Yeah, I want to make a shroud for my Ultrasabers Sentinel later down the road but I'll definitely need to practice using a dremel first.
Yeah, I want to make a shroud for my Ultrasabers Sentinel later down the road but I'll definitely need to practice using a dremel first.
Practice is always a good thing
What did you use to paint? Was it just spray paint? That black looks great!
Yupp...just good old rattle cansOriginally Posted by Praposo91
It looks great and the black gives some nice texture... When it's completely finished are going to make a video about it? Can' wait to see it's full beauty
Join me, join the dark side!
I hadn't thought about doing a video, but it might be something fun to do.
I havent posted in a while as progress had taken a backseat due to my daughter's bday & Christmas, but we survived that & I will be placing my next order tonight. This order will contain everything I need to finish the body of the saber except for the activation box which is still out of stock atm.
I will hopefully have some more progress pics to share soon!
As promised, more progress!
I got more parts in & with them, I have everything I need to finish the exterior except for the activation box (which is still out of stock atm). Here are the parts that came in on Saturday:
Decided to lay everything out to get a look at the placement of the parts:
Getting closer & more excited...I hope to be able to start buying the electronics soon!
guys, guys, GUYS!!!
I got another big order in this weekend which included the taps sold in the store & on Sunday I decided to dive in & get the holes drilled & tapped for all the greebage & assembly parts & I gotta say it was WAAAY easier than I thought it would be. I had already done all the measuring & planning before the taps came in so all I had to do was start drilling! I have been waiting for what seems like forever to get to this point & now it's here!
I can finally see it all together without having to hold everything in place...& it is GLORIOUS!!!
Sadly, everything did not go off without a hitch, while backing off the 4-40 tap out of the last hole (one of the holes for the graflex pins), the tip of the tap snapped off & is stuck in the holeI had a couple folks suggest ways to get the tap out & I will look in to them, but I fear that I will have to order a new blade holder & start over. Pretty upset that I was doing so well only to have it end that way, but at least it wasn't my custom 4" extention that got screwed up.
All in all I'm SUPER excited with how this build is progressing...still left to do is attach the activation box & cover plate (once they FINALLY get restocked) & then I need to get the soundboard & PLI (waiting for credits to be available when they are in stock), then I can start wiring everything up! I'm also thinking about swapping out the black set screws in the grip ribs for silver ones as I feel this will add more detail in the end.
I'm getting SO close I can taste it!
As always, thanx for looking & I look forward to hearing your feedback!
Its really coming together!
Sucks about the tap breaking off. I have had that happen to me when rebuilding old machinery. The taps are hardened metal and 4-40 is a tiny diameter. If it were a screw your best bet is to drill it out. But its not a screw and in my experience the tap is too small and too hard to be drilled out. Thus your only recourse will be to get a small punch (or likely a whole series of small punches / nail punches (can be purchased at most hardware stores) and literally punch the piece of tap through the hole from the outside (I assume this was a through hole you had tapped with 4-40). You will probably need a series of punches because the small diameter punches will bend under the force you are about to exert upon them once you start hitting them with a hammer. This will have the effect of completely destroying the threads you just put into the hole. It may also crack or bend the emitter so its no longer round. If that happens its game over for the emitter. If however the emitter is still structurally sound all is not lost!
Your hole will be stripped of threads and too big now that it has been stripped to put 4-40 threads into it. But you can still refill the hole and try again. Put a piece of tape on the inside of the emitter so the epoxy does not leak through and then carefully fill the mangled hole with JB Weld or your epoxy of choice. Once fully cured (and you will want to wait 24 hours even if you use "quick" epoxy) you can redrill the hole and retap it. This will likely result in the need for some careful sanding/filing etc to make sure the epoxy is nice and flush with the surface before drilling. Since this area will be painted black color differences will not matter. I would definitely go with jb weld if its an option for you since it accepts paint easily and has a long open time so you can wipe it with a stiff surface like a gift card or some such to make sure its flush with the surface before it dries. This will essentially eliminate the need for much sanding later.
You are lucky that you only have to deal with aluminum. Punching one of these taps through steel when they break off is a REAL pain. Obviously you will want to remove the emitter before you go pounding on it.
Good luck!
Wow, thanx for the tip Minor...I don't think I would have thought of that! I will keep you informed on the progress!
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