Attitude Adjustor the Dalek - Is Now Finished

[Nigel Heath]

OK I just wanted to play with molten metal.

Nigel,

the Metallurgist

and it was lots of fun.

We Daleks like molten metal.

Edited September 29, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[Bengalensis]

That has to be one of the most ambitious ways of making a hidden recess for a hidden plug I have ever seen, probably the most ambitious one. But I like it very much. I love the ambitious engineering that goes into it all the way through. I had a great read.

Saved metal dust and burrs, perhaps not a bad idea. I know I read about someone who has, since years, a little plastic box with a lid where metal dust and small flakes are saved and sometimes wetted with dusty rainwater. This way he always has some area in there where he can easily grind up some dry perfect rust pigments for weathering...

[Pete in Lincs]

This is all very well.

But how can a bloke melt metal & cook at the same time?

Did you send out for food?

Enquiring minds need to know!

Looking good, Nigel.

Pete

BTW, Thanks, Kallisti for asking the question for me.

[Nigel Heath]

As regards making the collar for the plug there are of course many ways of skinning this particular cat. In normal circumstances I could have probably laid my hands on something almost ready made. Failing that I would probably have drilled it out with a cone cutter. If I went down the punching route all I needed was something like a solid cylinder of aluminium to act as the backing. I did not have access to anything like that in my reduced circumstances hence the madcap scheme I came up with. Making the tin solid also helped with sawing off but was not essential of course. I also have a lathe so I could have turned or spun something I suppose.

On Sunday I had a slice of toast and jam for a late breakfast followed by two Southern style crispy chicken thighs from Sainsbury's for a late lunch. I defrosted one of my homemade steak and kidney pies in readiness for dinner but I never got hungry enough to do it justice and so just had a slice of cheese and half an apple - not worthy of photographic recording.

Jorgen, I like the idea on creating real rust for weathering, I must have known at a subconscious level that saving the filings was a good idea.

[Pete in Lincs]

Thank you.

Now I can sleep at night.

[Nigel Heath]

Glad to hear that Pete.

There may not be much progress tonight as I'm going out for a free slap up meal in about an hours time.

[PZRGREN]

You could at least take a photo of your slap up dinner!!!

[Nigel Heath]

OK will do, good idea.

[georgeusa]

I was wondering if you have met the acquaintance of one Ruben Garrett Lucius Goldberg. I believe you and he would have some fine conversations and similar approaches to creating gadgets. I also believe he had a kindred spirit by the name of William Heath Robinson on your side of the pond. You know it is scary, in that I am beginning to have a feel for where you are going on a project and it makes perfect sense. I enjoy your side exercises into interesting scratch builds. My only question is how did you not destroy the top of your stove with the molten metal. That, I think is the neatest trick. I, for one, am all in for anything that requires power tools and fire. More side projects please. By the way, you have redeemed yourself with your last preparation of steak. Slathering it in butter with sautéed mushrooms is perfectly acceptable and quite tasty. I have been known to do the same thing a time or two. Come next August you will have to give me your address. We just had 3 longhorn/angus calves (soon to be steers) born and they are set to become steaks in early August. I believe you need a slab of Texas beef, grass fed and pampered. Just have to make sure the coyotes don't get them for the next month or two until they get a bit bigger. We will discuss cuts of meat for you later.

[Nigel Heath]

Ruben Garrett Lucius Goldberg - I am not familiar with his work but will be Googling it shortly.

William Heath Robinson - Very familiar with his work and a distant relative I believe.

The stove top was perfectly safe, I am a metallurgist and do know what I am doing, at least most of the time.

Power tools and fire is what being a proper bloke is all about. Applying tools and fire to metal is even better.

Thanks for your comments on my steak, praise on such matters from a Texan is most humbling.

I believe you need a slab of Texas beef, grass fed and pampered.

Yes I do. When you asked for my address I got all excited and thought you were going to come and visit me but if you just want it to post me a steak that's fine too.

Nigel

[Nigel Heath]

Ah - I see Mr Goldberg is known for his "complex gadgets that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways", that description certainly applies to my molten metal episode. If I had had the right tools to hand it would have been a lot simpler.

Before I went out tonight I did get a little modelling done. I had to create a little relief cavity in the dome base to make clearance provision for the switch. I also want to have an enclosure around the underside of the switch. I had a look in my spares boxes and came up with these candidates:

There is nothing really suitable for the whole switch but this square part will do for the slider. I started to stitch drill for the hole::

I razor sawed up the square chimney thing:

Here it is glued into place:

Here it is from above, more by luck than judgement it had just missed the plug support structure:

OK, it was not much but at least one small job was completed.

My slap up meal is to take place here:

The Albyn Resturant in central Aberdeen:

Here is our party in a private dining area of the resturant:

Here is my starter. I had a momentary lapse in my photographic duties and took a bite first. Sorry about that. It is haggis and black pudding fritters in a whisky based cream sauce - very nice:

My main course was steak and chips with some greenery. The steak was very tasty and cooked just right - it may well have been Aberdeen Angus beef:

The desert was vanilla parfait with raspberry sorbet, also very good:

I hope you liked that.

I am holiday tomorrow and Wednesday so there should be lots happening no doubt;

Bye for now,

Nigel

Edited October 9, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[hendie]

Here is my starter. I had a momentary lapse in my photographic duties and took a bite first. Sorry about that. It is haggis and black pudding fritters in a whisky based cream sauce - very nice:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!

I am so jealous right now !

[Nigel Heath]

LOL - I am most dreadfully sorry about your current predicament.

