asalaw
Sr Member
Re: John Long Phaser 1 Kit Buildup plus MM P2 Restoration
OK. Fixed the problem, it was on my end. Not exactly sure what it was, but I had to strip out the metadata from all of them and rotate them all, since they all magically turned upside-down after I stripped out the metadata. Kind of a pain, but it does optimize the photos and save me disk space, so I'll just do that from now on.
Sooooo...
Since it's the power supply, I went with red and black wire. It's true that lightbulbs don't care about polarity. You can hook up power to them any way you want and they'll work. But there's a great tradition in electronics regarding color, clarity, team pride, and a deep and abiding passion for consistency. Besides, it's what I had on hand.
Tools again: you have to loop the end of your wires to go around the old-timey terminal screws in the Hubbell plug, and those of you who've built John Long's P1 kit also know there's a fair amount of wire looping in there. There are great instructions in there on how to do it, but after I discovered jeweler's/beader's tools, I was a new man. They have them at Michael's with the beading tools. As always, never pay full price at Michael's. That's why God made coupons.
I have another one I just bought at 40% off, but I don't have a picture right now. I'll post that when I get to the P1 internals.
So here's how you use one to put a nice loop in a wire:
I know, I know -- horribly complicated. But I have faith in you. You'll get the hang of it. And don't forget to loop your wire clockwise, so that it doesn't try to pop loose while you're screwing down the terminals.
Now, you'll notice I used solid-core wire instead of stranded. I don't even own any stranded wire. Solid core wire can break because it doesn't stand up to bending and twisting a lot, but that's just not gonna happen inside the handle, ever. Plus, it's easier to solder, easier to hold in place, and you just can't use stranded wire on a breadboard. And stranded wire also carries yucky Ebola AIDS cooties. That's really the big one for me.
And now, off to the electronics bench! Not strictly necessary, since I can just grab a small multimeter and test for continuity right at my workbench, but come on...
I'd live next to this thing if I could. Me so geeky! Me solder you long time!!
So you hook up the wire to the terminals, then twist the loose ends of the wires together so you can make sure all those happy little electrons can make the full lap around the circuit.
Different models of continuity meters work different ways, but commonly they beep when you have a complete circuit. Pretty much every multimeter you can buy will have a continuity checker. This bench model beeps, and the display goes absolutely batsh!t haywire.
Now that the plug is ready to go in the handle, it's time to get the handle ready for the plug. Back to sanding! Yay! Kinda.
I spent some quality time with the sanding block and my wood parts making sure I had a nice, even joint between the handle and the butt plug. And there was a lot of sanding.
Ultimately, though, I wound up with a very nice fit overall, and now all my parts were ready... for more sanding...
I then made a quick detour to the laser cutter (cuz I got scared), to make some more templates for the woeful ordeal that is the end plate...
This time I meant business.
Meanwhile, back at the mill (I always wanted to say that)...
I drilled and countersank three of the templates to increase my chances of getting one good one. I've been doing this work sloppily to get done, and it always bites me in the butt in the end. I did get one completely filed out, but I actually managed to misread my own markings and the big hole looked awful. Still, I'm finally getting the technique down, and I'm perfectly sure I'll get a really nice butt plate in the end. Which is where they go.
Quick sidebar on shop etiquette: always clean up after yourself. If you're ever going to work in a professional shop, you need to get serious about not leaving messes behind. It pisses other people off, and makes you look unprofessional. Here's how I leave machines when I'm finished:
Thanks to my über-clean habits, I get constant offers for kinky sex from the Techshop staff. Okay, not really, but they say thank you a lot and that's almost as good.
That's 24 files, onto the next post...
OK. Fixed the problem, it was on my end. Not exactly sure what it was, but I had to strip out the metadata from all of them and rotate them all, since they all magically turned upside-down after I stripped out the metadata. Kind of a pain, but it does optimize the photos and save me disk space, so I'll just do that from now on.
Sooooo...
Since it's the power supply, I went with red and black wire. It's true that lightbulbs don't care about polarity. You can hook up power to them any way you want and they'll work. But there's a great tradition in electronics regarding color, clarity, team pride, and a deep and abiding passion for consistency. Besides, it's what I had on hand.
Tools again: you have to loop the end of your wires to go around the old-timey terminal screws in the Hubbell plug, and those of you who've built John Long's P1 kit also know there's a fair amount of wire looping in there. There are great instructions in there on how to do it, but after I discovered jeweler's/beader's tools, I was a new man. They have them at Michael's with the beading tools. As always, never pay full price at Michael's. That's why God made coupons.
I have another one I just bought at 40% off, but I don't have a picture right now. I'll post that when I get to the P1 internals.
So here's how you use one to put a nice loop in a wire:
I know, I know -- horribly complicated. But I have faith in you. You'll get the hang of it. And don't forget to loop your wire clockwise, so that it doesn't try to pop loose while you're screwing down the terminals.
Now, you'll notice I used solid-core wire instead of stranded. I don't even own any stranded wire. Solid core wire can break because it doesn't stand up to bending and twisting a lot, but that's just not gonna happen inside the handle, ever. Plus, it's easier to solder, easier to hold in place, and you just can't use stranded wire on a breadboard. And stranded wire also carries yucky Ebola AIDS cooties. That's really the big one for me.
And now, off to the electronics bench! Not strictly necessary, since I can just grab a small multimeter and test for continuity right at my workbench, but come on...
I'd live next to this thing if I could. Me so geeky! Me solder you long time!!
So you hook up the wire to the terminals, then twist the loose ends of the wires together so you can make sure all those happy little electrons can make the full lap around the circuit.
Different models of continuity meters work different ways, but commonly they beep when you have a complete circuit. Pretty much every multimeter you can buy will have a continuity checker. This bench model beeps, and the display goes absolutely batsh!t haywire.
Now that the plug is ready to go in the handle, it's time to get the handle ready for the plug. Back to sanding! Yay! Kinda.
I spent some quality time with the sanding block and my wood parts making sure I had a nice, even joint between the handle and the butt plug. And there was a lot of sanding.
Ultimately, though, I wound up with a very nice fit overall, and now all my parts were ready... for more sanding...
I then made a quick detour to the laser cutter (cuz I got scared), to make some more templates for the woeful ordeal that is the end plate...
This time I meant business.
Meanwhile, back at the mill (I always wanted to say that)...
I drilled and countersank three of the templates to increase my chances of getting one good one. I've been doing this work sloppily to get done, and it always bites me in the butt in the end. I did get one completely filed out, but I actually managed to misread my own markings and the big hole looked awful. Still, I'm finally getting the technique down, and I'm perfectly sure I'll get a really nice butt plate in the end. Which is where they go.
Quick sidebar on shop etiquette: always clean up after yourself. If you're ever going to work in a professional shop, you need to get serious about not leaving messes behind. It pisses other people off, and makes you look unprofessional. Here's how I leave machines when I'm finished:
Thanks to my über-clean habits, I get constant offers for kinky sex from the Techshop staff. Okay, not really, but they say thank you a lot and that's almost as good.
That's 24 files, onto the next post...
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