Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration
Thanks, dude! You're too kind.
OK, well, didn't go to the shop tonight, wasn't gonna post till Tuesday, but a side project appeared in my mailbox and I thought I'd give it a whirl here at home.
Thanks to robn1 (Rob) for discovering what this found part is, and where to find it.
So let's talk about the ol' ten-turn knob. What it is, where it comes from, its likes and dislikes, and hopefully some topless photos.
Plus a bonus! -- I
totally ****ed mine up, and you get to learn from it without ruining your own! I know, I'm so incredibly good at making my total bone moves look like I planned it that way...
which I did, so STFU!!!!
So what you're looking for is a Kilo Model 462 ten-turn knob.
Here's the link for it on eBay that Rob originally sent me.
There were five of them, but they went fairly quickly --
but you can also get them here, at Allied Electronics, just unfortunately for $26 apiece (probably because they're new from Kilo instead of salvaged).
So here's what one looks like attached to a potentiometer, as they're designed to be:
The reason it's called a 10-turn knob is that it counts complete turns of the knob, up to 10 of them, for potentiometers that freely turn past 360 degrees. So if the knob is graduated from 1-10, and you make 4 complete turns, you've actually turned it up to 40. Eat
that, Spinal Tap! There are 20-turn knobs, one-turn knobs, 100-turn knobs, you name it. And they're mostly black, look completely wrong, and thus of course they're incredibly cheap all over the Internet. :facepalm
Here it is almost completely taken apart:
That little lever on the large base is for locking the dial in place when you've got the setting you want.
Also, you'll notice a little Allen nut in the side of the knob. Here's what that does:
And finally, if you want to machine your own (why?), or just make yourself a cool phaser diagram,
here's the spec sheet from Kilo with everything you always wanted to know about their turn-counting knobs and never thought to ask, because you have better uses for your time...
(A billion free trivia points to whoever is the first to post about the possible use of a different Kilo knob on a different TOS prop! A
BILLION!!
FREE!!! IS HE CRAZY?!?!?!
Hint: It's on the spec sheet. )
Okay, so once you have it almost apart, you'll notice one thing: it hates you for wanting to kill it. With victory in sight, that juicy little ten-turn knob in your sweaty little nerd hands, it mocks you. That little knob ain't coming out of the dial skirt for nothin' or nobody. Little aluminum mocking *******. (It's called a skirt, I assume, because it looks just like something from C-3PO's closet.)
So you have to apply some steel persuasion, and here's where I fell down. I figured, this is easy -- set it up on my vise, whack it with a hammer, and presto. I'll put tape on the jaws to prevent marring. And thereby hangs the tale...
See the danger yet? You will...
So here's what I thought would work great as a punch: an allen bit for a screwdriver. It was the right size, the right shape, and most importantly, it was handy.
Next: with a small hammer, start tapping
GENTLY!
tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap (this will take a couple of minutes) -tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap-tap...
And then, DING!!!!
Works like a charm. So here it is, in all its separated glory:
So there you have it, easy as one-
WHAT THE ****?!?!?!?! OMG, WTF??!?!?!?!?!?! **** **** **** **** **** **************CK!!!!!!!
I dinged the damn thing. On my vise. With the taped jaws. Soft aluminum, hard steel, and a hammer -- it's a cocktail of death. It has perfectly symmetrical dings, one on either side, where it contacted the vise jaws.
Lesson learned: When my other ones arrive, I'll drill a hole in a block of scrap wood, mount
that in the vise, and stick the knob through the hole. Hopefully soft pine from the shop won't ding the way ***KING STEEL DOES, EVEN THROUGH PAPER-THIN MASKING TAPE (who knew?), and I'll get a better result.
I think they also make rubber vise covers for just this kind of job. Think I'd better get some...
One final step: there's an eeeeeny weeny pin sticking out of the bottom of the dial skirt, which is part of the turn-counting mechanism. It needs to be yanked out. I used a pair of needle nose pliers and my existential rage left over from screwing up my dial, and it pulled right out.
Okay, tomorrow I'm going to the shop for real, and I'll get the handle finished or very, very close to it, depending on the same God who laughed at my efforts tonight, and what kind of mood he's in tomorrow.
Meanwhile, here's something I also spent some time on tonight: