Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress

12 October 2026
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Chopped Down to Size

Today we had a new (second-hand) dining room table delivered. This one will more comfortably sit four people in its regular form and extends with a hidden centre leaf to sit more (or to let me put my germinating seedlings on the window end). What then to do with the previous table? It is a solid oak one we’ve had for 15 years or more but it wasn’t a great piece of woodworking or design. It has a simple hinged, sliding top so it can extend but the design means the table surface is almost an inch higher in compact mode.

Our solution is to try it as a coffee table in the front room. However, it was far too tall so this afternoon’s DIY task was to reduce the height of the legs. That was made more complex by it being quite a while since I last did a woodwork project. In particular, I couldn’t find my circular saw cutting jig so it took me ages to secure the legs to the workbench (helped by a ratchet strap… but I had to remind myself how to set it up) and longer still to get an edge in place to guide the cut.

Overall, I think it could probably do with another inch or two taken off the height but I think I might consult a friend of mine who has a “chop saw” before I attempt that. If the blade on that can handle a 3″ cut, that is probably the best way to quickly get clean and repeatable cuts to length. If not, I might just go with a hand saw – a bit more work on the cutting but it won’t take so long on the setup as it also takes a lot more time to go serious wrong!

11 October 2026
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Sight Reading Challenges

Tonight’s CSWO rehearsal mainly focused on investigating the dusty corners of the pad and trying out pieces that were candidates for being culled from the regular collection. That meant quite a sight reading challenge. Some of them were decent parts to play from (including one we did try in the time I was in the band which I’d produced my own part for) but others were more challenging.

Probably the worst was a part probably handwritten in the era before computer-based layout became common for Bb tuba (as in a tuba reading a Bb part). Not only was it tightly spaced but I had to both transpose up an octave (tuba reading to string bass reading) and down a tone (Bb part to concert pitch). We’re keeping that one so, when it comes up for a gig, that goes on the “write it up” pile. There were also some that probably haven’t been played much because they introduce passages with more challenging time signatures – one that spiced things up with the occasional 7/8 bar among the 4/4 sections and another that was mainly in 11/8 except when it went into 13/8. Both of those are staying as well, so my time signature reading repertoire is likely to increase.

A fair number of pieces were set aside so, for those carrying around paper-based pads, it will ease their backs a bit! As a bonus, a couple of the pieces might be suitable for the Training Band. I’m going to scan them in and, at some point, we’ll give them a go. For example, there was a medley of Shania Twain songs that sounded like the corners had been rounded off. For the Symphonic Wind Orchestra, we should be able to cope with arrangements that sound like the originals but, with the Training Band, that might make them more approachable and give us a presentable result.

The final challenge of the night was a piece called Spider Legs. Here the challenge was tempo – very fast and with lots of syncopated semiquavers. We tried it about a year ago and I have a recollection that it “kicked my butt”. I certainly put some time into practising it and then it didn’t come out again. Last night that paid off though. There are still some sections I need to do more work on but, in the main, it was exhilarating rather than exhausting.

10 October 2026
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Autumn Seeds

Many gardeners put their land “to bed” as autumn draws on but a fair few of us keep on going instead. With the added benefit of the polytunnel, I’ve got protected space that will be enough for some plants unless we get a very hard winter and, now quite a few of the tomatoes have come out, that is unused rather than occupied space. I’ve got some spinach and winter lettuce that I’m germinating indoors and will move outside once it gets to a suitable size.

There are also things I can prepare to plant out at the allotment as some of the beds become free. November is a good time to get broad beans in and I’m going to take a look at a hardy pea variety that can go in soon. Both will give us harvests in late spring and, better yet, that will mean the beds are ready for the spring germinated, summer and autumn harvesting crops I want next year.

8 October 2026
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(Scrabble) Tiling

Large Print Scrabble Tiles

My sister-in-law has had a large print edition of Scrabble for a couple of years but the included tiles proved to be low quality. The print is already rubbing off and, since it was bought from the RNIB shop, to make the game playable despite vision issues, that is particularly disappointing. I looked but couldn’t find anywhere to buy a set of improved tiles or even another set of the originals but, as you know, I have a 3D printer…

I had to do a few iterations on the basic tile. It isn’t just a low cuboid but also has dimples to interact with the nubs on the board that prevent laid tiles slipping around. Once I got that dialled in, I had to pick a suitable font and work out how to make the letters and numbers as large as possible within the available space. The hardest was Q at 10 points – the need for a tiny gap between letter and score on that tile was the critical constraint.

I’ve printed these in black PLA with Sunlu “Bone White” PLA for the last few layers. I was able to run off 25 tiles at a time on my A1 mini printer and had to do a manual filament swap (layer 36 for those who need to know). The print profile is available on MakerWorld.

Sister-in-law is very happy with it and I’m looking forward to trying it in a game sometime in the future.

7 October 2026
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Ballast

One of the less celebrated features of 3D printing is that it produces a fair amount of plastic waste. I’ve tried to hang onto all the “pure” waste I’ve produced where it consists of a single filament and I’ve built up quite a collection over the last couple of years. There are the little “poops” of filament produced when the printer clears the nozzle when preparing to print, the flow test lines and the prototype pieces. On top of that you have the prints that failed in use or never really got the usage they were intended for.

