TribalOVERKILL's LiquiD EVOLUTION

Welcome! Say hello to sPL932G! A very simple, quick to make design but extremly useful It's a DUAL cylindrical reservoir! Check it out,...

May-15-2006

Here I already cut myself a piece of tube. I think I cut off enough so that the body of the reservoir is 4" when done, say about 4-3/4 I cut off. I used the table sander and ground down both ends of the tubes so they were flat and even. I stopped at about 4-1/4" in length. I then cut a PERFECT clear pane of acrylic. Now when I say perfect I mean pefect. The pane has to be a tid bit wider then the ID of the body. The pane has to have an even width at both ends to! I used the ruler-ruler method to cut it close to the width I need and then sanded the rest of the way. I sanded down to 400grit. Once I was done I squeezed the body and slid it in. I let go and it was a perfect hold! It pretty much centers itself! I ran some weld-on #4 along the edges of the pane and it's sealed tight now! It's not coming out.


Now this is important. The pane or what is now a plain,... has to be longer then the body. Reason being,... so that the body and the plain can be ground down to the target 4" together. This is so that the ends are completely flush so when mated with the end caps, I'll know everything will seal up nicely


Flush.


So simple but so cool! so perfect too. You have no idea.


Here I glued the end caps on and begun sanding. There's POD254z.


800grit.


Polished.


Both sPL932G and POD254z.


Sealed.


Now picture running two loops with two different UV colors! WICKED!

 

So the fountian didn't work. I'm pissed. I have to figure this out. I know whats wrong I just have to think long and hard about it. I have to understand it completely to figure this out. The are other methods for creating a fountian effect but this is the method I really really wanted. Just need time to think. I'm going to push this one off to the side for now and start another. Here's whats happening,...

May-20-2006 (POD254z)

I explain at the end but for now,... here's the new shaft or the old one just modified. The see the grooves I cut, they are keep the system from pushing all the water up through the shaft. It's worked But didnt. LOL.


I put the grooves just above the bubble rnig should any bubbles pass through the grooves. I still dont know if the bubble ring works! I know it does but I want to see it work


All back together. Thats my breath you see on the inside, not 800grit wet sand


Now,... this is how much water I wanted inside the reservoir at all times. The water that movoes up the shaft and down the walls hits the bubble ring keep the moving water from splashing therefore preventing the bubbles. With the new shaft I know it would of worked because the amount of falling water was greatly reduced.


Heres the reservoir in action. As you can see to get it to run at all I had to fill the reservoir up alot higher then planned. You see all the bubbles. That because the bubbles ring is submerged.


Coming out of the top of the shaft.


Bubbles, lots of them. Noisy too.


Failure.


Ok,... here is whats happening. I wanted it where you only had to have a minimal amount of water inside the reservoir so you could get more of a fountain effect. Now,... when the system isnt running the water inside the shaft is level with the actual reservoir water. When you turn it on,... the pump starts pushing water up the shaft and down the walls. Now, thereis air in the space above the water that will be filled with water soon enough. Where the water thats going to fill that empty space? In the pump. Once the pump fills that space with water where is it going to get water from to fill itself back up? In the reservoir. So as the water moves up through the shaft, the water below the ring moves down, being pulled into the pump. Buts theres not enough water there. So the pump takes in air instead which then keeps the pump from pumping. Understand? So I have to fill it up more to compensate for the space that will be filled by filling it with more water. The more the water inside the less of the fountain you'll see and the more bubbles that will form. Sucks doesnt. I'll figure this out. Like I said though, there are other ways of making a fountain,... if I cant get this way to work I'll do another.


I have to work some OT the next couple of days so there wont be any real activity going on over here. We'll see.

 

Ok,... so POD still doesn't work. I'll figure this out. For now I'm going to put her aside and keep moving on. I really need time to think POD through. I know there a way. I just have to figure it out.

May-24-2006 (POD254z)

Here's the baffle or cover I ws going to make to keep the port from sucking upwards. I didnt do it because I had a gut feeling it wouldnt work. So I tried something else.


Instead,...


Yeah,.... you like it The whole idea is to get the port to suck in all the water in that chamber evenly. The holes are progressive. The smallest holes by the port itsel;f and the larger ones farther away. What cant get sucked through the smaller holes gets sucked through the larger holes next to the smaller holes and it keeps on going like that. It's to even out the vacuum. i think it worked too. I dont remember right off the top of my head. It's been like two days since I tried it plus alot went on inside the reservoir. I'll explain it a minute.


