Piccies!!
Hooray!! Not only do I have a new, second battery and a charger for the camera, I even managed to find the adapter to download the pics off the camera! So here, as promised, are pics of my vanbrace (which my brain insists is actually a gauntlet even though it totally isn't, and which my subconscious has recently been referring to as the "backwards-firing time gauntlet).
Here's the finished thing. It's just shy of the entire length of my forearm (8" at the longest point), even though it kind of looks tiny for some reason in some of these shots.
If that plastic rod looks a little curved in some of the pics, it's because it is. ;-)
A closer look:
The wiring for the light is hidden beneath the curving, stitched-down-with-copper strip of leather. That's the switch, on the lower right.
There's a bunch of copper wires radiating out in a spoke pattern there. Half are from one wire; half are from the other one. Originally that was all there was to the switch; to activate it one licked one's finger and laid the pad across all the wires. Voila: circuit completed, LEDs lighted; and no messy hangy bits hanging around waiting to be torn off.
But what worked really well with two bare bunches of wires unassembled, didn't conduct nearly as well when they were installed in the spokes pattern. So I ended up having to add a piece of metal to complete the circuit. I just used a piece that originally was under the plastic tag that acted as a button and pressed down on that piece to push it against teh top of the batteries to complete the circuit. There's an LED hidden in each brass elbow, held in place with some hot glue; the batteries (four round ones) are hidden in the base of one of the brass bits. To change them I pop the plastic rod out, and unscrew that elbow. It's fiddly and I'm not looking forward to it; but it's doable.
I'll share the wiring diagram if anyone's interested. It's pretty basic but you have to have the right ends of the LEDs and the batteries matched up or it won't work.
Here, check it out lit up! Sorry for the poor picture quality but that's because of the low-light levels combined with no flash. But using the flash would have defeated the point. ;-)
Woo! It glows! :D
Can you see the Homer face? I can't unsee it. XD
That's a working Barometer (the big dial), thermometer, hygrometer, and chronometer. Okay, "watch," but after all the other '-ometer's 'chronometer' sounds better, ha ha. I got them online for about $3.50 or so each. The thermometer isn't quite right though; I ordered one that had dual dials, C/f; but he sent me just an F dial, which is of no avail to Canadians.
Here's the back:
Hidden between the two layers is the backside of my very neat stitching job, and the underside of my really terrible riveting job. XD I had to redo some of the rivets two or three times to get something acceptable, which is just lame. I used to be really good at it, but (1) I am woefully out of practice; (2) brass rivets, it ends up, are actually a lot harder than copper ones; they're actually literally a harder metal and don't peen over nearly so nicely; and (3) the only bloody ballpeen I could find was like a 2 1/2 pound sledge. Or something like that. A ridiculously huge hammer for detail work, anyways.
So there you go! Pics at last! Tomorrow is supposed to be decent out so I'm gonna get into my outfit and take some pics of what I've got so far. There's still a vest to be added, and eventually a coat, but I need someone to wrap me in duct tape to get the patterns for those. I'm hoping my friend R-- can do it when she comes up for a visit in a few weeks. Meanwhile I also have to start in on Karl's Hallowe'en costume pretty quick; he's gonna be a bat. If I have enough to spare Alvena will be too. I'll take pics. ;-)
Woo pics!!
Here's the finished thing. It's just shy of the entire length of my forearm (8" at the longest point), even though it kind of looks tiny for some reason in some of these shots.
If that plastic rod looks a little curved in some of the pics, it's because it is. ;-)
A closer look:
The wiring for the light is hidden beneath the curving, stitched-down-with-copper strip of leather. That's the switch, on the lower right.
There's a bunch of copper wires radiating out in a spoke pattern there. Half are from one wire; half are from the other one. Originally that was all there was to the switch; to activate it one licked one's finger and laid the pad across all the wires. Voila: circuit completed, LEDs lighted; and no messy hangy bits hanging around waiting to be torn off.
But what worked really well with two bare bunches of wires unassembled, didn't conduct nearly as well when they were installed in the spokes pattern. So I ended up having to add a piece of metal to complete the circuit. I just used a piece that originally was under the plastic tag that acted as a button and pressed down on that piece to push it against teh top of the batteries to complete the circuit. There's an LED hidden in each brass elbow, held in place with some hot glue; the batteries (four round ones) are hidden in the base of one of the brass bits. To change them I pop the plastic rod out, and unscrew that elbow. It's fiddly and I'm not looking forward to it; but it's doable.
I'll share the wiring diagram if anyone's interested. It's pretty basic but you have to have the right ends of the LEDs and the batteries matched up or it won't work.
Here, check it out lit up! Sorry for the poor picture quality but that's because of the low-light levels combined with no flash. But using the flash would have defeated the point. ;-)
Woo! It glows! :D
Can you see the Homer face? I can't unsee it. XD
That's a working Barometer (the big dial), thermometer, hygrometer, and chronometer. Okay, "watch," but after all the other '-ometer's 'chronometer' sounds better, ha ha. I got them online for about $3.50 or so each. The thermometer isn't quite right though; I ordered one that had dual dials, C/f; but he sent me just an F dial, which is of no avail to Canadians.
Here's the back:
Hidden between the two layers is the backside of my very neat stitching job, and the underside of my really terrible riveting job. XD I had to redo some of the rivets two or three times to get something acceptable, which is just lame. I used to be really good at it, but (1) I am woefully out of practice; (2) brass rivets, it ends up, are actually a lot harder than copper ones; they're actually literally a harder metal and don't peen over nearly so nicely; and (3) the only bloody ballpeen I could find was like a 2 1/2 pound sledge. Or something like that. A ridiculously huge hammer for detail work, anyways.
So there you go! Pics at last! Tomorrow is supposed to be decent out so I'm gonna get into my outfit and take some pics of what I've got so far. There's still a vest to be added, and eventually a coat, but I need someone to wrap me in duct tape to get the patterns for those. I'm hoping my friend R-- can do it when she comes up for a visit in a few weeks. Meanwhile I also have to start in on Karl's Hallowe'en costume pretty quick; he's gonna be a bat. If I have enough to spare Alvena will be too. I'll take pics. ;-)
Woo pics!!