Custom work - Spinal Shocker Milling Tech index -> Custom Work -> Spinal Shocker Milling

This page details the creation of my first "Spinal" Shocker cosmetic milling. Spinal bodies are the most advanced piece of paintball manufacturing to date; they feature an unparalleled level of complexity that no other developer has been able to match.

These bodies are highly customized and not available for sale. The cosmetics can only be grafted onto one of my unmilled Slug bodies. The cosmetics are too large to be applied to any other marker body.

Above you can see the finished prototype marker body all by itself. These pictures were taken immeditely once the machining process was complete.

Here's the prototype body assembled with some other raw components I had lying around at the time. Parts include a Tonton NXT 10º vertical adapter, '06 Dynasty SFT bolt guide, and a prototype Shocker Pie frame version-6.

Some sections of the marker body are highlighted with a red marker. These were "problem areas" that needed to be repaired. If they weren't marked then they wouldn't even be visible unless you knew to look there.

Design:
The Spinal Shocker was created using an actual MRI scan of a human skeleton, specifically the individual vertebrae within the spine. I started out with my "Tube model" for the Shocker body, which is a lightweight basic structure that includes only the material required to make the marker function. I then inserted individual vertebrae bones onto the Tube model, and positioned them in such a way that they would protrude out from the bore structure. I had to use some artistic license and arrange the bones in unrealistic angles, so the finished body doesn't show how an actual spine is laid out, but this was necessary to make it more interesting in appearance.

The CAD model looks somewhat basic. It only shows the bones protruding outward, but you must realize that the cutting tools used to create the pattern would make it appear different in reality. Specifically, the tools are spherical on their ends, so the small gaps between adjacent vertebrae wouldn't appear this large on the finished workpiece.

Quite so!

Machining Program:
This was a very intricate machining project. There's always a certain level of tweaking and modifying that has to take place when making complex 3d shapes like this, but the spinal models were so intricate that it became one of the most time-consuming parts I've encountered. I've made my share of mold die tools in the past, but dies are usually more flat and don't have giant protrusions sticking through each other, as was the case with this Spinal body. I ended up dividing the vertebrae into sections and programming them in a modular format, then patch the features together around the outside of the body in such a way that they would blend together when finished. The processing time was considerable; it took between 5-10 minutes to calculate each of the toolpaths on my CAD workstation set to overclock. Each side of the body consists of at least 5 main toolpaths, so regenerating the entire model would take almost an hour of dead processing time.

The sky is the limit when trying to machine little tiny corners like this, but smaller tools require slower cutting speeds so the final machining time skyrockets along with the level of detail. Most of the marker's features were finished with a 1/4" diameter endmill, then I used a smaller 1/8" endmill to re-machine the smaller details and deep valleys. The prospect of using a smaller endmill for higher detail would have meant adding hours or perhaps even days onto the total machining time.

Ultimately this body took around 6 hours to machine, not counting the time involved with creating the unmilled Slug internals. The 1/4" main finishing tool took around 45 minutes per side (right, left, top) then the 1/8" re-machine finish tool required an additional 45 minutes per side. There's additional cosmetics on the bottom and backside. Therefore, in the future if more bodies are made, I'll likely change the level of detail as to not require so much time. The cost associated with milling a body this detailed is almost as much as the entire marker combined.

The final machining program was over 2 million lines of code and 30 megabytes when saved as a text document.

Permalink: https://www.youtube.com/embed/QsxyV6ppY5c

Permalink: https://www.youtube.com/embed/3ckA3FlGgC4

Updated & Revised Cosmetics:
I went back to the machining program and repaired the "problem spots" from the prototype. At the same time, the Slug body project had progressed to the point where I had eliminated the solenoid inserts and instead integrated a new "transfer plate" to the body's underside. The same cosmetics used in the Spinal prototype could still be used with the revised Slug body, with some added undercut milling spots behind the frame. This area gives Shockers a whole new look due to the lack of solenoid inserts.

I set out to machine the updated body. This time the marker body would be 100% useable.

You can see one big change behind the feedneck, because the older Slug bodies had a larger "relief" cut around the base of the feedneck whereas the new Slug bodies have a relief cut only as large as required to fit the feedneck housing. As a result, the set of bone protrusions located directly behind the feedneck didn't get sliced off, as with the prototype body. I feel the change really helps to complete the look.
I decided to anodize the revised components in a silver color with a dusted finish, in order to best resemble the appearance of bones. After assembly, I played with the marker during the Michigan Monster Game 2014, and you can see it in a few of my action videos from that weekend (below).

Permalink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQMFqh2aMK8

Permalink: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpFJldrnYzA

Future availability:
Many people have asked how much it would cost to have another one of these marker bodies made. Unfortunately it's not so much about the dollar value but rather the extensive time that goes into each body. They take so long to make that a realistic price is hard to even calculate.
Having said that, I would very much like to revisit these bodies in the future. I can drop the price to a more reasonable level but only at the cost of reducing the amount of detail on the bone shape, which is a difficult task since the details give these bodies their uniqueness. In an ideal world, I'd like to find a way to reduce the machining time while still keeping a relatively high level of detail. I'm working on it, and perhaps someday I can make a limited number of these bodies available for general use!

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