Showoff- PERFECT cast Exactra 20 Bubble Strip- PICS !

[James Kenobi 1138]

First and most important, this is a showoff Thread, not an Junkyard interest Thread. I wanted to show off a project I've been involved with and get some feedback from the experts.

Please keep the "I'll take one" and "Put me down for one" in the soon-to-be-coming JY Thread.

I wanted to show a cast Exactra 20 Bubble Strip. It's cast in a clear acrylic and is crystal clear (the scratches on mine were from sanding but I need to polish it with some Novus plastic polish).

The shrinkage is just about ZERO. You would need a caliper to see the difference and even then it's just about nothing.

Yes, even the flat edges on each bubble and the original tooling marks transfered to the cast.

I can't take any credit except for providing the original bubble strip and a few encouraging words during a difficult casting process. These will be made available by Philip Wise (rebelscum) who has made the molds and will be doing the casting. Please wait for Philips JY Thread before you fill up his PM box with questions.

On with the pics !

Right out of the mold:

You can really see how off the Blast-tech ones are here. Incorrect bubble size, shape. profile, and missing the flat edges:

Having this cast strip in hand, I can say that this is the absolutly the closest you will come to an Exactra Bubble Strip unless you stalk ebay for one- and if you're like me and would rather 'upgrade' from the Blast-tech ones it can get expensive to get real Exactra's for all your sabers that use bubble strips. ( I would need 7 or 8 myself).

 

[sycor]

beautiful. Philip's work never ceases to amaze. Any idea when he may be listing them in the JY?

 

[Rhett J Martin]

Daaaaaammmmnnnn!
NICE WORK!!!!!

I've only begun to pressure cast, and hope I can get something even as remotely pretty as that!

Looking forward to picking up one or two!!

 

[scarf man]

Very nice job on those!!
I would Definitely put one of those on my Ben Kenobi saber, if I didn't already have a genuine Exactra strip.

 

[dcarty]

Those look amazing! I think there are a lot of vintage calculator collectors who will breathe a sigh of relief tonight

Dave C

 

[Serafino]

Those look amazing! I think there are a lot of vintage calculator collectors who will breathe a sigh of relief tonight

Dave C

Or not--I hate to think how many calculators with fake strips may appear now. :confused

But about the castings--they sure look fabulous! This is one of those things that seems incredibly obvious so that one wonders why it never happened before, but clearly it required some hard-won knowledge and work so my hat's off to Philip--well done!

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Or not--I hate to think how many calculators with fake strips may appear now. :confused

But about the castings--they sure look fabulous! This is one of those things that seems incredibly obvious so that one wonders why it never happened before, but clearly it required some hard-won knowledge and work so my hat's off to Philip--well done!

These casting have a 'tell', so at least you would know if you bought a calculator off ebay you would know if it's a real bubble strip or not.

On the casting, I can tell you it was not a case of pour some rubber, make a mold and pop out a perfect cast.

It took several molds, several different molding processes with special knowledge and help from the mold material company (Philip talked with their specialist), and the molding process is not just pour and you're done.

I doubt anyone could have done a more thorough job or produce a better casting then Philip.

 

[Son of Skywalker]

"Impressive, most impressive!"

Congrats to both you & Philip!

 

[Dann]

Totally awesome.

 

[KaanE]

That's AWESOME! You both have done the cleanest cast I have ever seen on a clear piece :eek

 

[lonepigeon]

Phillip is a perfectionist and it shows.
He showed me one of the castings at Comic Con and it really is extremely well done.

 

[MooCriket]

Tremendous Workthumbsupthumbsup

 

[TV8]

Brilliant - better result than I thought possible. Bring the JY thread!

 

[darth_myeek]

It actually appears cleaner to me than the original. :lol

Great work Phillip! (and James)

 

[propcicle]

I'd like to know how it fits back in the Exactra. After I got one off Ebay, I was so tickled to have an authentic bubble strip, I stuck the Blastec back in the calculator. Unfortunately, I didn't look close enough to notice the original had a "lift" strip around the outer edge to clear the hair thin wiring feeding the LEDs on the calculator display.

After I squashed it together, I found out the wires all got smashed together, and the calculator no longer displayed numbers, but something closer to Klingon!

None of the bubbles matched up with the numbers either. Looks like a great piece, thanks for sharing your hard work.

Chad

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

It has the 4 little tabs on the underside that fit back into the 4 holes in the circuit board. Unlike most replica bubble strips, this one being an exact 100% copy the bubbles match-up with the numbers on the calculator for a perfect replacement fit.

I agree the casting is perfect and clear- it's all due to the hard work of Philip. His dedication is a true asset to the hobby.

 

[Rebelscum]

Thanks for the nice feedback on the piece. Thought the weeks it took to make it work I didn't think it would ever turn out. In the end, it takes about 4 hours from beginning to end to do a piece.

I wanted to address the tell on the piece. It was always our intention to make it possible to know the difference between a real piece and the cast, but the tell ended up being pretty substantial accidentally. The strip James brought by was slightly warped so I very carefully heated it so it would relax. No big deal, but that was the end where it had been injected during molding and seconds after it relaxed it kind of caved in right at that point making it look very odd. This is the part that gets cut off, so it doesn't affect its use in the saber, but would not pass muster as a replacement for a calculator. I don't know if it will even fit in a calculator, though I do have one here Jeff Johnson gave me once with a replaced strip so Icould try it out in I think.

I do sand off quite a bit on that end and can even sand off some on both ends if everybody wants me to.

 

[TheRealMcFly]

I don't even want an exactra now. Where do I sign up?:lol

Oh, and thank you sir!:thumbsup

 

[thegreatgalling]

Ditto to that. That think looks near flawless. Pretttty, prettty, pretttty goood.

 

[Clutch]

Amazing!!!!