Finishing Cinco de Mayo

I finished the Cinco de Mayo tonight. I had to swap out the finneal that sticks out of the front of the gun. I had found a really neat crystaline ball on the end of a brass fitting, and tried twice to solder one onto the gun without having the thermal shock pop the ball off the end. I failed both times, and I even used a heavy C-clamp as a heat sink on the second try. Unfortunately, the magical adhesive that the vendor used to attach the ball popped after about an hour after attaching it to the fitting to the gun. I tried three or four different commercial adhesives, including the stuff that you use to glue paste gems to costume jewelry, and nothing worked.

The new finneal is a piece of turned brass, the same as is on the Cereza Negra. I torched off the remains of the old finneal, and replaced it with the heavy brass one.

The raygun is done, touched up, and has been placed into a long, stray sock, which is now in one of our suitcases. I may play with the paint on the grip while in Phoenix later this week.

I wish that I had a pair of wooden cigar boxes, from a Latin American country, to display the rayguns in. Maybe I'll see if I can track something down in the airport, or maybe at a cigar store in Phoenix.