Upgrading with metal parts Jake's ZF-1 kit

[eethan]

Hello there,
ok, I did the maglite turned aluminium tips yesterday and today those are very complex small parts that take a lot of planning, thinking and precision to do. I'm pretty happy with the result but I had a really hard couple of days (hence why it took two days to do two parts...) with issues around the house culmulating yesterday with me jumping into torns to cut one of the dunkeys out of a wire mesh fence. his four legs where stuck into the metal mesh and I was alone at home to deal quickly with that. realy fun stuff happening here lately... But still trying to get some work done!
this whole stressing situation resulted in lack of focus when i started working this morning and I kind of butchered the little work I managed to do yesterday. I'll explain where the piece is not up to scatch a bit bellow. I'm obviously prototyping right now and it gives me a good idea of what to improve and the next parts will be perfect

ok, so, like most of the other parts, I started by modelling them and matching them to ref photos in Maya. I looked at a lot of photos and a video of both propstore examples and managed to figure out quite a few small details that were hard to catch. the model should be pretty damn accurate

this allowed me to edit plans with measurements. lots of info on thos parts, they are extremely small and detailled. just the plans themselves are super complex when you look at them!

ok, let's start with the bottom tip. I started with this one thinking it was a bit simpler but i think it was the other way around now that I finished both tips!

so, for those two parts, since they have 2 or 3 sections, I'm starting from a round piece of aluminium cut at the proper length, and I'm doing one side, turning it around, then doing the other side. it avoids any waste of material and the piece is secured easily into the chuck and with the counter point for the second step of opperations.

here, drilling the 13mm hole for the maglite on the back of the piece:

then, turning the piece around, securing it with the counter point and starting working on the other side:

so this is where I started this morning and sadly, I dont know what I did, I was not focussed and I remove a mm too much on the front of the right flat section here.
In the end, i kept going and finished this part as close as possible to specs. But yes, that front flat section is a bit short, you'll see it in the final comp with the refs later...
next time it will be perfect! at least I know how to work around this piece now and it was good training.

and finally for this one, drilling the front with a 6.5mm bit. I drilled it all the way to allow the flashlights to work :

ok, I'll prepare the photos for the second part and post it a bit later cheers

 

[eethan]

Hello again,
ok, let's make the second turned tip now
I was much more relaxed this afternoon, there was eventualy another dunkey situation but overall this part went much more smoothly

same technique, except this one has only two large sections separated by a long thin section.
first the back:

turning the lines on the back and starting to roughen up the long 15° slope going to the thin central neck section:

final 15° slope done:

this time I drilled a 12.5mm hole and enlarged it until the maglite fit perfectly. and this is what i'll do now, the 13mm hole was just too large for the maglite and this works perfectly

ok, now we can turn the part around, secure it in the counter point and start working on the other side:

marking the lines and sections:

40° slope and long thin section turned down:

first step section in the front:

and finished front with all its small details. needs to be done carefully and calmy as this is the most complex section and it comes at the end

light up tip:

next to the replaced 3D printed parts. that's one of those pretty nice upgrade really happy with the result even if this first try is not perfect:

and here is a small comp with one ref. as you can see here, the front large section of the bottom tip is a bit short, by a little bit less than a mm and the thin slopped section in front of it is a bit long in compensation. so yeah, it's not exact exact. next one will be perfect! I need to add a mm depth to the top tip inside hole as well as the maglite is not deep enough here.

that's it for today. I hope you like it.
cheers

 

[MandoJedi]

Brilliant work!

 

[Jamesfett]

Other people's amazing talent really bugs me, unless I can get something out of it.

 

[eethan]

Hello guys,
ok, today I finally received my aluminium order for the last Detention Camera lights AND for a piece of the ZF-1
look at that nice mess!

ok! let's try to reproduce that part:

here we go, that's definitely the biggest piece I put in my lathe this far!

first, cleaning both faces:

then, trying to cut the center out, pretty hard to do, at least with my current tool set... but with a bit of patience, it worked and I think I can improve a bit on the technique and go a bit faster for the next ones:

once it's finally through, I use a normal inside tool to clean the cut and put the piece to the correct wall thickness (with the step on the back to hold the dome inside as well, like Jake intended):

after that, I changed my chuck's jaw and turned the piece around to cut the bevel and clean the outside wall, and done!

quite a difficult piece to do as it's pretty large and requires to be emptied, but I think it worked ok in the end and it should be doable to do more
this piece is worth it anyways, such a large, visible and interesting part of the ZF-1 to have in actual metal
oh, I haven't finished it yet BTW, I'll do the holes tomorrow

plenty of material to do more of that piece hopefully!

cheers

 

[eethan]

Just figured I should probably mention here that I opened the interest thread for the metal upgrade kits

Done / Completed - Metal fifth element ZF-1 upgrade kit for Jake's kit

Hello guys, This is the interest thread for a metal (aluminium and brass) upgrade kit for Jake’s 3D printed ZF-1 kit: Interest - 'The Fifth Element' ZORG Industries ZF1 - Kit interest (Metal frame, 3D printed components, full electronic movements and lighting) A WIP thread can be found here...

www.therpf.com

 

[eethan]

Hey there,
so I received a blue engineer marking fluid and tried it, but it's no cigar for the color, way too purple sadly... so back to order another one now...

