Looking good!
Never thought I would say this to a guy, but gotta give credit when credit is due. That's a fine looking pair you got there.
With that out of the way, your build keeps getting more interesting. Really digging it.
Not quite sure how to react to that, but thanks anyway.
I have to say that smooth nuts are definitely the way to go. My wife said they look and feel so much better without the knobbly bits. 
Anyway, moving swiftly on……
The dreaded soldering is done!
A real pain in the arse job it was too. I had to do it from the inside of the pipe and it was very difficult to see where the joint was and avoid burning myself at the same time. Most of the solder ended up running down the inside of the pipe and the hairs on the back of my thumb disappeared in a ball of flame. Eventually enough must have found its way into the joint as it seems pretty strong.
Here’s a mock-up of how it was done:
So that’s the tail end sorted, time to start thinking about the business end (after a few stiff drinks to calm the nerves after all that soldering - did I mention I hate soldering?).
My wife was away for the weekend so you can guess how I spent most of it.
Anyway, this is what I’m starting with for the head section:
Both parts were given the grinder / drum sander treatment as before to remove the ribs from the nut and most of the thread from the coupling. Then it was on to the tedious job of sanding to a smooth finish. This time I decided to speed things up a little by mounting the parts in the drill press. To do that I came up with this gadget to keep things reasonably centralised:
The end result:
This may or may not be considered ‘Inappropriate use of a drill press’ under the revised (but as yet unconfirmed) rules, but hey, sometimes you just gotta live on the wild side. :party:
Fitting it all together:
This time the soldering was a lot easier as I could do it from the outside. Another brass olive was glued in place to cover up the solder joint:
Completed body after some polishing:
Nearly there!
This is looking great! :beer:
^ +1, indeed
Really like how you secured the head in your drill press to shape and polish. Love seeing this type of creativity. Thank you for sharing that. :)
Great work! Very nice :heart_eyes:
Nice work. Love the effort.
Nice, I really like how you used the compression rings.
I’m so jealous. I stood in the Home Depot pipe aisle for almost an hour and I couldn’t come up with anything satisfactory.
This is beautiful.
Talent! Talent! Talent!
I envy your thought process and ingenuity!
Many thanks for the kind words. 
They are largely undeserved though, there’s nothing new here, it’s all been done before. I got the idea for the olives from this old post by Hopback.
WARNING: Explicit torch porn images to follow….
All together at last:
With other P60 hosts:
and taking pride of place in my growing family:
I did slightly regret that it couldn’t tail stand with that switch arrangement, so I made a second tail cap and sacrificed another penny for the cause:
I now have an everyday standard tail cap and a patriotic tailstanding version. Well, if Solarforce can do it, why not?
Proof that it works:
I still have a bit of work to do on the finish as I noticed a few dings and scratches when taking the photos, but otherwise it’s just about there. It’s a bit on the portly side at 204g (7.25 oz) compared to 152g (5.6 oz) for the 504b but that does mean it feels nice and solid in the hand (and if I ever had to hit anyone with it they certainly wouldn’t be getting up again in a hurry). On the whole it’s turned out better than I expected and will certainly be well used.
The only problem with finishing so early is I now have to twiddle my thumbs and watch the other contestants blow this out of the water, which I fully expect them to do. As I said, I’m really just here to make up the numbers and show what can be done with a few bits of scrap metal and a drill press. You don’t even need a drill press, everything I’ve done here could be done with a hand drill held in a vice, the drill press just makes it easier and quicker (and probably safer). Mine is a cheap ‘supermarket special’ and cost less than my hand drill. It’s far from perfect but has been a godsend for projects like this.
Anyway, thanks for watching and good luck to the other contestants - hope you enjoy your builds as much as I have.
When making the second tail cap I discovered another way to get rid of those pesky ribs instead of using the angle grinder. In a rare outbreak of lateral thinking I mounted the nut in the drill press and used the grinding wheel from the grinder as a hand-held tool:
It worked quite well. Took longer to do but was much more controlled with less chance of slipping and taking great chunks out. It also meant I could skip the drum sander and go straight on to sanding.
^ Cleaver with the hand held grinding wheel. You have taught me a few things with your build thread. Thank you for that. Plus, you made it entertaining and fun.
Don't sell your build short. It is very nice and a first rate competitor in my book. Best wishes on the final finishing.
Oooooh, shiney….
That is an absolutely beautiful work of art and something to be very proud of.
I haven’t even started my build yet. After seeing yours, I don’t know if I should! 
Nice work!!!
That's turned out very nice indeed, & is reminiscent of some of the (winning)builds from the original comp.
Well done :beer: :beer:
Nice work with simple tools.
You’re welcome, and thank you. I regard these torch building projects as great exercise for the old grey matter, as they are essentially a series of problem solving exercises, and my grey matter could certainly use the exercise. :~