Done / Completed Metal fifth element ZF-1 upgrade kit for Jake's kit

[eethan]

Ah, that makes more sense. Some said 10-32 and others said 15-32-32. So they're the same, just some people are listing the thread on one side, and others list the thread on the other end.

yes probably! If it says "MPA-3", you should be good I think
but you did well to mention it, I just checked ebay and I see a lot of MPA-3P now and those are not good!

to try to make it clear to everyone, here is a wrong version MPA-3P, you can see the hole at the end is very large:

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and here is the good version, with the 10-32 hole at the end:

Pardon Our Interruption...

this is important because non only the 10-32 screw will not fit, but according to the charts on the clippard website, the diameter of the MPA-3P part is larger as well.

cheers

 

[eethan]

hello guys,
the end is very slow progress but I'm still moving forward nicelly on working out the last few kinks.

so, we have a first working prototype for the red buttons lenses, it works very nicelly, I will just make it a tiny bit larger to fill perfectly the inside diameter of the bezel and work on the color more to try to make it match the original that is more saturated and more "fluo" I feel. this is slow process working on colors, but I feel I can get a pretty good result for those lenses now
other brand real red button on the left with its real lens and my first proto lens on the right on a Saia-Burgess button. Very happy with the much more accurate thin dark ring on the outside of the lens
very much work in progress as it's a prototype and the sanding and polishing was very quick there, but I feel I'm on the right path

another good thing, I have been going back and forth and back and forth and a bit crazy with that front face of the torches support I'm talking so much about, trying lots of ways, buying a new tool that I'm still not happy about, and I decided that the only way I was going to be happy with the result was to hand lap the pieces on my guitar frets "shooting board", this is an aluminium rectangle beam that was itself lapped on a precision marble so be perfectly flat and on which I attache self adhesive fine sandpaper.
I'm finally happy about the result! damn, I took my freaking time with this one!

the process in short is, I slide the part gently once, with very little pressure flat on the shooting board with 400 grain, brush the sand paper with the paint brush, slide the part again, brush... then i do the same with 600 grain a few times, then hand brush it with 000 wire wool.
brushing the paper each time is the only way to get a clean result as it will clogg very fast with aluminium and this will result in very ugly scratches on the surface

and here is the result:

I have made some progress with the blue tint as well and will update that on the wip thread.
I hope you like it, thank you for your patience, I really appreciate it, i'm almost there, I swear! this was a very complex project!
cheers

 

[Jordicus]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You're attention to detail is second to none eethan !!! Those torch holders are a work of art! I also can't believe you're getting that level of quality out of the red button lenses. They look really good!

 

[eethan]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You're attention to detail is second to none eethan !!! Those torch holders are a work of art! I also can't believe you're getting that level of quality out of the red button lenses. They look really good!

thank you so much
I'll do better for the red buttons! this is just a prototype! hopefully I can get really close with the color

 

[MandoJedi]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: You're attention to detail is second to none eethan!!! Those torch holders are a work of art! I also can't believe you're getting that level of quality out of the red button lenses. They look really good!

I second that motion!

I have a feeling once I have the kit in hand, I won't want to assemble it for fear of damaging anything!

 

[eethan]

I second that motion!

I have a feeling once I have the kit in hand, I won't want to assemble it for fear of damaging anything!

ahah, thank you!
well yes aluminium is pretty fragile so it will be easy to scratch, but props are supposed to be used and abused right?! they will just look better after a while
It's pretty weird, I'm a real maniac with my guitars, they have to be perfect, but I really don't mind my props getting weathered

 

[MandoJedi]

It's pretty weird, I'm a real maniac with my guitars, they have to be perfect, but I really don't mind my props getting weathered

I have a problem with weathering too! Is there too much, or not enough, is it the right color or colors!!!! I hate when my OCD rears its ugly head!

 

[eethan]

Hey there,
here are today's tries with the red lenses, still not "perfect" but I think i'll go with this as this is the best I'm getting with the time I have. I'll try to put some varnish inside the red lens to see if the result is more uniform and maybe also brings out the white more with any luck!

still a bit rough with my sanding and polishing, I'll try to do better for the final buttons:

and here are the two printed parts on their own:

cheers

 

[Rex Talon]

You're polishing the buttons?! That's more than I think most people would expect

 

[eethan]

Hey guys,
The gaz torches are a go! and their price will be lowered from 45€ to 42,5€ as I managed to find a good source with actual stock and at a good price

I received the first half today, If you have changed your mind about having one or not, it is now or never to tell me so as I'll be ordering the rest of them. This is a big expense for me so I really hope to not have any left in my hands after the run is done and I trust that those that said they wanted one will take one

reply by PM if you changed your mind. today please

as expected, they have a black tip, but the rest is perfectly accurate

cheers

 

[Jordicus]

Jeez eethan , those buttons are looking spot on! I never realized how off the NOS lens actually was, until you did this comparison. Wow man, just wow!

Regards the torches: Did anyone question you buying that many torches? haha

 

[eethan]

hey there,
Jordicus, ahah, no I didn't get any questions for the gaz torches, I just bought 4 here, it must happen all the time for schools or clubs. The real weird thing was when I bought all the stock of maglite spare parts from my tool supplier, all 34 of them! if they are any curious about the orders they prepare, they must have wondered what I was going to do with metal mills tools and 34 lamps

ok, here is a small explaination for those that already have their own gaz torch,

removing the tip is not complicated, but there is a small metal part in the way highlighted in red bollow:

idealy, you can cut it quickly with a jeweller saw:

or if you don't have one, with thin but strong cutters or anything else you can think of. just know that you need to cut that part:

once this is done, you can just use an allen key or anything thin but strong and put it in the air holes in the plastic sleeve in the back:

now that you cut the metal part, it is only restrained by the gaz tube which will just pop out when you unthread the tip.

to be perfectly screen-accurate, I'm removing the rubber O ring to be able to thread it completely to my own brass part. However, I'll be adjusting the parts to the gaz torch tips that I will sell, but if you are not buying the torch from me, I cannot predict how the orientation of the torch will look like when it is fully threaded, a possible solution is that you keep the O ring and if you are lucky, the compression of the rubber itself will allow you to turn the tip in the orientation you want.

here are the first parts adjusted:

and put on their support rod, still need to put the set screw under it to act as pivot for the orientable tip:

cheers guys

 

[eethan]

Hey guys,
did the fitting and mechanism for the torches tip I already have on hand today, super happy with the result, my moving prototype was cool but it was a bit flimsy and moving a bit on his own, the final mechanism is very tight

drilling a hole on the bottom of the brass piece

didn't take photos of all the steps, but after that, i'm fitting the brass and rod part together, then drilling a 2.5mm hole in the aluminium rod in the middle of the brass hole. un-fitting the parts, threading the 2.5mm hole, filing a bit of an angle on one side, fitting the parts again until both holes are aligned, threading the set screw:

and voila!

here are a few close ups on each side, super happy how there is no hole and we can see the aluminium filling completely the slot in the brass part on both sides:

there is also a flat spot on the rod, when installing it, one of the two screws from the rectangular holder piece will go into that slot and when you thread it completely, it will lock in place and orientation the rod at the proper depth into the holder:

and here is one installed on my ZF-1! (the second screw in the back here is the one that locks the rod in place)

cheers

 

[eethan]

hey guys,
I did the one thing I said to someone on the run I wouldn't do to avoid wasting more money on this, and I bought some red lenses that I found that were explicitelly advertised as 18mm in diameter. well, they were 16mm like all the others we find, so that was a waste of time and money as planned!
so, I'm getting back to printing the red lenses and I'm sorry that I can't offer better guys, I really tried!

I'm receiving the additional gaz torches in the next couple days and the first 10 kits should be ready to sell in a few days now
I'll be sending a PM when the time comes to let you know a bit in advance.
cheers

 

[Rex Talon]

I hope you complained to the seller.
Also, do not apologize. Life is about learning by experience. If you take no chances, you're not living. You're doing great. Keep it up.

 

[Jordicus]

eethan oh no, you pulled a Jordicus!! hehe. At least it looked right on your end. Hopefully they'll take them back! Darn that 16mm lens!

 

[OlivierC]

I hope you complained to the seller.

I agree, the label clearly says 18mm. It's like you bought some screws or nuts and they were not the advertised diameter. This is worth a refund

 

[eethan]

i'll see what they say, it's a big shop for proffesionals, so I was afraid they would just say that i ordered without knowing because it also says "for D16", but I checked today, when you click on D16, you can see the push button spreadsheet, and it says 18mm diameter on the diagram... So, yeah, no idea why those lenses are 16mm... anyways, this is only one of several problematic orders that I had for this project

 

[eethan]

Hey guys,
I made the final red button lenses today, I'm pretty happy with the result now, I managed to polish them quickly but pretty nicelly and I put some varnish inside to remove the cloudy effect that I had before.
you can also now see that there are 4 small "indents" on the perimeter of the red lens, just like on the original, those are to attach to the white base. they were not visible before.
took a bunch of photos to show as best as possible what I got:

I hope you'll like it, that the best I could do with the time I had, but i think they turned out pretty OK

I'll be selling those on my website next to the kits for 8€. I hope that's ok, I know this is more expensive than a lens bought on an electronics store, but those are fitting the buttons, pretty accurate and they were quite a bit of work
cheers

 

[Jamesfett]

Do you have a safety cut off so when we push the little red button it does not go boom??