In which power tools were used and muscles near-exhausted
Anyone that's been following my twitterstream or FaceBook status updates has likely noted the frequent commenting (and occasional griping) about my current propmaking projects. Well! Today I achieved victory over one piece of the current one that I thought for awhile was going to be impossible, and I took pictures along the way.
Wanna see?
I got the idea for this prop from three places:
1. I adore the "Eather Generation BackPack" built by Matthew Silva and Danny Ashby (more pics here and here) but I didn't want a backpack for myself, because such a thing is a pain at conventions, taking it on and off when you sit down in a panel.
2. I thought this tutorial on making a Tusken Raider respirator was pretty cool.
3. I found this brass mesh candle holder at Goodwill for a dollar, and planning got underway. --------->
I want to hang it around my neck like the respirator, but not with a metal rod. I thought some nice brass chain would look nice, so I picked up about three feet at Home Depot for sixty cents per foot. I also found some brass lamp finials that would look nice on each end, and were shaped in such a way that I could drill holes through them to put the chain through, so I grabbed them from the lighting department. This is where the first problem arose.
I wanted to have a finial on each end that screwed onto a threaded rod that ran the whole length of the prop, so most of it would be held together just by pressure. Sadly, those finials have metric threading and HD doesn't carry metric threaded rods. The HD guy assisting me suggested possibly a drawer pull instead, but they didn't carry anything that I could drill a hole through. We ended up finding some bolts that the finials will screw onto, so it'll just be them attached to each end piece that way. For those ends I picked up a couple of PVC caps, planning to paint them to match the brass body. And of course, screws and nuts in a nice brass tone (no idea if they're actually brass, and don't really care since they match well enough.)
Yesterday I gave the PVC caps a nice coating of black paint (Krylon, satin finish) and let them dry overnight. This afternoon I gave them a coat of gold (Krylon again) but they started developing a weird crackly texture in places about ten seconds after I started painting. I have no idea what caused that, since it's not a paint that's designed to produce crackles, but I'm not overly concerned. At least for now, I don't think it ruins them. We'll see after it's all assembled.
Then the next hard part: removing the bottom panel from the candle holder. I started by pressing a hot soldering iron into the groove between the body and the inner band, but no luck. I figured it must be welded (if only with JB Weld) and tried to cut curves with my dremel, using the heavy duty cutting heads. Unfortunately, just a few cuts ground them to powder. Thinking I needed a different cutting head, I headed back to Home Depot and spoke to someone in the tool department. To my surprise, he told me I was already using the best cutter for the job, and that if I drilled some holes around the outside to just cut between, I'd do fine. So I ended up leaving without buying anything new! I'm totally going back to HD for whatever I need, if they're that dedicated to making sure their customers get what they need for their projects, even if it's just information.
Later this afternoon I clamped the candle holder, hoping it wouldn't distort the shapes, and drilled the holes. In this pic that shows two angles, you can see the cuts I made originally, that ate up two heavy duty cutting heads. It wasn't too hard, though my concern about distortion made me clamp it only so hard, which means the cylinder rotated a bit when I started pressing on it. No harm, though. Unfortunately, this process still went through more cutting heads, but as a bonus, there were lots of nifty sparks. What can I say? I'm easily amused. :-)
I kept making cuts (and using up more heads than I would have liked) until I got the majority of the middle cut out. It was too hard to get back behind those ball-feet, so I didn't even try. I was making enough noise and getting enough sparks as it was, and I didn't want more unnecessarily.
I ended up being able to just bend those pieces with the ball-feet on back and forth until the metal broke away. After the first couple I put a glove on. There were some sharp edges, and as a person who works on a computer all day, I don't have many calluses to protect me. Eventually I got them all off, and started working on the remaining band of metal that seemed welded on in three or four places.
I used a good wrench to grab and twist the metal, and by the time I was done getting every last bit off, my shoulder and arm let me know that they'd be getting back to me on this nonsense by morning. I plan to appease them by taking some ibuprofen before I go to bed.
While I was out there I also drilled the holes through the finials, and I think I blunted at least three of my drill tips doing so. The finials are hollow, but apparently they're made of some pretty hard metal. However, I did prevail.
Now what's left to do:
The paint on the end caps needs to finish drying, and I need to drill the right size hole in each one so the bolt can thread through snugly and the finial can hold it in.
I need to drill screw holes in the end caps and screw the main body into them, being careful to align the finials correctly.
I need to put rings through the holes in the finials and attach the chain.
I need to do the wiring inside (two large blue LEDs, a switch and a 9 volt battery to power it all.) Still haven't figured out where to mount the battery, or how to keep the LEDs centered in the cylinder.
If time allows: I need to cut one of the number lock dials out of an old briefcase I bought from Goodwill for four dollars (got it for the two number dials and to harvest the "leather" off the sides for other projects.)
My hope is to have this ready by Friday night, which is when the Brass Ball happens. I don't know for sure that we're going yet, but I want to wear this to it if we do.
Wanna see?
I got the idea for this prop from three places:
1. I adore the "Eather Generation BackPack" built by Matthew Silva and Danny Ashby (more pics here and here) but I didn't want a backpack for myself, because such a thing is a pain at conventions, taking it on and off when you sit down in a panel.
2. I thought this tutorial on making a Tusken Raider respirator was pretty cool.
3. I found this brass mesh candle holder at Goodwill for a dollar, and planning got underway. --------->
I want to hang it around my neck like the respirator, but not with a metal rod. I thought some nice brass chain would look nice, so I picked up about three feet at Home Depot for sixty cents per foot. I also found some brass lamp finials that would look nice on each end, and were shaped in such a way that I could drill holes through them to put the chain through, so I grabbed them from the lighting department. This is where the first problem arose.
I wanted to have a finial on each end that screwed onto a threaded rod that ran the whole length of the prop, so most of it would be held together just by pressure. Sadly, those finials have metric threading and HD doesn't carry metric threaded rods. The HD guy assisting me suggested possibly a drawer pull instead, but they didn't carry anything that I could drill a hole through. We ended up finding some bolts that the finials will screw onto, so it'll just be them attached to each end piece that way. For those ends I picked up a couple of PVC caps, planning to paint them to match the brass body. And of course, screws and nuts in a nice brass tone (no idea if they're actually brass, and don't really care since they match well enough.)
Yesterday I gave the PVC caps a nice coating of black paint (Krylon, satin finish) and let them dry overnight. This afternoon I gave them a coat of gold (Krylon again) but they started developing a weird crackly texture in places about ten seconds after I started painting. I have no idea what caused that, since it's not a paint that's designed to produce crackles, but I'm not overly concerned. At least for now, I don't think it ruins them. We'll see after it's all assembled.
Then the next hard part: removing the bottom panel from the candle holder. I started by pressing a hot soldering iron into the groove between the body and the inner band, but no luck. I figured it must be welded (if only with JB Weld) and tried to cut curves with my dremel, using the heavy duty cutting heads. Unfortunately, just a few cuts ground them to powder. Thinking I needed a different cutting head, I headed back to Home Depot and spoke to someone in the tool department. To my surprise, he told me I was already using the best cutter for the job, and that if I drilled some holes around the outside to just cut between, I'd do fine. So I ended up leaving without buying anything new! I'm totally going back to HD for whatever I need, if they're that dedicated to making sure their customers get what they need for their projects, even if it's just information.
Later this afternoon I clamped the candle holder, hoping it wouldn't distort the shapes, and drilled the holes. In this pic that shows two angles, you can see the cuts I made originally, that ate up two heavy duty cutting heads. It wasn't too hard, though my concern about distortion made me clamp it only so hard, which means the cylinder rotated a bit when I started pressing on it. No harm, though. Unfortunately, this process still went through more cutting heads, but as a bonus, there were lots of nifty sparks. What can I say? I'm easily amused. :-)
I kept making cuts (and using up more heads than I would have liked) until I got the majority of the middle cut out. It was too hard to get back behind those ball-feet, so I didn't even try. I was making enough noise and getting enough sparks as it was, and I didn't want more unnecessarily.
I ended up being able to just bend those pieces with the ball-feet on back and forth until the metal broke away. After the first couple I put a glove on. There were some sharp edges, and as a person who works on a computer all day, I don't have many calluses to protect me. Eventually I got them all off, and started working on the remaining band of metal that seemed welded on in three or four places.
I used a good wrench to grab and twist the metal, and by the time I was done getting every last bit off, my shoulder and arm let me know that they'd be getting back to me on this nonsense by morning. I plan to appease them by taking some ibuprofen before I go to bed.
While I was out there I also drilled the holes through the finials, and I think I blunted at least three of my drill tips doing so. The finials are hollow, but apparently they're made of some pretty hard metal. However, I did prevail.
Now what's left to do:
The paint on the end caps needs to finish drying, and I need to drill the right size hole in each one so the bolt can thread through snugly and the finial can hold it in.
I need to drill screw holes in the end caps and screw the main body into them, being careful to align the finials correctly.
I need to put rings through the holes in the finials and attach the chain.
I need to do the wiring inside (two large blue LEDs, a switch and a 9 volt battery to power it all.) Still haven't figured out where to mount the battery, or how to keep the LEDs centered in the cylinder.
If time allows: I need to cut one of the number lock dials out of an old briefcase I bought from Goodwill for four dollars (got it for the two number dials and to harvest the "leather" off the sides for other projects.)
My hope is to have this ready by Friday night, which is when the Brass Ball happens. I don't know for sure that we're going yet, but I want to wear this to it if we do.