Luke's Severed Hand Stunt Prop from ESB

[Halliwax]

Looking at the picture teecrooz generously shared on page 3, it would appear that:

1) Either a grip fell off during filming and then was re-attached, and then another grip fell off after

or

2) The top and bottom either can turn or separated and were put back together backwards, and the same grip has been missing this whole time

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...also I took a Camera Bracket Thumbscrew and machined it down into what I see in the bulb socket *shrug*
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Your Jedi skills are now complete…

 

[redbutton]

Nice!

 

[cdyoung]

Great finished severed hand stunt hilts in this thread! Are builders using a pen spring under the red button for function, as suggested by roygilsing, or gluing the button into proper position within the button housing?

 

[thd9791]

I have something that has a casting sprue in the center, leaving that dot when you sand it.

It has a flange that sits on the washer beneath the beer tab, so I don’t think I could make that sink in!

 

[eethan]

Great finished severed hand stunt hilts in this thread! Are builders using a pen spring under the red button for function, as suggested by roygilsing, or gluing the button into proper position within the button housing?

I have used a small spring I had in my spring box and it works very nicelly

 

[thd9791]

I have I think the right sized drill stop or shaft collar showing up in a few hours

In the meantime, I took a fine metal file to this part

It’s not perfect but you can still kind of see the injection sprue in the center of the cap, and the color of the plastic as it shreds. This is a tapered plug, like you see covering lots of ports on aircraft equipment and switches, there are a few big ones in the ESB cockpit.

Specifically this one said X2 on it, I think it was a “sample” from Caplugs, but the ones back then probably had different labels. The bottom or “top” of my plug is around 7.8 or 7.9 mm in diameter - very close to what roygilsing found which was 8mm

The shaft collar is an M9, I’ll post pics when the package arrives

 

[thd9791]

So I don’t know exactly what happened but my steel shaft collars were a little thick. They were tight and there was a strong bevel on one side! Well.. I trimmed them - widened the hole about 1mm and stripped the faces down a little to fix the bevel. I also trimmed a set screw to be short enough to not poke out.

Now I discovered something else. The tapered plug is the exact same height as the shaft collar. In order to get it to sit up, I took off the flange. It has to be squeezed in there a little, creating the uneven sides and making it tilt. At the right depth the set screw holds it in place.

I wanted something stronger, that might resist a fall from a catwalk onto mattresses so I threaded a screw into my socket and pinched it inside the red plug. A nice helping of E6000 over everything will set overnight.

 

[Jediseth]

I have a newfound appreciation for this part. At least… if I had a mill this would have taken 2 minutes. Maybe even if I had a band saw or something…

I tried using my mini lathe as a table saw, I do it for T track, but the discs were flexing under the 1/16 thick aluminum, so I resorted to using a rotary tool and abrasive discs. I suppose I could have used a hacksaw but I was already using one to section 1.9” pieces from my stock! I wanted something finer than blunt force…

So… it turns out, drilling holes and cutting, cutting from a sharpie line and square, or working your way up different cutting disc thicknesses…. If you waver at all it looks really bad. This slot is like.. a little over 2mm! And it has to be centered! My eyeball skills have been good to within 1-3mm so this just pushed my boundary. It took me 5 tries, on the 5th one, I got something good enough to put against my used disc sander and polish it up. The trick was to end with cylindrical diamond cutting bits and “mill” the slot to the right width!

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1) I grab trophies from thrift stores to get the threaded rods inside, I’m leftover with marble blocks that I solder on or something..

2) the slot is just the right size for a 0-80 screw, coincidence?

I have a newfound appreciation for this part. At least… if I had a mill this would have taken 2 minutes. Maybe even if I had a band saw or something…

I tried using my mini lathe as a table saw, I do it for T track, but the discs were flexing under the 1/16 thick aluminum, so I resorted to using a rotary tool and abrasive discs. I suppose I could have used a hacksaw but I was already using one to section 1.9” pieces from my stock! I wanted something finer than blunt force…

So… it turns out, drilling holes and cutting, cutting from a sharpie line and square, or working your way up different cutting disc thicknesses…. If you waver at all it looks really bad. This slot is like.. a little over 2mm! And it has to be centered! My eyeball skills have been good to within 1-3mm so this just pushed my boundary. It took me 5 tries, on the 5th one, I got something good enough to put against my used disc sander and polish it up. The trick was to end with cylindrical diamond cutting bits and “mill” the slot to the right width!

View attachment 1761008View attachment 1761009View attachment 1761010View attachment 1761011


1) I grab trophies from thrift stores to get the threaded rods inside, I’m leftover with marble blocks that I solder on or something..

2) the slot is just the right size for a 0-80 screw, coincidence?

I can’t believe you did that by hand. Lol
Great work Tom! I bought a deluxe mini mill from LMS years ago for $1900 bucks and it’s the best money ever spent. I’d highly recommended it.

 

[thd9791]

Okay I’d like to show off some of my work - if that’s okay.

1) I took a camera thumbscrew and lathed the shape I saw in the photos for the glass eye greeblie. Poikilotherm saw the same thing
2) cone knobs are from Corellianexports . Really well done, but there are only like 1-2 threads inside the hole lol I don’t know what threading
3) vintage graflex top from teecrooz with extra holes drilled in for a camera reflector. I brazed the holes with heavy electrical solder, and did some random silver paint splatters like the original
4) Graflex socket is an old cast of adamata of the upper 2/3 and it snapped perfectly into a real 3/3 piece, screwed into place like the original
5) my control box is rectangular tube, cut to shape and slotted. I used E6000 and the single 0-80 screw to hold it in place. Same with the tube on eethan s kobold top
6) my kobold is real, but the body section is a replica. The original body had a bolt welded to the side and I got the flash cheap.

 

[thd9791]

I forgot, this is super6props track

Closest to Gino’s thin inside corner I’ve seen so far