tommyboy660
Member
Hi all, do you solder things often but always have a hard time trying to hold everything in the perfect position at the same time as holding the solder and the soldering iron? Well me too, so i thought about going and buying a third hand device from radio shack that has aligator clips on it and a magnifying glass too so that when i solder stuff it would hold anything i need right in place so my hands where free to do everything else but then i looked and they want over $15 for one and it has limited movement and function so i decided i'm making my own that way it not only will be mine but i can pimp it out to look custom and add more function to it other than just the simple soldering function.
So i bought a 12"x1/4"x2.5" piece of aluminum online for i think about $6 then i bought 2 machining cooling hose kits from another online site ( Ill get the exact info on the next post in case anyone else wants to try and make their own) the hose kits are the ones that are used on metal cnc machines to spray out coolants and other liquids that snap together and can be moved and adjusted by hand to any position you want, then i got some banana clips & alligator clips that fit on the end of the banana clips from Radio Shack. Oh i also had to buy a 27 NPT Tap because conveniently that was the only one that was not in my tap and die kit.
I started out by drilling 4 holes just barely smaller than the tap, 2 on each end of the aluminum (see pic). i then taped all of them, sanded the whole thing and smoothed out the edges so that paint will stay on and so i wont get cut or anything. I thought about it for awhile of what colors i wanted to paint it and how i wanted it to look, i decided i wanted it to be black with a few purple stripes going through it to give it a kind of cool custom look so i've gotten to the point now that i sprayed on a coat of white sealer paint first so that other colors will show up true then i sprayed on a thick coat of fluorescent Purple ( i used testor airbrush Fluorescent Purple i believe its Aztek but its be thinned for airbrushing so its nice) then i only had to wait about 20 minutes and it was dry so i have proceeded onto masking some lines off on it in a random method not knowing exactly what i was going for cuz im still very new to airbrushing ( so yes anyone can do this even if you've never painted in your life just remember to not spray too much at once cuz that will cause drips, runs and puddles other than that i dont think you can go wrong unless you touch wet paint) But thats where ive gotten to for now & ill post some pics with this to show you. Next post ill include all the technical data as far as how much everything cost and exact parts, qtys., & sources that i got them from. By the way i got this entire idea off of a site called instructables it has some truely amazing ideas on their. Thanks TOM



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The first pic is after all the masking. 2nd is what the piece started like.3rd is a pick of some beads 6mm I got from hobby lobby for $1.47 for 160 to out into each one of my paints, im putting 2-3 per paint depending on container size so that it makes it alot easier to get a full mix on them without killing yourself, I was going to use metal ball bearings but im fearful of them rusting and then turning my paints different colors, any thoughts on those cuz I would've loved to use metal cuz there alot heavier than these beads are. Ceramic are really expensive.



So i bought a 12"x1/4"x2.5" piece of aluminum online for i think about $6 then i bought 2 machining cooling hose kits from another online site ( Ill get the exact info on the next post in case anyone else wants to try and make their own) the hose kits are the ones that are used on metal cnc machines to spray out coolants and other liquids that snap together and can be moved and adjusted by hand to any position you want, then i got some banana clips & alligator clips that fit on the end of the banana clips from Radio Shack. Oh i also had to buy a 27 NPT Tap because conveniently that was the only one that was not in my tap and die kit.
I started out by drilling 4 holes just barely smaller than the tap, 2 on each end of the aluminum (see pic). i then taped all of them, sanded the whole thing and smoothed out the edges so that paint will stay on and so i wont get cut or anything. I thought about it for awhile of what colors i wanted to paint it and how i wanted it to look, i decided i wanted it to be black with a few purple stripes going through it to give it a kind of cool custom look so i've gotten to the point now that i sprayed on a coat of white sealer paint first so that other colors will show up true then i sprayed on a thick coat of fluorescent Purple ( i used testor airbrush Fluorescent Purple i believe its Aztek but its be thinned for airbrushing so its nice) then i only had to wait about 20 minutes and it was dry so i have proceeded onto masking some lines off on it in a random method not knowing exactly what i was going for cuz im still very new to airbrushing ( so yes anyone can do this even if you've never painted in your life just remember to not spray too much at once cuz that will cause drips, runs and puddles other than that i dont think you can go wrong unless you touch wet paint) But thats where ive gotten to for now & ill post some pics with this to show you. Next post ill include all the technical data as far as how much everything cost and exact parts, qtys., & sources that i got them from. By the way i got this entire idea off of a site called instructables it has some truely amazing ideas on their. Thanks TOM



- - - Updated - - -
The first pic is after all the masking. 2nd is what the piece started like.3rd is a pick of some beads 6mm I got from hobby lobby for $1.47 for 160 to out into each one of my paints, im putting 2-3 per paint depending on container size so that it makes it alot easier to get a full mix on them without killing yourself, I was going to use metal ball bearings but im fearful of them rusting and then turning my paints different colors, any thoughts on those cuz I would've loved to use metal cuz there alot heavier than these beads are. Ceramic are really expensive.


