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

[eethan]

eethan , I can't thank you enough for sharing your process along the way. It's like we're inside your brains! hehe. It's pretty incredible seeing the solutions you come up with for puzzles along the way. Thank you for sharing!

Thank you and you are welcome! I wouldn't imagine doing it another way, I love sharing my progress and passion about the objects i'm making! This project has been my whole life every day for the past 2 months and a half and I want to share a bit of what it was like so that it's a bit more than just a kit of aluminium parts and there is a bit of story attached to it
cheers and thank you for your support

 

[Jamesfett]

I feel like Eethan is just getting started.

Let's see how much we all like him a few years downs the road when we have to cash out our retirement funds to buy all the things he makes. Oh sure, you can claim we don't have to buy them. That's like throwing a pile of drugs in front of an addict and saying don't have any of that.

 

[eethan]

Hey there

I want to say that I did it again, because that's how I feel tonight!
there was something I really wasn't looking forward to and it was doing the 76 slots for the wings on the rockets. well, this was boring and tiring but it went pretty smoothly, and I'm glad this is now done! this is also one of the few last steps left on that run, we are getting closer, and I apologize again that this is a bit delayed.

here we go, that was a bit of a complex setup and it took me a while to align everything properly!

I'm really happy because I was afraid the fact that the tubes are only 2mm thick would be an issue to hold the wings straight, but it turns out the 1mm slitting blade did a perfect job of doing a very tight 1.2mm slot for the 1.2mm wings (nice flaw in that tool! for once) and I put my own wings on my tube without glue and it's a pretty tight and perfectly straight result, couldn't be happier!
I guess people should put a bit of glue for their wings, but I'm happy that the fit is really good as is

just to be clear, this is the most "kit" part of the kit. Most of the parts on the kits are drop in replacement and will actually already be assembled together even, but this one requires the wings from Jake's kit to be attached to, and depending on if you have the normal printed version of the ZF-1 or the deluxe kit, or even a real rocket, you'll need to adjust the rocket tip to my tube to make them fit nicelly.
In my case, I have the filament printed rocket tip and I just put a bit of thick tape around it until it was a snug fit, worked perfectly

cheers

 

[MandoJedi]

I feel like Eethan is just getting started.

Let's see how much we all like him a few years downs the road when we have to cash out our retirement funds to buy all the things he makes. Oh sure, you can claim we don't have to buy them. That's like throwing a pile of drugs in front of an addict and saying don't have any of that.

I agree 100%! I can't wait to see were eethans' new found obsession takes him.

 

[Jamesfett]

I agree 100%! I can't wait to see were eethans' new found obsession takes him.

Down deep into the lowest, hidden, secret levels of our wallets.

 

[eethan]

Hello guys,
so, let's discuss a bit seriously for once (after the photo below)
(sorry in advance for the bold characters, I know that I tend to talk to much so I'm just trying to find ways to work around that and make your life easier)

Here is a photo of where we are tonight, machining is 95% done, just a few steps left, the end is always troublesome and I am sorry for the small delay!

SO, I have a bit of a good news and a bit of a bad news for the price, hear me out, nothing too bad, I promise!

I obviously am a bit optimistic as you probably guessed, it's one of my flaws and quality if I may say, if I wasn't optimistic, I would never bring projects like this to the community, however, that same optimism also tends to make me assume I'll go a bit faster than what really happens in the end.

I now have a few days of work extra from what was anticipated, and to be completely honest, I had a big surprise yesterday with the rocket tubes/fins/support assembly, I thought everything was matching my plans closely but crazily enough, the rockets were sitting a good 2mm too high on the adjusted finished support! I had to adjust each support, dry fitting, adjusting, until it was perfect today. It was a very stressful last minute issue and I'm glad this is now resolved.

ok, so, I promised the kits would be maximum 380€ and my optimism made me say mid way that they should probably be less, but in the end, I'm asking for all your comprehenssion and sympathy for all the hard and passionate work that I did for that run, and I hope that it would be ok to stick to 380€ for the base kit. I said that I would not do more than that and I'll not despite the extra time taken, but I can realistically not do less either, I'm sorry.