I'm not saying it should be the same blue as the flashlight because it shouldn't, it's just to give a comparison color if you want to compare with refs

 

[Jamesfett]

Maybe not be correct color but still looking awesome.

 

[veektohr]

Dude, I just stumbled here from the interest list and find you've turned into a one man factory just cranking out beautiful parts. They look fantastic and really transform the ZF1!

 

[eethan]

Dude, I just stumbled here from the interest list and find you've turned into a one man factory just cranking out beautiful parts. They look fantastic and really transform the ZF1!

ahah thank you Veektohr! yes, one man factory is quite correct! just tried to establish a bit of a timeline for my projects for the first semester and I have no idea how I'll manage to fit everything there!
it's good to see you, we don't read you very often this days

 

[veektohr]

ahah thank you Veektohr! yes, one man factory is quite correct! just tried to establish a bit of a timeline for my projects for the first semester and I have no idea how I'll manage to fit everything there!
it's good to see you, we don't read you very often this days

I know, I should pop in more often. Just super busy with work, etc etc. Have hardly had time to work on any personal projects : /

 

[eethan]

Hey guys,
so I received the new blue fluid, the industry standard Dykem that I couldn't get the first time, and have no idea what to think.... basically it's the exact same color, it just smells a lot worst.
old one on the right, Dykem on the left:

Now, the really weird part is that depending on the light and on the orientation, the color changes drastically:
purple:

and here, same exact spot, i just took the photo froml the other side of the tube, basically perfect color to what we want:

right?!

ok, now, I tried to rub them off and here is a big difference, the Dykem is stronger, the other one doesn't hold a simple rub with a paper towel, so that's something positive about the new one at least!

don't hesitate to tell me what you think.
I'm not really sure what to think myself, it's possible this is the right product, the color is so different from photo to photo. the only way would be to compare the object in real life...
cheers

 

[joberg]

Still a little off Too much purple still...difficult to match perfectly.

 

[eethan]

just to be sure, I'm not trying to match the torch lights, they are a different color, just puting them next to the part to be able to compare both tints with the refs pics.
what I'm confused about is how different it can be from photo to photo, pretty hard to match that color if the color is so unfaithful on photo. Since Dykem is the industry standard, I was really hoping this would be good.

 

[RobertMuldoon]

Are you trying the Dykem in the bottle or the rattlecan version? Maybe they would give different results?

There's also the old school paste in a tin, which you can thin with methylated spirits to make a Dykem-like layout fluid. Amazon link here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stuarts-Micrometer-Engineers-Marking-Blue/dp/B07MQB1T2C/

 

[Coinprop]

just to be sure, I'm not trying to match the torch lights, they are a different color, just puting them next to the part to be able to compare both tints with the refs pics.
what I'm confused about is how different it can be from photo to photo, pretty hard to match that color if the color is so unfaithful on photo. Since Dykem is the industry standard, I was really hoping this would be good.

Eethan nice work!

Regarding the dykem, it’s always going to lean against the purple!
What you need to use is an ordinary blue permanent marker!
Put the part in the lathe and spin it, and paint it with the pen. Voilà!

And when it’s all painted you take it out of the lathe, the paint is so attached that to get it of you need to use alcohol.
Put som on a rag and go to town with weathering.
This is how I did it and how they did it!

 

[eethan]

Eethan nice work!

Regarding the dykem, it’s always going to lean against the purple!
What you need to use is an ordinary blue permanent marker!
Put the part in the lathe and spin it, and paint it with the pen. Voilà!

View attachment 1532732
And when it’s all painted you take it out of the lathe, the paint is so attached that to get it of you need to use alcohol.
Put som on a rag and go to town with weathering.
This is how I did it and how they did it!

Hey Coinprop
thanks for the help, I went and read your thread again after I posted that to see if you explained what you used. I'll give it a try as well
thanks!
cheers

 

[eethan]

Are you trying the Dykem in the bottle or the rattlecan version? Maybe they would give different results?

There's also the old school paste in a tin, which you can thin with methylated spirits to make a Dykem-like layout fluid. Amazon link here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stuarts-Micrometer-Engineers-Marking-Blue/dp/B07MQB1T2C/

sorry, I didn't see your post, thanks for the help I used the Dykem in bottle. I'll try the permanent marker thing from Coinprop and if it doesn't cut it for me, will maybe try to tweak the Dykem color a bit with alcohol inks but I already spent more than 40€ for those fluids and will not buy another rattle can or fluid
cheers

 

[MandoJedi]

I did a quick interweb search on the Dykem color variants. It would seem that the formula was changed in the early 2000s and is now more purple than blue in color. The original prop would be more of a blue color since it was made in the mid-90s before the change in the formulation.

Just a though...

 

[eethan]

I did a quick interweb search on the Dykem color variants. It would seem that the formula was changed in the early 2000s and is now more purple than blue in color. The original prop would be more of a blue color since it was made in the mid-90s before the change in the formulation.

Just a though...

interesting, thanks! damn... well, I'll try the markers thing and will try to change the hue of a small amount of dykem and see what that does.
cheers