Mu-TH-UR Computer 6000

[stephen210]

looks great Mike!

[Mark Sheppard]

[SKIN JOB 66]

Excellent work, can't believe my eyes it finaly looks so close... WOW !!!


Can't wait to see your next progress pics !


Fred
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THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST

[Mike Rush]

Thanks guys.

Paint... well, aerosol primer followed by Hammerite I suppose. I did buy some aerosol Hammerite (which I didn't know existed before) but I have been 'warned off' it by someone at work - it's pretty temperamental stuff, apparently. I will of course try it for myself to find out; but if not then it's back to the old paint tin and brush! (Which is probably how the original was done anyway.)

Now, news. I am pleased to announce that I have been quietly collaborating with our own 8th_Passenger (Colin), who not only has some great ideas and suggestions, but also access to some very handy equipment. Plus he lives in the same county as I do!

I sent him my key outline, and he did this with it:







The reason for making it out of two sheets was that the laser-cutter would have started to lose definition at the full depth. Therefore two identical halves were cut, sandwiched together, filled and sanded to perfection. All much better than I could ever have hoped to achieve.



Above you see the key master all filled, smoothed and ready to be moulded.

And here's how a professional does it:





So now there is a perfect mould for the key! All that's needed is those pesky electronic bits and pieces to go inside it. Despite going to more boot sales and buying more (very cheap) stuff, I haven't turned up a single 'correct' component. So Colin and I have been discussing how we can perhaps fabricate some or all of it, using various techniques including laser-cutting, milling, brass-etching... it's daunting but we will do it somehow. I'm ashamed to note that it's taken me a year to get this far, but I think with Colin's help we can get finally a key made for Bob. (Colin and I want one too, but Bob's is the Primary Objective here.)

Thank you Colin for all the help so far!
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Mike

"We're not heroes - we're from Finchley"

[Gaff87]

Seriously impressive work, from you both!
Love it.

Neil

[joberg]

Nice and crisp (you'd think with a laser !!!) and the mold is a beauty keep up the good work people!

[nickdaring]

Amazing work.

Nick

[SKIN JOB 66]

ÜBERAMAZING !!!



If you ever consider doing a run of those MU-TH-UR keys, please count me in !



Fred
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THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST

[Mike Rush]

Turning my attention back to the box, I realised I had never really attacked the 'insides'. It has lots of tricky angles and weird shapes. However I had to start somewhere.

There are two pieces of 'packing' which hold the key loosely in place, and they're quite intricate to make. The main problem is cutting the internal angles on such thick material - not easy. I don't have a laser cutter but there is a disc sander at work. So! I printed out the shapes, divided into sub-shapes which are all convex (stay with me here). I roughly cut out each part and then carefully sanded it down to its correct shape. This 'jigsaw' was then superglued together.



I applied a little filler to the joins and sanded the top nice and flat. Then I made a baseboard which will form the 'back' of the box, when you open the door. The two parts were attached to this. NB at this stage I'm just using double-sided tape to hold things together, because when you make a mistake with foamex and superglue there's no going back.



I then made four 'walls', two of which had a small hole precision-drilled to accept the metal bar which forms part of the lock mechanism.



A quick test using a spare key shape from Colin, and it looks as if the final key will fit just right.



This whole assembly was then inserted into the outer box from behind. Still no glue here - in fact this was just a push-fit.



It's starting to look a bit like the real one now?



Quickly put the door and buttons back on for a photo-call...



And a first photo of it standing up. I put a (temporary) piece of clear plastic in as the window. This is the first time you can look through the window and see some kind of interior!



The chap next to me at work offered to shine his (phone) light through the thumb-pad while I took a photo. The theory works, although for the real thing I intend to use an old-fashioned bulb to get the authentic look. The bulb will be set well back from the perspex so that it won't just be a 'hotspot'.



I ordered more magnets so that Colin and I now have four each.



And just for fun, here's a shot of most of the work I've done so far:



Don't mistake this for some kind of mass-production! There are duplicates, but that's a result of my discovering the hard way about the consequences of supergluing something and it proving to be wrong. (For example, the box on the left is useless now.) Now, whenever I make a piece I make spares. That way if I do screw up I don't have to start all over again!
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Mike

"We're not heroes - we're from Finchley"

[RICHIES ARMOR]

Mike

This is just a mere suggestion about the inside details...looking back at the front on shots that youve posted prior maybe something as simple as a phot-oetched picture of the details laid flat into the key would suffice. It would lose depth but fron straight on it would give the impression of having the correct detailing.

Richie
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MYSPACE.COM/ALIEN_ENVIROMENTAL_SUIT

[Gaff87]

Mike, that is incredible work.
I really wish I had the talent and skills to make one myself.
Seriously impressive.

