Spurred on my my success with the first keyboard,I cracked on with the other. This was in much worse condition
Overlay removed
Let the games begin
Houston we have a problem
Anybody else see it?
Yep, the new overlay membrane looks to have been scaled up when it was made. Quick email to the vendor. “ Oh, they are all like that. Your old one must have shrunk”. Yeah right. And I guess the steel frame it’s attached to has shrunk accordingly too,? Must have shrunk only in certain places then,because all the bolt holes still line up....🙄
So ,now I was not sure what to do. I could buy another one elsewhere,but whose to say that isn’t the same? So, I started making enquiries in the States. One thing I have found about the States,is, unlike a large majority of people I have dealt with in the U.K.,on a technical level, the ‘ Muricans are very helpful. They will go out of their way to help. No clever,” it must have shrunk” comments here...😊
As it turns out,according to a very helpful chap States side, there seems to have been a bit of anomaly with this machine. Something he has only seen once,on a machine that an expat brought over to the States with him from the U.K. I got asked to go look at the consol. Sure enough, there is like an adaptor frame fitted where that keyboard fits. It seems that the Keyboards fitted to the European machines by Hitachi Seiki in Germany,( where my machine was assembled) use a smaller keyboard than the American version. Not offended by my joke about the Americans being fat fingered, it was pointed out that the likelihood of finding a rare euro spec keypad membrane was slim to none. Not good news ☹️
Johnny, I have asked my man at Hitachi to see if he can help, He is going to ask tomorrow, lets see if he can get some names for you. no promises tho. but I know he has access to more than most, the problem being, Hitachi run the subsidiaries as separate companies, not as a conglomerate,
So, realising the keyboard membrane issue was going to slow things down a bit,it was time for a decision. Do I cut my losses and scrap it, or do I find another lathe and carry on regardless? Work was piling up and I needed to get going. We moved the lathe over to the other side of the unit. Hopefully not in to what might become death row🤣🤣
Having moved this once,I made a proper heavy duty set of machine moving skates,and plonked its seven tonnes on top
With a combination of methods we got it moved. Big ratchet straps in the front
Little £250 bargain pallet stacker forklift at the back....and a House Elf. No drama and it was soon on the other side of the unit. I then went and bought another Cnc lathe,but that’s another story 🤣🤣
So, what to do about the membrane? First thing was to have a good look at its construction. If you know how something was made,there is a good chance you can replicate it. It consists of a die cut sheet of double sided self adhesive foam sheet. It then has a printed vinyl overlay on top of that,finished off with a clear plastic cover that has been vacuum formed. .Easy. Let’s get one made then shall we?😉
Switching on my Googlefoo, I contacted a couple of U.K. based graphic places that advertised the ability to make these membranes. Yeah right....🙄. The way these people talked you would think it was rocket science...errr...no....it s a couple of bits of plastic cobbled together. Certainly not worth the £600 to £1000 price tag the two companies involved quoted. Your having a laugh, especially as I would have to do all the artwork. So sacked them off as a joke,and thought about it some more. It hadn’t been a total waste of time though, as both inadvertently had answered the one question I hadn’t asked as I figured they wouldn’t tell....🤣🤣. Both had said what clear plastic they would use for the clear plastic front.
So I started looking into making the membrane myself. The double sided adhesive foam tape sheet could be had from 3M. I could make the vacuum forming tool for the clear plastic sheet. My mate Tom could be forced,,,errr bribed...err roped in to vacuum forming it for me. The artwork I could do. Hmmm. Printing on a clear plastic sheet then...I went and asked my next door neighbor. Turns out he has a couple of very fancy,top of the range laser colour printers. He was up for the task . He hastily printed a test photo of some flowers
Nothing special there,you think until you remove the white piece of paper backing the printed image up
Yep, it’s printed onto a clear plastic sheet.
Right, so that was that part sorted out. The plan now was to mirror image the artwork before printing it. This meant we could print on the reverse side of the plastic sheet,that grubby paws and cleaning wouldn’t effect the printing as it would be on the opposite side of the clear plastic. Ok. What’s left? Ahh yes, the die cut foam sheet. Well. I could make a tool to die cut it,,but realistically,there are better ways to do it. So I bought a laser cutter....🤣🤣
It hadn’t been lost on me that the part number on here was rather telling
Sick bastard 2. 🤣🤣🤣. I spent a fair amount of time looking at that whilst measuring and drawing it out to create Sick Bstard III
Then I got hit by a bus.... Why is it when you are waiting for a bus,nothing comes along? But once on the bus, you look out the rear window only to see another bus behind you? Was sitting at home one evening, pretending to be listening to the missus ,whilst browsing Face ache market place. Not particularly paying attention to either. There was an advert. The Sick Bstard..... No. cannot be. Off to the garage to go and collect the membrane. Looked at the ad. Everything matches up. Bought.
One complete ,hardly raced or rallied keypad arrived in the post three days later. This one came pre shrunk, unlike the one next to it, so would bolt straight in 😉. Never say never......
Post by grumpynorthener on Dec 7, 2020 8:06:48 GMT
Dear Santa, Could you please arrange for that talented bloke 'Johnny Bravo' to CNC machine me a workshop extension - I can send a sketch that I've done on the back of a cornflake box - I don't mind if it arrives in kit form and doesn't have to be gift wrapped - lots of love Grumpy xxx
Dear Santa, Could you please arrange for that talented bloke 'Johnny Bravo' to CNC machine me a workshop extension - I can send a sketch that I've done on the back of a cornflake box - I don't mind if it arrives in kit form and doesn't have to be gift wrapped - lots of love Grumpy xxx
That’s pretty much my letter to Santa too🤣🤣🤣
He has however got one of his Elves to contact me, so more space for me is on the cards..... Just as well as I bought another two machines 🤣🤣🤣
Dear JB splain please. I read this three times to see if you were winding us up but apparently not. How on earth do you find something like that on the Book of Faces? what categories do you have? Here in Canadia we basically have two categories of Facebook marketplace - overpriced cr*p that nobody wants and scams that nobody wants.
This is a fairly serious question BTW - did you really find this on Facebook and if so, is there more of a story because this really does sound like the (actual) Holy Grail showing up for sale.
Dear JB splain please. I read this three times to see if you were winding us up but apparently not. How on earth do you find something like that on the Book of Faces? what categories do you have? Here in Canadia we basically have two categories of Facebook marketplace - overpriced cr*p that nobody wants and scams that nobody wants.
This is a fairly serious question BTW - did you really find this on Facebook and if so, is there more of a story because this really does sound like the (actual) Holy Grail showing up for sale.
signed Confused in Canada
JP - What a cracking idea we can start a 'Dear Johnny Bravo Thread'
Im still bumbling over the fact that we have someone in our midst that would even contemplate creating that button overlay with as much effort as it takes me to create a ham sandwich..though i really should have know better!!!
Im still bumbling over the fact that we have someone in our midst that would even contemplate creating that button overlay with as much effort as it takes me to create a ham sandwich..though i really should have know better!!!
And then just happen across a NOS ham sandwich on FB!