Creative on Matt Thornton

3d printed Minecraft Ender Pearl

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 08:46:37 +0000

When your son says “Daddy can I have a 3d printed Ender Pearl?”

What are you to do?

Hope you enjoy!

Printing floating parts in Bambu Studio... this took too long to figure out

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 08:46:37 +0000

This is one of those crazy tech issues that really shouldn’t be an issue… until it is… and then it takes you far too long to figure out. And the resolution is crazy simple.

The video describes it but in short:

You should be able to import multiple parts to Bambu Studio and it will offer to create a single object with multiple parts, for you.

This is what you want, but sometimes, it doesn’t work! I was struggling with this for a while. I thought it was a limitation of e.g,. Tinkercad or Bambu Studio.

Fixing Stuff with 3dprinting - Part 1

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 08:46:37 +0000

Not gonna lie - I freaking love the Bambu Labs X1C - have been having huge fun with it.

Tinkercad gives me the n00b 3d design skills I need and the X1C takes the guesswork out of printing the stuff.

So…. a short video on a compelling use for it. Admittedly the £2 fix doesn’t justify the £1k cost of the machine… but still, fun!

Lots more on this topic to come, I expect!

Zen and the Art of the Tiny Workshop

Sun, 19 Jan 2025 08:46:37 +0000

An enquiry into values

My magnum opus. For now, at least.

“What follows is based on actual occurrences. Although much has been changed for rhetorical purposes, it must be regarded in its essence as fact. Although it’s not very factual on Zen Buddhism. Or Tiny Workshops either.”

Vid

It is inspired by the great 1974 work of philosophical examination by Robert Pirsig Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Well the title is, anyway.

Explainer to follow.

Tiny Workshop Build

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 08:46:37 +0000

Following the success of building my home office, I doubled down and using about the only space remaining, built a workshop.

There is some backstory to it all - I used to have a workshop in the garage - the details of which I may cover in a later post.

The shed was far less sophisticated than the office, though - it is bascially a large shed, but it’s been done up to make it feel as un-shedlike as possible.

Home Office Build

Sun, 30 Oct 2022 08:46:37 +0000

Some words and thoughts about the process of building a home office in my back garden.

Background

I’ve worked from home from time to time a fair bit in recent years, but thanks to Covid this turned in to much longer and much more frequently.

You can cope with being surrounded by house shrapnel for so long (kids’ toys, dinner things, shoes, boxes, excess furniture…) but we hit a point where it became time to do something a little bit more fit for purpose. This was to double up as not only my home office space but also a bit of a man cave / sanctuary away from the spoils of normal life. Well that was the theory, anyway.

Adding decals to carbon road bike wheels

Sat, 26 Feb 2022 20:06:35 +0000

If you find yourself in the unexpected position of needing to add decals to your bike wheels, this is the quick and easy way to do it…

Respect.

(Deja vu?)

Removing decals and stickers from road bike wheels

Fri, 25 Feb 2022 20:06:35 +0000

If you find yourself in the unexpected position of needing to remove the stickers or decals off your bike wheels, this is the quick and easy way to do it…

Respect.

2022 - exploring creative stuffs again

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 05:26:35 +0000

In 2021, I spent a lot of time (a) working and (b) training for a half-Ironman.

In 2022, I want to turn some of that focus back towards some creative things. I’ve already dusted off my Flickr account¹, I’ve created an “Insta” for more regular photo blogging-y things but to be honest, the main thing I want to have more fun with is video.

I’m not talking TikTok (not yet at least!) but there are many ideas I have for getting more creative with video. I’d like to produce a few short films. I have no idea what that really means. But I’ve had a lot of fun producing the militant cyclist stuff…

I built a router table.

Mon, 28 Dec 2020 23:42:08 +0000

This is a long overdue (and tedious) write-up of my experience of custom-building a router table.

(Clarification: router as in r-OW-ter table as opposed to r-OO-ter (i.e. the box you get from your ISP for your home Wifi. The pronounciation is annoying, especially for someone who works in computers. Anyway.)

My closer associates know that I am a mostly clueless wannabe woodworker with more tools than knowledge. I have more saws than you could care to name, let alone actually find a constructive use for.

Proxxon AH 80 - Surface Planer / Jointer - English review

Wed, 10 May 2017 21:49:12 +0000

Have been looking for a small surface planer and edge jointer for some time and although there a few things out there, some of the cheaper models (e.g,. Silverline) I was a bit suspicious of. If you’re trying to make things flat and square, then you really need the machine itself to be of a suitable quality in order to do that otherwise you’re probably better off not bothering. Many of the cheaper models looked a bit plastic-y and flimsy, until I stumbled across this one.

Painted lady butterfly timelapse

Mon, 30 May 2011 10:21:12 +0000

Painted lady butterfly timelapse showing a butterfly turning out of its chrysalis.

First experimentation with timelapse stuff. This was a crummy old webcam attached to my computer.

Apparently YouTube took offence at my choice of copyrighted music. Bastards.

The Legend of Vino DiGiovanni

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:38:11 +0000