The MagPi - February 2020

06

Making the brass inserts
The brass strip proved quite tough to work.
If we had the tools, we would have annealed it to
make it more workable: what is required is to heat
it up until it’s cherry red and then leave it to cool.
Nevertheless, we managed to cut it using a new
hacksaw blade and plenty of lubrication – specialist
cutting oil is best, but ordinary lubricating oil
will do. We cut the strip into the shapes shown in
Figure 5; first, a slice was cut off the strip and then
the 30 degree slope from each corner. Always cut
on the waste side of the line and finish off with a
file or disc sander.

07

Painting the box
We used a combination of PlastiKote Flat
Black B2 and ‘Game Color’ Orange Fire 72.008 to
paint the box. Using a fine P600 wet and dry grit
paper, we smoothed down the wood after the first
of two coats. Then we applied two coats of Ronseal
matt clear varnish. The tops of the six-note trigger
insert screws were painted black and the four
control screws were painted orange, with the six
corner holes screws painted Antique Gold B34 to
match the brass. Note that only a small part of the
top plate is seen, therefore you need only paint the
corners of the top plate.

08

Drilling the brass inserts
We marked the brass control strips through
the holes in the top cover and drilled them out
3 mm. Then we put the brass strips on, shown in

Top Tip

Painting

screw tops

When painting

the tops of the

countersunk

screws, we used

a lump of Blu

Tack to hold them

upright. We only

use these for the

final assembly;

before that, we

used unpainted

screws for

the many trial

assemblies.

51.00

20.00

28.00

30.0°

51.00

10.00

6 Off 2 Off

37.00

10.00

2 Off

1mm Brass 1mm Brass 2mm Brass

Trigger Control Control fill

Figure 3 Lining up the side piece with the base

Figure 4 Gluing up

the side pieces

Figure 5 The brass

inserts’ dimensions

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5

Figure 6

A slice was cut off the

strip, then the 30 degree

slope from each corner

Figure 6 All the

brass inserts

TUTORIAL

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