Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

WOOHOO!! Got my lathe tools -- and a whole buncha other stuff -- out of storage today!! Thank God I clearly labelled those boxes. AND, my cast acrylic rods arrived! Once I get the method down and get a good emitter, I'm just gonna use up the whole two feet and make as many emitters as I can.

Yay!!

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

And even my new air nozzle shipped today! And my car's ready! Yay! I now have everything I need to lathe myself silly this weekend. Except the actual weekend. Apparently Saturday's not shipping till after Friday.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

It's really great to see back at it again ASA. When you took your break I really hadn't any reason to check in here much. But I can see you're back in a groove again, and welcome back!

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration



Off to the shop this morning with a trunkload of goodies! The garage is right under the shop and right off the elevator, so I park by the elevator, and presto! Free convenient storage.


And I'm back in the Galaxy again! The Ford Galaxy.
Um... my Maserati is in the shop.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Man, what a day! Just got back from the shop an hour ago (13 1/2 hour day), took a cool shower to get the machine shop grunge off, and I'm still going. So I might as well get at least the first part of today posted.

But first, I great piece of advice from the shop wall:


I try to suck at one thing every day.

I'm gonna do things a bit different this time. I'll start at the end.

I didn't end up with a finished emitter, but I'm very confident I've got all my major screw-ups out of the way.


Unlike this guy.

So here's where I ended up:



The first two pictures tell the story. This was my second crack at the emitter with the cast acrylic, and at the very last minute, my first bit broke. Note to self: Next time, start with a bigger bit. At least 1/16". Once the bit breaks, there's no getting it out. I tried pushing it out by drilling from the other end, but as you can see, the stuck bit just deflects the drill bit, and you wind up with a bent bore.


Or even two of them.

However, you can also see that the cast acrylic makes all the difference. I got it clear as crystal on the outside, and got a pretty good start on getting good clarity in the bore as well.

So except for that last thing, it was a pretty good night...


Meh. Sh¡Ƭ happens.

So anyway, I got started creating the tool to make the, um... what's the word?


"Daddy, what do you call it when something
gets narrower along its length?"

"You're too young for that conversation, son."

I went to my blueprints, figured out the measurements, and used the height gauge to mark my lines on the tool blank.



I always check that the gauge is properly zeroed first, and when I set the gauge to the measurement I need, I double-check it with my caliper.

Then I set about marking the tool blank, first with the gauge, then following up with purple and red Sharpies.



Long story short, next week I'm doing it over. Making a notched tool like this was extremely difficult using just the grinder, and I would have been better off just making a straight taper. An inside corner like that really needs to be done on the mill, and in the end the notch didn't do anything for my cut.



I started on the bench grinder, and then went to my Dremel to try to get the inside corner. It didn't work out very well. But I ultimately did get a nice, sharp tool after I took it back to the grinder. The good news is, those grinder bits really do the job, even on high-speed steel. I used medium speed on the Dremel -- you work steel with low speeds, and soft metals like brass and aluminum with high speeds.

And that's where I'll leave it tonight -- it's damn near 3 am, and I need my beauty sleep. Tomorrow, I'll finish talking about today's work, and tell you how this sexy ******* changed forever how I'll do small pieces on the lathe...


No, no, the guy on the left.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Nothing like a tight fit!


Dear God, at least I hope not.

So where was I? Oh yeah. Just a last word about the tool I ground.



While trying to get that damn notch in there with all the wrong techniques, I went a bit too far and turned it into a radius. Oops.



Though to be fair, some mistakes are worse than others.


But I was able to fix it on the grinder.

Finally, I was ready to work. And just as I was set up on Lathe 2, a guy came in and asked me to switch lathes with him. He couldn't find a chuck with the proper jaws for Lathe 1 (they're genetically matched or something), so I agreed.

