BOTTOM FEEDERS= a place for everything modified and/or custom made

[Podunk Steam]

Steve if you have a bunch of the yellow Buckeye left it takes dyes readily and makes for some very attractive pieces. I have a vacuum stabilizing system for such purposes and a little stash of some Buckeye myself. I don't find the banana look detouring myself at all.

The stabilizing of the woods avoids cracking down the road too.

That copper job is about equivalent to semi-precious jewelry work, very nice bends and solder work! I'm tempted to go at something similar with 3/4" copper plumbing pipe I have slit on the band saw already.

A few dyed Buckeye burls pictures and brown dye would look more natural if that would be your preference. Crap, that's Box Elder but I'm sure you get the idea.

 

[studiovap]

Absolutely beautiful studiovap. All I could think about after seeing yours is that we should get it together with mine. I think they would make beautiful babies.. Here is my latests.

What do you think?

Of course before they consummate mine will have to see what you have hidden under that white piece of paper. (Also where did you get that square bottle From?)

Nice job Sonar, but my mods are incestuous and only copulate amongst them selves
As for the bottle NEW Japanese Bento Lunch BOX Accessory Sauce Bottle Container 8pc Made IN Japan | eBay
As for the white piece of paper that is a hand carved piece of teflon that is clamped to the shell by the button /switch post and is channeled to center the sterling silver contact leaf spring, and clamp the battery in place while insulating it.

 

[studiovap]

Is there a chance for you to detail your soldering process?

1.Sand flush mating surfaces with 800 grit wet and dry.
2.Form a 1mm strand of electronic solder to the "c" shape of the upright section so it holds it's shape and stays in place internally positioned.
3.Flux bottom of "c" section with electronic soldering flux
4.Bring "c" section together with slightly oversize bottom plate that it sat on a bottom plate sized piece of concrete board that is sat on a larger piece of concrete board and line up before contacting and resting in place, slide formed solder strand down to contact bottom plate.
5.Heat the job gently all over with the brule torch from the back, then focus in on the join with the heat, when the solder starts to run keep heating and tun the torch all round the join adding a tiny amount of solder to the inside on any ares that the solder doesn't saturate through to the back of the the join.
Allow to cool fully.
6.Turn body over and repeat this time being careful to focus the heat only on the join and not get carried away with heating the whole job and reflow the join you have just made, a heat stop of a wet rag of similar can be placed on the other join, but i have not done this in my methods yet.
7. Allow to cool fully.
8. CAREFULLY sand the oversize top and bottom plates till they meet the edge of the uprights.
9.Sand, radius edges, polish etc.
10.Remove flux residue with solvent.

That's the bones of it, all done to practice in the end, how much flux to use, how much heat etc. etc.

 

[Genosmate]

Came out fantastic Rob I'm so happy for you mate. Please tell John that he did an incredible job with this.

Thanks,obviously the inspiration came from the one you did with the inlaid 'R',I thought I'd be pushing it to try and do an inlay as well.
Its the first time I've used a metalworking lathe since I was 13 (53 now) and I had never used a milling machine before this.
Big thanks to all you guys on here who produce some really stunning work.

 

[Genosmate]

Painter's masking tape Quigs. I partially polished mine then taped it then did the wood finish and then wet sanded wet with super fine both for the final shine. Once that was done a I did a final buffing

I did my two exactly the same way.

 

[CaptSteve]

Thanks,obviously the inspiration came from the one you did with the inlaid 'R',I thought I'd be pushing it to try and do an inlay as well.
Its the first time I've used a metalworking lathe since I was 13 (53 now) and I had never used a milling machine before this.
Big thanks to all you guys on here who produce some really stunning work.

Hey John welcome to the forum. Let me start off by saying that you did a first class job and considering it's your first attempt I salute you. When I finished mine I swore I'll never attempt something similar in future because it was a major pain to properly finish flush two so different material (wood & aluminum).

The Inlay letter was actually easy compared to other problems (the finish) and I'm sure if you had decided to do one you wouldn't have a problem with it. It was just a bit time consuming that's all.

Congrats once again for a beautiful creation and post if you can a picture of yours as well for us.

 

[Genosmate]

Hey John welcome to the forum. Let me start off by saying that you did a first class job and considering it's your first attempt I salute you. When I finished mine I swore I'll never attempt something similar in future because it was a major pain to properly finish flush two so different material (wood & aluminum).

The Inlay letter was actually easy compared to other problems (the finish) and I'm sure if you had decided to do one you wouldn't have a problem with it. It was just a bit time consuming that's all.

Congrats once again for a beautiful creation and post if you can a picture of yours as well for us.

