Hi there,
Here is a WIP thread for my next project, Leia and Chewie's handcuffs
I don't think those have ever been done as a run in brass so I have been wanting to do that for a long while as it's a really cool object and I think it will display super nicelly
Last summer, I made a pdf file of the top 13 projects I wanted to do the most next, and I asked 40 of my best customers if they could vote for their top 3 and that I would do the first project that was chosen early 2025. This initiative was very much successful and my customers were pretty excited to vote it seems, so that was cool
And, the top one project that came out of that vote was the brass handcuffs!
The last 3 or 4 months have been a bit difficult for me health wise as some of you may know if you followed my previous project. I had Covid for the first time last october and it actually messed up my Thyroid. it took almost 2 months to get the pronostic, so it wasn't fun for a while. And now I have to simply wait that it gets better, which could take 6months to a year. So my work has been slowed quite a bit at the end of the year because of being sick and having a lot of health appointments, and now I'm a bit better but won't be 100% as long as this is not resolved. So yeah, I have been slow! and it's annoying!
So, I have been organizing this for the past few months seriously and I'm now trying to make the prototype for this project now. The idea was to start the run 1rst of February, but I got delayed!
So, very fun project! however, VERY difficult!
The 3D model and plans
We have blueprints that were sold a Propstore a while back, they don't include measurements and are not 100% faithful to the final objects, but they are a very good indication and something that we don't normally have!
I first modeled a basic version of the handcuffs based on the blueprint, then I added the photo of the handcuffs into the sofware and tried to match the perspective as best as I could, to then refine the 3D model based on the details on the real prop. I also used the other photos that are in the French book for more details.
from this I edited a machining plan
The material!
Finding the material has been the first very difficult step!
From what I can see on the refs, the handcuffs are done from raw brass tubes, and they only machined the bevels and hinges into the raw tubes. That means we need to find exact material size and not machine them to size. This was difficult sadly! Brass is also pretty expensive and some suppliers are asking for twice the cost as others.
I normally buy all ma materials from a German seller that is absolutely great and has a large choice of sizes. However, this project being super specific, he didn't have the size I needed. I ended up finding a French supplier that had several sizes of brass tubes with 5mm thickness. Believe me, this was already difficult to find this thick. I wanted 6mm, so I contacted him on the off chance he could source that size.
Believe me or not, it took 6 kind of crazy back and forth to get to something ok.
Basically, I'm simplifying because I asked for two sizes, but here it goes:
I asked, do you have a brass tube of 100mmx6mm thickness please?
he said, we have steel tubes of 100x2.5mm
??
so I said, I need BRASS in the size I asked please
so he said, we have brass in tubes of 100x2.5mm
?? I was starting to loose patience!
I said, please understand I need a specific size, 100x6mm, not 100x2.5mm. You have 100x5mm on your website and I was wondering if you could source 100x6mm
and then he answered, without any explainations, we have 100x6mm, 2.6m length, how much do you need?
Trust me, I wasn't even sure what to do after this, it took 6 mails to finally say that you have the exact size I have been asking all along, that is so weird!
anyways! I finally managed to get the proper information, I asked for an invoice for 35cm long to make a prototype and to also give me an estimate for the run so I could calculate my cost! pfiou! why was this so damn hard! I have no idea!
The prototype
I received the short length of tube I ordered and proceeded to cuting 8 rings to size to try and fabricate 2 prototypes.
2 is for safety in case I frack up a part, for a better understanding of how long it takes to make one, and also because it was so expensive to order such a short length...
This is the Chewie size.
Another issue with this project is that you basically need twice the amount of material that you see in the end because of the material needed for the hinges.
For me that is always claiming to be as ecologically friendly as possible, with the animals and the farm life here, this was an issue. Another issue is the cost of the brass, it's pretty high! So, something I am going to try, and I have no idea yet if that will work, but I'm going to try to use the leftovers from the Chewie handcuffs to do the Leia handcuffs! Again, I'm not sure that will work, but I'll do my best
This means, the prototypes are the Chewie version.
So, it takes a small while to cut the tubes already, brass is pretty tough and the tube is prety damn big! but here goes:
Alright, now that we have this, and for some reason, I don't have pics of this. Life has been ectic and the prototype has been difficult all along, so that might account for that missed step.
I put each ring on my lathe, this is the maximum size the jaws could chuck, so this couldn't be bigger.
And I lathed the front and back of each ring.
Then, I needed to do that inner bevel on each side of the rings and this is were another issue surfaced that bugged me for a while!
Brass tubes are extruded and this one being pretty big on top of that, well, it's not perfect. Normally, you'll take the material and machine it to final specs, you don't really care if the material is slightly uneven. In this case, I want to keep the material raw and I don't want to remove thickness, and sadly, the material being uneven, I tried every way possible in the lathe but the bevel would always come out very unconsistent. You would get a 2mm radius on a short length and then the bevel would be almost 0 next to it, it was awful!
DAMNIT!
so... well I really tried everything I could on the lathe. chucked the part from the inside or from the ouside, tried to add tape on one side to try to make the rings turn perfectly, but nothing would do.
So, I resulted to using my good old guitar making techniques and said to myself, I'll use my wood router for this with a quarter circle bit and ball bearing.
things never go as planned, so I ordered a first one that ended up too big and finally ordered the good size.
this is what I'm talking about:
it has a ball bearing of the exact size of the bottom of the shape, the router will make the bit turn and the ball bearing will follow the shape of the part you are milling and not turn. if that makes sense!
the thing is, the second one I received, well, the ball bearing didn't turn at all... not normal! I ended up managing to disassemble it and it turn out the washer you can see on the photo right on top of the ball bearing, well, it was upside down with the step on top and it was locking the ball bearing! crazy to see slightly expensive factory tool come with a part upside down! it worked perfectly after this was corrected.
I'm using a small makita router for this, it's a small one but I really love this one! however, I made a first test and it wasn't perfect with the small base of the router, so I made a larger base with a smaller hole in the center so everything would be more stable
when you prototype, everythign takes time!
I used the vice of the milling machine to hold the parts and started routing carefully all height parts on each side:
It's maybe not as smooth as on the lathe since this is small turning tool and not the large part that is turning on the fixed tool. But the good part is that the radius is super uniform now since we are just following the shape of the rings themselves now
after this starts the milling opperations and I'll keep this for tomorrow I think
cheers all
Here is a WIP thread for my next project, Leia and Chewie's handcuffs
I don't think those have ever been done as a run in brass so I have been wanting to do that for a long while as it's a really cool object and I think it will display super nicelly
Last summer, I made a pdf file of the top 13 projects I wanted to do the most next, and I asked 40 of my best customers if they could vote for their top 3 and that I would do the first project that was chosen early 2025. This initiative was very much successful and my customers were pretty excited to vote it seems, so that was cool
And, the top one project that came out of that vote was the brass handcuffs!
The last 3 or 4 months have been a bit difficult for me health wise as some of you may know if you followed my previous project. I had Covid for the first time last october and it actually messed up my Thyroid. it took almost 2 months to get the pronostic, so it wasn't fun for a while. And now I have to simply wait that it gets better, which could take 6months to a year. So my work has been slowed quite a bit at the end of the year because of being sick and having a lot of health appointments, and now I'm a bit better but won't be 100% as long as this is not resolved. So yeah, I have been slow! and it's annoying!
So, I have been organizing this for the past few months seriously and I'm now trying to make the prototype for this project now. The idea was to start the run 1rst of February, but I got delayed!
So, very fun project! however, VERY difficult!
The 3D model and plans
We have blueprints that were sold a Propstore a while back, they don't include measurements and are not 100% faithful to the final objects, but they are a very good indication and something that we don't normally have!
I first modeled a basic version of the handcuffs based on the blueprint, then I added the photo of the handcuffs into the sofware and tried to match the perspective as best as I could, to then refine the 3D model based on the details on the real prop. I also used the other photos that are in the French book for more details.
from this I edited a machining plan
The material!
Finding the material has been the first very difficult step!
From what I can see on the refs, the handcuffs are done from raw brass tubes, and they only machined the bevels and hinges into the raw tubes. That means we need to find exact material size and not machine them to size. This was difficult sadly! Brass is also pretty expensive and some suppliers are asking for twice the cost as others.
I normally buy all ma materials from a German seller that is absolutely great and has a large choice of sizes. However, this project being super specific, he didn't have the size I needed. I ended up finding a French supplier that had several sizes of brass tubes with 5mm thickness. Believe me, this was already difficult to find this thick. I wanted 6mm, so I contacted him on the off chance he could source that size.
