Drawer organizer

I’ve been on a drawer organization binge since Christmas Eve. That’s when the bottom fell out of the tray in the kitchen junk drawer amid a cloud of unseasonal language. I emptied the whole drawer, evaluated and binned the true junk (including about 1/2 inch of tooth picks, which lined the bottom of the drawer) […]

I'll make one instead!

“All I need is a nut driver…”The Grinch looked around.But, since nut drivers are scarce, there was none to be found.Did that stop the old Grinch…?No! The Grinch simply said,“If I can’t find a nut driver, I’ll make one instead!”So he filed some hex rod. Then he took some scrap sheetAnd he soldered it into […]

Polymorph experiments

Okay, so I’m still in the hobby. All I have to do is figure out how to transfer the exact quartering angle from the front wheels to the back. The trick is that there is almost no datum – no way to get a good handle on the centre of the axle. It – the […]

How big are those holes anyway?

Before I go easing out the holes in the connecting rods, wouldn’t it be nice to know which one is the tightest, and ease that one first? To my eye, the fit of each crankpin is indistinguishable. So, in an attempt to get scientific about the question, I’ve created some pin gauges. Now after a […]

Magic Box Discoveries

The Boy and I had to drive down to Kerrisdale today on an errand. As we were in the neighbourhood, and I needed more 1/8″ brass rod, we stopped in at Magic Box Hobbies. Magic Box mostly cater to the plastic and R/C modelling crowds, and so this was only my second time in the […]

Stroke to Path could save me hours!

Over a year ago, when I was working on the patterns for 622, I found that drawings imported from OnShape into InkScape consisted of many individual line segments. There had to be a better way, and Craig Townsend has found it. Here for future reference, is a YouTube video that makes it dead easy. Thanks […]

Plan for quartering jig

While I have the excellent GW Models wheel press and used it on #10, it has two failings from my point of view. First, it assumes a press fit for the wheels; that’s one thing with a plastic centre, but another for steel centres and axles where the two parts need to be machined to […]