half of the semester in Casting I

When we left off at spring break, I’d started a bunch of assigned pieces and was playing around with castable 3D Printing filament. In the second half of the class I did several …

• acc
• home
• welding
• asmbly Summary: Recap of my front door project for Advanced Layout & Fabrication

Well, I totally failed to keep up with this journal during the semester, and this class was most of the reason why. Advanced Layout & Fabrication is a capstone class in the Architectural and Ornamental Metal …

• acc
• jewelry Summary: I’m taking a jewelry casting class

This semester I’m only taking two classes. I intended to take three, but I got something wrong on the registration website and had to shuffle things around. One of those classes is Casting I, in the Jewelry department.

I …

• asmbly
• welding
• furniture Summary: Winter break? You mean uninterrupted project time!

I have a month between semesters at Austin Community College. Time to work on the last project in a series!

As usual, more photos at Flickr. https://www.flickr.com/photos/aneel/albums/72177720315236826/ and https://www.flickr.com …

• acc
• jewelry Summary: What to make if you don’t know what jewelry to make?

In an earlier post, I talked about finishing the assigned projects for my jewelry class and needing to decide what was next. I worked on three substantial projects and one quick one, and resized or …

• acc
• blacksmithing Summary: Forging tongs in Power Hammer

I covered forging hammers in the previous post. We also spent a lot of time at the end of the class on making tongs.

As usual, more photos and larger versions are available on Flickr.

Hammers are relatively simple shapes: a block …

• acc
• jewelry Summary: A first exposure to making jewelry

I’ve been studying at Austin Community College for more than 4 years now. I started with a Continuing Education class in welding in 2021. I was working from home and never leaving the house, so I randomly signed up for …

• acc
• blacksmithing Summary: Forging hammers in Power Hammer class

When we left off, I’d made a bunch of tools. The last part of the class focused on two specific kinds of tools: hammers and tongs.

I ended up making two hammers, a practice mild steel hammer, and a tool …

• acc
• blacksmithing Summary: Power Hammer class has moved onto the toolmaking part of the curriculum.

Power Hammer class has moved onto the toolmaking part of the curriculum. We’re practicing making tools in mild steel and then moving on to tool steel versions.

Hot Tools

We’ve used 4140 steel …

• acc
• machining
• 3Dprinting Summary: Machining a new handlebar clamp to mount my motorcycle infotainment screen.

A while back, I got a no-name CarPlay receiver for my motorcycle. It’s been working well. I like being able to see maps, to control the music, and to operate garage doors without getting …

• acc
• blacksmithing Summary: I forged a steel skull

Dan Smith, one of the blacksmithing professors at ACC who I haven’t had a class with yet, taught a one day class on how to forge a skull. It was a lot of fun. Most of what I’ve learned so …

Running a contest and entering it too…

• acc
• classes Summary: I’m unexpectedly back in school

Well, I’d meant to write up some upgrades that I made to my home 3D Printer. I got frustrated with nozzle swapping the V6 nozzles used by the stock extruder, so I installed an E3D Revo hotend and got .25mm …

• asmbly
• 3Dprinting Summary: I finally have a 3D printer at home!

It may come as a surprise, since I’m the Space Lead for 3D Printing at a local makerspace, but I’ve never owned my own 3D Printer. My first experiences with 3D printing were all on company provided …

• asmbly
• welding
• woodworking
• furniture Summary: I built a metal and wood table to fit over the arm of our couch

Adrienne asked me for a side table to fit over the arm of our couch, so you can set a drink or a laptop down without reaching over to the …

• travel
• scuba
• birdwatching Summary: Birds, Iganana, Sea Lions, Sharks, Rays, Fish!

I mentioned in the last post that I missed the last week of the semester. I had a good reason for that: for years we’ve been planning to go to the Galapagos, and we finally did it!

We …

• classes
• acc Summary: The end of the semester was unsurprisingly hectic, but I finished a bunch of interesting projects.

The end of the semester was unsurprisingly hectic, made especially so because I left the country for the last week of classes, so I had to get everything finished a week …

Another visit to Lake Somerville and some genny testing

• classes
• acc Summary: I’ve been quite busy. Class projects proceed apace.

I’ve been quite busy. Classes are taking up a bunch of my time, but I’m also trying to sell the house we lived in while renovating the place we’ve owned for the past 10 years …

• Portugal
• Portuguese Summary: No word yet on our visa.

We visited Portugal in November to visit the agency that grants visas and have our photos taken. We were told at the time that we should have a response in 90 business days. That date has come and gone, and our …

• asmbly
• 3Dprinting Summary: Working up a class for ceramicists, improving my modeling skills

Winnie asked me about a Ceramics/3D Printing crossover class at Asmbly. The idea would be that ceramicists could print a “Maker’s Mark” stamp, which they can use to “sign” their pieces. I’ve worked up …

• classes
• acc Summary: I’ve been stressed, what with the country of my birth being deliberately ransacked, but have managed to make some progress in class.

I’ve been stressed, what with the country of my birth being deliberately ransacked, but have managed to make some progress in class.

Drawing …

• classes
• acc Summary: The first projects for my classes are wrapping up. I’ve made three sheet metal containers, a geometric sculpture, a number of still life drawings, and have about one more class session to go on a wrought iron hook.

The first projects for my classes are wrapping …

• classes
• acc Summary: It took a few sessions to ramp up and get the formalities out of the way, but my classes have started in earnest. I’ve gotten toned (paper), been instructed in the ways of gesso, taken up boxing, and learned the meaning of “too many irons in …

• classes
• acc Summary: With a false start (the first day of classes was a snow day!), I’m back in school for the Spring semester.

With a false start (the first day of classes was a snow day!), I’m back in school for the Spring semester. So far it …

• travel
• Portugal Summary: Thinking about where to go

Having just spent a few weeks in more remote areas of Portugal (Alentejo, near Spain), Adrienne and I agreed that our initial foray into living in Portugal will be in one of the larger cities, probably Porto.

We’d like to make …

• travel
• Portugal
• Portuguese
• anki Summary: Thoughts about in-person Portuguese lessons

15 hours of in-person language lessons later, I feel somewhat less lost in Portuguese. The thing this has helped the most with is sounds. Just hearing the language and needing to respond is very helpful.

I’ve been “ssh!”ed …

• travel
• classes
• acc
• Portugal
• projects Authors: aneel Summary: Plans for 2025

Hello from 2025.

In August 2024, I left my job as a software engineer to become a full time student. Check out the previous post for my year in review.

Things I’m anticipating in the new year:

• second …

• travel
• classes
• projects
• home
• asmbly
• work
• Portugal
• acc Summary: 2024 Year in Review

I didn’t have a place to put a 2024 Year-in-Review post, so I’m going to do it here…

• “Retired”
  • A real relief to get out of Software
  • Miss some co-workers, but not the work
• Started …