tools, materials & knowledge for model makers
Perhaps less about machining pewter buttons and more about holding them so we could. The pewter buttons have been cast in an open one-sided sand mold. The stars on the front face are the important face to keep. The open casting means the thicknesses are variable. The big issue was there was no easy way … Read more
Some time ago I made a simple bolt down milling plate with M4 fixing points and itself bolted to the table with M6 CSK bolts. The aim being to give me a board that would allow me to mount small items and where I could drill through and waste the board over time. The milling … Read more
The first Kant Twist Clamp, maybe a few more are needed to give me a set. With the arms being machined on the Genmitsu 3018-pro then these are not too bad to make. This initial set of parts that you are seeing as a completed clamp were my first proper cnc parts. Based on these … Read more
Very simple work holding with a sacrificial nut and bolt. When silver soldering you don’t want your best engineers clamps in the path of a blow torch. Also, you don’t want the thermal mass of a large clamp. I often have this problem and resort to a piece of wire that wraps around and is … Read more
How hard can it be to turn rivets into bolts? The reason I need to do this is I want the bulkhead in the tender of the Burrell traction engine to be removable. At least removable for the moment. The issue is that this traction engine is 1/20th scale and the rivets are 1/16 inch … Read more
A set of ER25 metric collets along with 3MT and parallel shank chucks. The parts as they arrived. 25 collets, 2 chucks and 2 C-Spanners not shown here. All of the parts came in sealed plastic bags and well oiled and these were all inside individual plastic boxes. An ER25 collet and 3MT chuck shown … Read more
Aligning a rotary table or more importantly aligning a part on the rotary table can be tricky and this is just a simple rough and ready approach to aligning a part. What I’m actually trying to achieve here is the alignment of a workpiece on the rotary table and the first task is to align … Read more
This low profile clamp idea came about as I wanted to machine a large plate that was too large for the milling vice. I thought that two pieces of bar stock, clamped to the table with compliance in one of the bars that could then be loaded with grub screws thus applying a clamping force … Read more
These are a cheap make that you find on garage forecourts and on market stalls. I saw these small clamps and thought they were worth testing at the very low price of £1.40 each. Copper plated steel screw, bar and foot. Heavily painted steel casting for the main body, no sharps edges and the cross-section … Read more