He asked me what I was doing, and I told him it was very small work, and asked if he wouldn't mind putting a smaller chuck on Lathe 1 for me. As I explained what I was going to do, he said, "You're turning round stock? Standard size?" So I gave him my rod --


Not this one.

-- and he started looking through the tool cabinet for a collet to fit it. He was looking among a set of collets I'd always wondered about. He finds one, and next thing I know, he rigs this contraption up to the lathe:



It's called an indexing center collet. Goodbye, nasty chucks with jaws that can mar my work! When this thing gets tightened down, it grips the workpiece all the way around instead of at just three points (or four in the case of a four-jaw chuck). And that piece is going nowhere.


Just like my career.


So then, just as I'm ready to finally start work, lo and behold, somebody came in who had Lathe 2 reserved. Yikes!

So my new lathe buddy (whom I'll refer to as "Adam," to protect his identity. His real name is "Adam") was up the machine shop creek without a lathe. He told me he only had 30 minutes' worth of work to do. Well, this guy had just done me an immense solid, so I said it was the least I could do -- as long as he'd set me back up when he was done. "Sure!" he said, so I sat down with my phone.

I should've watched him instead, because in 30 minutes, he turned out a faucet adapter for a bar fitting in stainless steel.


This is Adam, and he's a
mechanical engineer. I'm the
guy in the picture who's not Adam.

And then, finally, I was ready to work! Good thing the shop is open 24/7, or I would've been worried. It was now around six, and the only work I'd gotten done since 11:30 am was grinding the tool!

So I started with the taper, anxious as I was to see my tool in action...


Don't get your hopes up, babe.

And off I went.



Things were going fairly well, until...



GAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!

Pushed in too hard with the tail chuck. Note to self: don't worry so much if the live center isn't turning, as long as it's supporting the piece and there's no wobble.

Next post:

I do it all over again, and finally I get it righ -- Aw, crap.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

And now the conclusion of The City on the Edge of Tomorrow is Last Week.

So you might notice in the pictures in the last post that the emitter was looking nice and clear at the end there. That's because I wet-sanded it, starting as I did with the extruded acrylic the week before -- 600 wet, 1000w, 1500w, and finally 2000w. But on my second nozzle yesterday, I went one step further and got amazing results.

So, I turned my new taper.

For the record, I turned the acrylic at the lathe's slowest speed, 40rpm, and used a feed rate of 0.0011"/minute, the lathe's slowest feed rate. I also constantly sprayed coolant fluid mixed with oil to keep the piece cool and friction low.




And then came the wet-sanding:



That's 1000 wet, 1500 wet, and 2000 wet in the photos -- for this step only, I set the lathe at around 900 rpm.

Unfortunately, at this point I did a test fit, and I wasn't quite fitting into the nozzle (yeah, I shoulda done that before I sanded, but sometimes I overcompensate for my capacious Cuban butt by doing things half-assed). So I shaved off just a teeny bit more, and then I had a great fit.



So as I was saying, the wet-sanding leaves a great finish when you take it up to 2000, but if you really want it to look like glass, you have to polish it.



I just grabbed a piece of jeweler's rouge from my Dremel box along with a buffing wheel. You put the rouge on the wheel, not the workpiece, and just buff it on as the piece turns, again at high speed.

And here's the result:



Yep! I turned a clear acrylic rifle bullet. One of the reasons I want to redo my taper is to get a sharper transition between the straight shank and the taper. But I pressed on and did the drilling operation, which I'll totally screw up in the next post.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

And here we are at the end of a 13 1/2 hour day. Oy!

So I parted the piece, and moved to Lathe 2 (which was vacant by now), and put the piece in the regular chuck for drilling. I did this because the diameter of the shank after turning, while perfect for the phaser nozzle, wouldn't fit into any of the standard-size collets.



Interestingly, I never got any tool marks on the piece from the chuck jaws. Maybe it was the cast acrylic, maybe it was the sheer amount of lube...


Yes, we're into Southern food. Why do you ask?

