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Dear all I will need many shackles for my 1:10 boat but at £1.5 each, they are incredibly expensive. I would very much like to make them myself. Michael Mott has posted a very elegant way of making shackles in this scale. Today I experimented in my garage and tried to standardised a much simpler version, using tools that I (and probably most modellers) own. So here it goes. Very very important: There will be clouds of flying debris and brass dust so do not attempt unless you have goggles that completely seal the eyes (they cost £1). A few more tools will be needed. Start with 2 mm brass rod, cut to lengths a bit over 2 cm. Mark the edges that will later be hammered flat with permanent marker. Then, secure the rods to a drill, just at the marked edge. Do not worry, it will be adequately rigid and secure. Set both the drill and the dremel spinning and with a high grit sanding drum, thin the middle of the rod. Then use 240 grit sanding paper to smooth the marks left on the rod. It should now look something like this. Now anneal the metal. This needs to be done regularly otherwise the rod will break. On a flat surface, hammer the edges. Anneal and hammer again. Use a sanding disk or files to shape and round the flat edges of the rods. Then bend around an appropriate steel rod/pin secured in a vice, carefully so that this is done symmetrically. (One rod broke in the middle). Half bend initially, anneal and then bend all the way, otherwise the rod will break. Do not do any minor adjustments without annealing again, the rods will break very easily, bending puts huge stress on the metal. It should now look like this: Drill the flat parts, no need to align the holes. Then take a length of 0.8 mm brass wire, pass through the holes, then with pliers crush the ends flat and trim the excess. Polish with a steel wire brush. Shackles are ready. They can actually be made reasonably fast, best to do many at a time. They are not very uniform but I think with practice they should improve. Vaddoc
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