Bespin Guard Blaster Relby K-23 Greeblies, research, etc.
- Thread starter thd9791
- Start date
I agree with eethan here, the inner fillets are quite distinct, and given how crisp the outer edges are (when intact!), I think the casting process was good enough to have captured the master overall shape. In any case, this is what the blaster "really looks like" to me, so I'm sticking with the curves. 
The damn thing is a bitch to print though! The valleys between the ribs are so deep, my usual method of printing it vertically is problematic, as the leading edge of the fins wants to stretch/stick to the fep. I had a test print fail yesterday, will give it another shot today. Here’s what I did get:
The damn thing is a bitch to print though! The valleys between the ribs are so deep, my usual method of printing it vertically is problematic, as the leading edge of the fins wants to stretch/stick to the fep. I had a test print fail yesterday, will give it another shot today. Here’s what I did get:
More minor tweaks to the muzzle and gear. SOOO close, it's hard to know when to stop tweaking! thd9791 advised that he believes the gear front/back edges are nearly straight (no bevel), so I've straightened them a bit. Too much I think, I'll probably add some of the slope back. Other than that, I think I've got a damn good match here.
Also, more calculators on the way, we shall see if I found the button in a couple days.
Also, more calculators on the way, we shall see if I found the button in a couple days.
hey guys,
and here is the first delrin prototype for the main V8 part! this is the first time I machine delrin on the lathe, it was very fun! I hope this run can happen and I'm looking forward to machine those parts!
excuse me for the photos, they are not ideal, the piece being black wasn't easy to photograph with my phone and a poor lighting.
and here is the first delrin prototype for the main V8 part! this is the first time I machine delrin on the lathe, it was very fun! I hope this run can happen and I'm looking forward to machine those parts!
excuse me for the photos, they are not ideal, the piece being black wasn't easy to photograph with my phone and a poor lighting.
By the way, if anyone has a cast from an original and is ok to provide us a few measurements for the barrel and muzzle, please come forward, that would really help. We are guestimating things and if there is access to those info, it would be much better for everyone to get a more accurate replica
thank a lot
thank a lot
Ok guys, really no one to help with measurements from a cast from original? I'm not asking for much and this would help bring a more accurate replica to the cool chaps of the RPF
here is what i'm looking for, just 4 measurements, anyone please?
thanks a lot
here is what i'm looking for, just 4 measurements, anyone please?
thanks a lot
Hey guys, finally have the front muzzle part done! such an awesome part!
it is one of the most difficult part I ever turned! wasn't so sure I could do it since the begining, but there we go, at least in Delrin, it's doable i'll try the aluminium later on, not sure I can do it though.
so, the first unsure part to do was finding a tool for the small filets at the base of each ring. I ended up sculpting my own tool out of a 3mm HSS blade, first time I did this, but there was no other choice here:
so, even in the Delrin, that tool wasn't "magical", each groove takes a lot of time to do half mm by half mm and making sure that everything is exactly the right size with all the different sized rings and grooves takes a lot of time. It ended up taking 3 hours to do that prototype!
so, here is what a Delrin kit would look like:
there we go! pretty cool, i love that blaster!
so, i don't really know if that project has a lot of interest and I'm a bit worried as it took 3 hours to do that main part, so it will have a certain cost machining those kits...
cheers guys
it is one of the most difficult part I ever turned! wasn't so sure I could do it since the begining, but there we go, at least in Delrin, it's doable
i'll try the aluminium later on, not sure I can do it though.so, the first unsure part to do was finding a tool for the small filets at the base of each ring. I ended up sculpting my own tool out of a 3mm HSS blade, first time I did this, but there was no other choice here:
so, even in the Delrin, that tool wasn't "magical", each groove takes a lot of time to do half mm by half mm and making sure that everything is exactly the right size with all the different sized rings and grooves takes a lot of time. It ended up taking 3 hours to do that prototype!
so, here is what a Delrin kit would look like:
there we go! pretty cool, i love that blaster!
so, i don't really know if that project has a lot of interest and I'm a bit worried as it took 3 hours to do that main part, so it will have a certain cost machining those kits...
cheers guys
I finished the 3 part greeblie cast from original parts. I made a relatively semetrical cone and made it somewhat wonky like the originals. I'll be casting these and also the back piece. I noticed the injection mold circle on the black part.
