asalaw
Sr Member
Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration
BRING THE FIRE!!!
I decided I'd better anneal the brass after all, or I'd be working on this past Christmas. As I explained above, annealing just means heating it and cooling it to take the fight out of the metal. After I brought one of these over to my bench...
...I got down to it. I made this little 30-second video to show how it's done:
How to Anneal Your Phaser Handle - YouTube
Yes, I know how tempting it is now to turn this thread into a discussion of my use of symbolism and montage vs. Sergei Eisenstein's, but we've got a job to do!
After I annealed the brass, I wrapped it tightly around the form again and gave it a good, long squeeze in the bench vise.
And it came out great, and ready for soldering at last! The annealed brass was no longer springy at all and conformed perfectly to the wooden form.
See how there's still a wee bit of overlap? Not enough to cause a problem. It helped out in the soldering process, though next time around I'll be going for a straight-up butt joint. That's not how you usually smoke those, but hey, new century, right?
Time for soldering! I shot video of this, so I'm off to prep it and I'll be back in a little bit...
[EDIT -- Belay that. Video sucks. I'll get some better video another time and come back and drop it in. Plus I think there's a much better way to do it than the way I did it, and I'd rather show you that. So I'm getting on with the post with just photos for now.]
BRING THE FIRE!!!
I decided I'd better anneal the brass after all, or I'd be working on this past Christmas. As I explained above, annealing just means heating it and cooling it to take the fight out of the metal. After I brought one of these over to my bench...
...I got down to it. I made this little 30-second video to show how it's done:
How to Anneal Your Phaser Handle - YouTube
Yes, I know how tempting it is now to turn this thread into a discussion of my use of symbolism and montage vs. Sergei Eisenstein's, but we've got a job to do!
After I annealed the brass, I wrapped it tightly around the form again and gave it a good, long squeeze in the bench vise.
And it came out great, and ready for soldering at last! The annealed brass was no longer springy at all and conformed perfectly to the wooden form.
See how there's still a wee bit of overlap? Not enough to cause a problem. It helped out in the soldering process, though next time around I'll be going for a straight-up butt joint. That's not how you usually smoke those, but hey, new century, right?
Time for soldering! I shot video of this, so I'm off to prep it and I'll be back in a little bit...
[EDIT -- Belay that. Video sucks. I'll get some better video another time and come back and drop it in. Plus I think there's a much better way to do it than the way I did it, and I'd rather show you that. So I'm getting on with the post with just photos for now.]
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