Now,... the reason why I'm putting off the reservoir for a while is because I cant open it open like I was doing before. Reason #1 is because evertime I open her up and made new parts I had to sand down the outside and I dont want ot wear the sides to thin. Reason #2 is because the disc I just made get sealed to the shaft like sooooo. This was actually very cool. This is just to prove what I have been saying all along,... filing/ sanding is the finest means of cutting. Cut away the tape for the hole and made sure it was a bit smaller then the diameter of the shaft just to be sure. I used the scroll saw to cut away as much of it as possible. I then sanded thehole to size. Just big enough to squeeze the shaft into the hole. It ws a perfect fit! Snug as hell.


Roll pof sand paper I used to sand the hole open.


Here the vacuum chamber glued together.


Heres the whole thing back together again. Notice there are two chambers now,... a vacuum chamber and the reservoir chamber.


Problem but not really. I forgot that I added length to the reservoir and the shaft is alot shorter now. But this is not a problem.


Here's the whole thing down. I havr to flush it out. acrylic dust inside.


Here's a problem. The grooves are below the bubble ring now. When I ran it there was a larger bubble caught below the bubble ring. I am pretty sure its the grooves being under it that caused this.


Last shot. It's very pretty to look at and very well put together. To bad it doesnt work at the moment.


Now,... this is the wierd thing. When I first turn it on it takes in air but not as much. It can still see the pump pumping. the water is coming out of the the grooves but theres not enough pressure to get the water up the shaft. But there is some water up the shaft just buncing around. Now,... if I let it sit while running. It's weird but I guess pressure build up the pump letting go of some of the bubbles and out of no where and the water will blast out of the top of the shaft. But its real quick. Air gets back into the pump and it will do it again. It was kind of fun to watch. It was very random. lol. The main reason the pump was taking in air is because there was a large bubble below the bubble ring and because of that there was more water above the ring which caused my buble when the fountain would work. I'm blaming that on the grooves being below the ring. So I cant tell whether it does work or not. If the grooves were above th ring you think it might work? Well,... off the start it still takes in air. Hmmm. I dont know. I have to think this through. I have another reservoir planned. I have several actually but one at a time I haven't posted this in all the forums yet but I have found a studio that we will be opening probably early next month. I am going to put blackout off tothe side until the shop opens. Once it up and running smoothly I will double time it and get blackout finished. Thats my goal. I want to start a custom computer I have planned. I need to finish BO first. Once I have this studio running,... all you locals can feel free to stop by. You can probably even mod some of your stuff there too! Details for all this will will be at the tribaloverkill.acryan site thats being designed right now. I'll let you guyz know when it's up and running for your viewing pleasure. PEACE! Oh,... and Sponge Bob, He'll be there too With all his little torturable friends,... MUH HA HA HA HA H!!! SB is kind of messed up. I might have to get some more SB dolls, lol.

 

New reservoir, hAF534T. Let get started, lots of pics.

May-27-2006 (hAF534T)

Grinding a cylinder to be used for the reservoir.


A good finished surface after grinding. Here's trick I just realized,... when grinding acrylic with a sander like this, put tape on the acrylic where your grinding. The tape prevents melted build from forming. Cool eh?


Exactly 4". Damn I'm good.


Marking a line to cut the cylinder in half long ways. I'm using a tri-ruler on the table to mark a straight line. Straight, very important.


See the lines lined up nicely? I used a special ruler thing that finds the center of tubes and such. Going to cut in between the lines.


You see how I taped the ruler to the table like so? To keep the ruler from moving/ lifting while marking. Straight, very important


Cut right smack dab in the middle. Nice.


Used a mini hack.


AHHHHHHH!!! AHHH! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Saw. No friggin way I could do it. I'd end up dying in that nasty poopy bathroom.


Cut comppletely in half. See how even they are,... straight lines, very important.


Cutting away a thin thin strip of tape on each side. Whatever acrylic is exposed will be ground away. This is how I will get a nice even finsh on the edges.


Bottoms.


New tools. You guyz know what these are. I got tired of step drilling so I got these to drill once per hole. Just choose your size and drill


And the reason you can drill once with out stepping it up is because these are designed to scrape to cut. Perfect for acrylic


You see, no gouging here. A flat cutting surface.


You see the little slope thing,... thats what does most of the cutting. scrapes its way through,...


I had to alter it or MOD it though. The bit was to long. When I put it on the drill press and turned it on, so wobbly. So I cut off almost all the slack and now it hard steady. Cuts great!


Nice. You have to becareful with starting the drill though,... the very tip doesnt really cut all that much so it tends to just cause friction which melts the acrylic to the blade. You'll have to cut the acrylic off once that happens. Use water or cutting oil too. you dont have to but it helps.


Baffles,... makes sure the bubbles reach the top instead of being sucked intothe out port. I glued them together to cut them together. What a time saver.


Everything glued in place.


Excess acrylic ground away with sander.


Everything ground together to form a flush mating surface. Yum.


So flawless.


Oh yea. Thats cool looking. LOL.


I believe it's been sanded to 400grit here.


Polished.


It's not done. I'm going to finish it or them tomorrow Till then,... GAWD, I cant wait to make the next one after this. It's going to be HOT! OH, some pics of the studio we might be renting very soon,...

Just outside shots. Forgot my camera when I went inside. It basically two 12'x12' rooms, a suite. One room being an office and the other being a mini warehouse thing,... its just an open room with concrete flooring. Office has carpet. 10' high ceiling and a nice 10' bay door. I ask him if he could upgrade the power to 230 so I can TIG in there. He said he'll talk to the electrician. I was told that its easy. If I cant TIg weld,... we're going to have a problem. I'll probably rent it monthly until I find anoter place where I can weld. Anyways.

 

DONE! hAF534T is done. Check it out.

May-29-2006 (hAF534T)

If you haven't guessed by now,... this reservoir is only half of what the other reservoirs are, LOL. Stupid joke but seriously. It's only half a normal reservoir. I wanted something that you could mount flush against anything really. It's thin, narrow and very sexy I love it. Now the first couple of pics are the first attempt. I broke the backings you see in this pic while drilling. My lazy A@# didnt clamp it down while drilling. I held it and I wasnt using acrylic drill bits. So it gouged and lifted the backings up while I was pushing down. It broke off that corners. I swear,... I have the garage door open, all everyone heard outside was FUUUUUU@#!! LOL.


Going to look great. There are two backing here as I said before. They are taped and glued together. saves time.


Cut out and sanded to shape. this was the last pic I took before breaking the damn things.


Here where I begun to remake them. This time I drilled before cutting it out and I clamped it down like a good little boy There extra material around the drilling site because I havent cut and sander it away. The extra material adds stength for the drilling even though I didnt really need it I figured why not.


WHAM! All done.


you know you like it


I love the shape of it,... its very beautiful.


Baffle. You can run this thing with the water line just above the baffle But of coarse your going to fill this biatch up so she's lit


Very nice and very flawless.


I made two of these just for the hell of it. Maybe ACRyan would want it I dont know. I might just give it away Maybe I'll throw a little contest for it or something I dont know. Anyways,... NEXT! Going to start another tomorrow when I get home! ARGH!!! I have so many to make! I feel like I cant make them fast enough!!! The one im making tomorrow will have you at your knees Im going to make two of them too. till then. Oh,... I'm goign to get pics of the inside of the new shop soon. I'm hoping to have this place open and running by next month. I have to move out into my new place/ home so I want to do one at a time not both at the same time. LOL.

 

Ok,... time for another flow indicating reservoir. I call this one,...... RPL213u! LOL. Creative huh? One with the show,...

May-31-2006 (RPL213u)

Had this all in my littel head but I drew it out last night while at work. It's a reservoir witha spinning inside like the first one but this one projects the reservoirs core light at set intervals. Meaning,... as the inside spins it flashes four beams of light in two positions, 0 degrees and 45 degrees of the reservoirs center. This will create a strobe like rotating light. It will make you sick. LOL. Probably not but the cool thing is that if you look at it just right it will also look like the light is spinning the the oposite direction of the reservoir.


New bottom thrust block thingy,... I redesigned it a bit. It will slow down the insides. Different angle, much steeper.


Here's how it's going to work. It's going to work via fiber optics The very outside panels will be made of the tinted acrylic I have. They will be held together with 1/8" clear acrylic. The clear acrylic is whats going to carry the light from the core and project it outside the reservoir. The core being UV blue this time, will be a tideous to make, 8 point star. That wil give you the 0 and 45 degree lighting positions. The core or star will be dusted (maybe) with the edges polished. The idea is to get as much light out through the polished edges. The dusting the surface helps to hold light in then I will do it if not then no. Once the barrel spins around the the clear fiber optic tranfer lol,... ARGH! The friggin clear things that hold the tinted things together lines up with the UV blue edges the light will flash through. That is going to be a pain to make and I have to make two of them.


Heres the tinted 1/4 panel and the friggin fiber clear thing that bring light from center to out. ha ha. The thing you see connected the the clear tranfer whatever is the tube to this thing will spin on. I dont know if I will use a whole tube, I dont know.


4" body. Easy. I forgot to make two, damn. Have to go back and make another.


Here's the bottom disc thrust thing. I'm basically going to grind away everything up to the top line. Then peel away the tape between those two line and then grind that down on the new angle. Problem,.......... none of my equipment supports this new angle so I have to improvise. Sucky.


Going to grind the clear down on the new angle. I not going to to make it sharp. I have to leave and 1/8" flat at the top to achieve the right angle. How I figured that out,.. i'm to friggin tired to explain. Try me later. LOL.


Ok,.... so yea. The piece in that last picture,... F'ed it up. That and another one. I dont khave to a way to hold it evenly and firmly without griunding my finger tips off. Plus the piece was over heating and losing it's shape. So I came up with this. A tape hinge. LOL. It worked but I have to perfect it a bit.


You just push it up ther against the wheel. The bottom of the piece is harnessed with tape so it cant move any close to the wheel. Only the top moves close to the wheel. Am I grinding and the right angle? I dont friggin know. I just glad that I'm grinding at an angle thats less then 45 degrees. LOL.


You have to be careful not to heat it up tomuch because #1, it will bow and lose it's shape #2, it gets sticky and gets pulled on really hard by the wheel leaving you with an uneven grind.


Thats a pretty even grind there. I just wish there was a more accurate way of doing this, a milling machine


Here's what the finish block will look like, kind of. I'm not using this one because its messed up plus I have to perfect this system here because I have to make two identical ones.


Tomorrow I will get back on it. Friday I have to do some OT because Im getting behind on my bills, again so I wont be able to do any work that day. Sat I will be free to do this. Mon I will not be because I am doing another 16 hours of OT to pay my damn bills. ARGH! Anyways,... till then guyz! TRIBALOVERKILL over and OUT! I want to start using another name too,... I think I mentioned this before, C.V.R.IV. It's my intials. So I will start referring to myself as that too. Ok? C.V.R.IV out.

 

WHO'S THE MANNNNNNNNNNNN! Whats an amazing update. I'm so excited. LOL. I did it! Check it out,...

Jun-01-2006 (RPL213u)

Here's the new design for the bottom thrust plate. I thought this up last night at work. Doesn't explain much but you'll see.


I'm going to use the drill press to tackle this task. It's the only piece of machinery that will allow me to cut at an angle less then 45 degrees so I have to use it. But How? Here I am lining up a rail with the chuck. In the chuck is a straight aluminum rod. I know it's straight because when you turn the press on it doesnt wobble when it spins. Anyways,.. I want the rail absolutely perpendicular to the chuck. I'm using a right angle to test for that.


Theres the rod in the chuck.


Now im going to use the largest hole cutting bit I have which is 1-1/4". I have to mod it for this type of work though, LOL. Here I am going to use this cutting disc I got from Bill(mnpctech.com), THANKS BILL! I'm going to pull a bobbit and cut off most of the cutting bit's shaft. I'm doing this so when Im cutting, the bit is sturdy and doesnt jump around. If it does it could snap off a kill me.


I also have to grind off the point on this thing. I dont need it.


Now,... I though I could get away with just cutting off the tip but it stills needs more work. The bit's surface is a bit concaved. So if I was using it, it would leave rings in the acrylic. I need it flat. Let me explain real quick. I'm goignto use the press like a milling machine. With a milling machine you lock down your work and slide your work into the cutting bit using cranks and such. I cant do that with the press so I going to feed the bit to the work. It's like drilling a HUGE hole using a flat bit. Nice and flat.


I then ground a new cutting edge. See. Remember,... you want to scrape to cut acrylic. If this bit was to gouge like a regular bit,.. the acrylic would literally explode in the face. Even with the bit ground right I was still afraid of that.


Here's the first run. Now,... the way all this works is that the acrylic piece slides along the rail using it's flat back that I gave it. The rail is use so I dont have to adjust he height of the acrylic on the table. I just slide it across for each cut. Secondly,... I figure out how much travel I want the bit to go. Once I figure that out I lock that position using the press's lock thingy. So when I pull down on the arm the bit wont go past that point. At this point all I have to do is slide the acrylic over by about 1/4" at a time until I reach the end line. I have to make sure the bit doesnt catch the table too. The bit would snap right off.


Here's one side done. You see the chip,... LOL, I was figure out the bit travel the edge of the bit was resting of the acrylic. When I was pushing down it wouldnt go. I was like what the hell? So I pulled down hard,.. CRACK. I swear I almost had a baby! But the chip doesnt fall in the area in which I need so it's all good. PHEW!


Look how precise. I'm mean for what I have thats friggin good! LOL.


Look at that perfect angle. So yummy. When you pull down to cut YOU HAVE TO GO SLOW! If you sneeze and pull to hard, you work WILL explode in your face.


Ok,.. skipping to the end,... done. Well not really but for the day.


Look how beautiful that is compared to the last one. THIS is why I do not settle. Because there is almost always better. Never gie up. Try try try again.


I drew this last night at work. I was pondering how the hell I would pull this off and this is what I came up with. The best part is that its a one piece design as oppose to what I was trying, which was two pieces. NAILED IT!


So yea,... this is all im doing today because I am really tired and I have to work 16 hours at the hospital tomorrow. I need my sleep for that. Peace out.

 

Ok,... so I didn't go to work today for OT. The hospitals census is low anyways so they probably would of said no. I'm definately going to try tomoor though. Anyways,... Check it out. Oh this update is for some of today. There's going to be another update early in the morning(for me atleast) that will cover the rest of the day and night.

Jun-02-2006 (RPL213u)

Perfecto. I cut down the bit again making sure it was perfectly straight and even on each side. I think I mentioned before that the center of this bit does not cut, so I removed it. Why did i remove it? Because it doesnt cut Seriously though, it doesnt cut, it leaves circular scratches and gouges. With the center ground away like this I wont have to worry about that I'm going to name this bit I'm going to call it the,... "Damn, I wish I had a milling machine" bit. Manufactured by tribaloverkill, of course Or should I say designed by TRIBALOVERKILL manufactured by A.C.Ryan LOL.


Nothing like a nice clean grind LOL.


Check out the cutting angle. I gave it less angle this time too for strength.


Anyways,... WHAM! To identical spin block thingies.


This is where I am right now. I fused the very bottom block thingie to another 1/4" disc. This thing will be the bottom portion of the reservoir that will spin the contents. You remember the first block on the reservoir with the coil? The blocks overal height was 7/8". The new blacks height is only 1/2" How cool is that The spin should be slower then the first reservoir but I have a feeling it will only be a bit slower. But thats ok. Im still very happy with the new look and height.


Going out real quick to get some more sand paper, a coffee, a Gelati from Rita'sl, some Corona and I think thats it? Till then.

 

OMG I had went to bed. I was so tired I couldnt even think. I was falling asleep in the shop! I couldnt even write the update! LOL. Well,... here's what I was able to do.

Jun-03-2006 (RPL213u)

First, here sPL932G. I got some UV coloring in the mail today so I filled her up. Looks cool eh? This reservoir to broken. First,... I think I tapped the holes to deep because the barbs got sucked all the way into the holes while tightening them but I don't know why I would do that? These other plugs seemed to fit better so I'm thinking the plugs that I was using were smaller then I thought. for now on I'm going to stop very early when tapping the holes to compensate for the different lengths of plugs and barbs. Thats crazy though because the ones that are longer will stick out more


Here I'm drilling the port holes. I'm using the flat cutting bit again. I tried using water this time as oppose to a bit of oil and it cut so much better! The idead is that you want to keep the acrylci cool! The water also lubes a bit too. You see the acrylic strands? Thats how you know you are seriously cutting well. I mentioned this a while back when working on blackout.


Here are the holes all drill out. Notice the slight angle with the two outter holes. It's perfect! The reservoir is going to spin a lot slower this time. Very nice.

 

I didn't go to work tody because they didnt need me but I am about to go to work right now. 8 hours of Ot is better then nothing Anyways, this is a good update.

Jun-04-2006 (RPL213u)

Using the router today. Here I have it all setup to begin making the core of the reservoir. I have to cut a strip of acrylic thats atleast 32" long with an overall width of 1/4". Easy, Iv'e done it before but this time,... one side has to have a 45 degree angle FUN! Thats going ot be kind of hard because one side of the strip will have the 1/4" width while the other side will only have a width of what,... 3/16". Damn.


I have to stop skipping around like this. Done. They are done. It wasn't all that hard either. If you set it up right it will work just fine.


1/4", 45 degree angle. Nicely done.


Now this is pretty cool. This gives me ideas It's reminds me of the movie "The Fly". Maybe aliens? I dont know.


All 16 pieces ready to go. All about 4.25" long.


Holding it together, this is what I'm shooting for.


Next to the tube it will be going inside.


With some fine tuning she'll go in nicely.


Get in there,...


I have all the pieces for two of these bad boys all except the bubble chamber rings. I'll make those another time. I want to make the cool stuff first.


Going ot work,... I'll be working on this when I get home. Peace out!

 

Did some work today. Didn't really feel like it seeing that am tired as hell. Anyways,... pictures.

Jun-05-2006 (RPL213u)

Here are the pieces for one of the cores,.... sanded and ready to go.


Done. Well,... not really done but glued together. I like it. I just thought it would of fit together better.


Just got done sanding the length down to size.


Testing it out. Definitely looks cool but I have a feeling its not going to do what I want it to do.


Working on the second core. Here I just got done gluing two pieces together.


Both done with length sanded to size.


Using some 400grit wet sand, actually I took it up to 800grit this time, which would be extra extra fine


Here I sanded the grooves with 400grit and polished the raised portions.


Polished the end some. Need more work.


More testing. I dont think it's going to work right. I need it to pulse. The light is all over the place so I dont think it will pulse all that well. So what Im going to do is paint the grooves black to cut off the light when the barrel things passes it. I used black model paint. Waiting for them to dry.


In the mean time,... here are the spinning ring things. VERY nice.


Ok, what you are reading RIGHT now, as in this very text, it has been several hours since I worte the above update. I wrote it I just didn't post it. Was tired. Anyways,... within these several hour I have decided that I dont like the cores. Idont like the idea thhat I had to paint them. That just seems slopy to me for whatever reason. I want to try something else. Also,... the fact that the pieces didnt fit together perfectly is driving me nuts! It's an illness I have I have to figure something out. I want UV blue stipes inside that tube. I ness the spinning barrel to stobe as it turns. I have to think.

 

OMG,... so many pics!!! LOL. This is going to be a COOL update!!! I didn't like the old strobe core so I made a new one:: I changed the way things work too. Check it out!

Jun-06-2006 (RPL213u)

Here's the old cores after cleaning it up and polishing it down. It's looks cool but its not good enough. I mean it's not even all that bright. I think polishing it takes away the brightness. I tried dusting it again and it was only a bit brighter. Sucky.


Looks like candy Yum.


A tiny piece of green. WHAA!! See how much brighter! Anyways,...


Here's the old cores dusted. Not all that much brighter. Scraping them,...


The new concept! This is a little test piece. Just wanted to see how well it would work. I cut the mating grooves because I didnt feel like just gluing two separate peices to form the cross.


Instead of putting the core inside a center tube/ shaft, the core now becomes the shaft in which the barrel uses to spin. This way there is no tube to catch excessive light and lower the quality of the strobe. Also,... the clear panes used to catch the strobe and flash it outside the tinted barrel will be 1/8" closer to the core which means a better flash of light. So it looks good. Lets do it!


Here are the pieces that will form the cores. Used the router to cut down the width.


Taped them in two's to sand down to length. I could of taped bye four's, I dont know why I didnt. Oh well.


Crap! I didnt get a picture of the scroll saw setup! I hate when I do that! I set the scroll saw up like I did the router. That is I used a rail. I set the length away from teh blade a bit less then the center of the strips. I test it out sevberal times before making my actual cuts. The rail has to be pefectly straight too! So important! If it not the blade will start to run off coarse even though your using a rail. After I set up the rail I made a back stop so I couldnt cut to far. Each cut was had the very same lenght. I cut a bit past the center because thats better then not cutting far enough. When you slide the pieces together they wont come flush. Once I nailed all that it was easy Just run the pieces along the rail until you hit the stop. Remove the piece then flip it to the other side and do it again. Once you made both cuts, you pull on the center piece thats left until you can grabis as close to the base as possible. It will smap clean right off. Might leave a litt nub but that files down so easily.


Here's one! BUT! I need eight side not four! Keep watching,...


Lights up nicely. The rings fit and spin nicely.


Whats is that! Is that the other 4 sides? NICE! Check out how I got them to fit.


I knifed them! I cut 45 degree angles on each side half way up. I used the router to do this! I was sweating bullets! Didnt want to pull a Hobbes Hobbes that will never die dude. When I use my router I think of you, and your thumb, what was your thumb. You the man, taking one for the team! LOL. So yea the pieces were crazy small! I had to make little tape handle just so I could slide them through the router! It worked great though!


VOILA!! This core is not glued, it's being held together by the rings. Look at that fit!! I still cant believe how well they came out. Absolutely amazing.


I bit blurry but ehh. You can still see the tight azz fit.


Look how damn beautiful it is! I cant stop looking at it!


Heres the second one. All the pieces perfectly cut to size.


Nice.


Here you can see the fit really well.


They light up nicely.


Glued.


This is a COOL pic! It's a photo! Looks drawn! Check out the fit, so flush!


Here's where I finished. These are the tinted panes that will form the barrel.


Im so tired. I work all through the ngiht and through most of the day trying to get this right. It paid off. Anyways,... I might be working on this tomorrow. till then,...

 

wow this is definitely content rich, so much stuff. btw tribaloverkill, do you think you can give me a rundown on how to tap?

so you have a tapper right, with a head, say an M3. and if i'm right, you used vaseline as your "tapping oil" correct? where do you put this vaseline, do you put it on the hole in which you drilled through already or on the tapper? or both?

thank you so much, and nice reservoir so far! picture rich!

 

So yea,... this is kind of a cool update

Jun-07-2006 (RPL213u)

I nice clean steel pipe. I am doing the same thing I did so the acrylic tube in sPL. I'm scratching a straight line across the pipe. Not goingto cut this bad boy in half though


Whats this wrapped to the pipe?


Whats under there?


TA DAAAA!!! The tinted panels I cut before. They are going to make up this spinngin barrel thing I have planned. You see,... I tape the acrylic to the pipe and line up the piece with the line I scratched into the pip earlier. This way the piece will be bent as straight as possible. You dont want to much tape on the acrylic, just enough so that it holds it under pressure. So I tape it down and then heat it slowly. There pieces heat up nicely seeing that they are small. Once they are all flabby I take to this cardboard wrap around and wrap it pulling the piece snug so that it's straight. I wrap it all the way around wrenching it with hands as tight as I can get it. I then tape it so it stays. I let it cool down slowly at first. After a couple of minutes I turn on the shop vac which is,...


... connected to the end of the pipe which sucks cool air through the center cooling off the piepe and piece nice and quick. You want the piece as cool as possible before you really let it up because if its still a bit warm, it will bend out of shape a tid bit. The pieces won't look pretty when you take them out because you'll see marks formed in the acrylic. Easily saned out though. The most important part is that it takes the right shape.


This is kind of what I'm shooting for,... so not done though. You see the line? This line will be spinning and will be flashing whenever it passes over one of the points of the center core. The tint kills alot of the other light so even if the lines arent all that bright and flashy they will still stand out very nicely. I think the lines are going to light up nicely though


No line. Nice and dark but you can still still the core. The tinted panels are distorted because I didnt sand them down yet nor did I buff them out.


With a bit of light on, no line.


Bit of light with line.


Very dark with no uv light on the inside.


Nice! Can't see through it. I might make one of these for blackout with a green core!


UV light on the inside.


I noticed that there was alot of shrinkage with the acrylic when heated and formed. I mean alot of shrinkage! Some of them shrunk in length as much as 3/32"!! At first I thought it was me. I cut these bad boys to 3 - 7/8". I was thinking that maybe I cut them smalled an just didnt realize it? Doubt it. They are now 3 - 3/4" after cleaning up the length. This is not a huge problem but if it really mattered I would have to make them all over again! NOTE,... shrinkage may occur. Leave a bit of length on before heating and bending. This goes for smaller pieces I guess. I dont think I had this probalme with larger ones. I dont know. Anyways,... going to back to work PEACE!

 

Another cool and WEEEEEIRD update! I say weird because I thought I was seeing things,... whatever, I tell you about it later. Anyways,.. on with the update!

Jun-08-2006 (RPL213u)

These pieces are going to be the clear panes that pretty much hold the entire inner barrel together.


Once again here's the router setup to cut the pieces to their target length's. I should of did this for the tinted,... I wasn't thinking. I bound all the tinted pieces with tape and used the sander to cut them to length. It did the same job btu this way makes more sense. It doesnt even matter though because the tinted pieces shrank while bending. Huh?


What the S@#$ was that? I thought I saw,... nah, it couldn't be. He's dead. Hmmm,...


ANYYYYYWAYS,.... The clear panes have to be the same length as the tinted ones. I just have a bit more to cut off. I'm goingto mark the clear one so I know where to stop. Now, where the hell is my pencil??? I really to to clean this place up,...


Ahhh,... there it is.


Ehhh,... mmmmm.


Where the hell is,....


Come on! I just saw it back there,... argh.


There it is,...


Got it


My pencil Yea


Cut some nice grooves in the ends of the clear panes. I'll show you how,...


Very nice. you see the purpose for those in a minute.


Here's how. Using the router and the sliding thingy that came with it,.. I super glued the piece of what was an aluminum square. I cut it up because well,... it wasn't all that square, lol. I tape both mthe aluminum and the slider thing so I can reomove them when done.


I then clamped another piece of aluminum to that. This is the back stop.


To take the acrylic piece and bolt it down making sure it resting flush against the router table and the back stop. You then just slide it to the router bit. You have to adjust the hieght of the router bit too. You have to go slow. the bit is cutting alot at once.


The clear piece is actually sandwiched between two aluminum pieces. Reason,.. I dont want the clamp digging intothe acylic. It might crack the acrylic too. Plus I can apply more pressure to hold it still.


Here's why I cut the grooves. I want these clear panes to come as close to the core points as possible for the best flashes possible.


Before I glue all this together I want to sand and polish the inside edges. Looking good.


You can't really see it all that well,.. but it's so clear you can see the table through the edges. It's so cool looking.


What your looking at here is the inside of the other side through the clear side. you follow?


It's crazy looking when you see it with your own eyes though.


Here's the underside of the tape which is stuck to the acrylic.


WHAM! the tinted panels are not glued but the clear ones are. How friggin cool! I left the clear panes alot longer for a reason. They didnt need to be this long though,...


Black as the night.


Lit up!


Look at those edges glowing!


Damn this is so cool. I love it. This is why I do this.


You see the light being projected onto the table through the clear pane. I was hoping it would do this. This reservoir is going to make the insde of your computer look like a friday night at the club In this pic the clear pane isnt evn over a core point nor is the outer edge polished


This is a core point. You really cant tell with the camera but in person the panel IS brighter over the core points. THANK GOD! Was nervous it wouldnt be that much of a difference being over a core point, but it is. PHEW.


Here's the clear pane assembly. Fits together nicely. I have to sand the inside of the rings a bit. It's kinda snug. Plus the inside is kind of off a bit. Manufactures fault.


Look how flawless that is!


So perty.


Nice.


It's just so beautiful.


Anyways,... this thing is almost done. Don;t know when I'll be ableto work on this again. I am goign to try and work some OT, today seeing it's 12:37am right now. If they dont need me I will be working on her. So yea. I swear I saw sponge bob! But it couldnt have been him because he got his a@# chewed up. Maybe I'mjust tired. I dont know. Peace.

 

We got the S T U D I O!!! Here are the pics!!!

It's like 2am in this picture. This is the outside along with my truck facing towards the front of the Studio.


From the outside, you see the work area and the office/ storage through the door.


Work area. As you can see I'm not done getting this place settled.


This is the office/ storage.


The door separating the two rooms. this is good because I can close the door to keep particals out of the office/ storage.


Sponge Bob back from the dead, well he is dead, he's a zombie sponge. Then you have the S@#$ shaped plankton.


DIE!


Here's the place setup up atleast for now. There's more work to be done but I cant do it now until I get my new equipment.


Here's our bay door. I have to get them to fix it though. The spring is suppose to be preloaded to hold the door open. The springs holds the door shut. PIS.


All my stuff just waiting to be stored away on shelves, as soon as I get them.


Front door from inside.


Work area from office/ storage.


Me.


Kill Sponge Bob. Again.


Hmmm,... maybe later.


So yea! Thats the studio. We going to purache alot more equipment but there's some stuff I haev to take care of first. Soon the updaing will begin. The modding evolution starts here,...

 

tribal could you like refer to my previous post lol. just in case you haven't seen it

 

wow. that "core" thing is f(_)cking ridiculously awsome...

 

jaw dropping

 

Thanks guyz! For those of you who haven't seen all my Liquid Evolution stuff,... the best has yet to come,...