DST WOK and TMP Phasers Completely Upgraded!

[SD Studios]

The WOK phaser has always been one of my favorite designs. It looks like what I envision a 24th century phaser should look like.

I had made a one-off groovy electronic replica many years ago, but I sold it for crazy-money a while back. I was sad. :lol

But, when I heard about the DST coming out, I was very happy to be getting a replica of this phaser again. :cool

It is nice, but it needs a LOT of work to be an "acceptable" replica, IMO.

So, about ten minutes after it entered my home, it was in pieces.

What I did:

-Completely disassembled it.
-Back-filled all of the inside corners with Zap to reinforce them for the grinding to-follow...
-Ground all of the outside radii, filed, and sanded them to much larger (more-accurate to the original prop) sexy curves.
-Removed the original trigger and installed a heavy-duty (clicky) momentary-contact trigger
-Filled all available spaces with 1/4-20 bolts and filled solid with resin. It now feels like a GUN. Yah, baby!
-Reassembled, filled all seams and screw covers with Zap, and sanded like a madman.
-Removed clear plastic LED "bubble windows" and cut away backing and reinstalled.
-Glued and filled in the huge trigger and drilled a hole for the new trigger button.
-Finished with 3 coats of primer and 5 coats of blue lacquer, sanded between coats and polished on the final coat.
-Fabricated the silver plate on the grip bottom.
-Added the little hole on the P-1
-Filled in one row of speaker holes on the P-1 bottom
-Added the correct holo-tape

All of that took about 8 to 9 hours.

I tried hooking up ultra-bright LEDs in the emitter, but there (apparently)just isn't enough current to power them with those button cells, so I reinstalled the original LEDs. Blah.

The light sequence doesn't match the "chase" pattern seen in the film, but it is ok. It bugs me (it TASKS me...it TASKS me...) But not being an electronics guy, I didn't want to get anymore into it, so I left the electronics as-is. They are pretty fun to goof with. Just not accurate...

Thanks to Jim Wampler for sending me a bunch of the correct holo-tape.

Pics to follow...

 

[Mechamaniac]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Sounds sweet, bring on the pics!

 

[jhusel]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Steve, Steve......You've been here long enough to know you can post a topic like this without any pics?? Shame, shame.

jhusel

 

[silverskyes402]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

I need pics of this beast!

 

[mgoob]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

 

[phasersonthrill]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Fantastic upgrade, love the color and the addition of the butt plate.

 

[darthgordon]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Sweet! Now make me one

 

[Funky]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

I can't believe that's the same phaser! :eek

 

[Jamanticus]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

I can't believe that's the same phaser! :eek

And I can't believe that it only took 7 hours!

It took me almost a week and a half just to prep and paint a simple 2-piece resin phaser from Nemesis :eek

 

[Rylo]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Wow! That's really nice lookin, man!

 

[phase pistol]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Itz beautacular!!! :cry

So this "momentary" switch... this gives the trigger the proper "push to fire" action? Instead of its out-of-the-box senseless "release to fire" action?

 

[SD Studios]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Thanks guys.

I forgot to mention that I also cut the clear plastic LED "bubble windows" out, removed the clear backing around them, and glued them back in separately. This got rid of the "light piping" effect tht was occuring.

Not sure why they just didn't have the tops of the LEDs visible in the control panel. Why mold identical plastic bubbles, when the LED is just 30 or 40 thou behind them? Confusing.

The "press-then-release-to-fire" trigger effect is in the programming logic on the chip. I used a "normally-open" momentary switch, but a "normally closed" switch (as suggested by some here) wouldn't work. It isn't a mechanical scenario. The chip has been programmed at the factory to wait until the circuit is closed-then-open to send the fire command to the speaker and LEDs. IMO, It would require an entirely new chip to change that. Make sense?

Of course, this is based on my ten minutes of electronics experience. I am sure one of the infinitely-more-qualified guys here can chime in.

I can see that my photography leaves something to be desired... Where is Jhusel when we need him? He can make a turd look awesome. :lol

 

[Robiwon]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Absolutetly beautiful! I did a repaint on mine and added lead fishing line weights to mine but stopped short of doing the trigger. What did you use for your new cylindrical trigger?

 

[thegreatgalling]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

This looks great Steve, thanks for sharing!

 

[stapleton13]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

I love this thing. You are seriously making me think about redoing mine. Do you think there is enough room for a battery upgrade inside the P1? I'd like to see a led upgrade myself.

 

[Zodou]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

That is a thing of beauty! What color did you use? Is that automotive paint?

 

[robn1]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Very nice! I was thinking of filling in all the speaker holes, and cutting a thin slit. I figure this would let the sound out but look more like a functional vent.

 

[Jeyl]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

Does your trigger make as much a loud 'click' noise as the original? That thing kills me everytime.

 

[tim]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

The "press-then-release-to-fire" trigger effect is in the programming logic on the chip. I used a "normally-open" momentary switch, but a "normally closed" switch (as suggested by some here) wouldn't work. It isn't a mechanical scenario. The chip has been programmed at the factory to wait until the circuit is closed-then-open to send the fire command to the speaker and LEDs. IMO, It would require an entirely new chip to change that. Make sense?

Of course, this is based on my ten minutes of electronics experience. I am sure one of the infinitely-more-qualified guys here can chime in.

Actually, I was just playing with mine and a NC switch would work if it weren't for the fact that the "overload" sequence is activated upon closure of the trigger switch (not release as for all other functions).

 

[Jet Beetle]

Re: DST WOK Phaser Completely Upgraded!

fantastic - Now THAT is a phaser