If you ever want to involve your teenaged son in this hobby, just tell him he gets to use the blow torch! In fact, I think you could convince a teenaged boy to do just about anything if it involved a blow torch. It’s unfortunate that they can’t use one to clean their room without also cleaning the rest of the house into oblivion. The … Continue reading Experiments with molten lead
Four modellers from the North Van NMRA group came by to enjoy a dry run of my clinic for the Railway Modellers’ Meet. It was a bit of an eye-opener! I had thought that I would offer the clinic in both OnShape and SketchUp, but fortunately, everyone chose OnShape; two hours is not enough time to do both tools. At the RMMBC, we will vote … Continue reading 3D CAD Clinic
Work is so much easier when your tools are sharp. Sharp tools cut faster and cooler. The lesser effort makes it easier to be precise. I’ve always known this, and yet, it has taken me several years to get around to installing a drill bit sharpener. I think this jig came from Lee Valley Tools, and now that it is installed, my life is already … Continue reading Drill sharpener
It was as I was reaching for the family Optivisor, a device hitherto used only for checking the kids’ hair for lice, merely to verify if I had put a jeweller’s saw blade in the right way around that I finally conceded defeat. It was time to finally admit the termination of youth. There was a time when I could see the threads on an … Continue reading A dark day
When I started cutting steel with my lathe, I used a brush full of oil to lubricate the part. By the end of that first encounter, I was covered in so much oil I was almost drafted for Turkish wrestling. My T-shirt was ruined. Over time, I found that for cutting and facing operations, a drop of oil on the tool itself was all I … Continue reading Dispensing cut-off oil
All I wanted was a hole! The next step for the drivers is to make an aluminum collet to hold them while I face their backs, and this was going to start with a hole. I was merrily drilling deep into that cylinder of aluminum, when the drill bit bound and ripped the tailstock spindle off its guide stud and spun it around. Things happen … Continue reading Lathe crisis averted
For weeks, I’ve been avoiding the big pile of boxes that the restoration vapers left in the basement in front of the layout. My darling wife, understanding that neither they nor she would put everything back where it belongs, instructed them to leave the boxes. Of course, unpacking boxes takes little effort. Running the cables and reinstalling all the tech on my two desks, on … Continue reading Small reward, big effort
