kurtvd19

I wasn't aware that they are not metal. There are several sources of wire airbrush cleaning brushes and I assumed they were wire. I just went to the Lee Valley site and saw these after a search for airbrush cleaning brushes. I am familiar with this type of brush and the bristles are safe but I would be very careful that the ends of the twisted wire do not contact the airbrush interior as the ends can scratch the brass. I have some that are similar - longer bristles - and the ends are formed into a rounded end. Actually they are made by twisting from the bristle part of the brush with the wire doubled over and twisting back to the straight -non bristle - part of the brush that slips into a handle that can be used with several sizes of the brushes. Kurt

Floyd: Don't use the wire brushes sold as airbrush cleaning tools. The interior of the brush is very soft brass and can be scratched. This is official Badger opinion, not just my personal opinion. Badger makes a neat little cleaning kit - it does not contain wire brushes. The link to a decent review of the kit is below - I recommend you watch it for tips on cleaning the brush. The kit's got everything you need but you probably already have most of what is provided in the kit. The other link (dons airbrushing tips) is to one about general tips - good site - note he does use a brush but it's a dental brush and the fibers are nylon (or a similar product - not wire). The other link is to the Badger 150 manual - with cleaning instructions specific to the 150. I always follow up a cleaning with lacquer thinner sprayed through the brush. I keep a small jar with an eyedropper to put just a bit of the thinner into the cup - I tend to use gravity feed brushes a lot - but just turn the 150 upside down and drop the thinner into the suction tube. My cleaning procedure between colors - get the excess paint out of the gun - spray into a rag or cleaning jar. Use a doubled over pipe cleaner to clean paint out of the siphon tube. Use a dry section first then a section wet with cleaner. Spray cleaner through the brush till the brush sprays clear. Remove the needle and wipe it clean and reinsert the needle. Clean the tip of the regulator with a swab moistened with cleaner. Spray the next color. At the end of the day do all of the above then disassemble the front end. The regulator's tip needs to be clean both inside and out. Use the tip of a swab or other soft material - not a wire brush. The tip is tiny - don't drop it - make sure it is clean inside and out - again a thin tapered swab or nylon brush - do not force anything as this piece is delicate and if you spread or split the tip's opening it needs to be replaced. The head needs to be clean inside and out - same procedures as for the tip and regulator. Reassemble the regulator, tip and head back onto the airbrush. You might want to use some beeswax on the threads here to avoid air leakage - DO NOT over tighten. If there is air leakage use the beeswax. Reinsert the needle and spray some lacquer thinner through the brush and set aside till the next session. Skip these procedures and you will need to disassemble and do a heavy cleaning. Full disclosure, I work with Badger and they send me around to teach/demonstrate airbrushing. I developed Badger's Marine Pains for them. Kurt https://sites.google.com/site/donsairbrushtips/cleaning http://www.badgerairbrush.com/PDF/150 Badger New.pdf

Welcome to MSW. Great first effort. Therapy with good results. Keep it up. Kurt

I know they are but I am not prepared to pay the price. I have found some good turnbuckles for sale that have worked for several builds. Kurt 😀

Actually you only need to use right hand threads unless you are pass out magnification for those viewing the model. Tap the body for the screw size - both right hand. Insert the screws and adjust close to the finished size with the top screw a bit longer. Now attach the wire lines and snug them up as best you can before using the turnbuckle adjustment. Now, using the top screw of the turnbuckle tighten the line to its final tightness. After all the wire rigging is secure use locktite to make sure the lines don't loosen up. Now this might not satisfy some but I defy anybody to tell the difference between right and left hand threads once the model is cased. On smaller scales I have made turnbuckles w/o threaded adjustment screws - just eye bolt type ends and soldered the bottom piece and used C/A on the upper after pulling the rigging tight - takes a third hand - that's the extent of Mary's modeling - applying the C/A as needed. Kurt

Look at jewelry beading wire. It is available in stranded SS. I rigged a 1/12 scale sloop with 0.014-inch 21 strand wire. It says "knot tying SS" It is nylon coated but it is impossible to tell w/o magnification. And I used crimps for the connections. I found this stuff to be able to be tightened and then crimped but I used working turnbuckles to make final adjustments. Kurt

I have had one for years and it works fine for basswood and the like. Not so good on boxwood. And the thinner the wood the better so that the cut stays square to the table - when it gets too thick the cut will tend to bend in our out somewhat. But it can chop thin planking woods all day - and maybe somebody else has experience with boxwood and the stuff I was cutting wasn't very thin. I tend to use my Preac saw for the thicket hard woods. Kurt

