The Aethero-Galvanic Exciter

Here we see a composite shot of the Moran Aethero-Galvanic Exciter

It was necessary to cheat a little to properly expose the photograph for both the casing and the resonator window effect. If you were to see the real thing, it would look quite a lot like this when switched on.

Dimension-wise, the casing is around 9 inches in length, 6 inches in height and depth. The device is turned on by twisting the hand-wheel on the plumbing to the right of the picture.

When switched off the plasma effect is turned off and no power is available at the outlet. As it stands the Aetheric Neuralizer is coupled to the device permanently, but a twist-lock socket/plug have been obtained and will be added to the design to enable a more easy transportation of the Neuralizer and the use of the Exciter to power other devices. It will also provide a possible way to recharge the accumulator without de-installing it as is currently required (no pun intended).

I also need to have another go at installing the hinges as the lid is slightly mis-aligned, but that can wait a bit.

Aetheric Neuralizer In Action

Another picture of the Aetheric Neuralizer being wielded to deadly effect in the hands of the inventor, Colonel Moran.

Note the shoulder-strung Moran Aethero-Galvanic Exciter, another landmark invention from the fertile mind and tireless hands of Colonel Moran.

This device uses the Moran Aetheric Resonator, configured as a disc for this purpose, to provide the electrical energy needed to initiate and control the linear Aetheric Resonator (which can be seen in the picture as the green rod connecting the rear assembly of the Neuraliser with the forward resonator housing), which in turn provides the initiating principle of the Aetheric Neuralizer.

Also visible in this picture is the radiant glow from the Barrel-Mounted Heterodyning Exciters, which indicates that the Aetheric Neuralizer is about to be fired.

Readers should be assured that the device was detuned to a high degree before that took place. No-one was injured in the demonstration of the correct stance and firing technique, and there was no structural damage to the Ravenblood Games emporium.

Aetheric Neuralizer Outing

I took first prize in Ravenblood Games' costume competition tonight largely due to the overwhelming awesomeness of The Moran Aetheric Neuralizer. I'll try and get photos from those who took them.

I have to admit that once I had the Moran Galvanic Exciter figured out I knew I had a winner. You know the concept is working when you want to play with it for fun. I was in real danger of flattening the battery before the event, because I spent so much time watching the effects in action.

The Neuralizer/Power Supply combo drew comment from everyone, as did my fanciful "Praetorian Guard/Space 1889 Soldier" costume. Even though I never fully finished the Neuralizer (I ran out of time and so the external piping and gauges it was supposed to feature were left off) it was still visually stunning.

I'm extremely pleased with myself. I'll add the missing features later and do some internal tidying on both the Moran Galvanic Exciter and the Moran Aetheric Neuralizer - the chocolate-block connectors I used for expedience and screw-up-proofing the circuitry could now be usefully switched out for two-part male/female connectors for example, but it is now a case of super-detailing a product that is basically good to go.

And the host of tonight's event made a point of saying that he would like to display the device in his store, and that was extremely satisfying as a vindication of my design.

Aetheric Neuralizer XII

Tonight I connected all the wires, re-assembled the various sub-assemblies into a beautiful, metallic weapon of imaginary destruction and connected it to the battery.

I twisted the main hand-wheel and was bathed in the healthy green glow of the Aetheric Resonator, its plasma-trail snaking a brilliant white counterpoint to the background glow.

I spun the forward resonator control regulator hand-wheel and hoisted the Neuralizer into firing position.

I pulled the first trigger and the Lateral Barrel Heterodyning Exciters burst into emerald-coloured life. It was hard to restrain myself but cries of triumph at this stage would have been premature and unseemly, so I limited myself to a smile of satisfaction.

I pulled the second trigger and the entire weapon went dark.

A quick check showed that the half amp fuse had blown. So my decision to go with a huge lead acid battery rather than a few AA cells was well-founded, and I was probably wise to double up that power connecting cable too. I don't know how much juice it is sucking down in "all systems go" mode, but it wants more than half an amp when I press the triggers.

This thing is totally awesome.

And I am awesome for inventing it. I was beginning to doubt that last one.

Aetheric Neuralizer XI

Last night the manufactory was a feverish hive of activity as the Neuralizer, now broken down into its component parts, was fitted with sundry components of a mechano-galvanic nature, and the outer casing given a lick of paint (can't go adventuring in the Victorian Era with a handful of PVC) to make it look like brass, which it does, mostly.

This morning I revisited this job with a view to finding some means of preventing everything the Neuralizer touches being coated in super-fine brass dust, which I'm hoping can be summed up as "Testor's Glosscote". I'm keeping the old fingers crossed that the varnish doesn't interact in some vile way with the metallic paint and destroy all this hard work. It wouldn't be the first time paint has mutinied on me.

Also, what I hope is the final construction conundrum was solved when I machined a workmanlike pistol grip for the device from a block of Maple. I sized the grip by eye and used some wood I had left over from another project that was of convenient dimensions. Cutting the top and bottom to a 15 degree angle gave the grip a comfortable rake. Due to a happy error at the table sander due to ham-fistedness, I machined a small front-to-rear taper in the blank which turned out to improve the comfort of the grip considerably.

The breakthrough moment came when I realized that things would be easier to achieve all-round if I mounted the two triggers not side-by-side as originally planned, but one beneath the other so that the lower one could be actuated by the middle finger and the upper by the more traditional index one. This allowed me to use a smaller, sharper router bit to cut a slot down the face of the grip to accept the microswitches, which were then a press-fit. Another pass with a veining bit to provide clearance for the cabling required and I was left wondering why it had taken me so much effort to come up with the solution in the first place.

Attaching it to the rear housing turned out to be easier than I thought it would be too. I simply machined a tapped hole in the rear of the already highly machined piece of wood, aligned with the grips vertical axis, and mounted a length of quarter-inch threaded rod in it and secured the two together with epoxy resin. This enabled me to attach the grip to the housing with a nut. The handle was prevented from twisting by the addition of a short stud just forward of the hole for the threaded rod that protruded into the slot cut for the microswitches/triggers.

This morning I wired those triggers and mounted them in the grip. Nothing wakes one up so quickly as jabbing a hot soldering iron into the left bicep.

A late design change calls for one relay to be re-designated as an optional upgrade, making the rearmost hand-wheel control only the Aetheric Resonator effect rather than forming the first in a cascade of controls for the various effects (which would convey a more realistic firing sequence). I'm nervous about the relay failing, you see. I can live with the actual firing effect not working because of a sub-standard part failure in the field, but the visual impact of the device will largely depend on the plasma effect going on down the spine of the gun and having that go dark because someone tightened the purse strings when it came to making the armature of the relay would be too bad.

Daguerreotypes were taken but are not yet available due to processing delays in the Moran Chemical Imaging Laboratory.

Tonight the device will be reassembled into its working configuration and hopefully I can get on with building the Moran Galvanic Reservoir - a power source of proprietary (and sparkly) design and putting the final touches to the webbing slings.

After I build the Forward Barrel Exciter Shield and attach it in place, of course. The exciter is mounted but needs to be concealed and the light (which is a bit disappointing in the candela department to be honest, but the large and impressive version was simply too long) requires a reflector to properly direct it and hide the rather mundane origin of the green Weird Science glow from public view.

I decided to go with a double length of cabling between the power source and the gun - I'm really too nervous for words when it comes to thin wires people can grab and electricity, even when insulated. I've seen some catastrophes involving current traveling down wires too thin for the flow in my time. A key design element has always been to avoid setting myself on fire while using the Neuralizer. Double cabling introduced a headache with tangling, so I stitched both fabric-clad lengths together with thread.

Should I ever revisit the design, I think I will somehow arrange for hidden bypass switching that can be actuated without stripping down the Neuralizer in the event of a relay failure. I would also like to include an anti-tamper control that disables the whole affair in some non-obvious way.

But other than that, I think the Moran Aetheric Neuralizer is just about ready to be deployed against the Vile Vivisectors of Mars or anyone else who wanders into the line of fire without a white flag and the proper attitude.

Aetheric Neuralizer IXb - Reflections

Once I have the Neuralizer properly assembled and running I shall of course go through and organize these notes into a more workmanlike Bill of Materials and Construction Guide, assuming I can maintain enthusiasm for the job and not collapse in an unmotivatable heap over by the swarf bins.

Thank heavens for the bounty of tea. I don't know how I'd have managed to face the adversity this project has produced without steaming pots of the stuff, applied at regular intervals to the recalcitrant thinking processes.

Anyway. Tonight I expect to make most of the final fittings before the casing is dismantled for cleaning and painting. I shall take photographs if I can spare the time.

Jobs remaining:

1. Barrel lighting effect and shroud. I believe I have all the materials needed to complete this task, but I may need to obtain some decorative automotive door edging. The brass-finish furnace grill is sharp when cut.
   
2. Sound module installation. A very simple job involving double-sided tape and probably gobs of silicone sealant to hold it in place. It's unlikely, but I may use more of that epoxy putty. Depends on the smell/set-up factors involved. Both take forever to set-up but the sealant stinks up the place as it sheds acetic acid during the air curing.
   
3. Handle and triggers - this is now most urgent. I still have only the fuzziest internal pictures of what this will look like!
4. Possible installation of third hand-wheel and switch - this will almost certainly be deferred as an upgrade to be made much later, if at all.
5. Wiring and test firing. Assuming no malfunctions, this should be the most straightforward of the tasks and should consume no more than a couple of hours at most.
6. The Battery Box. Time-consuming woodworkery needed here. I'm probably going to double-up the connecting cable, stitching the lengths together with cotton as I have concerns about the current consumption of the Neuralizer when in full "cow the masses" mode. This has been the most disappointing and hard-to-get-convincing part of the build, and I've failed utterly to capture the look I was aiming for.
   

There are some aesthetic questions still to be answered, but I think mostly this will be good as it stands for the demonstration I have in mind. The aim will be to arrive at Saturday morning in a position to be able to add stuff but not having to do so.

I think I'm happy with most of what's been done. I'm extremely happy with certain aspects of it - the hand-wheel controls are very satisfying in appearance for example, and the Aetheric Resonator is spectacular when power is applied, so much so that it spurred me on when things got unhelpfully hard.

I'm disappointed with my failure to locate a cable of suitably convincing look and behaviour. I wanted something that looked like old-fashioned cable and hung more like rope, in a deep catenary. I'm extremely under-impressed with the quality of the sheet metal screws I was sold by Home Depot, the hexagonal heads of which do not have a consistent profile and offer too-little purchase to a socket spanner. I would advise everyone to avoid these.

The false-starts were relatively few and far between, but have resulted in a small stock of parts deemed not fit for purpose.

These parts, mostly lighting effects that were the wrong size or just not suited to the task at hand rather than non-functional, have been tentatively assigned to the backpack part of a steampunk space-suit project I've been mulling for years. That will feature a convincing steam engine component if I can ever figure it out.

Aetheric Neuralizer IX - Progress (Of Sorts)

Much messing around in the Manufactory Workshop this weekend, not all to good effect.

On Friday a number of parcels finally arrived at the Moran Manufatory's tradesman's entrance which proved to contain the parts necessary to finish the Aetheric Neuralizer. This meant that a number of problems I was still struggling to find an answer to had to be solved "as I went" which never goes well.

Not only that, some parts I had ordered that would form a vital part of both the aesthetic and electrical design turned out to be missing the mounting method I had assumed they would have. The tintype in the supplier's catalogue had been taken from a vantage that did not highlight this design feature, and I cuold not implement the mounting that the parts did come with so I was caught between a Gashant and a Steppe Tiger.

Over the course of the next day and a half I discovered anew that I shouldn't work when tired, especially when drilling large holes in things in which I want a minimum of holes, and that a quarter-inch hole in a PVC pipe fitting can be tapped to accept a 5/16ths threaded stud in a gratifyingly short time. Paint will hide all.

These holes were drilled for two reasons. Firstly, to be threaded so they would accept the eye-bolts for the shoulder-sling, secondly so the stems of the rotary potentiometers c/w on/off switch that will, with the addition of some nice red hand-wheels, place the device firmly in the "steampunk" milieu rather than the "Star Trek" one.

It was these potentiometers that proved so awkward to mount. I had expected them to have the popular large threaded bushing/skimpy nut & crown lock-washer affair so that I could make small brass plates and mount them in those - just as one would with a Marconi Receiver. However, these bally things came with tabs so they could be soldered to a circuit board directly. Useless for the task at hand, as they were too short to wrap around any metal strap large enough to provide a mounting in the tightly curved inner spaces of the Neuralizer's casing.

It was maddening, and I could not come up with a satisfactory solution to the conundrum until late Sunday night, when a combination of double-sided mounting tape and a piece of copper pipe turned out to work rather well.

I manufactured a screw thread onto the stems of the devices first so they would accept a nut, than the hand-wheel then another nut to secure the wheel. Then I applied a generous pad of the tape to the top face of the cylindrical body of the potentiometer and, passing the stem through the hole I had drilled for it in the Neuralizer, pressed it up against the inside of the casing. Then I cut a length of copper pipe that ran from the outer casing surface up to the inner face of the first nut, less a smidgeon.

The result was the pipe was sandwiched lightly between the Neuralizer casing and the inner boss of the handwheel, keeping the whole affair properly seated on the tape and preventing a ding to the handwheel pushing the potentiometer off its rather flimsy mounting.

Naturally, one of the potentiometers would not cooperate and despite these measures came loose and span in its mount so the switch wouldn't work properly. I "solved" this with the aid of some epoxy putty originally intended to allow a tradesman to do shoddy work instead of a proper job. I simply suspended my "must come off again" rule for everything and slathered the bally thing in white paste, which is setting up (still(!)) as I type.

I also secured the inner core of the Moran Aetheric Resonator to the crystal pipe that forms the actuating principle of the Neuralizer. Without this component the Neuralizer is but a tawdry prop suitable only for play-acting.

I was scrupulous when it came to cleaning the crystal tube, and it was only after I had secured the inner core with a special rubber formulation that would ensure an air-tight dust seal that I realized that, what with all the different problems I was solving as I went I had neglected to clean the core itself. Too late by then of course, D_sh It!

The good news is that with the exception of the fabrication of the battery box and the still-vexing matter of how to secure the Superheterodyning Tubes to the barrel, this represents the final problem with the Neuraliser, the rest of the job being a matter of straightforward "x requires y be done" tasks that should take very little effort.

The bad news is that I'm quite behind schedule and must now rush to finish by the debut date.

Aetheric Neuralizer VIII - Thoughts On Ergonomics

What Ho!

When one looks at the Neuralizer (Aetheric Neuralizer V) one instinctively wants to cradle it in one's upturned palms, tucking the rear assembly into the waist and adopting a sideways stance, but this was not the envisaged method of wielding the device and won't be practical once the handwheels are installed.

I had thought I would use a two-grip approach, similar to a Thompson Submachine Gun, but trials have shown the geometry of the device in firing position doesn't suggest or lend itself to that. This is a shame because I was planning on installing two triggers, one in each grip, to simplify the process of firing - one trigger would activate the barrel light effect, the other the sound.

Getting rid of the forward grip means that the controls must be reconfigured, and I've settled on a double trigger in the rear pistol-grip, set side-by-side with the sound actuating trigger set a little further back than the light actuating one. In this way my index finger can actuate both effects as originally envisaged from the one grip.

This brings up a second vexing issue, namely the need to run two power lines from the rear assembly to the front instead of the one I had planned for. This in turn means using finer gauge wire than I had planned.

Which is moot anyway because the power connecting cord I've settled on has only 20 gauge wire inside it, so unless I run two lengths between the battery box and the Neuralizer and double up the conductor (not desirable), this will burst into flames before any internal wiring melts its insulation off or explodes when it shorts on some metal part or other.

So that's all right then.

It just remains to be decided whether I will attempt to machine the pistol-grip as two halves that sandwich the components, or simply machine the grip core from Maple and clad it with screw-on sides as manufacturers of conventional sidearms do.

And I must also decide how I'm going to attach the grip securely to the Neuralizer. I have a couple of ideas, but none are persuasively convincing. It will be a disaster if the pistol-grip snaps off at the debut.

Toodle pip!

Aetheric Neuralizer VII - Sound Practice

What Ho!

Today a new effect was placed on the test bench and given a trial run. Then, once I had recovered my senses, it was placed inside the mock-up of the Neuralizer and given another test run with an audience.

Three hours later my hearing returned. Truly impressive, and absolutely what was needed to give this bally Neuralizer some teeth.

I expect that upon viewing the visual effects at its first outing, some blighter will opine loudly that it's all well and good but hardly impressive, and will goad me into firing it. I will prevaricate of course, finally allowing the smug provocateur to push me into discharging it at them, at which point their respect for the device should become instantly several orders of magnitude higher than at first.

Sadly, I discovered the long-shank potentiometers with integral switch that Iwas planning to use were no longer available for purchase from Radio Shack, or indeed, anywhere on the face of the Earth.

I finally located a viable alternative, but Bad Show, Radio Shack!

Aetheric Neuralizer VI - An Interlude With Electronics

What Ho!

I spent a productive hour or so in the Manufactory experimenting with the electronic core of what will be the Aetheric Resonator, the chief in-weapon effect that will induce awe in the observer (the other being the lumin disk on the battery box).

One of my concerns is that the lead acid accumulator is quite capable of misbehaving in some rather unpleasant ways if care isn't taken and respect for the power it contains not foremost in the inventor's mind. Thus I added a fuse and some proper "spade" terminal connectors to the hook-up.

I had also seen a rather negative review of the very effect I was using, complaining of burns and fire danger. I therefore ran the device for a few minutes to make sure my unit was not as dangerous as that.

All seemed well when I brushed my pinkie finger against the negative battery terminal connection and received what could only be an alternating current shock - from a direct current power supply!

The effect I'm using requires that a DC supply be used, but the science of it requires that a high-voltage AC power source be used. This is achieved by a box of tricks called an inverter.

Given the super-cheapness of the components in the kit, I suspected inadequate design in this unit was feeding back AC onto the power supply lines. Note that I have no advanced electronics training, just what I got in 'A' Level physics 40 years ago. I do however have a box of electronic bits which I doodle with sometimes, and I dipped into that and added a rectifier to the power line.

Problem solved in that touching the battery terminals when the lamp is running does not give me a shock. I have no idea if any other effects are in play, but I will put my voltmeter on the wretched thing once I can remember where it is.

So what needs doing is to add a rectifier to the power connection to the inverter wherever one is used (I'm contemplating another special effect that would require one at the front end of the Aetheric Neuralizer and I do not want to get shocks off the copper rod carrying the negative connection from the rear assembly to the front). Placing it as near to the inverter as possible should prevent shocks - I think that there is danger anywhere between the rectifier and the inverter, if my physics is still good in this day and age.

Aetheric Neuralizer Vb

Bah! I forgot to post the details of how I made those copper rods that separate the front and rear assemblies and reveal the Aetheric Resonator to the eyes of the audience.

Recall that one of the rods must be hollow to allow a power wire (depicted as a red line) to be run through it. That is the lower picture in the diagram below. The two short pieces of threaded rod have been drilled along their axes to form threaded bushings. The copper rod simply rests between the faceplates of the two major structures, held in place by tension provided by the other three rods as depicted in the upper picture of the diagram below.


The outer rods were made by cutting copper pipe to about 9 inches in length and trimming all four to the same size using a table sanding machine.

The three solid rod cores were made from 12.5 inch lengths of half-inch threaded rod, and were attached to their copper sleeves by sliding each one into a copper pipe and nipping it between two nuts, one at each end. The rods were carefully adjusted to get equal lengths of thread at each end before tightening the nuts, and the nuts were only tightened until they fixed the pipe in place in such a way that their flats aligned. This was done by laying the assembly on a flat surface and adusting the nuts until the whole thing didn't rock. Then the nuts were thread-locked using thin-formulation cyanoacrylate adhesive.

Each rod was carefully inserted in one faceplate and fastened using another nut. Attaching the opposite faceplate was an exercise in annoyance as the faceplates are distorted and the rods point inward and so must be gently coaxed into place by springing them outward. The bushings had to be be screwed back until the copper rod could be carefully slid into place and then they had to be turned by hand to extend them and lock the tube into position. It was a trial.

Care also had to be taken to ensure the entire assembly didn't twist, which would produce a corkscrew effect that is unattractive and so not desirable.

And that is how I made the spaceframe rods.

I also polished the copper using a cloth wheel and a special copper abrasive before I assembled the rods, and I applied a coat of Carnuba Wax to them afterward to prevent fingerprints and corrosion.

Aetheric Neuarlizer V

Colonel Moran presents the first proof-of-concept dry-fit of the components, excepting the electronics and switching gear.

Looks awesome already (perhaps not so much in the photograph), a little over two feet long with a nice heft thanks to the sheer number of PVC fittings (9 including the pipe sections) and and the construction of the spaceframe members, mostly half-inch threaded rod with a sleeve of copper pipe.

The copper looks staggering after being buffed on a cloth wheel, and then given a coat of carnuba wax to prevent damage from fingerprints.

Next up: The electronics are installed, then I have to take it all apart, wash the plastic (I may use the dishwasher) than prime and paint everything before reassembling and doing a touch-up paint job.

It is going to be fun taking this to parties.

Aetheric Neuralizer IV

Another abbreviated workshop session thanks to other life intrusion, but progress, of sorts was made.

I decided that bold action was called for and that the problem couldn't be properly explored as an in-brain simulation, so I cut slots in the threaded flange of the faceplate to allow a spanner to grip the nuts.

The picture to the right is an attempt to explain this nonsense, with the version on the left showing two of the four holes for threaded rod and one of the four slots cut to allow spanner access, while the faceplate on the left is the starting point. A large square bulge the actual faceplate has set centrally in the other side so it can be gripped with a monkey spanner and screwed down tightly into the female fitting it is designed for (What I call an adaptor in the text) is not shown.

This required a razor saw and a Dremel cut-off wheel to do, and I only got one of the two plates reconfigured, but it represents progress. The new plan is to assemble the spaceframe from lengths of pipe, slightly longer lengths of threaded rod all holding the two faceplates aligned, then to screw the adaptors to the faceplates (the spanner can't get to the nuts with the faceplate installed in its adaptor).

The only fly in Mrs McReedy's Patent Lineament is that the faceplates will almost certainly be slightly distorted by the tensioned rods, and this may make the screw threads refuse to cooperate when it comes time to install them into the adaptors.

This bridge will be crossed if and when encountered.

Assuming the plan is sound and everything eventuates as desired, I will secure the faceplates to the adaptors by drilling and threading a hole through the side and installing a brass screw to lock the two components together. Glue would have been my first choice, but I may have to get this contraption apart again.

I will use the same method to secure the large domed pipe cap to the rear adaptor to form the rear assembly of the Aetheric Neuralizer, which will house the inverter for the spinal-mount Aetheric Resonator, a key component and most of the reason for the build.

I will also use the same method to secure the reducing coupling to the adaptor to form the Forward Resonator and Emitter, which will house more special effects the full inventory of which has yet to be finalised.

One annoyance that I'm hoping will yield to a buffing wheel and polishing compound is the writing etched into the pipe advertising the product as having been made in Vietnam¹.

If the buffing idea doesn't work out I shall just include the pipes in the final paint job, which will be a sort of half-convincing brass spray paint. With some drybrushing and maybe a bit of airbrush work it might pass muster as real brass. At a distance.

I wanted to add some gauges to the Forward Resonator and Emitter and was hoping some cheap pool filter gauges could be pressed into service, but it turns out they are quite pricey and I am already well over budget on this project. But as I was being bounced around on my train ride home I had an inspiration, namely that small end caps, on the order of an inch or so inside diameter, along with a bolt, a short length of copper pipe and a computer printed dial might be pressed into service as a suitably convincing stand-in.

I may have to pour in some sort of hard-setting liquid to secure the bolt and make a support for the dial. I could use liquid plastic resin, which I have on hand, or Plaster of Paris which I also have on hand. The first is lighter and stronger, the latter is cheap. Perhaps by using a thick dowel as an armature and depth adjuster I can reduce the amount of liquid needed, in which case the resin would be the better solution.

Not sure how to arrange for the proper glass cover and raised bezel mounting for it. That issue may have to be postponed indefinitely.

I'm still toying with the idea of adding more light effects to the barrel. The only issue with doing so is that the effect I have in mind will totally swamp the visual impact of the Aetheric Resonator when it is fired up, which could simply be a matter of the correct performance when demonstrating the device.

Thankfully I can put this decision off until quite late in the build.

Until the next dispatch then.

Toodle pip!

Notes:

1. Colonel Moran would only use British parts for the Aetheric Neuralizer, and moreover wouldn't be caught dead using parts from a French dependency. There are limits!

Aetheric Neuralizer III

Curses! More setbacks!

I spent two hours machining the faceplates to accept half-inch threaded rod, but found once it was done that there simply isn't enough clearance for the nuts on the other side of the facplates (these nuts will be what actually makes the structure rigid enough to carry around).

I can cut away the screw-thread on the faceplate adapter flange to clear the bolts, but I doubt that leaves room enough for the points of the nuts to swing so they can be tightened. I won't even think about how to get a spanner into that tight spot.

I see two possibilities:

1. I could assemble the faceplates and adaptors, then cut slots through from the outside to accommodate the nuts and a spanner so they can be cinched down from the outside. These slots could be covered by curved brass plates screwed into the PVC.
2. I could abandon the threaded rod altogether, find some copper plate of the right size (from where I do not know) and solder the pipe to the plates to form the spaceframe. Then I could attach the plates to the PVC pieces with screws or bolts.

Option 1 has the advantage that I have everything I need to hand (somewhere), and I can machine the holes with a Dremel tool.

Option 2 has the advantage of being lighter overall, but I have no source for copper plate of the size needed and I would still need to cut a hole in the middle of it to clear the big square moulding into which the special FX tube is going to be mounted. All things considered, this would be the way I'd go if I had a ready source of copper plate and had thought of it first.

So I will assess the practicality of option 1 tonight and if it looks good I'll start the work needed. If I hit any more unforeseen snags I will regroup and go with option 2, but I'm dreadfully short of time if I'm going to hit my deadline of October 29th.

What an absolute bore!

I did manage to find what might be a suitable wire for connecting the power to the device, but it masquerades as a connecting cable for an electric musical instrument and is very expensive.