Unfortunately it isn’t straightforward to melt it down and turn it back into printable filament. To a certain extent that can be done but you need space and a significant investment in hardware and time. If you can’t produce a high quality finished product, you are also likely to end up with more failed prints and thus more waste to deal with.

Another approach is to melt it down and mould it into some other form. However, that also needs more equipment. It would be ill advised to use a device that is intended for food (like the oven) and I don’t have a spare portable oven. Furthermore, I’d have to think what sort of things I wanted to create. For example, I could make coasters but how many do I need?

I’m getting to the point when I need to do something so I think my answer is going to be ballast. I’ve got a bookshelf I built a decade ago and one of the weaknesses of the design is that there are voids at the ends of the shelf where books can get sucked in and lost. I never got round to filling them with wood because of the effort of finding and shaping suitable sized scraps. However, if I could print a series of containers and give them some heft not by printing more plastic but filling them with the scraps from past projects, that would be useful and might at least provide me with a longer term home for what I’ve amassed so far and the next couple of years.

I’ve got the container designed; time to start printing a few and see how they work out in practice.

4 October 2026
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The Ultimate Voyage

Last night I was dressed in my concert blacks as the Charnwood Symphonic Wind Orchestra played a gig at Kegworth Village Hall in support of LOROS. One of our members, Mhairi, is doing a trek to Machu Picchu with them early next year and this was to support her wider fundraising for the local palliative care organisation. As an aside, we found the hall to be an excellent venue with a clear sound and less reverberation than you sometimes suffer in such places.

Since Mhairi is going on her travels, our conductor Catherine picked a set themed around modes of transport, covering land, sea and air. Some were fairly easy pieces we’ve played plenty of times before, like Take the A Train, Beyond the Sea and Come Fly with Me but others were new to us, quite challenging or both. That includes a couple of pieces that have been in the pad a long time but possibly never played out before, including Stephenson’s Rocket (Nigel Hess) and Tall Ships (Ron Goodwin).

We finished the evening with an out-of-this-world mode of transportation in Robert Buckley’s arrangement Doctor Who: Through Time and Space. All three bands have played this before (even the Training Band, despite it having some quite technically challenging moments) but this is the first time we’ve done it with the theremin part included, albeit played on an iPad app than an actual theremin.

The next concerts currently scheduled are 21 November (Charnwood Training Band at Hathern Baptist Church), 27 November (Charnwood Concert Band at All Saints Thorpe Acre – and at East Leake for the lights switch on the following afternoon) and 11 December (CSWO at Oaks in Charnwood).

3 October 2026
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Sing Around Songs – Saturday 3 October

Today I decided to take a regular guitar along to the sing around at All Saints Thorpe Acre church hall in Loughborough. I planned to make an early getaway, due to a gig this evening but I ended up staying for most of it.

I led a couple of songs. The first was You Wreck Me by Tom Petty. When I take it down to D, the chords suit the guitar and the range of the melody suits my voice although the original, for Tom’s slightly higher range, was done in F. My second contribution was I Can See Clearly Now by Johnny Nash. I introduced it by remarking that, when I first heard it, I wondered what Lorraine had done that was so bad (if you know the lyrics, that will make sense). After I’d finished, another wit observed that they thought it was “I can see Clare Lee now Lorraine has gone!”. I did that one in G although I wonder if I need to take it down a notch or two. Most of it sits quite well but, if I want to take the last line up an octave, I might need to be starting a tone or so lower!

The main reason I stayed longer than originally planned was that John Hunter asked if I could back him up on a medley he was doing (Sweet Georgia Brown / Ain’t She Sweet / Five Foot Two). That was a fun opportunity although I had to bring out quite a few of the “expensive” jazz chords to keep up.

2 October 2026
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The Game That Keeps on Giving

Unfortunately I didn’t blog about when I started playing Minecraft. It was after the official formal release date in November 2011 but before Microsoft bought it in 2014 (I remember having to shift my account across to the Microsoft servers). That means I’ve been playing it, on and off, for well over a decade. The starting experience (quickly gather some resources, build a shelter and get inside it before the first night falls and the scary things comes out) remains similar but every update brings new things to explore and those updates are starting to come more frequently.

In many ways this is a good thing. I enjoyed tracking down the sulphur caves in the previous update and the dappled forest environment that was added in the most recent one. However, it does mean that there’s an increasing amount of options to keep track of. I suspect that, like me, many players seize on a few of them, have a quick go on a few more and barely even consider many more. I’ve still not done things like track down “Sniffer eggs” or even venture to the End dimension and attempt to pass the finish line (after which you keep playing but with access to a couple more things to help explore further and faster).

I do wonder if there will come a point when the decision is made not to continue adding updates or if they decide that I need to pay a monthly subscription to maintain access? Either of those would be all I need to put down my pixelated pickaxe for good. Even as it is, I can go for months without dipping a toe in until something (often one of those newly released features) piques my interest. We’ll see but I hope I can continue to enjoy the occasional mining and crafting for now.