Scratch Build – In Progress Metaversa 02: Ada

Brushed brass. Polished is so gaudy. I've thought about anodising the aluminium, but the problem is finding a company that can give it the exact finish I would like (it's easy for it to go all bright neon-canary yellow and that would be horrendous), unless I get my own kit and start experimenting with dyes. And to be honest, I like the character of bare metals. So I will probably leave it as it is but wax it to protect it from oxidation.

For brass I intend to use renaissance wax --a time-honoured approach. I also have wax from my own beehives.

 

Eyes bulge...

Hand slides into pants...

Hand slides out of pants...

How could you do this to me..?

Worst case of Blue Balls ever...




I like bare metal too but I don't think I have seen a build-log on here with somone doing their own anodisation before either.

Brushed brass over polished brass 100%

 

My apologies for the gratuitous pimp shots. I decided to hook up the LEDs again in the levers to see the effect of my latest work. Rather pleased with the result I dusted off my Nikon D80 and tripod and took some decent photos, which are sharper and more colour-correct than the quick snaps I have hitherto taken on my Lumia 920.



The yellow colour of the LEDs shows up particularly well.







And here an overall shot of the current state of things:

 

Nice, I like the LED's what are the levers going to control?

 

Left lever = power on/off (and LED indicates power, of course); right lever = reset (and LED indicates SSD activity).

 

Ah I see said the blind man

 

You could always clear anodize the aluminum. Will give it a very slight yellowish cast (probably not noticeable next to all that brass anyway), but will protect and harden the aluminum surface. Any shop should be able to clear anodize, but also pretty easy to do at home. Unless you want super industrial strength anodization in which case don't try that at home, but you will lose some of the metal's luster if you go that route anyway.

Incidentally you actually don't want to prevent aluminum from oxidizing - it oxidizes near instantly (~30min), which is what keeps the surface from being damaged or attacked by any chemical nearby (pure aluminum is actually very reactive, it just doesn't stay that way because it oxidizes so fast). Clear anodizing increases the thickness of the oxidation layer, so creates a better barrier . . . colored anodizing just impregnates that oxidation layer with pigment before it's sealed.

Anyway, not sure what your wax will do exactly, but if it prevents oxidation that may be a bad thing for aluminum.

And in case I haven't mentioned it, the build is looking absolutely stunning! I can't wait to see it finished, but then I think I will be sad because there won't be any more updates with new clever little parts you are machining . . .

 

I didn't know that. That's useful to know. Is there a way of anodising or protecting aluminium that keeps its brushed look?

Just wait until you see Camille... I already have (re)designs dancing through my head, and now I have access to affordable CNC and have my own metal working tools, I can make her my next build. I am learning such a lot from building Ada!

 

Looking really good. I love the handles. Looks superb especially all lit up.

 

Reminds me of those Dwarven machines they had in ES Skyrim, top work!

 

The best thing about anodizing is that it retains nearly all the original finish properties of the metal. So brushed will still look brushed with either clear anodizing or colored anodizing. Polished will still look polished, it just looses a tiny bit of luster (or a fair bit of luster if you use type 3 anodizing).

Here is a piece of clear anodized aluminum with a very course polish sitting on the original mill finish stock (ignore the corrosion and crappy surface finish):


Here is a piece of brushed aluminum with a colored anodize (again sitting on top of the original mill finish stock):


I did both of those at home while I was still learning my way through the process, so you can of course get much better results going to a shop or with a bit of practice. Should at least give you an idea of what type of finishes you can achieve though.

 

Aww, Now I want to see Camille, but I want to see this too. Mostly I'm hoping you become a proper serial modder, with none of those breaks in between that can be measured in presidential terms or paleontology epochs.

 

Okay, that does it. I need to get a lathe and a mill...

Incredible work Nexxo. I need to make offerings at the shrine of the brass gods if I am ever to hope to become equally skilled. One of my children should suffice...

 

In the words of Arnie: "Doo eet. Doo eet naaw!"

No sacrifice needed. Brass is a remarkably forgiving material to work with (which may be why it was so popular with Victorian engineers and clock makers). It cuts cleanly and with the right tools shapes easily. I like it better than aluminium, which feels like working with chewing gum in comparison: sticky and prone to clog up your files, drills and saws. And it's very soft so one wrong move and you have a nasty scratch.

 

Thanks for those valuable informations about brass. I hope that one day I'll have somewhere to store and use power tools such as a lathe.

Great job on this project Nexxo. All apologies for the never finished "speedfan data harvester", been a hard year for me.

 

That's OK, I gathered as much. And ALS (the Russian supermodder) has provided me with a nice little program that harvests the relevant data from AIDA64.

Space is of course a problem with metal working tools. But a 14x7" lathe is not very big, yet still quite capable, especially when upgraded with a 100mm chuck. It weighs about 45 Kg. which is manageable. A mid-size mill is also very capable and weighs in at 60Kg. You don't need a lot of space to put them, but you can't just put them in a loft room without being mindful of the weight. Although I have the lathe in mine. I am rather stuck for space myself.

 

But surely, it couldn't hurt?

Agreed. I found it quite easy, albeit labour intensive, to get my ATX backplate done. But nothing I've done comes close to what you have achieved here. Still, you do have that oh so sexy lathe to mess around with.

Out of intereset, and you may have mentioned this but I may not have noticed, how did you strip the nickel plating from your reservoir? I'm toying with the idea of having a solid brass top for the DDC-pump for my second loop. I've not found anyone who makes naked brass tops, but I have found that Phobya makes nickel coated brass tops for the DDC. So I'm wondering how easy it is to get the nickel off.

 

this place sells every thing you could ever want

http://www.caswellplating.com/electroplating-anodizing/metal-strippers.html

The Mill I bought which I consider to be a mid sized Mill weighs in at 120/125 kg and the Lathe I have is really a mini lathe a 8 X 16 and weighs: 75kg

 

Ohh, well, would you look at that. Don't think I could have it delivered to Norway from there, but at least it gives me an idea what to look for. Thanks.

Edit: Turns out they will ship to Norway, but the cost to do so is prohibitive (double the cost of the chemical itself). Looking around to see if anything like this is available locally, but purchase and sale of such things is highly regulated over here as I understand it.

 

If you need it could come to me and I'll forward it on to you. or they have a Europe address

In Europe:
Caswell Europe
http://caswell-europe.co.uk
+44 1420556590

Anvil Europe
C/Enric Morera, nº 33.
08243-MANRESA
SPAIN
Phone +34 938743384
Fax: +34 938735948
anvil.europe@gmail.com
http://www.anvil.es