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

A heap of not sure what and plenty more to come. The latest work returns to the switch area where I made matching holes in the two parts for the switch activator and keyed the two with some 1/8ā€ brass tubing. The copper wire will connect them through a pcb and ground some switch back lighting. Iā€™ll use these two pcbā€™s for the back lights and contact pad for the head. Some assembly at last! I glued the wood and first fin with Devcon 2-ton clear and when that had cured the remaining fins and spacers with JB Weld. I used a 1/2ā€ carriage bolt as a clamp. Then transferred the whole thing to a 1/2ā€ drill bit wrapped in tape for a snug fit in the copper threading and spun it on the drill press (my dads as Iā€™m house-sitting) past a file and some 220, Iā€™ll use finer paper when I get home.
O-ring grooves and lighted switch

Iā€™m in love. Again. :heart_eyes:

Thatā€™s looking great!

Iā€™m amazed ā€¦. Excellent work !

Thanks you guys, Iā€™m starting to get stoked and anxious at the same time for how itā€™s turning out and the time remaining. I got in ~12 hrs from 6pm to 6 am and managed not to mess things up too badly. I started off by cutting an o-ring groove in the tail cap. I used a small file and some 600 w/d folded over a thin square edge to finish it off. Next, I used a very nearly used up Dremel cut off wheel to trim the copper ground wire to length. And an exacto knife to open up the via in the pcb ground ring. It took 3 tries to get this part right. This notched pcb fits around the switch towerā€¦ S+ goes to one side of the 10k R and the remainder of the pad serves as a trace connecting to the two vias. Which connect to two blue LEDs on the top side. Jumpers ground the LEDs and a thin copper wire will connect gnd on the notched pcb to gnd on the other one. The outer switch pill piece has been soldered into the brass tube and an o-ring groove similarly cut into it. Once I follow the switch hole out through the brass tube Iā€™ll be very close to gluing the wood tube on.
Iā€™ve decided to forego the brass end caps as I like it better with the brass only at the ends and just wood in between except for the fins.
Drilling the switch hole

That is so neat RBD. :beer:

:+1: :beer:

Just a small update. While house sitting for my folks I used Dadā€™s drill press to start the switch hole in the wood tube. After stepping up drill bits to 5/16ā€ I used a Dremel sanding drum to do the rest. They came home Wednesday so Iā€™ve since shifted operations back home to work on more small brass bits to squeeze in but Iā€™m behind on picture taking. After tomorrowā€™s session Iā€™ll post some more pics but it will likely be at a late hour PST.
Gluing and soldering

Thats an interesting drill press. I havenā€™t seen one that the table moves up to drill the hole before.
If you keep posting pictures of your Burl Iā€™m going to come around and knock it of so I can use it. :stuck_out_tongue:

awsom cant wait to see the finished product

Meh, once again had to move the contents of this post to the next one to get images to load.

After a whole lot of hole fiddling I hitched up my britches and glued up the tube. I greased up some older o-rings to seal in the epoxy and used a brass tube to keep the wood and brass holes aligned. Also pretinned the ground wire, reassembled my switch with the wires soldered to the tabs, reflowed a 219C, and assembled the pill. As you can see I also cut up a p60 pill to make a new retaining ring. I used my 20mm die and the failed retainer as a stop nut to cut the pill. and then drilled out the center with a step drill. Much of the fiddling had to do with the brass bits that line the switch hole and act as a button. The liner piece Iā€™ll epoxy in place in the morning and the switch piece and tail cap get cabochons I ordered 3 weeks ago that arrived today.

A while ago I made these And now they look like this The larger one is now epoxied into the tube And the smaller one gets a moonstone cabochon. Another, larger cabochon goes into the tail cap with some trits underneath. I wasnā€™t sure if they would get here in time.This is what they look like
Replacement tail cap

Cool.

moonstone is that what we call opalā€™s?

I think theyā€™re different from Opals. They were certainly less expensive. Justin was fond of using cabochons to dress up a light so this is my way of showing respect in a contest that is part of his legacy. It has to be finished in time and work or itā€™s a hollow effort though. The head/pill is fully functional, what remains in doubt is whether my switch mod will handle the roughly 4A expected current draw. The driver is an RMM Mtn 17DD with A6 firmware. I still need to ream another few .1 mmā€™s from the tail cap to fit the stone and braze in a seat for it and finagle the switch pill together but I think thereā€™s just enough time.

Hmm, tail cap seems to have slipped in the shower and the hammer fell out of the soap dish. So I spent most of the afternoon making a new one starting with a pill with the shelf removed. Then clamped in the hack saw blade to remove the taper. And added a few more brass bits. Both the spring and the cabochon fit into the hollow but I need a shelf ~4 mm from the threaded end for the spring. And with the spring soldered in I could epoxy the wood in place as well. And the stone fits in the other end. I wonā€™t glue it in until itā€™s closer to finished but at least now I can get going on the sanding. Assembling the switch pill

So close.

All set to assemble the switch pill. Here are the two boards glued together(contact board has a notch for the led board). Hereā€™s the backside, led is connected to the contact board after the switch. JB weld is used to isolate the metal bottom of the switch from ground(case). Will it fit? YES! Now to solder up a positive spring pad that I ground thinner and smaller from a 1-mode nanjg board. Then soldered it to the red wire and JB welded it in place. Sliding it into the battery tube it ended up pretty well centered. A solder dab on the locator/ground wire will fix it in place but thatā€™s after the finishing us done, probably Sunday. All the rest of the brazing and fitting is done, woohoo.
Finishing up

I love it and understand it for once. That is so novel. :+1: