Personal Projects Thread

This looks like a very intricate and complicated cosplay Jazzi.
Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

A suggestion if I may...you might want to consider something like foamcore instead for the gun, wood might make it very tiring to carry around, unless it's something like balsa.

 

What is this foamcore you speak of? It's pulsar wood actually.

 

Here, have a gander at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foamcore

It looks like a material that would be better suited for what you are doing and would save you a lot of work as well.

 

Oh it's basically a foam board.

 

Yes, but you glue the pieces together and then carve it out, it makes your life easier! I use it to prototype stuff when I don't want to spend so much time working with other materials and it's much cheaper too.

 

But I already have all this wood ;3;

 

Ohhh...well definitely try to use what you have, otherwise you end up hoarding junk (like me).

 

Maybe I shall do a combination of wood and foam board haha.

 

Update for whoever's interested:



Now that one of the little bastards is in my hands I'm going to preheat the tube and attempt operation with a 700V transformer after work today. Stoked but a little scared. Also the chassis for the amp that may use these:



Annnnd...a tube tester. Not my design, it's by Steve Bench but it looks solid and tests transconductance! Much better than buying an overpriced, overhyped hickok tube tester. Going to build it with 1% resistors and the best parts I can for the best accuracy. Here's the schematic:

 

I can just imagine you in the whole "mad scientist" garb with the lab coat and goggles cackling over your creation, and it's adorable~ X3

 

A mad scientist mini skirt and skimpy top would be better hehehehehe!

 

Oh absolutely!!
Also an update to my guitar build, I decided to scrap adding the humbucker pickup and the 3-way switch (at least to this guitar). Turns out the installation of all the things I want added to that guitar will cost more than the thing is worth.
So I've decided to just stick with blacking out all the hardware, replacing the bridge and what not.
Otherwise I'll have to save the humbucker for a higher quality instrument.

 

That gun is so badass, flaws and all it looks like a fun project. I don't know zip about guns, nor how to shoot but you've piqued my curiosity. If you take it apart to do some maintenance, I'd love to see tear down photos!

I fired up the Raytheon 866a...here's the setup. I couldn't find my 700V transformer so I settled for a...18V battery into a 470 ohm load...hey the tube only drops 10-15V which isn't bad compared to conventional rectifier tubes! Anyhow the filament was a challenge and while I originally was going to rewind a transformer for this I didn't have one ready. Oh well, I used my lab supply with it's outputs in parallel to get the silly 2.5V / 5A requirement for the filament. Also, don't be dumb like me and use vice grips to hold dangerous things. I'm stupid for doing this, but my only socket for this tube is stuck as an adapter and I wasn't gonna wire up another socket, drill the holes, etc...I just wanted to know if it would work.

After reading the datasheet I learned that it needed to be preheated for a half hour to vaporize the mercury. It was really neat but somewhat unnerving to see it clouding on the surface of the glass and falling off stuff inside. Because it's a vapor it doesn't roll around like normal mecury, don't ask how I know that. It was a reminder that if I break this, I'm dead.
After waiting that long ass 30 minutes, I applied power and:

Oooooh it works! Let's decrease the load and get more current flow. Cue 100 ohms...and lights out:

It looks cool in pictures but in the flesh it's amazing! Like holy shit it's so pretty! What a pretty looking bluey light bulb...err...rectifier tube! It was really astounding to see how bright it was and I had a hard time photographing it because it looked green on the camera but this is pretty close. It's such an intense blue but it does hurt your eyes if you get close, no doubt it emits significant UV rays. Hmm...unforseen but that's part of the fun. No X-Rays though, voltage isn't high enough.

Finally, after cool down you can see the mercury pooled up at the bottom...another reminder...DON'T BREAK THIS.

Hope you enjoyed that!

 

What i have so far. Should be rounding off the handle soon and I want to make the barrel wider.

 

The outer garment.

 

Glue your butt to your chair and get something to drink, this is long. Or feel free to do something else and briefly glance at the pictures.

A departure from electronics? You be the judge. For a long time I've wanted to recreate logos/badges/insignia, make some interesting pictures and keychains. I make decals sometimes but those aren't very permanent. Hmmmm...how to do this? Well I fired the ol' brain up and came up with this:

First shot and it looks quite alright, though the edges need work, usually I mess things up 5 times before it looks close:



It was supposed to be a keychain but the ring broke off (I messed up, cue round 2), shoulda had more material there but I got greedy and took more off for a nicer profile. So I might file the edges off, attach double sided tape and affix it to one of my amplifiers. Maybe someone will be tricked into thinking Raytheon made it...hehehe...

Anyway, you're probably wondering two things: what's it made of and how did done it. Techno babble, you have been warned.

Tools I used, most of them anyway:



The material is circuit board which is made of thin copper adhered to fiberglass. You can get it in single or double sided, this stuff is single though double would have been better but I'm using what I have and since I bought this crap from Ebay (I'm sure you can guess where it was made...) it's junk. The copper is barely uniform and the adhesive sucks, so while you solder to it you have maybe 10 seconds before your copper traces and fiberglass substrate go their separate ways so I took some liberties with it and used it for art instead.

There is a way to make circuit boards using a laser printer and special PCB paper and it's called the toner transfer method. You print to the paper with the printer set to lay down the most toner:

Note the paper is yellow, and not blue. I had to redo a whole bunch because that blue paper...doesn't work well...

Well I hate to say it but the yellow stuff has issues too. It's kinda thin and printers don't like that. Back it up with a regular piece of paper, but no tape! Fold the edge feeding in around the paper to stiffen it. Careful though, if you jam your printer I'm not responsible! Mine still did...until I lied to it and told it I'd buy genuine Samsung toner.

Ha...not a chance....moving on...

Next you make your cuts, a razor run down the copper and fiberglass a few times will snap clean off if you use a nice set of pliers. Then clean the copper very well, cut your image out with some border space and place it on the copper with a bit of water to hold it. Then you press a hot clothes iron onto it for about 3 minutes or so and then soak it in cold water to dissolve the paper and dextrin coating, leaving the toner on the copper.

Oooops...now if you weren't thinking (me most days) and followed this you'd realize the image needs to be BACKWARD! I swear I only made that mistake 10 times or so, in the past. Think about it a little bit and the answer is obvious. I didn't stuff it up today but it's much more frustrating dealing with traces that are 0.020" thick and you're on your 5th run as the paper didn't cooperate or it shifted, etc. Believe me, this in the past has made me mucho angry, so save up your patience points and attempt it when you have enough.

So after the 76th time when you're happy with the image, have uniform toner laydown, no holes or scratches, no blurry edges...and don't have the fucking printer jam ruining 3 pieces of PCB paper...


...you soak it in an etching solution that dissolves copper, stains your clothes/bowls/floors/hair/skin/your favorite sweater, dissolves many other metals, and is highly skin drying and very corrosive. This stuff is called Ferric Chloride and I don't recommend using it unless you are impatient like me and rather take the risks than wait. You can apparently use Ammonium Persulfate but I don't care enough to look as I like this stuff too much and have a huge bottle that I bought 12 years ago and it still works like new; I just pour back in the remaining solution and use it again and again. Additionally it works better at elevated temperatures making it even more sketchy to use.

After the etching is done, the board is thoroughly washed and then cut to shape. I skipped the cutting as I wanted to hold on to the material while I did the next steps.

Next I polish the copper and protect it from corrosion; the keychain used clear packing tape which is a crummy idea but I don't have any lacquer or clear coat, nor a place to spray noxious fumes everywhere. plus the bare pcb and copper wasn't for me so I figured something else out...

Red marker after polishing, then polish again to remove the marker from the copper. I did this three times, then coated the surface with vaseline to prevent the copper from tarnishing. The best way to get a shine like this is with steel wool, soap and warm water. Easy on the pressure and buff in one direction, turn the object 90 degrees and then continue. The idea is to get the "peaks" of the metal down to reflect light the best. Then hit it with some demin to polish up and then the vaseline on a soft cloth.

I'm pretty happy with it, now just to trim it. I taped it to my amp just out of curiosity and it does look nice there...

 

Alrighty!
So I just got my bass back today and holy damn it looks awesome....so much so that I can't stop staring at it.
TAKE NOTE: I DID NOT DO ANY OF THIS WORK MYSELF FOR I DID NOT HAVE THE MEANS/EQUIPMENT TO COMPLETE THIS TASK. I LEFT IT TO PROFESSIONALS WHO KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING.

TADA!!!
All back in black and ready to drop some serious bass!
So here's what changed.

I decided that I wanted to fully "black out" this bass, meaning practically everything was changed to black.
For the body I replaced the pick-guard screws, the bridge, the knobs, the input jack, and the strap holders.
I also added a really awesome decal (it's technically for cars but it works well on the bass) that reads "Protected by Dragons".


For the head stock I replaced the tuning pegs, the string tree, and had the nut fully replaced (that's the black piece located towards the base of the head stock).
I noticed that for the tuning pegs the guy had to drill new holes in order for them to fit, which I expected as much because it's practically impossible to find exact replacements for this bass.

Overall though I'm very much happy with the results, the bass plays excellently and sounds fantastic!
Couldn't be any happier!

 

I've been in a home improvement mood for the past couple days, and I've figured out what I want to do. Exterior lighting.

I mentioned in a different thread that my yards are very dark. A full moon on a cloudless night helps, but its still pretty dark. If I can find a cheap option, I want to put soft lighting fixtures on my house that'll brighten my yard just enough at night to see where you're walking.

I plan on making some glow in the dark planters and place them around my house. Not necessarily for lighting, more décor. I'm also going to put LED strips along my driveway, probably about shin level.

 

@GuyStripes Man you have to post pics of that when it's done. Some advice: a good paint job is like 90% prep.

I myself have lots to post but haven't been motivated to, especially since it's mostly me rambling on. Admittedly I'm a bit of an antisocial human that tends to make things rather then spend time with fellow humans.