
Any opinion will help.
Thank you so much
Jay
Surgeon General's Warning: Scratchbuilding is addictive and may cause you to give up on paying for conversions.
One key tool for scratchbuilding is a square, or several of them. Nothing screams "WRONG!!!" more than a box shape or join that is out of square. I have multiple squares and right angled set-up blocks that I use to ensure that parts are glued together at right angles. Get that right and a LOT of other mistakes will be forgiven. The human eye is unbeaten at immediately spotting things that are not to the correct pattern.
Paul
On that note, would you know where to find right angle blocks? I remember seeing a set of them years ago at AMPS East made out of aluminum (I think) having three dimensional blocks would be a bloody Godsend!
Matt
Quoted TextOn that note, would you know where to find right angle blocks? I remember seeing a set of them years ago at AMPS East made out of aluminum (I think) having three dimensional blocks would be a bloody Godsend!
Matt
I've been lucky in that I work around machine shops in my engineering day job and have friends that pass me off-cuts on ocassion. My first suggestion would be to look to local precision machine shops and ask if they have any square off cuts. Very handy.
Then there are tool supply houses. In Canada KBC TOols is good for small shops & home machinists and has reasonably priced items as well as professionally priced ones.
http://www.kbctools.com/can/Navigation/NavPDF.cfm?PDFPage=0688
adjustable parallels are handy:
http://www.kbctools.com/can/Navigation/NavPDF.cfm?PDFPage=698
and adjustable squares are good too:
http://www.kbctools.com/can/Navigation/NavPDF.cfm?PDFPage=719
Of course, the costs for new measuring tools are always relatively high and you really do get what you pay for, so cheap imports are to be avoided if you can. A great source of inexpensive, if previously loved, tools is Ebay. Machinists lots frequently have really good name brand tools for next to nothing when you consider you can get several items in one lot. Do searches for "Machinest tool lot" and you'll turn up lots of crap but yet often enough, some jewels hidden in the dross.
Inside & outside calipers are greaat for transferring dimensions from drawing to part:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/VINTAGE-MACHINIST-TOOLS-COMPASS-CALIPERS-LOT-OF-7-STARRETT-CRAFTSMAN-ALL-USA-/321080484874?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ac1e3640a
Height gauges are especially handy not only for measuring, but also if a pencil or scribe is taped to the arm, marking or scribing lines perfectly parallel to the base surface, especially odd shapes that can be hard to mark out otherwise.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Machinist-Tool-Lot-ENCO-MAGNETIC-HOLDER-340-DEPTH-GAUGE-VIS-MICROMETER-/121072880941?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c30818d2d
Here's a mixed bag for you:
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/7-Work-Holding-Bench-V-Angle-Block-Machinist-Milling-Gunsmith-Toolmaker-Tool-Lot-/251235710898?pt=BI_Tool_Work_Holding&hash=item3a7ed0b7b2
You get the idea...
Paul
![]() |