Awesome. Thanks for the warm welcome and all the replies. Good tips from Aus! So I just yesterday I had that not starting up right away thing again. When it's been parked a while, it's starts right up. It likes the cold. Strange little personality, this one. But once I've been out and about, maybe run into a store for 20 minutes or so and go to fire it up again, it cranks fine, but after a few cranks, starts to shake. I'll stop and reset my key, then turn it over again and fires right up. If the top is down especially, I get a whiff of fuel. I suppose it could just be unfired gas from the fuel injection, but find it strange that I can smell it. Living in the desert does awful things to rubber and plastic, though, so I suppose it's not all that weird. Maybe a timing issue?

I was always underfoot when Pop was wrenching on cars, but outgrew the interest when I got to the age that didn't appreciate grease under my nails, whatever age that is. I still don't care for it, but I like saving money more. And in this godforsaken economy, ya pinch every pinchable penny. I keep 'em short these days, anyway. The nails, I mean. It's hard to fiddle with small doodads like screws and the like when sporting claws. Those fine motor skills don't motor finely with obstacles built in, and I'm always working on something. In fact, I'm about half done building a laser cutter/engraver I sourced parts for 3 months ago that have been staring at me as much as any eyeless things can stare at a person. It's a lot, though. But having a food truck, something ALWAYS goes wrong. And foils plans. Always. All the time. Like, ALWAYS. Hopefully the new genny will give is a break for a minute.

Anyhow, Tested the control board on a single axis last night and it isn't running goofyfoot so my programming seems to be good (we'll use "good" for lack of a better word. My programming skills are not good by any stretch of the imagination. Got a big gig today slinging grub at a Shakespear in the park thingy, but afterward with whatever energy I can muster, I will finish putting it together and see if I am a genius or not. LOL I have been antsy to get it done and see what stuff I can destroy with it. I mean make. MAKE.

I love the 3D printers, and have three of them, but sometimes cutting a thing out if it's a viable alternative to achieve the same ends, would be quicker than squirting dinosaur noodles one painfully slow millimeter at a time, a layer at a time, HOURS at a time, ad nauseam. Even with all of them running at once, which the entire reason I have three is my impatience (and I got 2 large capacity workhorses for a bill a piece last year. Building a laser from scratch, though, has me kind of nervous. Once again, it comes down to saving money. Buying one fully assembled, or at least a diy kit partially assembled with crappy instructions with the power and features I snobbishly require (she says having never even USED one, ever. lmao) would have been about triple (++ )my budget. So this will be a fun adventure hoping I didn't blow 250 on failure. But if I pull this off, the air hockey table wants to be a CNC of some kind. It hasn't specified what kind, though. I'll let it keep its secrets for now. haha I think it would be a sexy plasma cutter, but likely a milling machine it will be.

We'll see how much I like this fricken laser first.





And with that, i will spare you any more words. You're welcome. LOL Gonna go grab a nap before work.