Yeah, still can't commit to a schedule, for family-related reasons. Such is life.
Still hoping to get organized, pack up, and move this summer.
Anyway! I went to the local Design2Part show yesterday, ogling the part samples and manufacturing technologies and chatting with people.
There were various engineering-service companies. Always good to be aware of these; maybe someday I could use their services, or they could use mine. Or both. Cooperation is the basis of free-market economics, right? As I chatted with someone at one of these booths I noticed something: the have an office in the Bay Area... and one in Knoxville. Hello?
Turns out the guy I was talking to had recently moved to Knoxville (actually, a bit south of the city). He shared anecdotes about life in the wilds of Appalachia. Like, rush hour in Knoxville (as I'd experienced last summer: the height of rush hour, and a steady 65 MPH). The absence of any decent Chinese restaurant (and the locals' discomprehension that Indian, Thai, and Japanese food are not the same as Chinese food). The politeness of drivers. And his bewildering first encounter with the Tennessee DMV. (Seems he walked into the local DMV office, and thought he must be in the wrong place: Where's the line? Why are these people so helpful? Why are they not giving me the runaround? And why are the fees so low?)
Another guy, at another booth, had done the move-to-a-farm thing 20 years ago, and was getting tired of it by now - but he'd been doing rather heavier farming than I have in mind, with various full-sized livestock (I don't figure on keeping critters bigger than the smaller breeds of goat; those are small enough to pick up and carry if they're being stubborn). He says I shouldn't even consider any brand of tractor other than Deere or Kubota - he has a Massey-Ferguson, and hates it. That's another thing to file in the back of my mind; the list I already had ran, vaguely, Kubota, Deere, "hey, it comes with the property", and "a neighbor is selling it cheap, and it seems to run".
Also had a brief random chat with a powder-coating guy: I'd seen a couple of YouTube vids lately on home powder coating. He raised an interesting point: apparently there's some potential for dust explosions, with this finely-divided plastic dust floating around in the air. I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. It's not like I'm likely to be doing that stuff anyway, what with the need for a large oven.
Oh, and someone was showing off the results of lost-PLA casting. Rather more successful than The Backyard Scientist's first attempt. But, then, it probably wasn't a first attempt, was done with specialized investment material and proper equipment, and all that.
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