Nose Cone Work, Metal Supplier Found, and More.

Where to begin! This will be a very meaty post, as a lot went on today, much of it relevant.

First off, I plopped my first coat of heavy build primer onto the nose cone today.

Here's the primer I'm using. I picked this up this morning in Fountain Valley.

I had a phone conversation with a buddy yesterday, and we were talking about materials he was unfamiliar with. I kept saying again and again, the thing you want to do is experiment on a smaller scale. Don't jump straight into the full sized project, start small. Well, with this nose cone, I'm following my own advice. This primer is new to me, as is its application and use. This is why I'm starting small, with the nose cone, to learn all about how to use this stuff. I learned a few valuable lessons today. First, I think the stuff dissolves plastic cups. I mixed up a tiny batch in a plastic dixie cup, and I think it started to eat through it. In the future, I will find a more suitable mixing cup. I'm also not really sure what the mixing ratio is between the paint and the activator, though my assumption was that even if you under-activated, it would cure eventually. I'll need to confirm if this is correct later on tonight, but we shall see. I also realized I don't know what to use as a solvent for this stuff, which I will need in order to clean out my air brush. Oh yeah, that was the other lesson I learned. I figured because I was painting a small piece, I could do it with an air brush rather than my paint gun. Bad call. It took forever, and I don't think I got it on very evenly. No worries at all, as this is purely a test bed. I'm not concerned about doing it wrong here, and that's by design.

Second, I got my portal gun yesterday. I already have a video up on youtube for it, though it's not particularly original. Here's a pic:

Bo The Welder sent me on a mission. We are in the middle of moving the engine, and Bo is going to build new engine mounts. To do that, we need some steel. Box steel, to be precise. I told Bo I knew about a metal store in Irvine, and I would check it out. I had never been there before, but I drove past it every day on my way to my old office. I always wanted to check it out, and this was my big chance.

Obviously, the place is called Industrial Metal Supply Company. Here's a link to their website.

I'm not going to lie, this place is amazing! They had so much great stuff, and the prices were really pretty low, compared to what I've seen online at places like McMaster Carr, which I totally love, mind you. I even asked one of the guys who worked there how they can offer such good prices, and he told me "volume".

They had TONS of remnants there, at wacky low prices. If I ever eventually get ahold of a mill and lathe, I will be buying ALL of my stock from here.

ooooo. Plasma Cutter. Only 1,000 bucks! Might have to get it.

I saw a nice little welding table for 100 bucks there that was practically calling my name. I almost got it right then and there, the only bummer is that I have no place to put it.

Totally unrelated, but this caught my eye at Target. People always ask me if I'm related. I am not.

Lastly, something of a costume update. I got my undershirts for my Captain Jack Harkness Costume. It's starting to look like this is going to be one of my main costumes for both SDCC and DC. It's coming together very nicely, and I think it will look great once it's all finished.