Discontinued Pandora Kit from Purple-Days

Gink

Well-Known Member
shantytown007 said:
Gink said:
A couple shots of my new Black Walnut/Bison PDP. Lovin' it!
Wow- really nice job on the leather/wood joint- that's some smooth sanding.
Thanks man, I worked it for quite a while, mostly to get little patches of excess glue off the wood. It took a while, but was worth it! I was definitely scared I was going to overwork the leather by sanding so much, but I was equally worried about leaving glue traces on the wood, which I knew would show once I buttered the wood. The joint is still probably a little off under the plug side, which isn't in the pictures...

Nice shots of the bison bottom you got there. Really captured the great color and texture of it. I couldn't seem to get my camera to take a good shot of it.
 
Gink,

j42d0gg

Well-Known Member
shantytown, I envy your wood (hehe, no pun intended).

I love wood and glass, and your vape set up (minus the extreme) is my dream! Black Walnut PD, http://www.edstnt.com/index_files/Page1839.htm (for my minimal combustion needs), a MFLB (i wish they had BW :(), and a SSV to suit my glass fetish :). I also would like some boxes like yours haha

p.s. is your Eneloops, LaCrosse more efficient that the stander set up, or is that what comes with the unit?
 
j42d0gg,

shantytown007

Well-Known Member
j42d0gg said:
p.s. is your Eneloops, LaCrosse more efficient that the stander set up, or is that what comes with the unit?
Thanks! When I was taking the pics my wife commented that I now have 'stoner gear for grownups' :rolleyes: The MFLB comes with Eneloops now I think, I got the Lacrosse charger partially for the MFLB, and also because I decided to switch to rechargeable batteries for the rest of my house and figured I'd need more than 2x8hour charger to keep up with all the remotes/radios/kids toys, etc. If it were just for the MFLB, the stock charger and included batteries are fine, the Lacrosse would probably be overkill unless you are vaping 4+ trenches a day. Frankly, I didn't know a thing about chargers until I went to amazon and searched for the most popular ones, that's what led me to the Lacrosse, and I do like it quite a bit.


Back on topic, I found a list on Amazon with all the tools required for a PDP: http://amzn.to/bfgYdp

EDIT: Oh wow- just checked out the site you linked- soooo many nice wood bats and dugouts!
 
shantytown007,

Purple-Days

Well-Known Member
Wow, that's a great resource. http://amzn.to/bfgYdp specially for the Ring Pliers. I'm gonna see if I can get hold of this fellow and ask if I can link him on our site.

Tips on leather to wood joint. I suggest using excess glue on the wooden bottom, then letting the clamp squeeze this excess out. After a few minutes the biggest part of the excess glue is available for wiping away with a paper clip or biz card etc. Big globs left to dry hard are difficult to cut with the scissors and aren't much fun to sand (as mentioned).

Getting that joint sanded right takes some patience, but not much skill. I provide 1/4 sheets of sand paper, if you fold these in half you get a stiffer work surface, put the fold edge out by your finger tips and the open side in toward your palm. Stroke the leather to wood joint in one direction only, from leather onto the wood until they are even. Work from heavy grade paper to the fine grades and as you get the joint right work up onto the wooden body and sand the whole unit. Finish sanding is done with the grain.
 
Purple-Days,

AreaFour20

Well-Known Member
Hi Tom,
Would it be ok to use Tightbond glue in the assembly of the Pandora kit?

It is what I use for stringed instrument building and I have it on hand. The original Tightbond can be heated/steamed to pry apart bonded surfaces so I was wondering if that would be a problem on the Pandora kit?

Thank you for your time.
 
AreaFour20,

Purple-Days

Well-Known Member
Sorry, been out in the shop... hope I didn't hold your project up.

The bottom of the unit, where you use the glue, stays cool so no concern. I have used Titebond II on many carpentry projects and always thought it was a good product. Did you know it makes a great record cleaner? ;)
 
Purple-Days,

AreaFour20

Well-Known Member
Purple-Days said:
Sorry, been out in the shop... hope I didn't hold your project up.

The bottom of the unit, where you use the glue, stays cool so no concern. I have used Titebond II on many carpentry projects and always thought it was a good product. Did you know it makes a great record cleaner? ;)
Thank you Tom. I appreciate your time.
No, it didn't hold up my project as I only ordered the Pandora Kit a few days ago.

Wow!:o
A record cleaner? I've never heard of that before.

I did use Tightbond III to glue the edges of some Brazilian Cherry (flooring).
It was completely waterproof so that liquid spills were kept from the seams.

Thanks again Tom!
Looking forward to my kit.

Best regards :peace:
 
AreaFour20,

Purple-Days

Well-Known Member
As you point out there are several Titebond wood glue products. Any of them (that I am aware of) should work fine for a PDP. Elmers Carpenter's Glue is what I use. Elmer's Glue All is fine. Gorilla Wood Glue (the white stuff) is good. Gorilla Urethane glue is not.

Titebond II is the one for record cleaning. OK this is off topic but since I mentioned it. I hear Elmer's works but is more difficult to use. The idea is that the vinyl records and the ??poly-vinyl-acetate?? (not sure of the formulation exactly , this is from long lost memory) are very similar and won't interfere with each other (ie.won't melt your record). And please try this on some old dirty thrift store record first, before you do it (which you may eventually) to some cherished piece of vinyl. Don't come back here blaming me for ruining your record collection, cause you did them all at once and used the wrong glue and forgot and let the glue sit 6 months. :cool:

Here's the deal. You want to spread a thin even layer of glue over all the grooves. I've seen old broken record players used as free spinning platters (lazy susan) to aid in spiraling a bead of glue from inside to out, but this was for doing a lot of disks. So in the end you have a spiral of glue, and you can do it by hand on a stationary record. Then the glue is spread to coat the grooves. Use a business card or credit card etc... you end up with a film of glue. Don't squeegee it all of, leave a film above the peaks of the disk.

That explains the glue, but before you start applying the glue get some of the blue masking tape. Cut 8 one inch strips. Apply them to the blank edge of the record (the run in) and to the inner blank edge (the run out). These are pull tabs, I'll explain in a minute. When you spread the glue be sure the glue goes over these tabs.

Set the finished record aside on a level surface (not the dash of your car). At this point heat and humidity and air circulation will determine how long you need to let the glue 'dry'. 4-8 hours. There is a point when the glue will be stiff enough to remove as a solid single piece sheet. If you let the glue set too long (days) it will become brittle and crack and be more difficult to remove as it will be in small pieces. Elmer's is known to be more brittle (but work if you get the timing right). Titebond II is the favorite and has more flex and longer time frame to remove it.

OK so you found a copy of Tiny Tim at the Salvation Army. And it is totally gross. Somebody spilled coca-cola on it in 1967 and it's never been cleaned. And you are dying to hear him. First things first use dishsoap and luke warm water and clean hands. Soak and lightly scrub with your fingers to remove the worst of the grunge, rinse well. Do this over and over till you just can't get it cleaner. Use your standard record cleaner now. The fluids and brush will probably find more stuff in the grooves that you missed at the sink. Now that you have it as clean as possible (normal in home cleaning) you can try it on your record player.

Still nasty sound, even with this much cleaning? You can take it out for professional cleaning. $$$

Or you can give this old school cleaning a try. :peace:
 
Purple-Days,

Lo

Combustion free since '09
Wow! The wood is really beautiful and your leather bottom joint looks really nice :D Great job!!

Keep those "before" photos handy so you can see how it ages. I bet it is going to be even more beautiful some months down the road!!
 
Lo,

AreaFour20

Well-Known Member
Plant,

Wow! Beautiful! I love the swirl!
kinda fits...

Tom,
That was an awesome piece on record cleaning.
Thanks for that!

I know I have a bunch of LP's somewhere..?
Now, if I could only clean out the clutter in the garage...;)
 
AreaFour20,

Purple-Days

Well-Known Member
Plant, I couldn't be happier. Glad you enjoyed the build
Nice... :D :cheers:

Thought I would show off a couple of units I have had 'in process' for friends. :party:

Person A said, maybe 'Yellar Lizard' and I was not sure if he was joking.
I think it's a great match to the tint of some Myrtle.
This is the piece I :buzz: Buzz-Buttered for photos and of course it couldn't be sold, we never sell seconds or used units, that's not how we operate. It's for a friend.

