Newbie BenofKent 3dprint trap build

[l3w1sb159]

After finishing my BOK pack I wanted my next project to be a bit smaller and hopefully simpler…

After a mixup with the courier I got my 3d printed trap kit from BenofKent. Just the trap, without the pedal, as I’m intending to build a weird mixture of simple belt hanger/lights and smoke, but fitted with as accurate parts as I can get, as this may be the only trap I make. I’m not up for sorting out a full singing and dancing trap with opening doors and sound, so ill be going for a “post-slimer trap” from the sedgewick “we came, we saw” scene in GB1.

I may come to building the pedal at a later date.

Parts I’ll be using:

Main trap body - BOK

V hook - Charlesworth dynamics

Aluminium battery box cover - BOK (compensation for the courier mixup)

Brazed aluminium handle made by me!

Aluminium side panels/Front panel/Bargraph panel/side rods - click metal (thanks tobycj!)

Gb1 Vector plate - Charlesworth dynamics

Cal/r resistor - Charlesworth dynamics

Male + female Foster connector - Charlesworth dynamics

Trap labels - Charlesworth dynamics/gbfans

Heathkit knob - mike sounders

Raytheon pointer knob - Mike sounders

GB1 front knobs/sliders - Mike sounders

Red Linrose indicator - Mike sounders

1/4" potentiometers- ebay

Light kit - Jupiter electronics

Costronica Pocket Smoke PRO - waynesworkshopstudio (etsy)

Probably won’t update until I’ve got past the slog of sanding. Wish me luck

[l3w1sb159]

So I needed to break up the monotonous sanding, so I started doing other bits in between sanding (and being bothered to).

First off, seeing as my trap would have the cartridge bolted in and only the front and top would be visible, I cut out the sides of the cartridge. To save on weight and would allow me to more easily attach the potentiometers inside the main body, plus gives a bit more room inside. I also drilled out the fake bolts in the ears and drilled, tapped and counter sunk for proper m4 cap heads.

Next I sorted out the back of the cartridge, which needed extra material to stick out past the main body at the front. I followed tobycj’s lead and used styrene sheet cut to size - I found that two layers of 3mm styrene for 6mm total let the cartridge overhang about the right amount (I couldn’t find 6mm thick sheets )

So after cutting and sanding them to sit flush I glued them together and left them to set under my very safe weight method…

On the back of the cartridge I drilled two holes; one for the bolt from the battery component and the other for an extra bolt to go through the handle for extra security. I also drilled a large hole down the bottom left to pass wires through from the switch and linrose light into the cartridge. I matched theses holes on the styrene plate.

As you can see I have a nut holding the battery compartment bolt on, which I will leave there to help the cartridge overhang the right amount. I had thought of glueing the styrene plate onto the back of the cartridge and bondo-ing the seam over, but seeing as it will be bolted in and not really seen I decided to leave it as a separate piece, makes it a lot easier.

I also thought of a (hopefully) fiendishly clever idea to keep the doors closed, as I won’t be having any mechanism for the doors to open and close. I had a shelf l-bracket spare so I drilled out a hole for it to fit onto the excess bolt from the battery compartment, tightened it up and it sits just underneath the doors, which I will glue magnets to the underside to keep the doors from swinging open, but still able to open when needed.

And seeing as Ben sent a metal battery cover to compensate for a courier cockup, I finished off by drilling out and filing it to fit flush on top. I also marked out and drilled the linrose light hole and just a pilot for the switch for now. I had to cut off the bottom section of the light socket so I could pass the led into the lamp once my Jupiter electronics kit gets here. Looking good

My metal plates from clickmetal are next on the list.

[tobycj]

Really like the magnet idea for the doors!

[l3w1sb159]

Got my order from clickmetal:

2 side plates

Heathkit knob plate

Pointer knob plate

Front plate

Indicator plate

2 side rods

All for 60 quid.

I kept the 3d printed plates from Ben’s kit to use as templates for all the holes. Made it nice easy. Test fit all the plates once I had drilled them all out.

Next I sorted out the knobs on the front plate. I decided to have the slider knobs mounted with 2.5mm screws for simplicity; drilled a central hole 2mm wide and used the screw to tap a thread enough to hold it on. The small black knob mounts onto an 1/8" shaft which proved difficult to find a pot with the right width and length so again for simplicity I used a 1/8" rod to mount the knob onto with a drill collar on the inside to keep it secure. The larger silver knob used a 1/4" pot. All the potentiometers I used for the 2 side knobs and 1 front knob, I drilled out a 8mm hole in the body and threaded the pot base into it to hold it solid (I also removed as much of the base of the pots as I could so as to save weight and space)

I had my first ■■■■ up when drilling the holes on one of the side rods. As some may have seen the bit sheared off flush and was a right ■■■■■■ to get out. Eventually I gave up and ordered a replacement which I managed to drill and tap no worries.

I counter sunk the back of the screw holes on the side plate for the screws to sit as flush as possible but also drilled out shallow holes in the body to allow room for the screw heads. Test fit the rods and the side knobs and the plates are more or less done, just put the 3d printed Vector plate there as a placeholder until my Charlesworth dynamics order gets here.

My light kit from Jupiter electronics arrived as well, it’s a fairly simple kit but it will do the job for what I need.

I had already fit the linrose Indicator to the battery cover, so I just needed to drill a 6mm hole out for the switch.

I also sorted out the Indicator panel lights, marked out a centre line and measure the length and width of the bar, marked out the shape central on the plate and chain drilled out the length and filed the rest flat and square. Once that slot was done I marked the location for the side led and drilled out 4.8mm hole so the bulb could just poke out.

However one problem I have is how to mount the light so just the right amount of the bar protrudes through the slot, as you can see the board has to sit a few mm away from the plate on the inside.

Any ideas on how to mount this little ■■■■■■ I would greatly appreciate!

[tobycj]

Are you going to chamfer the ends of your side rods? I found mine fitted in my pillar drill and did them that way with a file. Took a while but worked well.

For the bargraph I’d suggest either using standoffs, or cut some plastic “shims” that you can glue to either side of the PCB and use that to keep an even space, then glue the other side to the back of the metal plate when you’re ready for final installation.

[l3w1sb159]

Yes I’ll be chamfering the ends, however I don’t have access to a pillar drill. But I’ve a hand drill that’s big enough to chuck up the rods, so it will be a two man job: one holding the drill on and firmly in place while I use the file on the rod… I’ll let you know how that goes…

I had thought of standoffs but because the board literally maybe 2mm wider than the bar leds there isn’t much material to attach any kind of standoff to… I’ll get a better pic of the Indicator lights so you can see.

[l3w1sb159]

Here’s the Indicator light board. As you can see there’s only about 2mm of material free to attach to. I had an idea of maybe using the leftover 3mm styrene to make little rectangular legs as makeshift standoffs and glue those in place on the edge of the board?

[l3w1sb159]

Update on the side rods:

The hand drill chamfering technique worked quite well! With help from my better half, we managed to file a fairly decent chamfer on the rods.

[stonecoldrmw]

I love this thread…!

[tobycj]

Good work on the chamfers!

For the standoffs you could probably even use some thick card tbh, it’ll not have pressure from the rear so it’s just too keep an even gap.

[learntool]

The electronics you ordered, I assume you had to solder the extension on to make it fit, I have the same unit and was thinking about trying something because it currently does not fit in my BoK trap attached as sold.

[l3w1sb159]

Bit of a dump post, as I’ve not done much since last. Managed to mount the side rods on the plate and drilled shallow holes on the body to allow room for the screw heads.

The bits I ordered from Charlesworth dynamics arrived so I set to marking out and drilling the holes for the vector plate and v hook. The usual filing of the resistor wings to get it to fit on the gb1 size plate didn’t take long, also I took tobycj’s advice and used m2.5 screws to avoid blowing out the fins when countersinking the Vector plate.

Seeing as Sean’s v hook is a different shape to the regular one I’ll have to make the male side myself for my holster, any reccomendations on what thickness Ali to use?

[tobycj]

if you wait a few weeks I’m going to be doing trap holsters with male and female v-hooks, so you could swap that out for one of mine be aware you might need a shim underneath the female part too, the wheels stopped mine latching onto the male part without one.

[l3w1sb159]

Nice, that’s brilliant. I have a 3d printed v hook on the holster I have, was planning on using the block off that to help space the hook on the trap. Give me a pm when they’re ready and I’ll have a vhook set off you.

[l3w1sb159]

Just a quick one, I sorted out the Indicator lights as I needed to remove material to allow the board to fit under the Indicator plate. I dremeled out just enough as it came right up the the edge of where the plate covers.

One problem I’ve ran into is the Foster connector; as Ben’s kit comes with the hole for the connector there already I assumed it would just need tapping, however after tapping it for 1/8npt I’ve found that the hole is slightly too large for the connector to securely thread in, as it can pull back out with barely any force, definitely won’t hold the weight of the trap . Not sure of the best way to secure the connector in apart from some heavy duty adhesive when I come to final assembly… thats the last part you want to fall off…

[tobycj]

I filled mine with Isopon P38 filler, then redrilled and tapped it. Seems pretty secure now.

[l3w1sb159]

Ill give that a try as there’s also a hole on the bottom of the main body I need to fill (I assume its for bolting the handle in vertically) To be honest I was originally more worried about the Foster connectors popping apart and it dropping, but the ones I got from Charlesworth are solid when they’re connected - takes a fair amount of force to push the collar up. Typical now that problem has migrated to another part

[tobycj]

I wasn’t really clear what that hole in the bottom plate was for, mine got filled anyway!

[l3w1sb159]

So after a fairly successful first attempt of ever using body filler, I managed to fill, drill and tap the hole for the Foster connector. I may have not used enough hardener as it was still slightly soft and could leavie impressions with my nail however after threading the Foster in and giving it a good tug it seems fairly solid…

If in doubt I may add a drop of gorilla glue on final assembly just to be safe.

So after sorting that the trap is ready for filler primer… Once the lovely UK weather decides to be nice. Also still waiting on some aluminium brazing wire to braze my handle together (fingers crossed)

[l3w1sb159]

Somewhat success!

It looks a bit rough, but I managed to fairly successfully braze my aluminium handle together. It was quite the learning curve as I’m used to working with copper mainly and Ali is a temperamental sod to weld. The first side I tried I got a bit too hot and it started to melt but the other side turned out quite nice… it’ll fit the used and beaten look, just see it as “genuine weathering”. Not bad for my first time ever brazing aluminium!

I added a second bolt that passes through the carriage and threads into the handle to add some strength. I’ll paint both black to be less noticeable. So after a test fit the only thing left to do next is filler primer and sand before painting once the weather gets a bit warmer.