That must seem like cruel torture for an exiled Scotsman in a strange foreign land.

This was most certainly not my intent.

Edited September 30, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[hendie]

LOL - I am most dreadfully sorry about your current predicament.

It does have it's upside...

I am currently tucking into tonight's dinner - a ham, salami and cheese stromboli. We were out with friends last night and I ordered a large stromboli I ate half of it last night and the piece I am eating now is still about 8 x 8" (200mm x 200mm) by about 1.5" (35mm) thick. That thing was scary huge!

The whole thing cost the princely sum of about $12, or £8

and as for steak and seafood !!!

[Nigel Heath]

Haggis

Black pudding

Whisky

Deep fat frying

It don't come much more Scottish than that.

[Kallisti]

I can feel my arteries hardening up already! My mother was from Forfar but I've never taken to haggis at all, however a Forfar Bridie is heaven in a pastry case!

[Nigel Heath]

Mmm, they look nice.

http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/4930/forfar-bridies--scottish-pasties-.aspx

Pete will soon be badgering us about going off topic.

[Max Headroom]

It don't come much more Scottish than that.

Not unless you washed it down with Irn Bru or a pint of Tennants Super Strength.

Epic build (and gastronomic journey) btw

Trevor

[Nigel Heath]

Dalek Diary - Day 31

I started my day by getting ready to solder up the on / off switch:

After soldering I applied heat shrink tubing in line with good electrical practice:

The emerging wires need a hole in the next neck segment, punched out using the usual set up:

I screwed the switch in place and applied some epoxy for extra security:

I need to create some boxing around the switch, the redundant breast plate was pressed back into service thus:

These will be the long sides of the box.

This long strip will be used for the short sides and top:

When I punched out the necessary hole in the top it split on one side but is still usable:

Here it is all glued in place and sealed with tube glue:

I then had to pop off to court. While I was out I made good use of my journey and procured further supplies of epoxy as my stocks were getting critically low:

That is as far as my photos go but there will be another update later. I am giving a demo tonight at my modelling club on how to upload photos to the web so I will be using some of today's photos in the live demo. Please bear with if a load of photos appear later without any explanation, it will follow later I promise.

Bye for now,

Nigel

Edited October 9, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[Pete in Lincs]

Probably too late now, but good luck at the court.

I too bought some new epoxy the other day.

And I've just had Kofta meatballs with mushrooms & noodles in a spicy sauce.

I'm also not supposed to eat much red meat, so please carry on.

Pete

(BTW, I do like Haggis)

[Nigel Heath]

Thanks Trevor and Pete, I am a big fan of good haggis (there are some not so good ones out there very much like black puddings).

[Max Headroom]

Haggis, tatties and neeps........mmmm

Trevor

[Nigel Heath]

If you had not guessed already I am planning to fill the neck with resin and again I want to reduce the amount of resin used by partially filling the cavities with old sprue. Here is most of my collection:

I did a fit check and found the boxing round the switch was fouling the next section. The easiest way to fix this was to razor saw throught the stepped sector here and scribe and cut out the sides:

After the long side was scribed through the surplus could be clicked off:

This white hexagonal section sprue does not find many other uses and having flat sides should help it nest together so I chose to use that for the prefilling operation:

About an hour and a half later I had had a lot of fun and created this amazing 3D sprue jigsaw:

I could then glue on the next neck segment:

I used superglue, with hindsight I wished I had used epoxy. One of the main reasons for filling with resin is to get this depression round the neck ring filled solid to better match reality. The other big reason is the stabilise the socket, giving it great strength:

After about 20 minutes I checked the joint and it was not quite coming together and the glue was still quite liquid. I have to confess that I had slightly overfilled with sprue and it was preventing the segments form coming together (epoxy would have set by now and it would have sorted the issue). So I placed four milk bottle tops in the centre of the top segment to act as packers and applied this insane clamping arrangement:

Incredibly it actually worked. With the glue set I did some electrical continuity tests and marked up what wires were for which LED:

You will be relieved to hear that on the electrical front all was fine.

In readyness for the forthcoming resin operation this flexible tripod system was devised:

I had thought I was out of disposable containers but in court I remembered I had these plastic cups in the kitchen oddments drawer, ideal:

There then followed the now routine resin mixing operation. I did not use too much filler to ensure the resin was nice and runny. I mixed exactly the same quantity as for the second base and dome filling affair, one scoup of resin to half a scoup of hardener:

I then filled using one of my disposable syringes. When the resin was all used up it had just started to appear round the cut out for the switch box. If I mixed and added any more it would start to overflow so this is a good place to stop resin type operations for the day:

Here you can make out the level of the dark resin:

And no leaks, I think this is a good result.

Here you can see the resin just starting to make an appearance around the socket:

Looking for other jobs to do, I filled the dome pivot tube with black Milliput, I was going to make it flat but decided that a pan headed profile would look better, I will sand this to a better shape when it is set:

The surplus Milliput (rule of modelling - there is always surplus Milliput) was used to make a better seal around the switch wires:

My current thinking is that I should get a small tube of silicone sealant for all those potential leak paths before resin operations resume tomorrow.

I did quite a bit of electronic work as well but the photos seem to have disappeared, you have had a lucky escape there.

Bye for now,

Nigel

Edited November 24, 2013 by Nigel Heath

[John Laidlaw]

That clamping arrangement may have looked insane, but it clearly did the job. Do you sketch out what you intend to do, or keep it all in your head? Fascinating stuff .

[Nigel Heath]

Most of the time its all kept in my head but if it gets a bit complicated I will commit to paper.