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Gamma Chest/T-Bolt LED Light - Brian Spradlin  The first thing you'll need are some batteries. The ones I use are found in a number of the cheap quarter-machine toys or little light-up things you find at stores. For instance, the ones here are from a light-up Easter Bunny writing pen or the light-up Ring Pop suckers. I'm sure there are many other things out there that use them. The ones I have are labeled "392A" or "LR41" and usually run about $2 EACH at RadioShack... you can get two of them in the bunny pen for $1 at Walmart. |  Here's the basic list of supplies you'll need: - Gamma t-bolt halves
- Gamma upper leg
- Part of the thick end of the Gamma sprue
- 3mm drill bit
- 3mm LED light (any color that runs with 3v batteries)
- 2 x 1.5v batteries
- A strip of tin (found in most hobby stores)
- Super Glue
- Epoxy putty (or any other air-drying clay)
|  The first step is to take the female half of the Gamma t-bolt (the part with the ball joints attached) and drill your 3mm hole through the center. I place it right between the two squares. It's easier to drill from the back through to the front, rather than from the front through to the back. Once it's drilled, test fit your LED through the front to make sure it fits. You will likely need to widen the hole slightly to get the LED to fit in snugly without having to force it. |  Once the LED fits, turn the t-bolt over. You need to fit the LED into the back as pictured here. HOWEVER, there is a lip around the bottom of the LED on all but one side. You need to sand that lip off at both the left and right sides, right where the wires come out of the clear LED itself. You'll know where you need to sand the first time you try to fit the LED in between the post holes as pictured here. Once it's fitted (push it through so that at least 1/3 of the LED pokes out the front of the t-bolt for best results), superglue it in place from the inside of the t-bolt. NOTE: It's best to put the LED in with the longest leg (positive) to the right and shortest one (negative) to the left. |  Once the LED is glued in place you can bend the wires. You need to wrap them around the pegs and down to the bottom of the t-bolt on both sides. Place your batteries inside to make sure they fit and to keep the wires in place. You will need to flatten the wires against the back of the LED so that the new "neck" we add later will have room to slide freely. Once the wires are in place, you will probably need to lightly glue them wherever they touch the plastic, just to hold them there for now. |  The "switch" is a bit tricky. You need to cut a strip of your tin that's about half the length of your t-bolt and somewhere between 3 and 5 millimeters wide... basically, a long rectangle of metal. That metal needs to be placed between the leftmost battery and the square peg hole above it, as pictured here. The right side of the metal should almost, but not quite, touch the plastic of the rightmost square peg. There has to be enough of a gap that it can be pressed down to make contact with the battery on the right. Once placed where you need it, bend up the left side at an angle. This will let the epoxy in the next step have something to hold onto the "switch" with when the batteries are removed. |  Ok, now we need to put some epoxy on the sides of the batteries to keep them in place AND add a piece of paper between the two batteries themselves. The paper is VERY important, as it keeps the batteries from touching and shorting out. As you can see in the picture here, put the left battery in so that the right edge of the battery lines up with the right edge of the left peg hole. Put the right battery in and slide it up right against the left battery, making sure you have the slip of paper between the two of them. Left battery should be positive (flat side) facing up. Right battery should be negative (the bump) facing up. This way, when you press the metal "switch" down onto the top of the right battery, it will complete the circuit and light up your LED. Just pack enough epoxy into the left and right sides to hold the metal switch in place AND hold your batteries in place. BUT, make sure the batteries are only half covered, so that you can pull them out to be replaced whenever they go dead. You just want the epoxy to have the shape of the battery in them, not covering the battery completely. |  After a few minutes the epoxy should be cured enough to continue working. We now need to remove the existing head joint. Just take your flush cutters or exacto knife and remove the head and the half-circle of plastic the still juts out after that. Once the joint is removed you need to file, sand, cut or dremel out a half-circle where the head joint used to be, so that when both t-bolt halves are put together again you see a full circle cut out at the top. You just have to experiment with this until you get the right shape. |  At this point we're going to need a block of plastic to put between the square peg holes in the t-bolt... this is what will be pressed down to push the metal switch and make our LED light up. Take the thick part of the sprue you cut and measure how much you'll need, as seen here. Once you have a block of it cut, you need to cut the ball joint off of your extra upper leg piece... this is then glued onto the top of the plastic rectangle you just cut a moment ago and becomes the new head joint for your figure, as seen below. |  Here's our completed work. The new head/neck at the left fits in between the square peg holes in the t-bolt and leaves plenty of room for us to put the other half of the t-bolt back in place. |  The new head/neck should fit in place as seen to the left. You should be able to test it now and make sure it is able to press the metal tab down to make contact with the second battery and light your LED. |  Put whatever half of the Gamma t-bolt you want in place and you have a new t-bolt with LED... |  Just press down on the head and let there be light! |
The process above took me three Gamma t-bolts to get right so that I could repeat the steps and have it work each time. So, it may take you a couple tries to get it just right for yourself too. Don't be discouraged though, because it IS possible, and the Gamma t-bolt was almost custom-made for this process anyway... everything just fits, from batteries to LED to wires.
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