Believe me or not, it took 6 kind of crazy back and forth to get to something ok.
Basically, I'm simplifying because I asked for two sizes, but here it goes:
I asked, do you have a brass tube of 100mmx6mm thickness please?
he said, we have steel tubes of 100x2.5mm
??
so I said, I need BRASS in the size I asked please
so he said, we have brass in tubes of 100x2.5mm
?? I was starting to loose patience!
I said, please understand I need a specific size, 100x6mm, not 100x2.5mm. You have 100x5mm on your website and I was wondering if you could source 100x6mm
and then he answered, without any explainations, we have 100x6mm, 2.6m length, how much do you need?
Trust me, I wasn't even sure what to do after this, it took 6 mails to finally say that you have the exact size I have been asking all along, that is so weird!
anyways! I finally managed to get the proper information, I asked for an invoice for 35cm long to make a prototype and to also give me an estimate for the run so I could calculate my cost! pfiou! why was this so damn hard! I have no idea!
The prototype
I received the short length of tube I ordered and proceeded to cuting 8 rings to size to try and fabricate 2 prototypes.
2 is for safety in case I frack up a part, for a better understanding of how long it takes to make one, and also because it was so expensive to order such a short length...
This is the Chewie size.
Another issue with this project is that you basically need twice the amount of material that you see in the end because of the material needed for the hinges.
For me that is always claiming to be as ecologically friendly as possible, with the animals and the farm life here, this was an issue. Another issue is the cost of the brass, it's pretty high! So, something I am going to try, and I have no idea yet if that will work, but I'm going to try to use the leftovers from the Chewie handcuffs to do the Leia handcuffs! Again, I'm not sure that will work, but I'll do my best
This means, the prototypes are the Chewie version.
So, it takes a small while to cut the tubes already, brass is pretty tough and the tube is prety damn big! but here goes:
Alright, now that we have this, and for some reason, I don't have pics of this. Life has been ectic and the prototype has been difficult all along, so that might account for that missed step.
I put each ring on my lathe, this is the maximum size the jaws could chuck, so this couldn't be bigger.
And I lathed the front and back of each ring.
Then, I needed to do that inner bevel on each side of the rings and this is were another issue surfaced that bugged me for a while!
Brass tubes are extruded and this one being pretty big on top of that, well, it's not perfect. Normally, you'll take the material and machine it to final specs, you don't really care if the material is slightly uneven. In this case, I want to keep the material raw and I don't want to remove thickness, and sadly, the material being uneven, I tried every way possible in the lathe but the bevel would always come out very unconsistent. You would get a 2mm radius on a short length and then the bevel would be almost 0 next to it, it was awful!
DAMNIT!
so... well I really tried everything I could on the lathe. chucked the part from the inside or from the ouside, tried to add tape on one side to try to make the rings turn perfectly, but nothing would do.
So, I resulted to using my good old guitar making techniques and said to myself, I'll use my wood router for this with a quarter circle bit and ball bearing.
things never go as planned, so I ordered a first one that ended up too big and finally ordered the good size.
this is what I'm talking about:
it has a ball bearing of the exact size of the bottom of the shape, the router will make the bit turn and the ball bearing will follow the shape of the part you are milling and not turn. if that makes sense!
the thing is, the second one I received, well, the ball bearing didn't turn at all... not normal! I ended up managing to disassemble it and it turn out the washer you can see on the photo right on top of the ball bearing, well, it was upside down with the step on top and it was locking the ball bearing! crazy to see slightly expensive factory tool come with a part upside down! it worked perfectly after this was corrected.
I'm using a small makita router for this, it's a small one but I really love this one! however, I made a first test and it wasn't perfect with the small base of the router, so I made a larger base with a smaller hole in the center so everything would be more stable
when you prototype, everythign takes time!
I used the vice of the milling machine to hold the parts and started routing carefully all height parts on each side:
It's maybe not as smooth as on the lathe since this is small turning tool and not the large part that is turning on the fixed tool. But the good part is that the radius is super uniform now since we are just following the shape of the rings themselves now
after this starts the milling opperations and I'll keep this for tomorrow I think
cheers all
