[tribaloverkill]

UPDATE! LOL! OK. Now I'm back! Ho my god. Yea. Holidays suck! I was so damn busy! Now that everything is settled down now, I'll be posting pretty much everyday. Anyways! Guess what? 2 new reservoirs! OH YEA! Ok,... here's the deal. ACRyan wanted two reservoirs right away so I skipped the strobe reservoir and blackout and jumped right on these things. Now,... they are variations of xPO and sPL. They are cool though. The variation of sPL or sPT567dr is what it's called is 4" just like the sPL reservoir. The xPRZ5331r(xPO variation) is 7". Thats 1" larger. You see, these are going to be the standard sizes for my cylindrical reservoirs. I upped from 6" to 7" because I'm thinking ahead. Later on down the road, I will need that extra inch for more complicated reservoirs and trust me,... they are complicated Anyways,... I have a new style of shields I will be using for the my cylindrical reservoirs too. Not goignt o get into thqat right now,... I will wait until I make the first round for these two reservoirs I'm about to post now. What else?!?! Oh,... so yea, right after I'm done with these reservoirs, I'll be goign to bqack to work on blackout and I'm going to finish the strobe reservoir. So yea. I have to a lot of explaing to do so lets get started,...

Jan-01-2007 - xPRZ5331r & sPT567dr

Ok,... say hello to eCH745dr. I was going to make this for ACRYAN but I decided not to because I need to get them two reservoirs fast and making this reservoir won't be fast because there are several problems that I need to workout. I don't have time for that right now. After I make the two reservoirs I am king for them and after I finish the strobe and do some work on blackout,... I will then get back to it. What it is, its a dual reservoir like sPL except instead of only having 2 chambers, this one has eight. As you can see in the pic,... Each reservoir uses EVERY OTHER chamber to give you a straightened out candy cane look. The problem I would have if I made it is that teh colors would mix. It wouldn't be blue green blue green etc,... it would be sea green, sea green, sea green etc. So What I will most likely do is use the tinted acrylic as the internal dividers. That would cut down the colors from visually mixing, not all but by a lot. Now the problem,... lighting it up. To really light it up from the inside I would need an LED in each chamber. The tinted acyrlic cuts out a lot of the UV light. BUT! I also learned that UV water doesnt light up the same way UV acrylic does. UV acrylic lights up best with the UV light right on it. Uv water lights up best with the UV light at a distance. So lightng up this reservoir might not be a problem after all. There's no UV acrylic SFX on teh insdie so there really no need for the LEDS to be right up in there. You know? Anyways!


Here's a quick sketch of xPRZ5331r. Basically, instead of a coil, there will be rings. For those of you who know whats going to happen once those rings are spinning or what the effect is,... don't ruin it for others. Let them see for themselves once this thing is done. Notice the bottom of the reservoir. It's different from the xPO. This bottom is more simpler to make. Looks better and make mroe sence. I cut one of the reservoir ends at 10 degrees and then glue a 1/4" piece to it. I dont have to drill the barb holes at an angle anymore. The only thing I havre to drill at an angel it the pilot hole for the center shaft. Easy.


Here's an example of the colors mixing. It's an sPL. Obviously. You see green on one side and blue on the other.


Now I believe we're looking at teh green THROUGH the blue. So the blue side is facing us.


This is blue THROUGH the green, so green is facing us. You see the difference? I hope not because there's hardly a difference. This is the problem. Pretty sure tinted acrylic would take care of this.


Here I am recyling some old reject sPL's to make my sPT's. these sPL's crazed,... all 32 of them Yup. But I figured out why all my S@#$ was crazing! OH! Did I even tell you guyz? Damn,... the reason I have been having trouble with crazing is because of my table sander! Yes, my table sander. What was happening was that the sander was heating up the acrylic to much and to fast. Everything I brought to the sander crazed. If I used an alternative way,... it would craze. I ran so many tests. Everything pointed to the damn sander. The problem is that it spins to fast. If it would slower, it would work just fine. I haven't use it since. I need a sander like it but with gears so I can slow it down. I'll have to look into that. This is why I got the mitre saw. Anyways,... I'm cutting off the ends in this pic.


Ends cut off.


I'm cutting two, damn,... I forgot how wide they are. LOL. I think 7/8"? I'm tired. I cut two 7/8" pieces from the center of each reservoir. This area of the affected reservoirs is unharmed. Alteast I hope. I cut up a few before for testing and they didnt craze so I'm assuming they are all fine. What a pain to cut these. I was afraid I was going to cut my fingers off they were so close to the blade. Geeez.


Made a little stop bloack to prevent the blade from cutting completely through the wooden platform you saw in the last pic.


LOOK! See! See how close my fingers are! Do not try this at home! I am not a proffessional,... I'm just stupid. Don't be stupid like me. LOL.


A lot of the parts for each reservoir made. Notice the sPT's over to the right. There's 4 body pieces for each. I'm going to rotate each piece by 90 degrees. Will look cool when done. There a disc inbetween each piece channeling the water into the right chamber. So you will see blue and green on teh bottom, then right above that you will see the sea green from teh colors mixing, blue and green again,... and so on. Simple.


Here's some stuff marked and ready to be drilled.


Everything is drilled and now I'm tapping. Did I tell you I tap with an air rachet now? I think I told you guyz that already. Anyways,... so easy now. Notice the Delrin donut on the tap. A quicks means of knowing when to STOP!


Here we are again,... drilled and tapped.


Here is how I was goign to attach the middle shaft for the xPRZ but I changed my mind on this. I forgot to take a pic of how I am doing it now. I forgot to take a lot of pics. I got use to working without my camera. I have to break that habit


I'm cutting the strips for the rings that will go inside of xPRZ. I cant wait to get a table saw. That would be a big help. Oh,... I was actually taking a pic of the UV mess. It's looks a lot cooler in person.


A UV hair wad of acrylic. Cool.


Ok,... here I'm cutting my 1/4" strips for the rings.


There's my UV hair wad,..... I coughed up. I have to start wearing a mask.


Thats it for now. I am hoping to have these things assembled tomorrow so I can start the shields for them the next day. So I'll be posting another update tomorrow, and then the next day and the next day,.... OH, I forgot to mention. I throwing a little contest. The prise,... xPO352r. This is #1 of 32 made. #2 went to ACRYAN and the other 30 went to germany. I'm going to post details for the contest a bit later. I'm tired as hell. Night! Peace.