Straker
Sr Member
Hello!
Well, some people were rather interested in my recent hardware built, Steampunk (sort of) Sonic Screwdrivers I've been working on as a project. I plan to make a short run of these to sell, but in the mean time I thought I'd show you folks my progress.
This is my first attempt, what I like to call the Mark 1 Sonic Screwdriver:
It was based off one made buy a guy named Jared Axelrod who does Steampunk type work, and I actually did order one from him, however after god...7 months of waiting, what I had gotten was a wooden dowel rod, with epoxied parts on it...not to knock the guys work but man, there was no craftsmanship there. so I decided to make my own with an actual electronics system and a functioning switch. Many of the parts had to be hand lathed however, since I don't have a lathe a drill press, precision files, a caliper, my eyes, and a lot of test fitting had to be used. I topped the whole thing off with a blue jewel lens from an actual toy sonic Screwdriver.
It is a good piece but it needed refining, so I took it apart and reworked it a little and got this:
I like to call this version my Mark 1.5 Sonic screwdriver. The main differences now are the emitter head has a smaller blue jewel lens that fits into the inner sleeve allowing free range movement of the outer adjustment nut. I actually had to put the old toy lens on an expansion bit, pop it into my Dremel and sort of file the lens diameter down till it fit, then sand and smooth and polish it out. I really wanted this lens to be small like that to allow the outer nut to move along the heavy thread you see on the neck of the sonic because this allows for a "control" setting system for sonic field resonance, strength, and intensity.
Another thing I did was to remove the fine threads from the outer emitter ring nut to give the parts a cleaner look to them and distinguish them just a bit more from the plumbing parts that makes this sonic up. The result makes the whole device look more original and add just that tiny bit more authenticity to the prop.
Still, I decided to push things a little further, and even though it is still incomplete, lacking a button and some decorative rivets, I made this one:
This one is my Mark 2.0 Sonic Screwdriver and is being made for 0neiros here on the RPF. The new differences are the emitter end has an elongated inner sleeve piece for the emitter jewel to sit in as well as the different and more elaborate decorative vented slotted piece soldered in the butt end. There is also a small brass plate for the activation button to be set into which will have a couple small brass rivets in it where the pencil marks are. I also plan to add a couple other small embellishments to it here and there.
Then there are my plans for a small finger ring, sort of like the one on the River Song Sonic Screwdriver from the fourth season of the new Doctor Who series only using your index finger instead of your pinky finger:
I would want to make it out of steel and have 1/8th inch for the main ring piece and 1/16th inch for the mounting brackets. I also had an idea to remove the bridge section between the two mounts to put a small hardware based tube made of copper and brass parts to add a conduit look to the whole affair.
Lastly, I am experimenting with sound boards taken from toy Sonic Screwdrivers, so it will actually have sonics.
I figure that if I can, I may be able to offer costumers a Sonic Srewdriver, made of metal that they can carry on them, will be durable and that way if dropped they don't have to worry that it will be broken. I know I'm no Russel Brown or anything, but, if done right I may be able to sell these from $50.00 to $100.00. I am also hoping to find a way to get the blue lenses in the diameter I need from somewhere, and I wold KILL for them to be made of blue or frosted clear glass.
Update: I'll have to charge $100.00 for the Mark1 styled sonic I'm afraid and $20 for the Mark2. The reason is that the build process is longer than i would like due to lack of a lathe to fabricate some parts as well as the cost of parts in total and build and refinement time.
Anyway, let me know what you guys think. ^_^
Well, some people were rather interested in my recent hardware built, Steampunk (sort of) Sonic Screwdrivers I've been working on as a project. I plan to make a short run of these to sell, but in the mean time I thought I'd show you folks my progress.
This is my first attempt, what I like to call the Mark 1 Sonic Screwdriver:
It was based off one made buy a guy named Jared Axelrod who does Steampunk type work, and I actually did order one from him, however after god...7 months of waiting, what I had gotten was a wooden dowel rod, with epoxied parts on it...not to knock the guys work but man, there was no craftsmanship there. so I decided to make my own with an actual electronics system and a functioning switch. Many of the parts had to be hand lathed however, since I don't have a lathe a drill press, precision files, a caliper, my eyes, and a lot of test fitting had to be used. I topped the whole thing off with a blue jewel lens from an actual toy sonic Screwdriver.
It is a good piece but it needed refining, so I took it apart and reworked it a little and got this:
I like to call this version my Mark 1.5 Sonic screwdriver. The main differences now are the emitter head has a smaller blue jewel lens that fits into the inner sleeve allowing free range movement of the outer adjustment nut. I actually had to put the old toy lens on an expansion bit, pop it into my Dremel and sort of file the lens diameter down till it fit, then sand and smooth and polish it out. I really wanted this lens to be small like that to allow the outer nut to move along the heavy thread you see on the neck of the sonic because this allows for a "control" setting system for sonic field resonance, strength, and intensity.
Another thing I did was to remove the fine threads from the outer emitter ring nut to give the parts a cleaner look to them and distinguish them just a bit more from the plumbing parts that makes this sonic up. The result makes the whole device look more original and add just that tiny bit more authenticity to the prop.
Still, I decided to push things a little further, and even though it is still incomplete, lacking a button and some decorative rivets, I made this one:
This one is my Mark 2.0 Sonic Screwdriver and is being made for 0neiros here on the RPF. The new differences are the emitter end has an elongated inner sleeve piece for the emitter jewel to sit in as well as the different and more elaborate decorative vented slotted piece soldered in the butt end. There is also a small brass plate for the activation button to be set into which will have a couple small brass rivets in it where the pencil marks are. I also plan to add a couple other small embellishments to it here and there.
Then there are my plans for a small finger ring, sort of like the one on the River Song Sonic Screwdriver from the fourth season of the new Doctor Who series only using your index finger instead of your pinky finger:
I would want to make it out of steel and have 1/8th inch for the main ring piece and 1/16th inch for the mounting brackets. I also had an idea to remove the bridge section between the two mounts to put a small hardware based tube made of copper and brass parts to add a conduit look to the whole affair.
Lastly, I am experimenting with sound boards taken from toy Sonic Screwdrivers, so it will actually have sonics.
I figure that if I can, I may be able to offer costumers a Sonic Srewdriver, made of metal that they can carry on them, will be durable and that way if dropped they don't have to worry that it will be broken. I know I'm no Russel Brown or anything, but, if done right I may be able to sell these from $50.00 to $100.00. I am also hoping to find a way to get the blue lenses in the diameter I need from somewhere, and I wold KILL for them to be made of blue or frosted clear glass.
Update: I'll have to charge $100.00 for the Mark1 styled sonic I'm afraid and $20 for the Mark2. The reason is that the build process is longer than i would like due to lack of a lathe to fabricate some parts as well as the cost of parts in total and build and refinement time.
Anyway, let me know what you guys think. ^_^
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