Neil

[nickdaring]

[joberg]

Excellent job Mike! As for the paint, I usually used a Krylon metalic spray-can (alu or chrome) and while the paint is still drying, I spray a mat/satin varnish to "lock" the sheen and at the same time I have the "hammered look" happening in front of my eyes (reaction between the 2 products).
You could do a test on one of your "discarded" box of course

[8th_Passenger]

Great work Mike. Its really coming together now.

[Harry Harris]

Mike & Colin I can't begin to explain how great this project is looking, nor can I hide my shame that I've held an original key and only took one rubbish photo of it!

Looking forward to seeing your further progress,

Harry
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[stephen210]

Great Work!

Mike/Collin, When you get to the point of getting a key done. Let me know what I need to send you for one for Bob.

WOW!!!

Steve

[Pro Mod]

Great work Mike!

Regarding the Hammerite, I've sprayed the standard material a number of times over the years and it's not quite that difficult - after a bit of practice.
From experience don't try and cover it with a heavy coat (as the brushing instructions state) at one go because it will sag and run!
Instead, spray a number of light coats (give each one a few minutes to dry) untill you've built up the level of coverage your after.
It will still separate and produce that uniquie pattern.

I'm really looking forward to seeing this finished.
Keep up the good work.

Phil

[Mike Rush]

Thanks for the tip Phil.

Thought I would bring everyone up to date with what Colin and I have been doing.

We realised that some of the odd little shapes inside the key might lend themselves to being laser-cut. Colin has access to a laser-cutter, so I gave him outline files and he cut the pieces from acrylic. Here are some of them:



(The cutter cannot handle thin enough stock, so Colin has to sand the pieces down to thickness by hand!)

Some of these pieces will need painting before they can go into a key. In one case (the square item) there should be a little round sticker on it too!

For the electrical bits and pieces, I have been trawling the internet trying to find the correct items. I never did get anything useful out of those old radios from the boot sales. Unfortunately what I am finding is that most things (diodes, capacitors etc) have been upgraded over the years so that now you can only find the 'modern' versions. This even led to one case where I purchased some old metal-can transistors on ebay but received the plastic replacements! No use to me. Fortunately the seller had a no-quibble money-back policy.

Therefore I have ended up with some parts which are slightly smaller than, or different from, the correct ones... but I have to draw the line somewhere, and so I'm going to stick with those. They are, after all, in the spirit of the original.



That leaves the network of little flat metal pieces. What they actually were... who knows. I've had lots of suggestions involving switches, relays, bimetallic strips, etc etc... but the fact is they were probably yanked out of whatever found appliance the propmaker had lying around at the time. The chances of finding them again (and I have tried) seem very slim.

I think Colin suggested having them professionally etched from metal. At the time it seemed like a joke, as the layout is so confused. But I sat down and started the daunting task of drawing it up. I soon found that there were certain pieces that were repeated multiple times, which helped a lot - so before long the job was done and I had a diagram of the layout.

I then converted the pieces into artwork ready for the etchers - this was an example:



The red represents 'half-etched' parts of the design - like engraving. Therefore the sprues can be made thinner to aid removal, and also I took the opportunity to add a date to one of the brass pieces. This serves partly as a fun 'signature' but also as a 'tell', so that nobody can ever try to pass one of these off as an original key. It's a shame to have to think that way, but as we know there are people who will stoop to such things. The date is very small though and will probably not even be noticed unless you're looking for it specifically.

Colin and I went halves on the etching, and after a short wait the two sheets (one brass, one nickel-silver) arrived in the post!



If you think this is a lot of effort to go to, believe me you're not as surprised as I am.

Again, I'm sure my parts aren't 100% accurate to the original but they must be along the right lines. I hope that when all of this 'stuff' is thrown into a key the overall effect will be enough to give the right look, at least.

In the last week Colin has been able to test out the clear resin. His first try was simply a thin layer into the mould:



- and looks absolutely stunning! I joked that he should have thrown a few parts in there and called it a replica... and before I knew it Colin had done just that (second test, different resin):



As you may know, when casting resin it can be advantageous to subject it to a vacuum before pouring, which explodes any air bubbles trapped in the mix. For those two Colin degassed the resin first.

His third test was without this degassing process, and looked like this:



- oh dear! So it looks as though the degassing is definitely worth doing. That bothers me somewhat because I don't have any access to degassing. Perhaps I will have to hire Colin to make keys for both of us.

Well, it's slow going but we are closer than ever to finishing this project. I've told Colin that I'd like to try and get a key done during November, so that we can send it to Bob for Christmas! I'm hoping that an artificial deadline like this will help to motivate me. So now you all know too and you can blame me if it isn't done in time.

Thanks again to Colin, without whom I would have ground to a halt ages ago.
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Mike

"We're not heroes - we're from Finchley"

[Harry Harris]

Wow guys that is simply stunning!

Mike it looks like you and Colin make a great prop-making team; I can't wait to see what you're going to do next!

Harry
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[SKIN JOB 66]

STUNNING... Harry is right, bravo guys...

STUNNING !!!

Fred
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THE FUTURE IS A THING OF THE PAST