I really appreciate the comments,thank you.
When I set out I thought I'd get some problems along the way but I followed the info in your posts,biggest issue for me was the milling as I couldn't work out how to rotate the workpiece in the vice and keep the same registration point so I just did it by eye and refined the shoulders on the REO with a file.
I was always thinking about how you could possibly get the wood and metal flush but again I just followed your advice,but I agree its a real pain.
Not 100% happy with the polishing either but I hope to get better.
I've been looking at and researching making my own mods for about a year and as a Brit who's been here in SA for 8 years I still can't get used to the procurement problems I have every day,for example I'm still waiting for a small order from Rob at Reosmods and Dennis at FD Vapes which I placed in January.
I enjoyed doing them but I'd finish the wood differently next time.
I really enjoy seeing all the work you and the other guys do and you all have my admiration for the workmanship.
Heres some pics I took before I shipped one off to Rob.

 

[CaptSteve]

Wow two identical beauties and obviously twofold the pain in the derriere

I can't imagine how frustrating it must be for it to take months for an order to come in but sadly I guess there's not much you can do about it. As for the finish of the mods if I were to (God Forbid) do it again I would probably finish it with an oil as opposed to lacquer because it would surely be much more straightforward. Anyway I wanted a much more resilient finish because of the inlay and frankly that's why I recommended to Rob you use the same because I was under the impression you were doing an inlay monogram as well.

Still I think you nailed it so bravo for a job well done. Hope you stick around because we have some amazing talent here and you fit right in

 

[Genosmate]

Thanks for the encouragement,and I'll definitely stick around as I'm looking forward to making my own mods but that in itself is not without issues,for example I just got a new laminate trimmer (router) that I ordered last December!
I used an oil to finish the mods.For a long while I wanted to use Tung Oil and could only find one supplier here but they never replied to my emails so I gave up and decided on pure Danish Oil.When I looked for it I found a manufacturer who also made Tung Oil but decided to give it a miss because of the curing time between coats.
I decided to apply the oil over a 10 hour period by continually flooding and wiping the wood,then I couldn't find the wax I wanted,so after trying a terrible paste wax I applied liquid wax also flooding and wiping over several hours.
If there is a next time I'll use the Danish Oil but sand it into the wood instead of wiping it.
Also keen to try and work with low viscosity CA glue but I think it would be near impossible with this style.

 

[Robfisher]

If there is a next time I'll use the Danish Oil but sand it into the wood instead of wiping it.

John just shout if you need any more REO's to experiment on! I can have them in Knysna within 24 hours. ;-) ;-)

 

[Genosmate]

Yebo,and I can get them back in 48 as long as the couriers can find me

 

[Robfisher]

Yebo,and I can get them back in 48 as long as the couriers can find me

 

[CaptSteve]

Thanks for the encouragement,and I'll definitely stick around as I'm looking forward to making my own mods but that in itself is not without issues,for example I just got a new laminate trimmer (router) that I ordered last December!
I used an oil to finish the mods.For a long while I wanted to use Tung Oil and could only find one supplier here but they never replied to my emails so I gave up and decided on pure Danish Oil.When I looked for it I found a manufacturer who also made Tung Oil but decided to give it a miss because of the curing time between coats.
I decided to apply the oil over a 10 hour period by continually flooding and wiping the wood,then I couldn't find the wax I wanted,so after trying a terrible paste wax I applied liquid wax also flooding and wiping over several hours.
If there is a next time I'll use the Danish Oil but sand it into the wood instead of wiping it.
Also keen to try and work with low viscosity CA glue but I think it would be near impossible with this style.

A great oil finish is achieved by applying the oil (either True or Danish) and using 1000 grit to wet sand it. I usually work the oil in the wood with my fingers and then sand it straight away while it's still wet. I apply about 5-6 coats like that then another coat without wet sanding but when it dries I use extra fine steel wool and after that the last coat. After 24 hours I apply wax and buff.

Here are the results of what I described

 

[Genosmate]

A great oil finish is achieved by applying the oil (either True or Danish) and using 1000 grit to wet sand it. I usually work the oil in the wood with my fingers and then sand it straight away while it's still wet. I apply about 5-6 coats like that then another coat without wet sanding but when it dries I use extra fine steel wool and after that the last coat. After 24 hours I apply wax and buff.

Here are the results of what I described

Wow thats beautiful,what wood is it?

 

[CaptSteve]

It's maple burl dyed blue

 

[opensec]

looks like a van gogh, i mean seriously the blue area really look like a van gogh night sky Van Gogh Starry Night Painting

 

[Quigsworth]

looks like a van gogh, i mean seriously the blue area really look like a van gogh night sky Van Gogh Starry Night Painting

Read my mind

 

[Mark Denison]

Here's my latest piece o wood designated for a dibi [emoji7]

 

[KurrptSenate]

is that the dibi-like that you won't show us steve?

are you teasing again bro?

 

[CaptSteve]

Here's my latest piece o wood designated for a dibi [emoji7]

Nice Mark, I too got 3 pieces from the same batch