AL-U-Mini

[Ulu]

This is the body of a small router.

It’s a very nice diecast aluminum, and promises to be easy to machine and free of porosity.

 

[Ulu]

This is the remains of a seven dollar solar powered garden lamp. It had a fancy glass ball on the top, which I gave to my wife as an ornament. I stuck a tubing plug in the stake hole.

These have a slightly larger battery but they are otherwise no brighter. Right now these lights will run for eight hours, but individually, they will not be particularly bright.

 

[Palepainter]

Really digging the low tech, but yet well thought out creativity of the lighting.

 

[Ulu]

Thank you, @Palepainter.

I have done lots and lots of computer-aided manufacturing but nowadays I more enjoy getting my hands on the metal.

I just realized how weird this is. I used to enjoy doing what almost nobody did, and now that everybody is doing it, I switched back to what almost nobody does anymore. This is how I would’ve done things when I was a kid, except I have lots more tools now.

This is my candidate for parabolic reflector donation. Sprayway glass cleaner has the shape.

It looks like the battery pack which I imagined may be just a bit tight. It’s going to get a reflector, and the switch, batteries, and charging business must be contained. (NOT including the solar panel pack.)

 

[Ulu]

If I decide to make my own switch…

 

[Ulu]

This grille is made of the chrome fanguard from a computer power supply.

I trimmed it down, and drilled some little Pits into the aluminum, then forced it into place. I had to force it a bit, and it’s not exactly round anymore, but it’s not coming out of there. I put it in with a mallet.

 

[Ulu]

 

[Ulu]

I folded all those little tabs back to make my reflector “spring loaded”. It just pushes into the housing.

I didn’t push this in all the way yet. It still needs modification.

Now I have to trim it.

 

[Ulu]

The lens I have was too small. This was cut from a CD jewel case tinted psychedelic green. I did it all on the belt sander.

The gasket came from a piece of windshield wiper. The fake Jaguar has a very short windshield and I had to cut a set of windshield wipers down to like 6 inches long, and these were left over.

I cut that channel out from the wiper with a razor knife and then I dressed it off on the belt sander to make it smooth.

 

[Ulu]

The lens sits at an angle, as does the grille.

So it is not round but it is more or less elliptical. I shaped it on some sandpaper, and while the gasket is not perfect, it allows for a good fit by friction alone.

It is the same situation with the reflector, and I need to taper it to more of an ellipse and shorten it up slightly in the process.

 

[Ulu]

The inside of that can made a pretty good reflector, as it is cold rolled steel with zinc electroplate (commonly called “ready-coat” in the stamping biz) that has been washed, etched, and clearcoated.

I shortened up the reflector about 5/16”, and I removed the stampings from the center where the LEDs will go. This revealed a little corrosion where the caustic had gotten into metal that had the coating wiped off in the pressing operation. It was just a little bit, but it was at the worst possible spot, and I decided that I should take the whole reflector down to bare metal to make it match and improve the shine.

And I’ll have to clearcoat it again.

 

[Ulu]

4 LEDs and the 4 regulators and batteries. These are all just ganged together with epoxy putty.

There are lots of redundant grounds that I haven’t removed yet, & it still needs a switch.

 

[Ulu]

Just sitting there.

I will need to make some clips to hold the back on, or rather a clip device.

 

[Ulu]

Can this diecast aluminum router base become the headlight mounting bracket?

 

[Pondo]

Very creative fabrication, very kool!

 

[Ulu]

Thanks buddy. It’s raining continually here, so not much to do except stay inside and tinker. Right now I’m making the connector that will hold the router body and the stainless back cup together. Then I will figure out the mounting bracket.

 

[Ulu]

I made those little tabs on both ends of my connector and it fits quite well. The back is secure and it aligns correctly.

 

[Ulu]

About 10 years ago when I started skating long distance for fitness, I bought some 10” wide, fancy cam action spring loaded skateboard trucks. They were advertised as the worlds greatest carving trucks.

In truth, trucks this wide are only useful for long distance skating. These are fun to carve on until they get dirty, and then they just don’t work right anymore.

Each time you clean them, they are little bit worse, not quite as smooth, until you decide it was a stupid idea and regular skateboard trucks are superior in almost every way.

But before I figured that out, not only had I bought one $$$ set, but I had won a second set in a contest.

Amazingly, I was able to convert these to a very normal type of (very wide) skateboard truck geometry where I created my own pivot pin, and mated them to a standard Indy base plate.

This was some of the finest Okie machine work you’ve ever seen. I spot faced those castings with a spade bit. LOL

Here’s a little mockup with some masking tape.

 

[Ulu]

The Blue Haven Pool Cue is a fat board.

She has been a wallhanger for years, as she wasn’t long enough for long distance runs. See the trucks? I just cut up one of the four only such customized skate trucks in the whole world (as far as I know.) It wasn’t the easiest decision. But it wasn’t the hardest, because I’m going to like this bike a lot better than I liked that board.

Meanwhile, the desk view of a digital scavenging operation in progress.

 

[Ulu]

Those were originally made from trucks called the “Original S10”.

This is an S8 which is 2 inches narrower.

The plastic cams and springs made this thing not only a dirt collector but a dirt compressor. It packed that dirt right down into your slippery hard plastic bushings, and turned them into grindstones.

Anyhow you can see how I completely re-purposed these into some very wide but traditional rubber bushing skateboard trucks.