My previous attempt at making the eyestalk pivot wasn't too successful, as I had neglected to make sure that the circular pieces of MDF and HDF were all lined up perfectly when I glued them together. I found, after sanding them, that there was a slight angular tilt instead of a perfect cylindrical piece. Because of this unevenness (and the fact that it was already cut in a circular shape), it was very difficult to drill a shallow hole where the eyestalk tube would be inset.
I mulled over in my mind how else I wanted to approach this. What I decided to do was to take larger rectangular pieces of MDF and HDF—cut to the same size and squared on the table saw—and glue those together as before. Once the glue had set, I marked off the square I wanted to work with, found center, and drilled the shallow where the eyestalk rod would be inset. I also took the opportunity to drill the centered 3/8" hole for the lamp rod to pass through. Then I took the 4" circular saw blade to it, and cut out the circle.
To solve the issue of how the lamp rod and axle rod would meet, I decided I would use my leftover 1" aluminum tubing for the axle. Using the same 1" forstner bit, I drilled a hole all the way through the center of the pivot on its side, then test-fitted the tubing. When I get ready to fit the lamp rod, I will simply use the eyestalk pivot itself as a jig to drill the 3/8" holes through the aluminum tube.
The outside diameter of the saw is 4", which means that the resulting piece is shy of that by about an 1/8". Using some of the 4" Plastruct ABS tube I bought for the eyeball, I measured and sliced off a section and clamped it on with a two-part epoxy glue. Once that had set, I carefully drilled (starting small and working my way up with larger and larger bits) the eyestalk tube hole.
A nice advantage of having the ABS plastic on the outside was that I could now adhere the pivot strips. I took a tip from Jon Place's build diary and used zip ties. I couldn't find ones that were flat; the only ones I could find had a texture on them, but I actually quite like it. It compliments the more industrial look of the NSD-type daleks in my opinion. One problem with the plastic these ties were made from, however: it basically ignores my acrylic cement. So, what I used instead was simple super glue. To space the strips evenly, I used a blade from my jigsaw. Afterward, just for kicks, I ran a bead of acrylic cement along each space, let that set for a bit, and then took an X-acto knife to trim off the excess.
I carefully trimmed the zip ties along the inset hole and test-fitted the eyestalk tubing. It was a very nice fit, so I assembled the eyestalk with the new pivot, and am very pleased with the result. It is now set aside for eventual sanding and painting, not to mention the electronics.
Moving onto the plunger, I followed lochsloy's method of measuring out and cutting the inner and outer Plastruct cup parts. For removing these sections, I used my Dremel tool for the major work and some 80-grit sandpaper for fine-tuning. I switched to finer and finer grits to polish it off.
The part of the plunger that had me confused the most was the outer flare. In lochsloy's diary, he leaves the part as-is, only sawing away the hole for attaching it to the plunger. In screenshots and prop photos that I've seen, the outer flare seems to be trimmed quite a bit. My decision was to leave it as-is, and when I cast the eventual rubber plungers, either trim it down with an X-acto knife or just leave it alone. What I did have to do, however, was cut back the four outer ribs by about an 1/8" so that I could attach the flared rim to the outer bottom part of the middle plunger cup.Attaching everything together was done by using the same acrylic cement I used for assembling the light cages. I didn't need to use melted ABS glue as I did for the eyeball, since this is intended to just be a plug for an eventual silicon mold. I also took some two-part epoxy glue and attached a measured length of 3/4" PVC pipe for the stem. This will then fit in nicely with my 1" tubing I will be making the "hard" back section of the plunger out of.
And there we have it! Next up: making the silicon mold of the plunger!
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