I really hope that this will be ok for everyone, I hope that my work and all the pictures and explainations that I showed all along the way can show how hard I worked and speak for themselves.

now, a bit of a good news to even things out. since we are almost done, I was able to simulate a package with a kit and it turns out that we are just under 1kg. So, if you remember when I discussed the shipping cost that was pretty expensive for things like that, I'm happy to repport that in the end we will be in the lower bracket of what I announced
this means,
UK: 23€ instead of 25.6€
Europe: 19.5€ instead of 22€
and US and this is where it gets really interesting: 38€ instead of the dreaded 52€
so that's a good 14€ saved for the US customers and I hope that you can feel better paying me 10€ extra for my hard work instead of the 14€ just disapearing into the always expensive international shipping costs.

I will be sending a group PM later tonight or tomorrow with a few choices to make regarding the composition of the kits with the extra options if you want them. Just to make sure that I can organize that properly, please look out for that

thanks a lot for reading me and I hope this is ok for everyone. I'm sure that you guys will love the kits, and once again, I'm so gratefull for what Jake brought us and for being able to work on adding more coolness to his kit for everyone and I hope you guys are as excited as I am for those ZF-1 with improved metal parts, it is a dream come true for me and I hope you'll feel the same when you have them in hand
cheers

 

[MandoJedi]

Oh my God! You are charging what you said you were possibly going to charge us for this spectacular kit? HOW DARE YOU! LOL

Man, you have got to be kidding! With all the time, effort, and craftsmanship you have put into this project I'm surprised your original quote was not higher. Now get back to work!

 

[Jordicus]

418€ shipped to the US? For all the amazing machining work and research you've done? All during a time where globally materials costs are skyrocketing? Still seems like the deal of the century to me! You're much too hard on yourself eethan , the price is exactly what you said it would be, even cheaper with your new shipping charges!

 

[Jamesfett]

I'll pay whatever you want, just end my suffering. Send me the metal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[sharpnel]

This is more than I could've imagined. Your cost is well worth every pennies. I'm honor to be part of the experience and ride. Thank you and bill me please

 

[MechRep]

Another hit to the wallet that I am more than willing to take!

 

[eethan]

thank you so much for your understanding and support guys, it means a lot, thank you!

 

[eethan]

I'm preparing the PM to discuss the option, sorry this is a super long message and I tried my best to be clear.

I'm joining photos here of the parts in question to make sure no one is confused by which part is which,

the red buttons I have, 3 on the left are RS components, the one on the far left has the back piece removed to make it more accurate, it's just two screws to remove. the two on the right are NOS from another brand and come with a red lens already installed:

the proxxon gaz torch I'm using and can possibly provide. it is very accurate except for the black tip instead of white that most gaz torch now have, even though they can be white on the stock photos on website:

the clippard parts, with two added holes for assembly:

the torches holder (WIP, still need the large front face to be cleaned by a new tool):

cheers

 

[eethan]

Hi everyone,
I have started to receive a good part of the answers from people regarding the choices to make on the options, thank you to those who replied already for your quick answers

so far, everyone has requested option 2 with clippard parts and added torch holder. I didn't anticipate this would happen and have only 10 of those part available. On top of that there has been a lot of requests for red buttons and gaz torches.

so,
- gaz torches, I'll wait for everyone to answer and will order them, if the website I have found has enough stock, this should be ok.

- red buttons, this is more difficult, the price from RS has more than doubled since I bought the ones I have, I need to see if my red lenses prints are successful, then we need to decide if we go ahead with a more expensive price for that option (probably 65€ now).

- torches holder, I'm sorry, I had no idea that, so far, everyone would want that part that I added later on, I didn't want to push 60€ more onto the kits without giving you guys the choice, so I did only 10 of them thinking that not everyone would want them. If this continues and it turns out mostly everyone wants them, I'll either have to delay the whole run to do 8 more, or sell the first 10 kits to those that replied first and delay the next 8 kits until the holders are done.