But in any event, I was able to chuck it very well without damage, so in I went with the drilling.

And on my very, very first bit, I broke it. Crap. Once again:



But the silver lining is, I learned a lot in just one day. Having that indexing center collet is a total game-changer, and I got a nice, clean bore -- you can see right through to the trapped bit in the photos.

I feel like I could take on the whole Empire myself!


Oh, STFU, dead guy.

So next weekend, I'm taking a slightly different approach, starting with a new tool and a modified order of operations on the lathe. I'm pretty confident I'll have an actual emitter then!


Look! A light at the end of the tunnel!

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Your attachments don't work.

asalaw said:

chuck jaws

Click to expand...

I thought his name was Bruce

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

robn1 said:

Your attachments don't work.

Click to expand...

Fixed. Thanks.

robn1 said:

I thought his name was Bruce

Click to expand...

I think we're going to need a bigger butt.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Just noticed something while going through my reference photos again. The emitter core is a wee bit more complex than I thought, and it's not on the blueprints available on the TPZ that I've been using.

So this weekend I'm going to go over my measurements again, and make sure I match this look as closely as possible:

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Are those holes even going all the way through? looks like a small hole short distance. then a bit of a larger hole right at the end...

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

sean said:

Are those holes even going all the way through? looks like a small hole short distance. then a bit of a larger hole right at the end...

Click to expand...

What's happening there is that behind the narrow hole is a much wider one going all the way through. You can see the taper of the end of the drill bit used to make that wider hole. Its purpose is to allow the grain-o-rice bulb to run almost all the way to the tip. If you look at the opening scene of Gamesters of Triskelion, you can see the bulb light and go off again, a good quarter inch behind the tip.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

You guys have got to look at this idea for a jig to make the side dial for the pistol! I just ordered some mild steel cubes to make it happen. This looks like a much easier method than what I had in mind.

EDIT:

Greg at TPZ gave me permission to post his diagram here:

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

That's an amazing Idea. would have never crossed my mind. how will you keep the round stock perfectly stationary?

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

sean said:

That's an amazing Idea. would have never crossed my mind. how will you keep the round stock perfectly stationary?

Click to expand...

Probably some sort of clamping arrangement. Good catch though, I hadn't thought of that. But I ordered three steel cubes in case I have to make any adaptations to the design. BTW, the cubes came to 96¢ each plus shipping at Online Metals.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Is TPZ alive? I have sent serveral registration requests over the last several months, but I never get past the moderation notice.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

jayroth said:

Is TPZ alive? I have sent serveral registration requests over the last several months, but I never get past the moderation notice.

Click to expand...

Yes, it is. just log on and register, you don't need a request. It's not as populous as the RPF, but that's just because it's narrowly focused.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Here's the side-turn dial diagram I referred to from TPZ -- I got permission to post it here.



I've also backfilled it to my original post in this thread, #374.

And here's the original post at TPZ.

Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration

Quick update: I'm off to the shop again today (third time this weekend!) for this weekend's final crack at the emitter. I came perilously close yesterday, only to discover that the center drill I'd used had a slight bend, which immediately made my drill bits bend. Also, for some reason I was getting truly catastrophic tool chatter yesterday, so I couldn't use my custom tooling to make the taper. But I did find a pretty cool workaround that worked insanely well. So today, I'm going to throw a fresh piece of acrylic in there and finally get an emitter. I hope.

On a separate note, I've started learning Autodesk Inventor Pro 2015. I'm using it to make a complete set of phaser plans, plus 3D models, exploded views, specs, the whole nine. It's going to take quite some time, especially with the learning curve, but it's going to be a very fun way to learn a pretty crucial piece of software. It's also how I'm going to design my tricorder bucks when I start that project.

I'll be posting tomorrow. In the meantime, have a chuckle at my first ham-fisted attempt to start modeling a pistol from Sunking's Phaser Blueprints on the TPZ...