Another 2am night. I’ve learned first hand what others have said…the doors are a BITCH to get to match up and still work. I see why so many people forego the doors, but I’m a hard-headed obsessed SOB. The cartridge HAS to come out and the doors HAVE to be able to open and close. And the thing HAS to be able to roll, and somehow it still HAS To be able to mount onto my MMM belt trap holder.
And so I spent forever on one or two little details: Get the wheels on and turning. I STILL can’t get it to roll straight after sanding and resanding the dowels and attaching and reattaching the skate bearings. I’ll figure it out eventually…
For now the doors open and somehow I got my electronics up and running too…AND managed to finish some Proton Pack repairs and upgrades (See my Pack thread a little later if you’re interested in seeing a pack further evolve from cardboard to something presentable.)…definately a productive evening! But boy are my arms tired…have two burn blisters on my hand from touching hot screws that I cut the heads off, or soldering irons…or dripping hot glue…
anywho…It’s not as good as stuff I see on the forums, but I’m glad to be mostly done, and like my Proton Pack, it’s not the best, but it’s mine, and it’s got some features you don’t see in every trap.
I even got the decals on…what a night in the foggy build zone…I hardly remember last night when I woke up. I get that much on autopilot when I work…
showing here:
Doors Open and Decals Added…
Now I just need to clean up a few details, touch up some bare wood that got exposed, put on the knobs if they make it in time on the front, and get those famous stripes on the doors. I’m undecided on paint verses reflective tape…I might do the reflective, I just don’t know how good it’ll look on a better trap. It was the best thing about my old crappy trap, but not it might not hold water on a “real” trap.
Some of you have noted how “used” and “beat up” it looks. That’s only partially intentional…I want it to look used up, but I’m afraid I lucked out on how it got that way. Sanding and filing parts while they’re actually ON the trap causes a lot of wear, and all that dust from plaster and sawdust from the MDF sort of coats the trap in that “workshop haze” you see. I think between that and the HAMMERED paint, that’s how I got it to look this way.
A note on the some trap details for builders who are insane enough to try to emmulate my amateur project:
This trap’s cartridge comes out and is held with a bolt and wingnut that’s tightened from inside the cartridge. The bolt is inserted right in front of my V-hook mount, which is shimmed out just enough to catch on my trap holder, but not so far it impedes with the wheels when I roll it.
The electronics, because of the removeable cartridge and my wanting the readout to light up, had to have 2 sperate power sources. One is in the battery box in back, and the other is in the cartridge with a switch you can reach by opening up the trap doors and turning it on.They’re all LED so I can leave it on all day if I want to.
I also put a touch of velcro on the doors so as they wear and get looser and looser, the velcro will make sure they stay closed. The power supply for the readout lights is also velcro’d into the cartridge interior. I haven’t figured out a way to mount the switch in there yet but it’s the least of my worries at this point…
So stripes and knobs hopefully tonight after a WoW raid I’ve been looking forward to all week! Finally a little relaxation…it’s amazing I’ve managed to do all this work and not miss much time at all with the wife and baby. It cuts into my sleep to start work so late after the baby’s down, but I feel like I’m doing the daddy balancing act quite well…and it’s rehearsal for when he asks me to build him some gear!
G