Also noticed some circles and a raised circular post on the pan am thing.
Hello guys,
I have some really awesome news for the machined kits!
I could feel the machined Delrin muzzle was not super exciting for you guys, well, I managed to turn it in aluminium today! I'm so happy with the result and with the fact that I could do it, this kind of parts with deep grooves is extremely hard to do on a medium sized lathe like mine. I'm super exited that I could do that with my custom shaped grooving tool!
so here we go, no compromizes at all, machined aluminium, completely accurate to the 3D model we validated with Pedro! super cool
WIP on the lathe first, because I always like those photos and it shows the process a bit
the whole blaster, just missing those gear pieces now:
next to its Delrin sibling:
there you go! I hope you'll like the muzzle, I'm so happy about the result myself!
I still need to figure out what I can do about the gears, they are a bit troublesome so far, I hope I can do something for those! then I'll open an interest thread as i'm a bit worried about the interest for that project.
cheers
I have some really awesome news for the machined kits!
I could feel the machined Delrin muzzle was not super exciting for you guys, well, I managed to turn it in aluminium today! I'm so happy with the result and with the fact that I could do it, this kind of parts with deep grooves is extremely hard to do on a medium sized lathe like mine. I'm super exited that I could do that with my custom shaped grooving tool!
so here we go, no compromizes at all, machined aluminium, completely accurate to the 3D model we validated with Pedro! super cool
WIP on the lathe first, because I always like those photos and it shows the process a bit
the whole blaster, just missing those gear pieces now:
next to its Delrin sibling:
there you go! I hope you'll like the muzzle, I'm so happy about the result myself!
I still need to figure out what I can do about the gears, they are a bit troublesome so far, I hope I can do something for those! then I'll open an interest thread as i'm a bit worried about the interest for that project.
cheers
Hey guys
I have some more awesome news today!
it was a long day of thinking and testing but I eventually managed to prototype the gears! so happy!
I'm going the extra mile and really trying to get as close as possible to what we see in the references, even though the blasters were not machined aluminium, that means my aluminium parts will have the same connecting bevels between the parts. i started with that for the gear parts today, trying to connect the barrel tubes and the gear parts nicelly and making sure all the parts fit together perfectly without too much seams in between.
that looks pretty good! ok, now, I had to figure out how to machine the gears teeth! that wasn't fun! the best way I found was with a 45° conical end mill. you have to position it at a very specific position to get the correct angle of the gear tooth, milling to the proper depth, then rotating half a degree 14 times until the groove for the tooth is to the right size. then rotate 13° more and start again. in the end, this means 340 back and forth with the milling head! it certainly is not fun, but it worked and even though it will be very tedious to run those parts, I'm happy to do the work as I'm super excited by that blaster and project and super happy to be bringing very accurate parts to you guys
this is the prototype parts, I'm going to tweak very slighlty the angle of the gear sides as well as the junction between the muzzle and the gear, but i'm very happy with where we are and almost ready to open the interest thread
there is also a last detail that needs to be fixed, the actual threaded rod. It seems they used a very unusual rod with a fine pitch. I used a M8 rod in my first prototype as it was the right diameter, but after taking the photos, I realized that the pitch was too large on the M8 rod compared to the refs. I measured the pitch on my 3D perspective matched model and I'll be using MF8 rods in the end. those have a 1mm pitch instead of the regular M8 that has a 1.25mm pitch. This is a bit exotic but I want the kit to be as screen-accurate as possible even though the materials are idealized and since I'll be providing all the parts, they will just thread together anyways
I hope you guys like it so far
cheers
I have some more awesome news today!
it was a long day of thinking and testing but I eventually managed to prototype the gears! so happy!
