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The Southern Bell -- WIP____Warning: Lots of photos

PhotonFanatic

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Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
Some time ago, a friend asked if I could make a light for him to take on a trip to India. He wanted something different and pretty much left it up to me, just as long as it had a clip, used a AA battery, and had a Trit sphere in the tail.

Here's how the Indian Princess came out:

FinalSlantRear.jpg



It was a bear to make, mainly due to the spiraling anodized dots on the battery tube--there are quite a few there. The most intriguing aspect of the dimples, or dots, is that due to the ball nose end mill and the way that it cuts, the dimples come out with an eery glow! You can more easily see it in person, rather than in a photograph, but when slightly out of focus, it does show up somewhat in a photo--to wit:

FinalSparklingDimples2.jpg


Needless to say, since the light is so time consuming to make, I haven't been keen on making another one, but, hey, money talks, so I have another request for something similar. But, of course, we don't have any real Princesses in the United States, so I needed a different name, the Southern Belle, in deference to where she will eventually reside, is the second coming. :devil:

First, let's outline what the Southern Belle will hopefully be:

  • Made of 6AL/4V titanium
  • Will have a three-level driver
  • Will use a rechargeable AA battery
  • Will be a twisty
  • Will be O-ring sealed
  • Mineral glass lens and Khatod stippled reflector
  • Custom made AL heatsink
  • Have spiraling anodized dimple in the battery tube
  • Anodized grooves and dimples in the head
  • Seoul P4 U3SVNH emitter
So, on to the interesting parts of how the light is being crafted. First I machine the two basic body parts--the head and the battery tube. That means drilling, boring and threading mainly, so that the pieces thread together properly.

Once those are done, the more challenging decorative work takes place. The head is the easier one to do, but still requires a few steps to get it done. When anodizing Ti, using two colors, there are a couple of ways to approach the job; first option could be to machine the dimples and the grooves, and then mask off the feature(s) that will be anodized in a different color, before actually hitting the anodizing solution. But I prefer to anodize freshly machined Ti, rather than first putting a masking compound on it and then stripping it off with acetone before anodizing the second color.

So, I decided that for the Southern Belle, I would cut the feature (the dimples), then clean and anodize that feature, then go back to the lathe and machine the second feature (the grooves) and then complete the anodizing on the grooves.

So here's the head with the dimples cut in place:

SBelle-WIP-1.jpg


Notice that there is some excess material, the stub as I call it, at one end of the head--in fact that will eventually be the top of the light--where the light emanates. And, if you have good eyes, you will see two bored holes in the stub--that's where I insert the electrode for the anodizing. The stub also allows me to take the piece off the machine, do anodizing, and then come back to the lathe for further machining operations, or tweaking, as may be need, both internally and externally on the head.

The battery tube is also cut with the first column of spiraling dimples, since those will be anodized the same color as the dimples on the head:

SBelle-WIP-2.jpg


The stub on the battery tube will also be bored for the anodizing electrode and, more importantly, it has a flat milled onto it so that I can later machine the second and third columns of dimples and have something to indicate on so that the spirals will start and finish in the right spots.

SBelle-WIP-3.jpg

SBelle-WIP-4.jpg


Yeah, yeah, I know, not very exciting looking at the nitty gritty, boring things.

So here are the two pieces, now ready for the anodizing:

SBelle-WIP-5.jpg


Once the gold was done, the battery tube was machined for the second column of dimples, which was then anodized blue. And finally, the battery tube was back in the lathe for the third and final column of spiraling dimples:

SBelle-WIP-6.jpg


The head was then grooved and the grooves were anodized blue. Here are the pieces after all the anodizing is done:

SBelle-WIP-7.jpg


Not that pretty yet, eh?

Some close-ups:

SBelle-WIP-8.jpg

SBelle-WIP-9.jpg


Obviously, the next operations on the lathe were to skim off the gold anodizing, leaving the bare Ti exposed:

SBelle-WIP-10.jpg


The gold anodized section at the tail of the battery tube will have some Trit slots milled into it, six of them, then another skim cut to clean that up. The head will have a bevel on the front leading down to the lens, with some small dimples on the bevel.

Once all the grooves and dimples were completed along the axis of the light, I removed the stub from the head portion and cut a 45-degree bevel leading to the lens.

The bevel would have 12 dimples added and then anodized. Here's the ball nose end mill and the cut dimples:

SBelle-WIP-13.jpg


The dimples are cut at 90 degrees to the bevel, so that means that the light is angled another 45 degrees to the axis of the lathe. Here's an overview of the set-up:

SBelle-WIP-14.jpg


That's a rotary indexer sitting on top of a rotating base, which allows me to set the workpiece on any angle from zero to 90 degrees to the axis of the lathe's spindle.

Next up were the slots for the Trit vials that the customer will install:

SBelle-WIP-16.jpg


There are six slots around the base of the light.

Finally, since there were no more slots, dimple, or grooves to be installed, the stub could be removed from the battery tube and the tail end of the light could be cleaned up and made a bit lighter:

SBelle-WIP-20.jpg


Still to be done is the installation of the LED/driver and the O-rings and lens, but on the way to the electronics workbench, the light was cleaned and photographed in natural light:

SBelle-WIP-21.jpg

SBelle-WIP-27.jpg

SBelle-WIP-28.jpg


Once the driver is installed and the light is functioning, I'll lightly buff the light, clean it up well and take the final photos.

To be continued . . . Please see post #15 for the final installment. :D
 
Last edited:

Lost Hawaiian

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Joined
Dec 14, 2009
Messages
62
Location
Arkansas USA
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

That is AMAZING!:drool:

How much time have you got into it so far?

I can't wait to see how this turns out.
 

PhotonFanatic

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Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

That is AMAZING!:drool:

How much time have you got into it so far?

I can't wait to see how this turns out.

I don't log the hours, but I'd guess at least 15 all told. I do a little one day, move to another project, and then come back to the first job after a couple of days--keeps life more interesting, at least for me. ;)

The last photos in the OP pretty much shows how it will look when done--although it will be slightly shinier after the buffing.
 

karlthev

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Nov 19, 2004
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Pennsylvania
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

Over the top Fred! Neat-oo!!:twothumbs



Karl
 

smokelaw1

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Oct 23, 2006
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Switzerland
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

Fred,

I don't know if I can go above the superlatives I used when I saw whatever the last work of art I complemented you on was....

That is simply stunning. Amazing. Looking forward to seeing the trit sphere in the tail. That will act as a wonderful always on ultra-low, essentially? Probably a bit brighter than the lowest find-me glow?

I look forward to the day when I ask you to build me a one-off (and you agree to!!)
 

PhotonFanatic

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Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

There will not be any Trit sphere in the Southern Belle, but there are slots for six Trit vials that the customer intends to fill.
 

smokelaw1

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Joined
Oct 23, 2006
Messages
1,282
Location
Switzerland
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

Ah, I see. The sphere was only in the Indian Princess. Any shots of that exist? I think it's a brilliant idea.
 

jch79

**Do Not Feed The Vegan**,
Joined
May 2, 2006
Messages
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Location
On the asphalt.
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

Oh my good grief.

Well, what to say, except :bow: :party: :rock:

Methinks this light needs to meet its older and baby sisters :laughing::
img0076xm.jpg

Trivia question of the day: who's the most dimply?

I don't have a great shot of the Princess' rear :devil:, but the trit sphere looks awesome. Can't wait to see how the Southern Bell turns out with the 6 trit slots - that's an awesome idea. :popcorn:

Fred, not surprisingly, you knocked the ball outta the park here. PLEASE stop doing such awesome work! :nana: :wave: And congrats to the new owner. :twothumbs

Thanks for sharing! I love these WIP threads & pics... reminds me of why I love this forum just as much as I love the thing its devoted to. :)

:thumbsup: john
 

J Smyth

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Nov 22, 2008
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Itasca, IL
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

I think Wilkes will be very Happy. :) Great work BTW Fred. :thumbsup:
 

PhotonFanatic

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Joined
Dec 17, 2003
Messages
2,337
Location
western Massachusetts
Re: The Southern Bell -- final installment

There really wasn't too much more to do on the light--most of the machining was completed, so only the internal parts needed to be completed and installed. Here's the heatsink for the three-level driver, which is only 10.80mm in diameter:

SBelle-WIP-30.jpg


As soon as I took that picture, I realized I had forgotten to machine the holes for tweezers so that one can tighten or loosen the LE (light engine), so back to the lathe I went. :confused:

Then I lightly buffed the light, just to give it a little shine, nothing too heavy, or the anodizing in the dimples could be ruined. Then, my favorite part--washing the dishes, err, the light:

SBelle-WIP-31.jpg


Nothing too high-tech there--just some good dishwashing detergent and water--but it does the trick--removes all the oils and buffing compounds.

And now onto some photos of the completed light:

SBelle-Final-2.jpg

SBelle-Final-5.jpg

SBelle-Final-4.jpg


If you've made it this far, I congratulate you on your patience and persistence. :bow:

Thanks for following the WIP and I hope you enjoyed the photos.

And, of course, a big thanks to the buyer--without such gentlemen, these flashlights might not get built.
 

wquiles

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Joined
Jan 10, 2005
Messages
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Texas, USA, Earth
Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

Man, those photos are amazing - the light seems to be like "suspended" in air - great 3D detail!
 

wquiles

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Jan 10, 2005
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Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

Yeah, thanks, but did I give you enough of them? :rolleyes: :wave::crackup:

Well, perhaps not quite as many pictures as in my marathon-length posts, but you have enough to show the process/steps, so I for one I am very grateful as I am very visual and learn a lot by the pictures :thumbsup:
 

DBCstm

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May 19, 2009
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Re: The Southern Bell -- WIP Warning: Lots of photos

Somehow I missed this before, and I'm sitting here in Sheer Amazement at the beauty of this gorgeous creation! Jewelry grade artwork, in the field of runaway protons. Outstanding Fred. Love it. And I'm finding myself in lust. Is coveting thy neighbors Southern Belle a sin?

Dale
 
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