Microwave plates

We have many plates.

They work as plates.

They are fine in the microwave.

But not this fucking plate.

I have blisters on my fingers from picking it up. Food was not cooked - but plate was. Still hurts like hell. 

What the fuck?!?

Stupid user interfaces

My shoes are getting a bit worn. They have lasted well. It was a big change some years ago when I realised I needed thick socks and shoes several sizes bigger - before which I was plagued with pain in my feet.

The shows I have now are indeed the ones that caused me to trip and break things! 

So get a new pair, and having shows that work, and are comfortable, I want to get the same.

Why the hell can you not get the same thing?!

Anyway, similar sounding ones, hiking shoes as it happens, but wide and size 13½, so yay.

I click Apple Pay - as that is always very quick and simple.

But no! I get told address incomplete and apparently it wants "Phonetic First Name" and "Phonetic Last Name".

What the hell is a phonetic name?

I don't have time for this, so I cancel and click "Add to basket".

I go to basket and click to pay and, well it is expensive, but I am am not too surprised really, but even then, seems a lot. So it has an "order summary", and that shows the shows and the price.

Note, no need for phonetic anything this time.

Oh fuck it - I can't bet arsed - if they fit as well as the ones I have now and last years as these have, not really an issue.

It says OK, and that is 2 pairs of shoes!

WTF?!?

• I did not order two
• I clicked "add to basket" exactly once
• The order summary did not show a quantity

Bloody stupid ordering page.

But what he hell, if they fit, then next time I will have shoes ready. I was pondering if I find shoes that fit well why not order 10 pairs so I have shoes to last probably the rest of my life, so two pairs is not really an issue.

Tindie vs Amazon

Amazon have been an interesting place to sell, and have sold quite a few things. But oddly the main thing that sells is the Faikin boards. I don't think my other products are not sellable, indeed, I have had direct sales to local A&A customers for a load of other projects, just not so much on Amazon. I generally have a policy of Tindie £ price less 10% for direct sales to A&A customers.

Amazon are making EU sales simple - Amazon buy from us and sell in EU so they sort local VAT. With Tindie the recipient gets a VAT bill on import, sorry.

I started selling on Tindie as well some time ago, and oddly the same is true - most sales are the Faikin. The main reason for listing on Tindie as well was to cover countries Amazon do not do. Well, that is how it started, but now it seems we are selling to people in EU where Amazon do sell. The main reason looks like the extras (a cable, and 3D resin case). These are extremely easy to list on Tindie, and provide a simple up-sell on the original product. They are only a few $ extra but sell well.

Amazon, on the other hand, do not seem to have an easy way to add options or link products that I can see. I will ask for help, though any interaction with seller support needs a deep breath and a lot of patience. But at present I still cannot even list a product - Amazon are actively making it impossible for me to list things, in spite of reassurances. They are insisting I am on the brand registry (something I have tried three times), and they are taking forever to say yes or no. It is odd, it is a simple thing - do I have a trademark? Well yes, there is it with my name on UK trademark web site. How does it take more than a few minutes?!

Well, being able to list the cables and case clearly is helping as Tindie sales are creeping up, and I think this month is the first month that net pay out from Tindie is more than Amazon. That is a milestone I feel.

3D resin printed case, snap together

http://tindie.uk/ if you are interested.

Scammers

OK, not too many details, sorry. I mean privacy and shit, and remote tiny tiny chance not a scam, LOL

We are always aware of scammers, and very occasionally we fall foul of them, but we are always working on improving processes and checks.

If, somehow, this is not a scam, then sorry - but a story of how not to look like a scam.

Because of a recent scam (and you have to love the gall of the guy calling up to complain his number does not work and he cannot log in) we have been extra vigilant and are all looking closely at an order that came in today.

As I say, not too many details, sorry.

So someone orders a telephone number, and we ask for payment up front. This is normal as we can only get close to checking an order is genuine by leveraging the UK banking system to get someone to send us money, even if only £1. But they refuse to send with order, though eventually, after hassling, they send payment via Wise (Both Wise and Revolut are listed on our web site as don't send money from them as we have no way to verify or refund).

