I've always wanted one of those little brass flashlights that the astronauts carried on the Apollo missions. You can see them throughout the Apollo 13 movie.
I've been working on my A7L spacesuit replica here:
http://www.therpf.com/f24/build-thread-my-apollo-a7l-space-suit-229923/index2.html
I decided to machine a few of these lights. The originals were magnesium powered and had a big flashlight bulb inside. I'm making mine cosmetically identical, but the internals are modernized to fit regular AA batteries and an off-the-shelf Maglite xenon bulb and reflector. Testing the knurling pattern on a piece of brass pipe:
Machining the parts to fit the reflector:
Did an acid-etch test on a scrap of brass pipe. I got some custom vinyl stencils cut and soaked it in an acid bath for 10 minutes. It's a little shallow, so 30 minutes will probably do the trick:
I've been working on my A7L spacesuit replica here:
http://www.therpf.com/f24/build-thread-my-apollo-a7l-space-suit-229923/index2.html
I decided to machine a few of these lights. The originals were magnesium powered and had a big flashlight bulb inside. I'm making mine cosmetically identical, but the internals are modernized to fit regular AA batteries and an off-the-shelf Maglite xenon bulb and reflector. Testing the knurling pattern on a piece of brass pipe:
Machining the parts to fit the reflector:
Did an acid-etch test on a scrap of brass pipe. I got some custom vinyl stencils cut and soaked it in an acid bath for 10 minutes. It's a little shallow, so 30 minutes will probably do the trick:
