Hello everyone.
As promised, here is a more in depth update for the current, final batch of V3s, as well as the upcoming batch of V2s.
I wasn't able to post one last week due to various family commitments. I also wanted to get just a little further along in the process.
LOTS of progress has been made though, as well as some important developments on the V2s which I’ll outline bellow.
V3 progress:
Since the Pommels have been prepped for some time, I went ahead and darkened them so that they could be finished and ready to install.
Very happy with how these have turned out and it's great to have them completed and awaiting final assembly:
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Work on the emitters is also largely completed. There is very little work required on these prior to darkening, so I went ahead and darkened these along with the pommels.
I apply the imitation casting flash after darkening. For this I use a combination of Quick Steel and JB Weld. I then paint the underside with a base coat. The base coat depends on the intended version. I base coat the production variant with an aluminum base to match flash colour to the underlying metal. I skip this step with the NASA variant and apply a black base. This is then dusted with bronze gold or copper, going heavier towards the neck join.
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Clamps have been finished and ready to go for some time now as these were done alongside Batch 5:
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With work on the emitters and pommels pretty much completed, along with the clamps, all that remains is the body sections!
The body sections arrive with me as a V2 profile (minus the fixing point). Each one has to be adjusted to match the V3 profile. This involves alterations to the base of the booster section, the thickness of some of the grip rings and, of course, the neck profile. Fixing points then have to be added and tapped, before finally adding the seamline by hand on each side.
This is quite a lot of work as you can imagine, but it has to be completed before any chemical darkening or painting can take place.
I’m happy to say that this work is now complete, and I plan to have them all darkened on Monday. “Chemical days” involve me taking over the bathroom in the house, as my workshop doesn’t benefit from running water unfortunately. This involves emptying the bathroom entirely. A deep clean is then required once I’m finished. For this reason, I have to limit these days to days when the children are at school. So, no darkening of parts can happen over the weekend unfortunately. They are now ready however, and first thing Monday morning I’ll be donning my PPE and getting these darkened! I am looking forward to masking and painting the bodies the very next day. Masking V3s is obviously a walk in the park compared with the V2s (no stencils!) so I don’t foresee this taking very long at all.
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So very close to the finish line now!!! Once the bodies have been darkened and painted, final assembly should take no time at all and I’ll begin the process of booking these in with UPS.
Thank you all so much for your incredible patience. This is the final batch from the original run, so you’ve obviously had to endure a looong wait to get to this stage. The fact that I haven’t received a single complaint or negative comment is truly amazing! It isn’t lost on me or taken for granted. As always, your support and patience is truly appreciated and I can’t thank you enough!
I’m looking forward to getting these out to their new homes very soon!
Now for some V2 news!
The additional batch of V2s has not been without it’s ups and downs this past week. Or should I say downs and then ups!?
All parts were completed and the last of them delivered to me this past week. Almost every part is perfect!
Almost…
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With the previous set of V2 parts, there was a lot of additional “clean up” required by me. This time around, there is very little work to do between unwrapping the parts and darkening/painting them. This is fantastic news obviously, as I expect to be able to complete them is a fraction of the time that it took to complete Batch 5.
ONE part did arrived with quite a glaring mistake however… Just to reassure you, this has already been dealt with and the replacements are already in production!
Spot the difference!
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This is obviously not even close to acceptable, so please DONT PANIC! They have been rejected and are being replaced.
I do bear some responsibility for this though. I was informed by my supplier that these would be produced by the same machinist, and that it was essentially a repeat order. So I **ASSUMED** they would be identical to the previous order.
Assume nothing!
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Unfortunately, a “sharp internal corners” checkbox was NOT ticked this time around!
So, I do bear some responsibility for having missed this.
My supplier has VERY graciously offered to cover the cost of having these replaced however, which is incredibly generous of them, and obviously a huge relief!
So, panic over! These are now back in production and will be delivered well before I am done working on the bodies and emitters.
As for the other parts, I could not be happier!
Emitters are looking great once again, with accurate dents pre-machined. Just some minor tool marks to polish out, which is to be expected due to the nature of how they’ve been milled:
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Bodies are pretty much ready to go, with almost zero work required. The only detail which was left off the drawings/models, is the “booster ding”. I’ll continue to add this by hand. Although the shared body sections from the previous order were based on the V2 profile, there was still a considerable amount of prep work involved. Expanding the internal bore to take the 8mm rod (from 6mm) is more work than you might think! Also, the fixing points for the pommel and the cone knob required drilling and tapping in the correct location. I can’t tell you how happy I am that they now arrive with all of this work already done!
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I’m always a little nervous about the knurling on the Cone Knobs. Whilst my drawings haven't changed, the one that was made for my first ever V2 run was less than perfect! I think the machinist simply saw it as being a knurled thumb screw, and that any knurl would do!
I have since explained that “close enough” is not “close enough”. I added very specific requirements for the pattern to the CAD drawings, and since then I couldn’t be happier with them.
As I said though, I’m always a little nervous when unwrapping these!
I’m happy to say that they have nailed it once again!
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I’m looking forward to working on the clamps for these. As I mentioned previously, I was having to trim down the ends of the main clamp prior to forming them! This is one of the many things that have been slowing me down and has led to the run taking longer than anticipated. All of these things add up obviously.
I’m happy to say that this adjustment has been made in advance for this next batch (and all future ones) and they can be formed straight out of the box.
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I had some serious trouble with the levers for my previous order. The manufacturer just couldn’t understand why I insisted on certain aspects of the design. I think the rounded tip and curved surface were proving tricky to machine on such a small piece, and whilst they did their best to accommodate me, the end result required some reshaping by me, as well as a lot of polishing to get them looking how I wanted.
This time around, they have really knocked them out of the park, and it looks as though I can send them straight to the chrome platers!
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So, aside from the minor setback with the pommel, everything is looking really good and as soon as I’m finished with the V3s I’ll be shifting gear straight back in to V2 mode!
I have requested weathering preferences from everyone who didn’t already let me know at the time of ordering and have been plugging replies in to my order sheet as I receive them. There is no rush of course and I can contact anyone who is yet to decide when a final confirmation is needed in order to progress.
I would obviously like things to be a little further along, but this is literally always the case! Hopefully you can see that progress is being made every day, and that the finish line is in sight!
I hope everyone is happy with how things are looking too. I have loved working on these from start to finish and really can’t wait for you to see them in person!
Time for me to sign off now until the next time. I don’t want to jinx anything by giving a concrete time/date for completion, but I do expect Batch 6 to be pretty much finished by this time next week! That's what I'm aiming for in any case!
Also, now that I have a good idea of weathering preferences for the next batch of V2s, I will be firing up the vinyl cutter this week and will have it cutting V2 stencils in the background.
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend!
All the best and MTFBWY!
Dave
