State of Play - Some Good News (Patreon)

I've written much over the last year or so about all the things that have gone wrong with the process. Most boiled down to one or two things that were completely unforeseen and almost undetectable. Every time we fixed an issue, something else went wrong and then we fixed that and the original thing went wrong again.

It was like the universe was against us and unless you were there, there's just no way you would believe it. I can barely believe it myself to be honest.

But to give you an example, this happened just last week...

We've rebuilt the mill twice and upgraded the controllers and power supplies after they failed - you might remember the mains power issue that precipitated those failures - and we've had no issues since then. The centre gauge is made up of no less than five levels and there's some intricate milling to make up what looks exactly like the standard mini fuel/water temp gauge. It's quite the thing...

Anyway, with all the prototyping done except for one piece - for which the gcode had been finalised - the hard drive failed on the PC. Operating system, Mach 3 programme and every single piece of gcode for every single piece of milling we've ever done or was about to do - gone. Just like that, vanished.

If we'd had a pram, or indeed some toys, well, you can imagine... If we'd had any emotion left, well there would have been tears.

The plan was sound - you'd have been watching episode 39 today. As it happens, we just had to drown our sorrows and come up with another plan. So, a slightly different video than envisioned if coming week after next probably and we're going to split the madness of the last eighteen months into probably three videos now.

We're too bloody minded to quit, we're too mentally exhausted to do anything other than just keep plodding on now. The universe and its myriad roadblocks can do one, we're not to be beaten.

See you in a couple of weeks, thanks for your patience as always, you're amazing.

Cheers,

Nik and Richard.