- clippard parts, same as the torches holders, I had only 10 of them. I assumed some people would want to buy them directly and try to get lucky and save a bit on them. I guess that the fact that I'm managing to offer all 3 parts already ready to install for 35€ with no hassle for you was a good deal in the end. So, I can easily source the main MJV-3 part and do the holes on them, however, it will probably take a long time to get there so that would be the same as the holders, we could delay 8 kits and wait for me to receive the parts. I'm not sure for the MPA-3 and L fittings though.

I'm sorry, this run is really hard to handle because of the large number of different parts, the choices to take...
I'll wait until I get all the answers to my PMs and keep you posted.
cheers

 

[Jamesfett]

No worries, stop apologizing. Everyone understands. This is an amazing run. However you need to proceed will be fine with everyone.

 

[eethan]

thanks Jamesfett and everyone for your comprehenssion, I really have to commend everyone on that run for being so nice and comprehenssive. I also had two people spontaneously proposing to help source parts or print red lenses for the buttons, thank you so much guys

so, today, I finished the rocket tubes, that is done!
After some carefull measurements, I was able to source a tap set of the proper size for the gaz torch tip. I received it today and it's the good size! so I tapped all the parts for that too. My prototype was done with a "close" enough tap that I had on hand but I couldn't do that for the run, but this was a very exotic thread size, M9 x 0.75, weird stuff. No photos for all that, sorry.

finally, I printed the white support part that go into the real red buttons to hold the red lenses, "just" need to print the red lenses now. The red lens and white support on the left are real parts, they are from the other, non RS brand. but the white part is a bit small to be completely accurate, so my model is based on the same principle, but larger

I'm waiting for a few answers to PM still, I hope i'll get them soon to order the needed MJV-3 clippard part for everyone since I under-estimated that everyone would want them.
we are moving forward despite the last difficulties!

cheers

 

[eethan]

Hello guys,
Just to keep you posted,
all this needs to be confirmed when the parts are actually in hand, but we are moving forward for the missing found parts,
I have managed to secure 9 more clippard MJV-3 parts for the same price as before and found enough of the L fittings to modify and make accurate in my big lot of parts that I purchassed at the begining of the run, I'll not be sourcing the MPA-3 part that goes in the middle though, if you are in the US, they are easy to find for cheap. if you are not in the US, I hope you can get one of the first 10 kits that will have all the parts.

the second source I had for the gaz torches had just one in stock in the end so it was a no go as well but I managed to find a 3rd source in Germany and they sent me 4 that I ordered right away, if I receive them and all is good, I'll purchasse the rest needed for everyone that was interested, but I figured I had some time for that as the clippard parts are coming from the US and will take a while, and the gaz torch are coming from Germany with DPD so they should be here in a couple of days

All this means that I'll put 10 kits for sale as soon as they are finished and the 8 others as soon as I receive the clippard parts from the US and can drill and tap them. I'll give the priority to the 4 kits that are going out to Jake as he needs to move forward and I don't want to be delaying him. after that, I think the priority should go to European customers if they are any as i'm not sure of all the addresses yet, people in Europe will have trouble sourcing the clippard parts on their own so it would be nice for them if they could get them from me directly please send me a PM or setup your shipping address on my website so I can see you are in Europe

I wasn't home today so no progress appart from that, I hope the red button lenses prints will be successful and I will be able to provide everything for everyone then

cheers

 

[Rex Talon]

When I look up "Clippard MPA-3" I get options for inlet sizes and thread. Which ones are correct?

 

[eethan]

When I look up "Clippard MPA-3" I get options for inlet sizes and thread. Which ones are correct?

hey,
I think the MPA-3 has just one size, the MPA-3P is different, that's what I can find on their website.
In any case, they both have the same 15/32-32 thd thread on the large opening side that will thread directly to the MJV-3 block. but on the other side, and that must be the "inlet", we need the 10-32 threads, that is the screws that I bought and will provide in the kit.
I hope this helps

 

[Rex Talon]

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.