Hello Children! This is Three Dawg...
It is long past time for me to revisit this thread to bring you all some good updates.
My last post covered things being mostly done, it just needed a hinge and some other detail work done. Well, here's what it looks like now that it is complete:
Here's what it looks like in the dark. This was taken with a 1/2 second shutter delay to show off that beautiful post-apocalyptic glow:
Here's a close-up of the latch method. I thought about using velcro at first, then I found this wonderful stuff. It's a 3M product that works just like velcro, except that it is all plastic so it won't wear out over time like velcro does. It also doesn't flex like velcro and has a better resistance to lateral force than velcro. It works so well that after I showed this to one of my other Vault 101 buddies he went out and bought 4 boxes of the stuff to both re-do his Pip-Boy and for all his other projects where he was considering using velcro.
Here's how it looks when it's open and on my arm. You can see that I used 2 elastic straps to secure the bottom half and the top half swings open on the hinge to clamshell down. This also works really well for all the times I find myself opening it up to show people the electronics inside.
And here it is on my arm, closed:
Another look at the hinge. To attach this, I used my dremel to carve out a slot in the top of the PB3K that the hinge slides into. It took some very careful work because the tops of these are not super thick. But once I had my slot, I just dabbed in to 2 part epoxy and slid the hinge in. It works and fits beautifully.
And one last look down the barrel, now that it is complete:
Now the good news! I have an interest thread up in the Junkyard:
http://www.therpf.com/showthread.php?t=84938
If there is sufficient interest, I will begin ordering the materials and parts and I can start production of these in limited batches starting in the next couple of weeks.