My final-state Dial of Destiny
As a recap: last year I converted a portion of our basement game room into an Indy Themed Bar and fell down an obsessive rabbit hole building Indy props that would have made Alice proud.
In the process I met some really awesome Indiana Jones fans, raised a little money for charity, picked up some CAD design skills and significantly upgraded my at-home manufacturing capabilities to include 3 fdm and 2 resin printers. I also added a ton of top-tier Indy props to our bar through trades and other shenanigans.
Mark XLII
No, I didn’t actually make 41 other designs though sometimes it feels like that many. In MCU Iron Man Tony Stark builder-parlance Mk42 was the result of a particularly obsessive period of focus following Tony’s experience at the Battle of New York. If you are superstitious, the naming has a pseudo-cursed connotation. I’m not superstitious and 42 is an awesome number.
In the time that I started making these Dial props, I’ve been careful to not call them replicas. There were a few incorrect initial guesses in my design and certain aspects of the original film models that my models didn’t even attempt to address. Also, I’m still an amateur at painting details and weathering.
Using the photo below, I revisited the designs in hopes of closing the gap towards replica-status.
This brilliant photo of the original hero film prop has been my sole design-update inspiration.
After spent a few months of on and off staring at the photo above, I started to make notes on design corrections that would make my model more accurate.
The glyph bowl angle of my previous build was too steep. This changed the depth of placement of center components and increased the size of the white glyph rings. The typeface of those glyphs was closer to the Disney World prop than the film prop. The original design had incomplete inset inscriptions on the sawblade gear and gold viewfinder disc. In fact, the viewfinder disc should act more like viewfinder floor. The large side was missing additional gear-teeth details. The way that my original model split using a center threaded retention plug was annoying. The placement of that split was a little off the mark.
I’ve also encountered a slew of issues related to my CAD environment. Shapr3D, being a parametric modeler isn’t well suited for sculpting like a direct modeler. It is outright hostile to handling mesh files, particularly where mesh files and parametric-modeled bodies influence one another. For example: I used adobe tools to make the glyphs themselves. These svg paths aren’t directly supported by Shapr3d and get converted into stl-like meshes as part of the import process. Anything that uses these meshes also get converted to meshes. So by using meshes as cutouts I limited my ability to go back and edit parts of the model later. This project is not well aligned Shapr3D’s capabilities.
Thankfully, a year after the film release and after a few weeks of renewed interest and tinkering I think I finally rounded home plate on a replica-grade Dial of Destiny prop, despite these challenges.
Ordering Info
I don’t expect a ton of interest and frankly I don’t plan on making that many of these. However, if there is interest I don’t mind making a few extras to sell. It will be more of a premium-priced project with any b-stock going to fleaBay. You can use the order link below to purchase a Dial based on these new designs.
I’ll also post a few on an Etsy store until they’ve all found homes.
What’s included:
A Dial.
A Compass.
A DIY path to make your own lanyard like shown.
I [really-really] don't have the aptitude (or time) to make these lanyards right now.
Making the Spring Compass
This build assumes a conical / tapered spring. My early prototypes used the springs from mechanical pencils but they do not compress flat enough to be effective. The valve springs that come with a Delta Faucet RP4933 repair kit work reasonably well too but could be a little longer and Ace sold them for $7/pair. Ultimately, I settled on guitar pickup springs.
I designed the compass around the Hillman 903 1/4 x 1-1/2inch fender washer. Metal, because: thinness, resiliency and weight. I briefly tumbled these washers in a coarse media to lightly rough them up but I made 24 of them. Sandpaper works too. I printed and glued a PLA+ pad to act as a dial receiver and spring mount. I clip a small portion (1 loop) of the pickup spring to shorten it. Heat it with a torch and push it into the PLA+ to seat it. Don’t breath that in, btw. Then I add a little glue to reinforce the spring-pla mating surface.
The inside of the compass foot is a two stage pattern that locks into the Dial. I built slide grooves into the compass body and grooves and a catch into the big + small foot assembly. The center spring pushes on the center small foot which creates tension for the locking pin, slides downward in the groove to the point of the catch, which pulls the larger foot out of the body. The locking pin is steel cut from landscape pins and edge glued into 3d printed resin head-beads with a D-Ring hole.
Making the Lanyard
I won’t be making lanyards for people. The hourly rate would be in the “I hate doing this” price point. Making Dials can be pretty fun. Making the lanyard is not my thing. This lanyard took me a couple hours of eyestrain and mild frustration and it shouldn’t have. There is probably an easier way. Admittedly I watched 1/2 of a non-english muted youtube video about spacer beads and bracelets and the Squirrel that controls my attention span said “Nope.” As I said, probably a better way to do this but in the interest of sharing:
DIY Path:
- For people that buy Dials from me I will include the painted, resin spacer beads that I used and I'll share the model shortly, though it is nothing special.
Eye Pins:
Amazon.com
Jump Ring Kit:
Amazon.com
Chain and Lobster Clasp Kit:
Amazon.com
I'll shoot a quick video soon but essentially just using a cheap needle-nose plier, wire snips and super glue:
I put an open super-glue tube (the kind with the plastic applicator funnel) on a paper plate. I trimmed the eye pins, shove the the eye-pin wire into the applicator tip of the super glue to very-lightly coat it and then using the small needle-nose pliers, push it into the bead. You have to do it before the glue dries. Do this for both sides. If you are fast enough you will only have to actually apply glue to one eye pin wire per bead b/c they will glue together inside the spacer bead.
- I recommend using cheap pliers instead of your nice stuff so that if you get glue on it / who cares. Some of my time was spent cleaning glue off of nice tools.
(Did I mention?: I'm sure there is a better way to do this.)
Then, essentially just cut lengths of chain, open, apply and crimp the jump rings. Build out your segments as desired:
Jump Ring -> Chain -> [Eyepin + Spacer Bead + Eyepin] -> {repeat / alternate bead types}
Get to the length you want, add lobster clasps or rings. Each compass has a D-Ring installed.
Project retrospective
A Mild Bummer
The only negativity I experienced throughout this adventure was centered around a single individual who feels the need to slander or belittle other hobbyist prop-makers. He apparently likes to claim that my plans were derived or reverse engineered from his own. I typically don’t engage with other folks’ wrong-headed thinking and online drama. I’ll just address it directly and say that claim was bullshit and continues to be bullshit. The proof is on this blog and on youtube. I recorded the design sessions.
He likes to claim that I bought one of his Dials to reverse engineer it. In actuality, I did buy several Dials from other people, including his. One that was made for someone else, a cancelled order for someone that had medical bills to pay. I later Etsy-stalked someone matching that description and set them up with a Dial of their choice for free.
I sleep great at night.
Generally, Awesome
I had a great time making Dial props for people last summer and I wouldn’t trade the experience of commiserating online with other Indy fans for all of the ash and bone in Nurhaci’s urn.
I’ve had Dials go to museums, to archeology programs. I’ve enjoyed watching people use them cosplay events and as part of their Indy displays. I’ve seen them used in countless fundraisers and it never gets old to see a pay-it-forward chain that starts from a simple handmade gift to someone that could use a pick-me-up or individual validation. I have a stack of photos from other peoples’ displays that are destined to go around my bar.
I also learned a lot. I picked up some design and modeling skills that will be really handy moving forward.
I think this build will finally leave me satisfied that I did my best with it and ended up with a really nice one-of-a-kind prop.
Time to complete some other projects..
You’ll note this is a pinball and arcade blog, so I have some pinball and arcade-themed projects queued up for the next few months. One of them is a perfect segue in compliment to all of this Indy prop making that I did for a year.
Hint: my favorite pinball machine needs a topper.
Other hint: Decent whiskey-drinking weather is around the corner.
I’ll continue to post a blend of maker-stuff here, as well. This blog is primarily a way of organizing my thoughts.
Footnote: thoughts on Open Source
I opened sourced the original design efforts on the Dial of Destiny project from the beginning.
I was thinking of it like a software engineering project. Most of the Indy and Prop-related forums showed a fair amount of interest in the concept and included helpful posts of screen grabs and logical conjecture around the prop’s likely measurements and other characteristics. But it didn’t seem like anyone was actually doing anything about it. My hopes were to provide a starting point and lean on collaboration with more experienced designers to take my concepts, improve on them and share those improvements back with the main project. One designer engaged with the project in this way. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Want to make your own? The files are on printables and dropbox.
The instructions, are still locked up in my brain, unfortunately but I’ve started making an explainer video..