Assembling the Crystal Dragon

punkin

We are starting to get a few of these units out there so i thought i'd write a little guide for those assembling them from the Aussie kits

When the CD's are shipped in Australia or New Zealand, they are shipped with some roughly measured and cut stainless all thread to suit, a set of plain nuts and the optional acorn nuts all in stainless.

Assembly requires care in making sure each plate is seated in the special gasket groove and then that each gasket is seated evenly on top of the glass with the lip on the inside and outside of the glass showing all the way around. The same applies to the bottom of each glass section.

The stainless rod that has been cut with an angle grinder will need one of the plain nuts run all the way up and over the top of the cut, backwards and forwards a few times after you clean up any burs with a file or grinder.

To assemble, mount the acorn nuts on the bottom, slide on the bottom stainless mount and then screw down a locking nut to keep it all tight. Build up the glass sections with gaskets and run a lock nut down past the top of the upper section before sliding on the top stainless mount. Tighten the top set of extra nuts that are provided till the whole section is seated and reasonably tight, do not overtighten or the glass may break.

To install the top acorn nuts, make a measurement where the rods will have to be cut, don't forget if using acorn nuts at both ends then you will only need regular nuts as locking nuts on the inside of the mounts to stop pressure being applied to the lenses, the extra nuts supplied you just used to tension will not be required. This is why the lock nuts are so important, they bear the weight of the full condenser and everything else sitting on top of the glass cartridge.

Mark and cut all six rods so there is just enough thread poking out for the acorn nuts. If you are making covers for the allthread you can use any 8mm ID tubing. 1/2" NB copper and stainless tube both fit (4" units only). This will need to be cut the same length as the gap between the two inner nuts.

Too service or clean the module once it's complete you only need remove the top nuts to be able to pull all the components out. :)>-