Closed: 3rd Annual BLF Scratch Made Light Contest

I’ll need to make more charcoal, and make some casting flasks, and make or buy some greensand, and I really should build a permanent furnace to replace the stack of bricks I used last time, and I still need to come up with an idea for what I should make.

subed

I'm still trying to decide if I will have enough time to participate this year, but I would like to get a call on the following tools. I don't have a cutoff or band saw. So I'm hoping one or all of the following are allowed:

- Table saw (seems closest to a cutoff saw)

- Scroll saw

- Reciprocating Saw (Sawzall)

Same with me with the time thing.
I have to make the time & funds to build the replica of last years light for the prize, and try to find time to build one i have in mind.
Im not sure my entry idea will qualify though, as the “Flashlight” will be powered by a LiIon cell as normal, - but it will be charged from another light i’m planning to be as a part of it that the Flashlight will “attach to” for many uses and abilities, and that charging power for the flashlight will be done by several methods from the apparatus that the flashlight attaches to (and is a part of sort of ) including Solar, Sunlight, Kerosene, Heat, and Gasoline, and include other Light sources of the build including an abstract lantern built from bits of old lantern parts from the junk bins in my garage, basement, and shed, some dating back to the 1940’s, and using parts cobbled together from everything imaginable.

*waits for _ the _ responses on this idea. :stuck_out_tongue:

I guess it depends on how they are used. I’m thinking that using the fence on the table saw to regulate and control slot separation of fins might be stepping over the line but just as a safer cutoff tool with the t-guide might be okay.

This one I would really like to see. Go for it! :)

Yes, yes, and yes. All of them are allowed to use as a cutoff tool. [Although I think table saw might be dangerous if working with metal. Be careful out there!]


Right.

Does it have to be strictly battery powered, or are other portable energy sources allowed? My entry last year used kerosene. I don’t want to give away too much, but I don’t plan on using conventional batteries this year if I don’t have to.

Thanks for the fast response _the_. Much appreciated.

Rufusbduck wrote:

I guess it depends on how they are used. I'm thinking that using the fence on the table saw to regulate and control slot separation of fins might be stepping over the line but just as a safer cutoff tool with the t-guide might be okay.

This sounds exactly how I planned to use the table saw. It's a very tedious and manual intensive process as you have to very carefully rotate the part and not allow it to shift at an angle from the fence. That was how I did my battery tube last year (it's documented in my build thread). I respect the ruling though and will comply if I participate.

I wish I had a cutoff saw and knew what you were taking about with the t-guide. Do you lock the saw blade in a fixed position when doing this. I can't picture rotating the part and holding the saw blade at the right height. Sounds crazy dangerous, but I probably just don't understand.

EDIT: I think I see what you are talking about with "t-guide". I think you mean using the table saw as a safer way to make a cut by using the t-guide accessory of a table saw.

Updated the rules to allow that. :)

Hmm... Sounds *very* interesting. Approved. :)

Table saw used in a safe and manual intensive way is allowed.

Let's try to be keep this event FUN and the rules loose and flexible enough. Judges will lower the score if they think that a contestant is bending the rules too much. :)

Here’s what I hope to eventually be my build thread. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with. This is going to be so exciting!

Someone help talk me out of entering the machine made category. I’m seriously hampered with a lathe that can’t thread, but I’m still all itchy to enter even knowing I’d have to have a really strange design to avoid large internal and external threads.

Don’t enter. Just watch from the sidelines. Be a spectator. Threading is essential to a good machine-made design. Besides, you don’t want any of the prizes being offered anyway, right? J)

Anything else I can help you with? 0:)

That was helpful. :stuck_out_tongue:

Ah, what the hell, put my name down for the machine made category.

_the_ wrote:

Table saw used in a safe and manual intensive way is allowed.

Let's try to be keep this event FUN and the rules loose and flexible enough. Judges will lower the score if they think that a contestant is bending the rules too much.

Just trying to clearly understand the rules so I don't bend them.

Go ahead and bend them the judges will just knock off points. :slight_smile: Give the other people a better chance.

I believe there have been guys that learned to thread on a lathe that didn’t do automatic threads. I am pretty sure it has been done.

Bet you could do it too.

https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=making+threads+on+a+lathe+without+automatic+threading&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8#q=cutting+threads+on+an+old+manual+lathe&tbm=vid

Good to see new members signing up. I hope more members will take the plunge, new or old. The more contestants, the better the contest. We want you.