4th Annual BLF/OL Scratch Made Light Contest- Hand Made 10/31 finished

Nothing but ibuprofen I swear. :innocent:

Bad news first. The MkII battery tube I fell afoul of poor logistics on my part and sufferered some kind of mischance(probably slipped in the shower). Here are it’s remains alongside the MkIII tube. I ran into a problem after brazing the stop collar on the tail end and poor MkII paid the ultimate price. MkIII has since been threaded and the the retaining bands removed. The next stop collar will instead be brazed to a short tube that slips over the battery tube before being brazed in place. That will prevent another unfortunate mischance. At the other end I used a carbide Dremel bit to cut the shelf out of the switch pill. Then I reamed it to one continuous ID and brazed a thin tube to fit inside. The switch will actually go in the small tube with contacts at either end and slide into the larger threaded piece.
Tail stop

If you say it is I am not going to argue. It would be a lot easier to do MK 2 in the first place and just bypass MK 1. :stuck_out_tongue:

It would certainly have saved me the time I spent ruining the MkII tube. I’ve brazed and threaded 3 tubes now and wasted yet another day on the stop. With all that’s left to do these set backs are frustrating. the 2 lb single jack I mean shower floor really did a number on MkII but it was a necessary catharsis.

Rufus, you make me tired just looking at all the work!!! :person_facepalming: Tenacious would not cover your attitude toward making a light.

I’ll just sit here and try to recover slowly until the next highly anticipated update. !!! TL

I hope this isn’t a let down then. To make the stop collar I squared up a tube end on some sandpaper. And brazed it to a brass disc. Here it is next to the battery tube. Sooner or later I’ll need to cut some threads on the copper pill stock I brazed up way back when. Some of it will be used for the emitter pill and some for the tail cap. To hold the stock while I crank the die I brazed up this piece that I can solder the stock to. Next

Good luck. :frowning:

34 days left, I might still make it.

Keep at it mate.

Make it or make it? I reckon you’ll do both. :slight_smile:

Keep going Rufus! I figure next you will be refining your own brass / copper from ore!! :stuck_out_tongue: I am changing your name to ToughRufus!!

Looking forward to the next update. TL

Having trouble with pics. Those will be part of the switch set up. The following are the making of a lip on one piece and a shelf for the switch to rest on.

I think I exceeded the post length and the pics wouldn’t laid. To continue with yet more. Here is the sequence on the copper pill stock. The biggest one is the pill, the medium one goes in the tail cap, and the thin one is the driver retainer.
Led pill

I love that die stock. :+1:

Wow! Good work!

Understatement of the year? :wink:

It’s guys like RBD and MRsDNF and CRX (and several others) who make the BLF contest interesting to watch every year. The attention to detail is outrageous!

^

+1

Incredible craftsmanship and artistry in this build.

Thanks guys. Compared to what Hoop can do this is really low grade work, the threads feel like they have teeth they are so rough, similar to pipe thread from the hardware store. I might try dressing the leading edges of the cutting teeth at some point. Hand work isn’t supposed to be clean and precise but it’s irritating to fall short of expectations. that probably shows a lack of humility but I get paid to worry over details and unlike my professional jobs the more I work on these parts the uglier they get. That being the case I’ll just have to avoid over working the finished assemblies. The problem is that to imitate what can be done on a lathe I have to build up layer upon layer, each one adding brazing alloy and requiring filing/sanding to fit the next one. The two button pieces were thin sheet brass formed to the same curve as the battery tube with nesting tubing sanded to the same curve before cutting ~5 mm off to braze. In all, there are nine separate pieces of brass to make the thumb switch module and eight more(including two of copper) in the tail cap. When it’s all done I’ll count up all the rest but “bucket Of parts” was a pretty apt description. I seem to use the drill press enough that I should change my screen name to MrSdp but there’s a lot more time hand working small parts or sanding things ~round /~square.

Rufus,
Copper + a Die shouldn’t = threads anyway!! :beer: That is like threading bubble gum with a golf club. You did danged good. I like the way you used the die as a holding jig!!! I would never EVER have thought of that.

On that copper a scotch brite pad and your drill press will smooth those threads some. I call them “Scrubbies” in my shop. If you don’t have one, PM me your mailing address and I’ll mail you a couple. They are good for a lot of things. I sure enjoy seeing your efforts and ingenuity. Thank you for the effort it takes to show us all that work. :+1:

TL

Thanks, we have them and I’ll try it. If it works on Revere Ware then why not? For the record, that’s an 18” pipe wrench I used to tee off. :wink: