And if it doesn’t have ears, give it a pair.

For the past 3 days, I’ve been struggling to get a new spindle design to print. It seemed that every problem I’d fix would create two more problems. It got to the point that I ditched the design in favour of a simpler shape. The first print was nearly perfect. The shaft needed one tiny alteration. I still haven’t seen if the alteration worked. 8 failed prints, a broken printer part, and many hours of frustration later, I have a bag full of spindlegetti and a big snit.

Apparently the almost success was a fluke. No matter what I tried, the damned things wouldn’t stick to the printer long enough to get printed. The part that needs to stick is just too small to be sturdy. So I gave it ears. Thin flimsy semicircles that are going to be cut off, but they are big enough to lay flat against the bed while the spindle prints.

I had intended to have several spindles printed over the weekend so I could mail them today. Part of me feels like I wasted the entire weekend. Then again, I learned so much by coincidence that I can’t complain about it. I know LOTS of things that don’t work, so I might just be saving oodles of time in the future.

That’s the story I’m sticking with, anyway.