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October 3, 2025 at 10:59 am #32382
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KeymasterRecently my friend (whom I live with) purchased a mini-lathe from a local consignment shop for $100. We purchased a few extra’s (tooling) to allow us to start working with it. Neither of us have ever used a lathe before , but seem to be picking it up slowly.
I wanted to make a tritium pod for my keychain, but decided to start by making one for my friend first. He supplied the four 2 x 10 tritium vials (2 blue and 2 green). This was made over the span of a few days. I worked on it for a little bit each night before going to bed.
Originally I was just going to use a single 2×10 vial but got an idea for a single pod using all 4 vials. The aluminum rod was turned down to the basic shape and then was offset in the 4-jaw chuck to allow the 4 small bore holes for the vials. Next the material in the center was removed to cut into the bore holes for the vials, in turn creating slots. A small ball end mill was used by hand to debur and finish the slots and holes. After the vials are installed, an o-ring is cut and stuffed into the holes to secure them. A slit-ring was added to the op to finish it off.
This was an great project that made me realize just how thought out your work has to be so that it flows in a process with minimal steps and zero back-tracking and one tiny mistake( slightly offset vial hole) . Maybe someday, I’ll be able to make stuff like this in titanium…but for now aluminum will have to do.
Hopefully the owner will be able to get it coated. Maybe HA III or DLC. We plan to cover the vials with clear epoxy for protection. Really happy with the way this turned out and I have something pretty cool (IMO) in the works for these 2 large vials that have been laying around…
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