27. CLIPPARD VALVES The "Clippard" valves can be found on the large stepped disc on the synchronous generator, and on the proton gun. Although they can be found online these days, I found them to be too cost prohibitive for my build, especially since it was pretty straightforward building some convincing copies.
I've seen people online use White-out bottles and 5-hour Energy bottles, but none of them seemed close enough to the real thing.
Note: I will be documenting below the steps I employed to build a single Clippard valve. Everything has to be doubled/duplicated for the second one! To start, I printed Stefan's plans to actual size, and cut out the base shape. As I measured, I realized the base shape can be easily approximated by cutting the corners off a perfect square. So I cut two squares of leftover sign plastic to match.
Next, I picked up a ridiculously overpriced piece of 1/4" thick balsa wood at Michaels:
A 3/8" thick piece would have been a little more accurate, but this works for me.
The idea here is to build a "sandwich" of sign plastic around the balsa, giving the whole base more stability and paintability. So I cut the corners off the plastic pieces, and cut a balsa piece to similar dimensions as well.
I then glued the "sandwich" together using superglue. It's important to avoid epoxy, white glue, or silicone-based adhesives here, because they don't sand very well.
Next, I sanded the base piece to shape using 220-grit sandpaper and a sanding block, rounding everything according to the plans, taking care to do it slowly. I cleaned it up with 400-grit.
After this, I coated the top (and especially sides) with two coats of white glue. This seals the balsa and helps it keep from chipping or splitting.
Also, I located and drilled two small pilot holes for the screws. It is important to do this carefully, and
only after the white glue application, because the balsa wants to chip off.
The base is complete. For the body, I simply capped 1" inside diameter PVC pipe, with sign plastic as my "caps" (as I've shown previously). It is all sanded smooth and all edges but the bottom have been rounded quite a bit.
Notice that this is done in two pieces. I did this in order to make the body more realistic. The rounded edges coming into contact makes for a very pronounced seam, much more convincing than simply masking off during painting. It's a little more work, but REALLY adds to the look of the finished product.
For the lids, I picked up two travel-size bottles of Scope mouthwash at my local dollar store:
I not only used the lids, but it turned out to be very important to save the threaded tips of the bottles as well. I cut them off with a hacksaw, lightly sanded them, and turned them upside-down. It was also necessary to sand out the insides just enough so that a 1/2" dowel would fit inside.
For the base screws, I picked up a pack of these #6 x 3/8" sheet metal screws. They are cosmetic only, as anything longer or larger will risk busting the balsa.
EDIT: I ended up
not using these screws, but went with longer 3/4" screws instead. They are no longer cosmetic, but instrumental in securing the valve to the wood disc underneath.
After that, I painted everything: base and lower body with black spray, upper body and lid with silver spray, and threaded piece with brass model paint.
I also cut a piece of 1/2" dowel (left over from the crank knob) to the exact inside height of the mouthwash cap.
My pieces were ready for assembly:
My first assembly step was to apply the metallic label on the PVC body. It's quite difficult to add it later. It was also necessary for me to cut about 1/8" off the end of the label in order to get it to fit properly, as it was too long for my PVC pipe.
Note: The two Clippard labels are different. The one marked "R701" goes on the gun, and the one marked "R331" goes on the proton pack. I then glued on the upper body and base using a small dab of epoxy. I was especially careful to make sure the lower body is correctly oriented on the base, so that the label is facing the right direction.
Then, I glued the dowel inside the threaded piece, with the dowel length sticking up past the non-threaded end of the bottle tip.
I flipped this whole thing upside down and glued it into the cap, ensuring that the threads will show.
Note: Most pack builds seem to show brass threads for the gun's Clippard valve only. The one on the pack looks fully screwed in. As a result, I only used the threaded tip for one of the valves. After gluing this onto the top of the valve body, and adding the mounting screws, my Clippard is done!
EDIT: Because I ended up using longer screws, they went in last.
Rinse and repeat (this time without the threaded tip), and my second one for the pack is ready.
And finally, I glued my R331 Clippard onto the pack, using my usual epoxy and hot glue combination, saving the R701 valve for later.
UPDATE: After a helpful post below from Alan Hawkins, I decided to secure the Clippard using the screws. So I took out the 3/8" long #6 screws, and replaced them with 3/4" versions instead. It was necessary to remove the valve carefully, clean up the surface, drill pilot holes into the stepped disc, and epoxy the valve back in. Then, I was able to put the longer screws in. Much more secure!
And that's it. Next post, it's time to tackle that ion arm.
Thanks for reading!
Bill
RUNNING PARTS COST: $4.19 - 1/4" thick x 3" x 36" balsa wood (Michaels)
$1.00 - Travel-size bottle of Scope mouthwash (dollar store)
$1.00 - Travel-size bottle of Scope mouthwash (dollar store)
$0.98 - #6 x 3/4" round head sheet metal screws (16-pack) (Home Depot)
$244.92 - previous total$7.17 - this stuffTOTAL: $252.09