The Delmonte Endor bunker charge

[thd9791]

So, I took some of that thick plastruct, maybe 2.5 mm or like 1/8 American and used an old black and decker bandsaw to roughly cut the shape. More specifically…


I used an inside caliper, like a compass with outward facing prongs to get the diameter of the ridges these pieces sit in. Then I divided that by two and set a compass to that radius. I scratched the circle in and traced it in fine sharpie. That was enough to go to the bandsaw.

I then drilled a little hole for a screw where the center hole was, and put it on my mini lathe. I used some needle files to clean up the edges…

I kinda messed up trying to JB weld these things in the cone sections, and thought I was blocking drilling the vent holes for a second, quickly drilled them, and realized I had nothing to worry about anyway. It was a weird evening.

Today I wired up a cool harness. The original RS lamps are like 12v neon tubes, so I took that out and I’m going to put 3v LEDs in there instead. (Thank you Poikilotherm for alerting me) so I grabbed my soldering station, some old wires I saved from some scanning electron microscope equipment, and made a circuit! I don’t have a lot of quick connectors so I made Y connections

And either because of the resistance between the LEDs or how they came, one is a hair slower than the other or something! Makes the effect more interesting.

 

[thd9791]

I got this at a thrift store, one of those cluttered ones that kinda act like a hardware store, knitting store, jewelery and bookstore lol (as opposed to more department style thrift clothing stores)

 

[thd9791]

Okay folks, so I explored my “water bottle” top, which I cut from a stainless water bottle. I had already sharpied the exposed areas and stuff beforehand, so I put it on a wooden block and drilled out the access holes for the electronics.

Now, I had to also drill out the pot knob, and in doing so realized all the stuff stacked on the switch had to be locked down.

(The long stem switch I got from a surplus industrial store)

I did grind a flat and used the included set screw to hold the knob in place, but that’s not what you turn on the prop! I made myself a shaft collar from a 1960s adding machine to hold it all down, but the gray thing could still spin, and then I used very thin superglue to wick in between everything. Cut off the excess and it seems to be rock solid now

Seen here with my “too small” vintage furniture feet

 

[thd9791]

Spoke too soon, cut the rotary switch shaft too short and everything got stuck on the shaft. I need a new RS knob, new V8 part and new rotary switch, which I have to de-solder and re-solder my wires to…

Also smashed my head trying to find part of an RS knob that got caught and flung. I’m walking away for a bit

 

[woodywaverider]

Not sure I’ve shared this image before, they are sofa sliders/casters also - closest thing I’ve come across, all I can remember is they weren’t the right size either and I think they were italian

 

[thd9791]

Okay, I grabbed an older c&k rotary switch to re do this circuit. After drilling out the lid I cut and re-soldered the leads to the new switch.

I also found another v8 part in my boxes and drilled and tapped a 0-80 screw hole because this shaft is a D and I don’t want to use glue again lol

 

[Halliwax]

Following with interest Tom, keep up the great work

 

[thd9791]

I think this was a size 1 and not 0… but I carved up a set screw and made a little recess for the head

Now, we’re looking like this