So they then provide bank details for DD, and a new (company) name, and we check it matches bank details, but really no way to check it is actually them.

So what next? Well check more - this has magically changed from an individual to a company. But not a UK company. Not something we can check in any way.

Maybe check address...

Well, street view is cool, and this is it. This is not close to the company name. Maybe they work from the flat? But that would be [number]A or some such, surely.

So, really, if you are in fact running a non UK company by the name you say, from a flat over a Chinese Restaurant in Belfast, but cannot send any payment from a UK bank account but can quote one that matches your stated company name, well, sorry, we may be at the point of saying no.

And basically, we can say no. We can say we do not want your business.

I am really sorry if that really is you living over that Chinese. Get a UK bank account from which you can send money, and we can talk.

To be clear, I started my business decades ago from a house in Bracknell, and that was registered office address. But it was registered office address, and could be checked, and I could send money from a UK bank account matching my company name. So yes, a new business, and a small business, no problem. We do not want to discriminate. But scammers can piss off, sorry.

That is not how import tariffs work!

It seems Trump has started charging tariffs on small packages now, and as US does not have capacity to handle collecting the tariffs, so is expecting tariffs collected at source!

That really is not how it works. But...

It sounds like Royal Mail are going to do a pre-paid tariff option (I am amazed they are bothering). Sadly this probably means I'll end up creating a load of Tindie carriage rates to US for each tariff amount, as I don't think Tindie do a shipping rate that includes a percentage of goods price (maybe they will - I have asked them).

Just to be 100% clear to anyone in the USA who is confused, this means YOU ARE STILL PAYING THE TARIFF, it just becomes part of the shipping cost to the USA.

I feel sorry for RM trying to keep up with the changes, and we all feel sorry for people living in the USA.

https://www.royalmail.com/usapersonalupdates

First resin print failure

It had to happen, for some reason a print did not release.

This is another area where FDM and resin are very different. With FDM it keeps going and you end up with a lot of spaghetti and goo. With resin the print keeps moving up but the failed layer stays on the release film, and just gets re-cured as the print go - you end up with one aggregate layer.

So, poor out the resin (need funnel and filter) in to a bottle. Remove stuck layer, that was easy. And ready to go.

Well, not quite, for some reason it kept saying foreign material detected. I cleaned out the tray, both sides, and started again and OK. In fact, it seems once can remove failed print layer with a fingernail (in a glove) without pouring out resin even.

I have noticed a scratch on the film though, so have more coming and will have he fun of replacing the file. That may be a job for tomorrow.

I have no idea why it did not release. The print was the same as previous.

Update: sorted release film, seemed good, but had another failure - which highlights a feature of resin. With FDM a failed item would wreck the whole print, the spaghetti sticks to the nozzle, and you end up with a total failed print. With resin, one can have a partial failure, like this.

Prototype 3D

This is why I got the printer...

One of the challenges with any engineering is that no matter how much to check the design, some issue are only noticed when you finally make the actual item, and have it in your hands. This is even more true for 3D models.

I can order 3D prints from China, with a turnaround of around a week. I could print designs on my FDM printer, but not the same - especially small details like the interlocking lips on the case designs (those on the right of the image are for a Faikin). The precision needed for these is not possible on FDM.

But even simple things can catch out out. The white 1 gang back box cover on the left took a week, and on arrival I see the problems - not just the square corners that do not match the back box I have, positioning nipples in the ring are wrong so the back does not lock in the right place, and the back of the ring is 0.5mm thinner which shows on the actual print. Now I can prototype I can test with a turn around of half an hour. I can get the designs right, and then order some from China. I have white resin coming soon as well.

What is fun is that having spotted the errors in the white 1 gang plate, I fixed the design, and printed a prototype for this post. I have just checked and my fix is not correct - I see why now, and have another fix to prototype.

As you can see this saves a lot of time, and some money.