24o0rw3.jpg


20hvmmd.jpg


Person B has no idea what I have done (leather choice) to his block he sent in... I hope he likes it. :cool:
Two points: One, it's a nice use of the Pontiac Green IMO. Two, it's possible to get custom turned and bored Pandora Kits, but you gotta be the right customer. Know a bit about what woods are required, get wood that is KD (Don't know what that means? Read and learn), correct dimensions etc... Plus we DO NOT use any endangered woods. :uhoh:

11rc5k9.jpg


Again this is for a friend, so don't ask me to build you a fantasy piece. Build it yourself, using the Pandora Kit.
 
Purple-Days,

shantytown007

Well-Known Member
Love seeing the pics of the custom models- been trolling the internet for wood suppliers and hobbyists, amazing how many varieties there are. Pre-PD, as far as I knew, wood was either light brown, regular brown, dark brown or painted.

Question- are these one and the same, or cut from the same log maybe?

tumblr_l1tfdeHWv81qb0hxj.jpg
11rc5k9.jpg


EDIT: Plant- nice job, really nice! Which wood is that?
 
shantytown007,

Aidac

Well-Known Member
The first one is ambrosia maple and the second is spalted. Ambrosia maple is really an interesting wood, the dark spots are caused by fungus inside holes bored by the ambrosia beetle.

I've been looking for a nice piece of fancy walnut but can't find anything with the right dimensions that's also kiln dried, so I think I'll just stick with regular walnut...
 
Aidac,

Purple-Days

Well-Known Member
Looks like the same piece to me. A fellow sent me a piece of air dried (PAD) wood a while back. Didn't remember posting it, sorry... well, now it has gone through several aging steps and has been kiln dried and assembled including leather choice that I made. Sorry if it's a repeat and boring. That is obviously the same piece and I have it's brother in the shop. NO, it's brother is not available. ;)

Spalted is caused by fungus. Ambrosia is a version of spalted, you would know more about the causes of the fungus than me I am sure. Yes, these are Ambrosia Maple, according to the source, a version of Spalted Maple. Hope that clears it up. Not all Cheese, made in Switzerland, is Swiss Cheese, or is it? :cool:
 
Purple-Days,

shantytown007

Well-Known Member
Nah, the other pic was from the purple days blog, not this thread, afaik. Either way, the more pics the better- the detail in the wood is like :o I found a really cool wood chart- I'm sure most of these would not be doable for a PDP (either not right density or non-renewable), but cool nonetheless:

http://www.exoticwood.biz/woodchart.htm
 
shantytown007,

Lo

Combustion free since '09
Holy mackerel! That spalted maple is very cool looking. PD looks great next to that guitar too....like a matched set :D

Amazing that is caused by a fungus.... I'm going to have to read up on that :)
 
Lo,

Attack of the vapors

Magic Flight Attendant
I have to agree with Lo. After looking at a LOT of really carefully crafted objects of all kinds on this site, the spalted Maple PD wins the best-in-show award as far as I am concerned.

A beautiful, simple, well-proportioned design - carefully executed in a gorgeous wood.

Wow.
 
Attack of the vapors,

Progress

'Socratic Existentialist, MD'
Whoever is getting that Yeller Lizard Myrtle PD must feel like the most fortunate guy in the world. That ambrosia maple unit is SICK too (especially with the guitar in the pic).

Man, you are good to your friends, Tom.

That yeller lizard leather may seem a bit bright for some, but keep in mind that it may be the only leather option that will still likely have some color when your great grand children pass the unit onto their children. :D ("Now I understand why great granddad says they don't make them like they used to" ;)).
 
Progress,

CompassRosie

hippie hausfrau
Today I ordered my Pandora kit. Classic cherry, with yellar lizard! :D I love how bright and wacky it looks.

I've never put anything like this together, but I can follow instructions! Looking forward to the little challenge of assembling it, and then the big pleasure of owning & using it. :D

Damn, but one vape does seem to lead to another!
 
CompassRosie,

Infinite Cosmos

Quantum Foam
Well here are some pics of my Alder PDP with Black Snakeskin leather. I got it well over a month ago now, and I assembled it almost immediately, but it was out of commission for a few weeks because I had let a small piece of solder loose and it melted from the heat and touched the wires together, but its all good now!

IMG_0019.jpg

IMG_0018.jpg

IMG_0020.jpg

IMG_0026.jpg
 
Infinite Cosmos,
Top Bottom