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

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:

As well as Scotch Brite I remember OL (at least I seem to remember) using steel wool, the fine stuff for cleaning up threads. I agree with you RBD about Hoop. What he does with copper is a work of art but yours is also just worked in opposite ways. :+1:

I think the steel wool is good… but remember…. if it is a copper part that you are going to patina, don’t use the steel wool. Boy did I get in trouble with that one time!! Whew! I did a copper light for a customer and he wanted a patina on the copper… an ugly green mess in my opinion…. but I had used some steel wool for a fine satin look first. I have always thought the steel left a coating of some kind on the copper… the patina was blotchy and a real mess. Even after being in a sonic cleaner and then steam cleaned. When I re-finished the copper with a scrubbie, the problem went away. That only cost me a full day!! :confounded:

TL

Thanks for the update TL. It may well of been aluminium the steel wool was used on.

I have almost all of the pieces for the tail cap ready. I have some stuff coming that inhibits the flow of brazing alloy which will hopefully prevent it from wicking into the threads beyond where I want it as it did on MkII. Until that arrives a copper shelf for the pill and a step for the driver would be next along with more work on the switch module. With the pill finished I could make it up with the led and driver. Head assembly could occur at any time now as well.

I think the steel wool will work on a lot of metals. I use it on copper and aluminum…. even on some stainless steel, just not where I might want to patina or anodize. :wink:
TL

The pill will get a dab of thermal grease which is dark grey anyway but the tail cap piece is both more used and more visible and gets a dab of clear silicon which will inhibit patina.

More pill pics starting with 1.8 mm copper sheet. Brazed to 21/32” brass tube After a hot bath Drill, filed, and sanded And brazed into the threaded portion Now the tail cap. It has a brass sheet bottom piece with another centering washer, a section of threaded copper, and a short piece(2.75 mm) of internal threaded brass. The white stuff is the braze stop mask. This is where the small wood piece goes, there’s another part similar to the pill above that will give it a recess for the spring on the inside and a bit of bling on the outside Yup, works here too.
Failed retainer ring

Wow. Just lots & Lots of nice work!!! If I need something brazed I know who to call!!! :wink: I sure enjoy every image and watching the process!!
Thanks Rufus!!! TL

+1 This stuff is amazing to me. :smiley:

What the others have said. Stunning work. :+1:

Weird, images aren’t loading properly. The other day I thought it was because my post was too big but this is only one picture loaded the same way I’ve done a hundred times before.

Even stranger… I clicked on the photobucket link, copied the direct url and it worked.

Looks nice!!

I just ordered this on a canvas print. It should look good on the wall. Mrs will shoot me though. :slight_smile:

Photobucket has been screwy for awhile. I reckon they did an update and things went backwards. For awhile it would take 5 minutes to upload a small picture and I had to do one at a time otherwise it would just hang. And thats with a paid account. :person_facepalming: