Just spent a few minutes getting caught up.
I always wanted to build one of these.
I never really got into the TV series for two reasons …
ONE: I hated the Dr. SMITH character, I would have just killed him in the first episode !
TWO: I’m a big fan of FORBIDDEN PLANET, what they did to poor robby the robot is science fiction "blasphemy " !
( tho I suppose it’s work and an un-employed robot has to go where the money is …)
Yo Tim, good to hear from and see you stop in.
I think many people would share your setiments about Smith. I remember we liked the first season but it was downhill from there. Too bad they turned it into so much cheese. I read that the other actors were not happy about it either.
Not sure what you mean about Robby the robot. What did they do?
I like Forbidden Planet too.
Success! They fit flush as I needed them to. I didn’t have to modify the housings more. I thought for sure I’d have to. Talk about a perfect fit. They can’t get any better. What luck.
The chip is not secured in the photo. When the time comes I will secure it with a dab of epoxy.
Let there be light.
Notice the tin of solder resin. I included that in the image to note a few things. Dipping your tip in that helps with two things. Firstly, it helps with the soldering process. The solder grabs better. That offers you the advantage of less time holding the hot tip to a sensitive component and, it provides a better connection. Secondly, it help keep the tip from corroding. Since I started using it the tip looks good as new after repeated use. Prior to using it, I was going through tips like water. I have no doubt the stuff helped with soldering these too. I was able to use a tiny bit of solder. A little dab will do ya.
As a side note to this. Months back I purchased a solder station off the net for I think about $50. It is working great and I love that I can control the temperature. Hardware store soldering pencils run hot and that can be tough on tips and the electronics you are soldering to. But if that is all you got, it works. I used one for years.
A note about the color temperature of the LED. When I first lit this I thought, hmm, not as yellow as the others. For grins, I tried the others again, and I think they are a fairly close match. How yellow they look several posts back is not an accurate representation. Once again, the camera was fooled. That said, I am now happier with the warm white.
Lastly, I thought I would show you how I solder these chips.
For one, you need a fine solder tip. Second to that, you need to secure both the chip and the wire in place while you solder. Sticky side up holds the chip, sticky side down holds he wire over the solder pads.
I guess that is that.
Oh man, Tim. That was total cheese. But that video rocks! Lol. What a hoot. Thanks for splaining things to me. Poor Robby.
After review of the searchlights, and how the angles run, I pretty much figured I’d punt lighting them. My concern being that of blowing through the sides with my drill, and more than that… the difficulty of feeding wires through the bend.
Tonight, caution was not in me and I went for it.
I didn’t blow through the sides, amazingly, but I was correct about the wires and the bend. I could not feed the wires through that angle. So, I resorted to cutting a trench along the stem. Using sprue-goo, the trench will be easy enough to fix.
Time remains limited but I hope to have all the light housings chromed and the lenses installed in about two weeks time. That is the goal.
Btw. There are two more lights at the rear of the chariot. I will be working on those next.
Oh WOW!! I sure didn’t know this one was going on till you pointed it out to me. I’ll be going back through the thread to see what good stuff I’ve been missing out on Steve.
Hey Joe, nice to see you around.
Lol, I like the Honour School Robot bumper sticker!
She’s lookin’ good, really like all the lights you’re adding- gives the model ‘pop’!
And interesting idea on the curtains, looking forward to seeing how they work out.
Funny in the few episodes I saw Dr. Smith was the only character I really liked. Maybe it says something about me that I laughed at him being a total jerk and then getting his just deserts at the end of the episodes.
Thanks Gam.
LOL, love that!!!
But somehow I want to see Worf snap his neck more…
That’s a good one, Gam. Something tells me Smith would respond with:
Say Gam… in the long standing Gamera tradition of fun toys, here is something I think you need. It might help if Smith bonks you on the head about the Worf thing.
Hey! Where was I when this cool thing came out. I mean seriously.
LOL Bakster!!!
Or else Smith ends up on the Planet of the Apes and Zira lobotomizes him…
[:)]
Yeah. Dr Zira wants more lab rats. Oh, I mean, patients.
Hmm, a bumper sticker?
Something about crossing the streams [:)]
Wo
Works for me, Capn. Show them pesky apes who’s boss. [:O]
Part of the journey.
I have not used Alclads system of chrome, but from videos I have watched, it looks good. I ordered their paint. The first part of the process is to use a gloss black. I suppose any brand will do, but you’d want the paint to go on wet, and for sure, glossy. I figured, what the heck… I will go all in with their system. So, I purchased their black base as well.
Holy cats, their paint sprays like a dream. It spays on wet, it covers well, and wow… you can draw out a gloss with very little effort. And btw, it dries fast, cleans easliy from the brush, and I didn’t need to thin the paint.
Tomorrow, I will try spraying the chrome.
Oh my LORD man!! I’m gonna have to order me some of that stuff!! I can get a good enough gloss black but it takes me two stages and a couple of days till it’s cured out enough to spray any Alclad over it. Thanks for posting that Steve.