A
Collection of Ideas by............ By
Martin Paffett
Whilst
assembling my latest masterpiece, it occurred to me that some of
the building hints and tips that I use might not be familiar to
everyone, so I compiled the following notes, in no particular
order. Few of
theses are my ideas, but they are worth repeating.
1.
Clothes Pegs:
For
holding joints closed I use huge quantities of clothes pegs - but
not just as they come out of the bag.
Take your standard wooden peg and cut off the front portion
of the jaws, level with the point where they close.
This allows them to hold tight up against the work-piece.
2.
I also use numerous elastic bands:
You
frequently find that they would have been useful, except that you
can’t get access to place the band around your work-piece. Not a problem - just stretch the band double around the item
then peg the open ends together with a piece of scrap, or, push
pins into the items to be joined, and stretch bands across the
pins.
3.
Weights:
Holding
your work down onto the building board is not always easy.
We’re all familiar with pins, but also try weights.
I have a number of large chunks of steel (about 1” x 3”
x 3”), which are very useful.
To prevent metal weights marking your work, wrap them with
masking tape. Also
try magazines. I’m
sure that most of us have large numbers of model mags.
They are quite heavy, and as you pile them on, they form
themselves to the work-piece shape, particularly good for holding
down foam wings in the off-cuts for maintaining the shape whilst
gluing spars, etc.
4.
Plastic Clamps:
I
have recently started using some cheap plastic spring clamps, made
by “Rolson”. You
get about six for £1 from cheap tool outlets, and they are ideal
for our needs.
5.
Power Tools:
Are
you considering buying power tools for modelling?
Don’t
buy “modelling” power tools; buy full-size DIY tools.
They are frequently cheaper, are more robust, will do the
job and can also be used for DIY (top tip - don’t tell the
Domestic Management this!).
1st
power tool:
My
personal preference for power tools would be a bandsaw first.
Their prices vary a lot.
Look for one with ball-raced wheels and blade guides, for
a long life. If it
has a sanding disc, then it will be doubly useful.
2nd
power tool:
Next,
consider a vertical drill.
A cheap imported item can be bought for as little as £40,
a lot less than the cost of a power drill and a vertical stand.
A
Dremel? (small hand held drill)
If
you are contemplating treating yourself to a Dremel, consider
the German-made Proxxon instead.
It is very well made, a fair bit cheaper, and comes with
a miniature three-jaw chuck instead of a collet chuck - this is
very important. You
can’t put ordinary, small drill bits into a collet chuck.
6.
Sanding Blocks:
a)
I make a lot of use of sanding blocks.
Permagrit tools are excellent, but expensive. You can do almost as well with a piece of timber, preferably
hardwood, cut to the longer dimension of a sheet of sandpaper,
about 1/3rd the width of a sheet, and about 3/4 “
thick. Onto this,
attach 180 grade wet & dry on one side and 120 grade glass
paper on the other, using double sided sticky tape.
b)
Another sanding block, which I have discovered recently sold by
B & Q in packs of five, consists of a block of foam rubber,
coated on one side with coarse carborundum and on the other side
with a finer grade. They are very effective, particularly for curved surfaces,
but be careful, because they are soft and you can sand hollows
into flat surfaces.
7.
Hold it in place!
You
frequently need to glue a component to the inside of an assembly,
and clamping the item can be very difficult.
I keep a boxful of foam rubber off-cuts, which serve the
purpose. All you need
to do is place a 50% oversize piece of foam in a plastic bag and
stuff it into the space. The
bag will stop the glue from soaking into the foam, but be careful;
the foam can exert a surprising amount of force.
8.
Tube Bending:
Over
the years I have seen various schemes for putting neat bends in
brass tube. Forget
about bending springs, they are completely useless.
Take a bolt whose diameter equals that of your desired
bend. Place two washers, followed by a nut, onto the bolt.
Put the tube between the washers and wind the nut down
until it is just finger tight.
As you bend the tube around the bolt, the washers will
compress the sidewalls and prevent the tube from kinking.
Always anneal the tube before bending.
If your feeling a bit flush, Dubro makes a superb tube
bender, but it only works on 1/8th tubing.
That’s
about it for now, but I hope this may prompt a few of your to put
your favourite building tips down on paper, for the benefit of
others.
Martin P
email:
rafmaa-pro@rafmaa.co.uk |