Still, any port in a storm.

Aetheric Neuralizer, Part II

Today was an abbreviated session in the manufactory due to other pressing matters, but I did manage to machine the second bushing (breaking another drill; I'm beginning to suspect the - new - chuck isn't closing properly) and cut the copper piping to length. I need to trim them to get rid of the slight differences in length due to the inaccuracies of the pipe cutter. I'll probably do that with the table sander, but I might use a grindstone and do the job by hand. I'm too tired to decide right now.

I also noticed that the clear tubing has been scratched despite my excessive care not to do just that, dash it!

Photos will have to wait a little, I'm Afraid.

Colonel Moran's Aetheric Neuralizer

What ho! Welcome to Colonel Moran's Magnificent Manufactory!

I promised someone I know vaguely that I would keep a build log for a steampunk prop I'm building, the eponymous Aetheric Neuraliser, and, well, this is the first installment.

The concept is simple: a semi-portable weapon-like thing that hangs off a sling, looks menacing (hopefully) and wins me first prize in a Halloween costume contest.

It will consist of two parts:

• A 2-2.5 ft long likely-looking rifle-like thing slung in the same way as the heavy weapons seen on a certain company's 29mm miniature soldiers of the future - sort of like a guitar. This will feature all sorts of light effects to hide the basic lameness of the device itself.
• A box to hold the power supply for all those effects, dressed up to look like something other than a box with a battery in it.

The box will feature a lumin disc, a green one, set front and center in the long side, and a handwheel from a sillcock as a switch so it will look like I'm opening a valve when I turn it on. I have most of the parts for this already.

The weapon will consist of two sections assembled from various PVC schedule 40 pipe fittings, separated by a frame made of threaded rod clad in copper pipe, with a clear tube running down the center containing a special effect to simulate the Aetheric Resonator.

I have the forward and rearmost structures figured out. The rearmost part will be made from a dome-like end cap fitted to a screw-cap adapter. The screw cap itself will be where the threaded rods get mounted, forming the space-frame surrounding the clear tube which will be fitted into the middle of the screw cap. At the other end of the threaded rods will be a second screw cap and adapter fitted to a series of reducing couplings (fat pipes joined to less-fat pipes by a conical chamber, sort of like a broad funnel) and finally to a short section of pipe forming the "barrel".

Sounds complicated, but it really isn't. Here's a bad drawing of what I'm aiming for.

The green effect in the center tube is achieved by use of a cold-cathode tube, one that is engineered to produce a similar effect to the lumin disk. In reality the copper tubes will form a narrower frame because the thickness of the PVC parts prevents the nuts that secure the threaded rods that run down the center of three of the four copper tubes from being located that far out toward the rim.

The forward assembly has two conical steps, not one, and a shorter barrel, required by the availability of parts more suited to plumbing sinks and toilets than making Victorian Steampunk Rayguns. I'll post photos as I get the particulars sorted out.

One wrinkle is that I need power at the front of the gun as well as the back. I can run power down one of the threaded rods, but having two rails live and a short circuit path for a lead acid battery is asking for trouble. I don't want to weld the thing to my fly zip at the wrong moment, or set my clothes on fire when someone's medallions get tangled in the thing.

So tonight I had an idea that I could maybe make do with only three rods, with the fourth pipe left hollow so an insulated wire could be run down it. This would mean I'd need to make threaded bushings for mounting the pipe. I broke out the drill press and only broke one drill figuring out the correct technique for drilling a 3/8ths of an inch hole down the middle of a two-inch length of threaded rod. It wasn't perfect, but it will do. I'll make the other one tomorrow, and post pictures then too.

I also machined the cold cathode tube mountings so the lamp would fit in the length of Plexiglas tubing. This amounted to removing the "wings" on the mounting brackets molded into the lamp ends with an oscillating belt sander. Pictures tomorrow.

Toodle pip!