Ok, we all know Tom as a huge “stunt” guy. He’s helped me out a lot with all my stunt builds
Actually most of my stunt builds are just copied from Tom lol he never has a problem helping the community reach their goals.
Tom asked if I could drill and tap some holes in his ESB bladed stunt. So I told him to send it my way and I’ll bang it out
Before I go destroying someone else’s lightsaber I wanted to double check with Tom on everything he wanted me to do
I ran by him every step I was going to do. The I asked to hear what his plan was, and then we would compare each other’s steps and come up with a plan. Then he told me “I was going to do exactly what you said” the anxiety was lifted and work began!!
So first I gathered all his pieces. Tom actually marked every hole he wanted already with a X. And labeled with tape instructions on what size threads
He made this really easy, all I had to do was literally drill and tap holes
He also found some beautiful vintage screws!!
Next I wrapped the entire graflex in gaffers tape. This stuff works great for protecting things.
It also works great for covering up boosters
SethS
I center punched where the X lands and off to the shed...
So before I begin drilling I want these straight, so I swapped out my end mill chuck for my drill chuck, and centering gauge
I drilled my pilot hole with a 1/8” drill bit. I drilled in 18mm deep
Next step was to drill the pilot whole with the actual 1/4-20 drill for the tap
After I tapped it i doubled checked to make sure the thread works, sure enough we are good!!
Now that the thread is tapped, I used my counter sink, this took me forever because I would plunge a little, write down my depth. Then test the screw, then repeat. Probably the scariest part of the job...and the first one was the most time consuming
I did this for all 4 holes he wanted, drill pilot, drill with the drill bit for the tap, then tap the hole.
One key thing to doing this was locking the “core” into orientation. I would complete each screw one at a time. So this way I don’t have to re center the saber. And the first screw locks everything into place so I don’t have to worry about orientation changing
Once I had all the holes, drilled, tapped. And counter sunk. I removed the core to clean all the threads
Because I was using cutting oil, the bottom of the screw holes would fill with chunks. And the vacuum wouldn’t pull them out. So I would blast the hole with wd-40 while using the vacuum. And they came out squeaky clean!
Next step Tom asked to drill a hole right down the bulb socket hole. Might I add I didn’t have to remove any of this stuff, Tom sent it ready to roll! And saved me a lot of time
So the saber is centered up, and I drilled down into the flash, hitting the aluminum core. I wanted to just make a mark because the drill bit ran out of stroke, now with the core marked I can remove the core and drill it with out the flash on it
The glass eye actually chucked plastic out of it when I was drilling, like the graflex was throwing up or something lol
The tap handle I brought home from the big shop was the wrong size.. I tapped this with a adjustable wrench. It worked out great
I ended up counter sinking the top.. only because I thought this would help “align” the bolt when he put it down the flash
Here’s a view from the other end
The holes I drilled in the side of the flash for the bolts, there was some burs so it really bit into the core and was really tough to get out. So I sanded the inside of the flash and removed the burs, the core slides in perfectly now
Here we are all back together
This was a fun little project. Can’t wait to see what ya do with it Tom! She’s leaving back to you in the morning! Keep us all updated!!