A bit of footage from a thermal camera.

I was heating up some threadlocker on the fittings of an inline water heater.
Always wondered: what's faster — a regular lighter or a hot air gun?

Intuitively, you'd think the lighter should win — it burns at around 800°C, while the hot air gun maxes out at ~400°C.
But in practice, the difference is dramatic — and not in the lighter’s favor.

While you're at it, take a moment to appreciate how beautiful the world looks in infrared.
Especially when there's a light source and reflective surfaces in view.

P.S. The brief video freezes every few seconds aren’t a bug — they’re a feature of this kind of thermal camera. That’s when it performs calibration.

My English level is approximately B1-B2. I can comfortably read technical and other types of texts, talk about general topics, and write things that aren’t too complex. I also watch some YouTubers in the original.

However, I don't have practice speaking with native speakers, and I make a lot of grammar mistakes. I'm especially weak when it comes to idiomatic expressions and set phrases. Literal translations between languages almost always sound clumsy.

That's why I created a GPT in ChatGPT called "Russian > English Corrector and Translator"

There are two main ways to use it:

1. You send a text in Russian — you get a direct translation along with explanations of why it was translated that way.

2. You send a text in English — it gets checked for grammar and stylistic errors, and a corrected version is provided, also with explanations.

So it helps you learn the language and understand why something should be written one way rather than another.

I saw a gadget for washing fruits on social media. I found it on Thingiverse and decided to print it.

I set the print to run overnight, and in the morning I woke up to find that the print had stopped halfway through.

I opened Fluidd – it cheerfully reported that it had stopped the print on its own due to the temperature exceeding 250°C (even though I was printing at 240°C).

I didn’t understand the cause, so I just increased the maximum temperature to 260°C.

Today I restarted the print. After some time, I checked the interface – and there was a sine wave with a 10-degree amplitude! The part being printed has overhangs with 100% cooling set. After that, the print continues with minimal cooling.

So what’s happening is this: maximum cooling turns on, quickly chilling the hotend, the firmware tries to compensate and cranks the heat to max – and the cooling turns off. But due to inertia, the nozzle keeps heating up.

But the main cause of this problem is simple – I forgot to put the silicone sock back on...

I managed to work on the project over the weekend. There was no blog post this week, but I’ll write one by the weekend about the booth and the next stages.

In the meantime, here’s a bit more thermal camera content. The GoPro, when shooting a 4K time-lapse for about an hour, completely drains the battery and heats up to nearly 70 degrees Celsius.

P.S. At the end, I tried to remove the battery with one hand to check the internal temperature, but I tore off the pull tab =\ No idea how to revive it now.

P.P.S. The "radiator" under the lens that was supposedly added in version 13 is just a piece of plastic; the metal mounts underneath get much hotter.

And so, I broke a continuous 44-day streak of posts =\
The reason is not exactly respectable—I fell asleep in the evening after a night release at work.

So, let me show you how the booth is coming along—I finally assembled it completely.

During assembly, I discovered a mistake—I had swapped two paper sections, so I had to cut everything apart and glue it back together.

I had to assemble it in the gazebo. Despite having a garage for three cars, it’s completely filled with very “useful” junk, so I couldn’t fit in there.

As a result, the structure is still pretty shaky despite the frame. I’ve finalized and am now printing the bottom slats to close off the lower perimeter. After that, I’ll move on to the shell. I’m planning something like papier-mâché made from several layers of paper, and then I’ll start applying composite techniques—fiberglass, epoxy, filler, and all that.

P.S. Yes, there’s a grill in the center of the gazebo, and the whole table even rotates, but I’ve only done the lighting so far.

About Tankless Water Heaters

While designing the bathroom, I couldn’t figure out where to place a storage water heater, so I decided to install a tankless one instead.

Here are a few points that most people don’t quite understand:

1. A tankless water heater typically has a power rating of around 6 kW. It’s difficult to get more from a single-phase system, especially in older buildings with aluminum wiring. And you definitely can’t just plug such a heater into a regular outlet.

2. The water temperature depends on the pressure and the temperature of the cold water.

I bought one of the cheapest 6 kW heaters. But after burning through three of them (yes, the same model each time), I finally decided to replace it with a mid-range one.

Time will tell how it performs, but at least take a look at the built-in flow-reducing solution — there’s a small insert at the outlet that narrows the flow, which reduces pressure and increases the chance of getting hot water with a standard connection.