Couldn't take it anymore

My laptop came with a 750G drive, all one drive except for a boot partition (which probably contains an image recovery system, I guess), and a couple of small (15 and 30GB) partitions up high. That's 4 partitions so I couldn't make any more.

So I decided to try to do things the Windows 7 way and store all my data below "My Documents"

Over the weekend I got to where I just couldn't take it anymore. I want to know exactly where my data is at all times. I want a user area that I can write to, always. I don't want to have invisible soft links associated with my data. Most of all, I want to have a physically separate partition for user data, so that I can back up my C: drive once a week or so (full drive image) and if I ever get to where I have a non-viable Windows install for any reason (virus or just decay) (I've never had a virus but with XP decay set in about every 1.5 to 2.5 years) I can just re-image the C: drive on demand since there's never any data there to worry about. And I definitely do NOT want hundreds of directories with thousands of files with everything from CAD work files to video editing projects all below "My Documents."

Upon further examination, it turns out that the 30GB upper partition was an NTFS drive in an extended partition, just there to hold the installations for the software that the computer shipped with, and the drivers for all the devices (this is actually quite nice) so it was easy enough to resize the drives. Now I need to move my user data to D:

FList question

I worry that I might be bothering people with my posts with photos and videos.
Should I:
1) move RepRap stuff to a separate blog (probably WordPress on my domain)
2) put it behind a cut
3) leave it as is

A custom group isn't an option since it has to be public.

Anything that I post with more than one photo I will probably put behind a cut.

Bristlebot Evolution

Modified and printed revisions 2.0 through 2.3 today. Now thinner, motor snaps in firmly, a little less long, battery is snug, wiring runs through hidden tracks underneath, comes up through the battery compartment vertically so inserting the battery does not push it down, and the wire wraps around a post at the top.

This thing has some wicked torque steer. It runs in little 3" circles. Reverse the battery, it runs circles the other way. I'm trying to decide if mounting the motor on an angle would correct that.

I'm also going to play with the idea of using two or maybe even three LR44 cells instead of a CR2032. The 2032 seems to die fast running a motor.

I'll be posting this to Thingiverse when I'm sure the design is settled.

PLA and Z motors

PLA plastic
I read up on PLA a bit today and this evening tried something mentioned on the Wiki.

You can print this stuff at room temperature on blue tape. No heating of the print bed required, no warping occurs.

I can flip the printer on, slap down some blue tape and start printing in about 3 minutes.  With ABS it took at least 15 minutes for the glass to warm to 110 on the top surface (the heater hits 110 in about 2 minutes, but the glass is thick and heavy). Then 10 to 15 minutes before the thing cooled enough to pop the print off. Then 10 minutes to heat back up again.

Because I was using PLA on blue tape tonight, I was able to print, test, modify and reprint and get through four prototype versions tonight, even with time out to go to a halloween event.

PLA is also very strong. The layers seem to bond extremely well, probably because it prints at a lower temp so it loses degrees more slowly and the previous layer is closer to melting point when the next layer goes on.

I was prejudiced against it but I think I'm a PLA convert except when ABS is required for heat resistance. This stuff rocks.

Z motors:
I have been bugged that the Z axis has needed adjusting before every print for a while; this time I was watching at the end of a print and noticed that the right Z motor just skipped steps on the end-of-print retract, which means it went out of level and became lower than the side with the endstop sensor. I was running with the old motors. I put the new ones on, wired them in series, and now even at the fastest speed that the firmware will allow I actually can't stop the motors by hand.