I'm going the extra mile and really trying to get as close as possible to what we see in the references, even though the blasters were not machined aluminium, that means my aluminium parts will have the same connecting bevels between the parts. i started with that for the gear parts today, trying to connect the barrel tubes and the gear parts nicelly and making sure all the parts fit together perfectly without too much seams in between.
that looks pretty good! ok, now, I had to figure out how to machine the gears teeth! that wasn't fun! the best way I found was with a 45° conical end mill. you have to position it at a very specific position to get the correct angle of the gear tooth, milling to the proper depth, then rotating half a degree 14 times until the groove for the tooth is to the right size. then rotate 13° more and start again. in the end, this means 340 back and forth with the milling head! it certainly is not fun, but it worked and even though it will be very tedious to run those parts, I'm happy to do the work as I'm super excited by that blaster and project and super happy to be bringing very accurate parts to you guys
this is the prototype parts, I'm going to tweak very slighlty the angle of the gear sides as well as the junction between the muzzle and the gear, but i'm very happy with where we are and almost ready to open the interest thread
there is also a last detail that needs to be fixed, the actual threaded rod. It seems they used a very unusual rod with a fine pitch. I used a M8 rod in my first prototype as it was the right diameter, but after taking the photos, I realized that the pitch was too large on the M8 rod compared to the refs. I measured the pitch on my 3D perspective matched model and I'll be using MF8 rods in the end. those have a 1mm pitch instead of the regular M8 that has a 1.25mm pitch. This is a bit exotic but I want the kit to be as screen-accurate as possible even though the materials are idealized and since I'll be providing all the parts, they will just thread together anyways
I hope you guys like it so far
cheers
Amazing work! Yea, this is important, the community could really use aluminum parts for these blasters. Did you find the gears to be 21 teeth? Any less?
You’re right by the way, on all the casts it seems the barrel butts up against the gears. I kinda hate this because we’ll never know the center hole size of the gear!
MF8 rod huh? I have some education I need to get to, never heard of this.
Brilliant work figuring out how to mill the gear slots, since it’s conical did you have to flip it over and do the other side of each slot?
You’re right by the way, on all the casts it seems the barrel butts up against the gears. I kinda hate this because we’ll never know the center hole size of the gear!
MF8 rod huh? I have some education I need to get to, never heard of this.
Brilliant work figuring out how to mill the gear slots, since it’s conical did you have to flip it over and do the other side of each slot?
Hey Tom,
thank you for your kind words
so, we went with 18 teeth on the gears, it seems to match nicelly the references, do you have any evidence saying otherwise?
sorry about the MF8, it might not be a super used name, it means "metric fine", for instance, M8 has a 1.25mm pitch, MF8 has a 1mm pitch. M10 has a 1.5mm pitch, MF10 has a 1mm pitch has well.
thank you for the figuring out of how to mill the gear slots, it took me some time and some thinking with all the tools I had available and my 3D software. the best solution I found was with this tool.
let my try to explain and help you guys visualize the process if I can, in 3D, I determined the exact position to put my tool so that when I go inside the material, the top of the slot was correct, like so:
then, my tool stays at the same position and depth in the material, but I start rotating the gear until the tool reaches the other side of the groove, like so:
this is done 0.5° at a time until I reach the 7° I need since I'm milling with the very thin pointy end of the tool, If I moved more than that, there would be lines visible in the groove.
as you can see, there is a very slight inacuracy compared to the model but this is the best I could do. I think it got really close and I'm super happy that I was able to do that part
I hope this makes sense
the threaded rod goes from the back end to like 3cm of the front of the muzzle. the back of the muzzle, the part that goes inside the barrel, is threaded
cheers
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