Copper Time Turner (WIP)

[Rnmld91]

Hi everyone! This is my first ever thread, after lurking for a long time, so please forgive any posting mistakes. I, like many on this forum, am an avid HP fan, and I've been trying to replicate some of the smaller props on my own in the past few years, and have been learning new skills/techniques on my way. More recently I have begun working with metal, and as I've seen some enthusiasm on here regarding the Time-Turner, but no real replication attempts, I thought I might just give it a try.

I started this project about four months ago, but it's not quite finished. I have most of the metal parts completed now, but I'm still not quite sure what to do about the actual hourglass part. Remember that the dark color was as a result of me using pure copper, as that was my only option at the time.

Here is what I've managed to do so far (please forgive any attachment errors, I've yet to get the hang of posting):


The rings are laid out here, pre-soldering.


Here they are completely soldered, with the middle disc.


Here is one of my unsuccessful attempts at soldering the rods (which i obtained from brass screws), which was one of the more challenging parts, just to give you an idea of how frustrating it can be. The two rods that are attached to the middle ring need to be perfectly aligned, and opposite each other so that they can rotate properly. There were many unsuccessful attempts, believe me.



After finally soldering on the inner rods correctly. Some of the other major challenges included getting the drilled holes to align perfectly on both the middle and outer rings, again so that the rotation is perfect.


The middle and innermost ring are fitted into each other. The copper kept softening after being annealed all the time so I had to use pliers extensively throughout.

Unfortunately, and I do hope to remedy this in the future, the innermost ring simply fits into these little 'beads' that I soldered onto the middle ring, with holes drilled into them,so they are at risk of falling out. I didn't have access to any copper beads, so I had to create them myself by drilling tiny holes into copper scrap (again one of the more challenging parts).

This is after fitting all the parts in and cutting out the hourglass shape. Unfortunately I realized too late that the hourglass shape doesn't exactly match the one seen on the actual prop versions. At this point all the rings could rotate properly.

Next were the knobs. These were created by sawing of tiny chunks of copper bar, mounting them on a drill and using a dremel disc to shape them. The tips of the rods had to be ground slightly in order to get them to fit on the ends of the rods. The knob on the right still needs some fitting so that the final piece can be symmetrical. I plan to use some sort of glue on the knobs to secure them better, as I am afraid any further soldering would risk ruining the piece (please excuse the dirty work space).


As you can probably tell the middle ring looks weaker and thinner than the rest, which is due to excessive sanding and hammering (I'm still new to this kind of work).

So that's what I've done for now, hope you all like it! Any suggestions are welcome, of course.

 

[onewithnopaper]

This looks really great, especially for a first attempt at a pretty complex piece! Can't wait to see it complete.
I made my (not screen accurate interpretation) in silver, which I have a bit of prior experience with. Your construction looks pretty much the same as mine, though.

As for advice, I'd try hammering the rings around a mandrel of some kind. I used a rolling pin among other cylindrical things, it really makes a difference to the look.
Try pickleing the copper to get rid of the oxidation to avoid too much sanding. You can buy commercial acid pickles for silver and copper jewellery , but you can make your own Macgyver pickle with equal parts warm water and white vinegar, however much lemon juice you have laying around and a bunch salt. It may blacken your solder a little, depending on what kind you used. Forgive me if you know all this already.

For the hourglass I just carved and polished a chunk of clear acrylic cylinder. I have toyed around with glass since, but I was concerned about it shattering since I don't have any experience with glassblowing and I made it as a gift. I'd prefer it to be a working hourglass in there for my next one, so I've been experimenting with reshaping the glass pipettes from dropper bottles. If you've got a blowtorch it's surprisingly easy to melt thin glass. In fact, there's still some drops embedded in my cutting mat to attest to that fact.

I'd love to see yours finished, so much so that you inspired my first ever post on the RPF.



Completed silver time-turner.

 

[Rnmld91]

Thanks for the interest! Glad you liked it. And may I say that is one beautiful time turner, I think it looks great in silver.

I had actually hammered out the rings initially, using shovel handles and such, back when they were separate pieces, but as the work progressed and I connected the rings they tended to lose their shape. Needle nose pliers helped restore the shape along the way, but as it is, copper is too soft and the sheet I used was too thin to retain the shape after constant heating.
I have actually tried using vinegar and lemon in pickles, but my experience with them is that they tend to 'stain' the copper too much; it always gave a heavy blueish/greenish tint that was difficult to remove even with sanding and buffing. But maybe that's just because I tended to reuse the pickle solutions too much. Nowadays I mostly use wet high-grit sandpaper, it's not ideal but gets the job done. As for the hourglass, I agree that using acrylic/resin would probably be the best option, since I'm not too picky about it having any sand inside. I do own a standard mini butane torch, but I don't know if it will be hot enough do the job, as I believe glass requires a hotter flame. I will definitely give it a try though!

 

[Rnmld91]

Sorry for keeping anyone waiting (in case anyone still cares about this ) but i have a terrible habit of procrastination.

So i'm nearly finished with all the metal parts. The triple bead and chain rings have been added (although I might redo the bead later, i'm not entirely happy with how it looks), and of course the chain itself, though by looking at the screen used prop i can tell the chain probably should be slightly thinner. As you can see I've just started drilling the holes in for the stars, but i think it'll be a bit more of a challenge to try and get the actual star shapes cut in. i don't have a jeweler's saw so I'm planning on doing all the shaping by dremel and possibly diamond files. Also, I'm not really planning on making the star pattern perfectly accurate.