Cage Laser Build

feek61

Sr Member
Finally getting a chance to work on some projects. Finished my Jlong P1 and am now working on a Thortheking Cage Laser. The first thing I did was to make an aluminum trigger. I didn't care for the one that came with the kit (resin) because it wasn't wide enough and you could see through the back side when the trigger was not pressed. The new trigger is wider and solves the problem plus it looks cool, lol. I am toying with the idea of leaving it unpainted (kind of like the aluminum trigger on the P2). I had to make some room for it and the switch in the handle by cutting out some of the interior. I put a small peice of brass behind the spring and drilled a hole in the trigger for the other end of the spring. Everything fit quite nicely! Here is what it looked like before epoxy:
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I aquired a playmates for the sound but changed out the flashlight bulb with a superbright red LED (8000 mcd):
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Here is what it looks like installed and operating. I was worried that you wouldn't be able to hear the sound but it actually is quite loud and seems to resonate inside of the brass. I made a brass insert that served two purposes. First it allowed the front to be attached and able to rotate and secondly it blocks out the light from the LED except at one position. It works perfectly!
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Here are a few more. Not quite done yet, still have to figure out the interior layout for the electronics but she's turning out nice. Notice the aluminum trigger; I think I like it even though it's not screen accurate but I'm not sure I care, lol. I filled in the space between the horse-shoe magnet ends so that the body contour continues on. The kit had a big hole here but it looks much better filled in IMHO.

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I'm using the same paint that I used on the P1 which is Rust-o-lium dark grey automotive primer with a Rust-o-lium gloss clear-coat. It actually ends up with a satin finish and looks much better in person (it looks MUCH flatter in these photos), lol.

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I should finish this up tomorrow (waiting for some epoxy to dry).

Will
 
Remember, the correct firing position for lite-up is when the selected barrel is at 3 o'clock.
 
Damn!! lol. I thought that but I looked at a couple of photos and it appears to be from the 12 o'clock postion.
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It's hard to tell WHERE it's coming from here on this one.
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I can change it still but I would love to have some more information. Any help would be great. Still have to make a plexi sight also. I'll probably do the same style graphic that was on the rifle from WNMHGB.

Will
 
Well, it's just one of those things that we "know" but can't prove. :lol

In the big closeup of Majel putting the laser on overload, you can see the medium emitter is at 3 o'clock, and that's the best shot of a laser in the entire show. But as far as I know there aren't any shots where you can actually see the plexi lighting up.

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Most of the time tho the barrels do appear to be turned rather randomly.

- k
 
Hey Phase Pistol, I hear ya, lol. When I was trying to figure out the position of the lighted emitter it did seem to be random (not that ANY of the emitters ever light up but I'm judging from where the beam originates from). I'll have to think about if I want to change it at this point. Currently it's in the 12 o'clock position (which kind of makes sense but it doesn't have that cool in the future sort of look).

Will

P.S. Food for thought - If you are left handed does the beam come from the 9 O'clock position!!! ;)
 
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Here is the finished version (with the barrel extended) along side of my next project which is a AA hero modifed to fit a Jlong P1.

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Here it is in action (as you can see I decided to keep the LED in the 12 O'clock position, but it can still be changed with a little effort):
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Apparently the inspiration for the Cage Laser emitter arrangement was the multi-lens film cameras that were in use at the time... I think the "active" position on those was at about 2 or 3 o'clock....

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Well, I now know why they modified these things for WNMHGB . . . it's because the front is so frickin' heavy! I think that they added those little gears to the back to try to balance it out. On another note I'm working on one additional mod, lol.


Will
 
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