Millennium 1200

Description:

I found a 1977 Millennium Falcon toy years ago (most sure it was 1995 or 1996) for two dollars missing all the parts. I always wanted one as a kid. I stored it for a couple of years when I decided it would make a great Technics 1200 turntable mod. So with a little help from my friends at Green Guy Recycling for the recycled metal all I needed was a bit more supplies and a little a lot of patience since start to finish took me almost nine months to make.

Construction:

Ok, until I get access to a scanner, I can't show all the steps in the construction since all of the pictures I have are on 35mm prints; remember pre-2003? Me too- more film and less .jpg sharing. I'll put more pictures up about the construction soon.

So here are the pictures that I said I would post about the construction. I built this turntable in the first warehouse art co-op studio we rented on Feltner Alley in San Marcos, TX. Luckily I had a cool landlord that when finding out I was living in the warehouse was ok with it (temperatures did get down to freezing inside during the wintertime, so I always kind of had to be motivated to move around and stay warm). I'll link the full images to thumbnails later later when I have a chance.

So the first part of the construction was actually getting the toy to hold a little weight since the plastic was not very stiff or strong. I initally made molds of where the rear cushion feet are attached and then cast them in fiberglass resin with drilled and tapped aluminum inserts.

After I made the main 'skeleton' and leveled the frame, I cut the top so it's flush and level, and then I made the front 'foot/landing gear'. I wanted it to look like the landing gear/ramp. I ended up finding pieces of CNC-machined aluminum at Green Guy that would be perfect which I also further shaped with my band saw (probably went through a whole blade cutting it too). And I wanted to have a landing gear light so some of it had to be made up of clear polycarbonate. And it also had vibration elastomer bushings I stole from my Manitou mountain bike suspension forks.

So most all the aluminum used to make this thing came from Green Guy Recycling. And luckily I found a really great piece that would be big enough for the top plate. And once aluminum is cut there's no going back so I wanted to make sure this would come out perfect the first time. So I actually made the top plate out of plexi glass first since it was see through and was able to get the cuts right to fit the plastic on the toy. Then I cut the aluminum center (platter) peice out from a jig attachment I made for my Dremmil tool (took forever too). And after that was done I placed the plexi glass over the aluminum as a stencil and sparay-painted it. That's where I used my bandsaw to cut the edges, and then filed and sanded them smooth.

The pitch fader is curvature and extends out the back. And I used parts from a torn apart VCR for a pully system to move the fader; my original design was to use a knob, but that just wasn't possible since the pitch fader used in the Technics 1200 is unique to the design.

Recently I thought of a better wat to finish it off so I have a couple of weeks left until that part is complete and then it will be finally done. And then I'll add the images of it when completed.
So this is most of the pictures I wanted to post; I feel like the real artwork is in the inside. I do have others images and when I have more time I'll post those too later. Plus I do want to get a better picture of the completed version which I'll also post soon.