Paul: Thanks for sharing this technique. One of the hardest things I had to learn over the years was how to think of the machining that might be required to make a pert. This video shows that starting with a round piece can produce an elongated shape rather than thinking you need to start with a piece of flat or bar stock. I find your videos very educational and they have helped me a lot. Kurt

DIGITAL BACK ISSUES AND BOOKS Ships in Scale Magazine back issues are finally available. We have just added the digital archive issues of Seaway’s Ships in Scale Magazine to the NRG Store, on both disc and flash drive. These back issues are named “The Early Years 1983-1999” and “The Middle Years 2000-2009”. These were sold by Seaways as “The First 105 Issues 1983-199” and “The New Millennium Edition 2000-2009” respectively. The digital archives of the years from 2010 to 2018, when the magazine ceased publication, will hopefully be available before the end of the year. We have also added the complete series of digital back issues of Model Ship Builder Magazine on disc or flash drive. Seaways sold these digital back issues as Volume I, Volume II and the combined “The Complete History”. We have decided to offer only “The Complete History” which includes both Vol. I & II. We are now also offering popular practicum reprints by Clayton E. Feldmann, MD. The first, “Building the Continental Navy Brig LEXINGTON – A Practicum” is now available. The classic “Progressive Scratch Building in Ship Modeling” is also available. Both are sold on disc or flash drive We now have all the digital archive back issues of the Nautical Research Journal available at the NRG Store on either CD/DVD and flash drives. Go to the NRG Store https://www.thenrg.org/the-nrg-store.php to order - or use the link on the MSW home page (upper right corner). Remember, full NRG Members get a 20% discount on the price shown. Email the NRG Office at nrghomeoffice@gmail.com with your name and town to get the discount code (you would be surprised how many NRG members share names so we need to be able to tell you apart).

Titebond Translucent has essentially the same properties as their Original, II and III glues with shear strength right between the original and II at 3,550 psi - more than adequate for model purposes. The original, II and II strengths are all stronger than the wood once the joint is cured - meaning that the wood should fail before the glue. Of course the tightness of the joint as others have mentioned is very important. But from a strength aspect these is hardly any difference between the glues. I suspect the joint itself was the issue not the glue. Titebond has very extensive use/application and properties descriptions on their website. Kurt

The Nautical Research Journal / Model Ship World Spring Issue (64.1) is live and digital subscribers can now access the new issue. The print copy will be mailed on or about March 13. New subscriptions/memberships can be added at any time. Sign up for the digital edition - save postage and get your copy before the print copies are even mailed. See a sample digital edition at the NRG web site https://www.thenrg.org/digital-edition.php

Bruce: Congratulations. Very nicely done. Kurt

If you are a NRG member but don't remember your member number email Mary at the office and provide your real name and she will send you your member number. Email her at nrghomeoffice@gmail.com

There was no #1. The numbers were started sometime in the late 90's and were assigned starting at 1,001 in alphabetical order . Numbers have been not been reassigned after a member died or left the NRG - as we have had members come back after several years. A new member is assigned a new unused number. Kurt

David: I wanted to use a good quality blade like I do on my big 10-inch saw and this Freud blade has all the features found on their large blades. Laser cut cooling slots and all. I am very happy with the performance. Kurt

The carbide blade I use is a 36 tooth - 4 3/8-inch - Freud Diablo Finish blade. This is a larger blade than the saw is designed to use but the modifications are easy to do. I purchase the blades on Amazon and they usually run me about $15. The second photo shows the modification needed to the saw to fit the blade. Install the blade and w/o using a clearance plate turn the saw on and raise the blade. It is going to contact the back side of the opening in the aluminum table. Continue to raise the blade to it's maximum. Lower the blade as far as it will go. Using a "V" file enlarge the slot the blade cut in the table as shown in the photo being sure to widen the slot the blade cut so there is no further blade to table contact. The blade being larger dia than what the saw is designed to use will not be able to lower below the table top - it will be about 3/8-inch above the top. There is an additional modification needed to be able to lower the blade all the way. The screw that raises and lowers the blade hits a part of the mechanism that needs to have clearance for the screw. The other 2 photos show the modification I made using my Foredom tool with a ball grinder bit. The first photo shows the area I ground away and the second shows how the screw now clears the piece that formerly interfered. I talked to Jim about the changes I made and he said I did it the right way - I am sure if he did it the area ground away would be pristine and ground away to the thousandth of a inch - but what I did works. Carbide blades work well for cutting aluminum and this little bit of cutting didn't affect the blades sharpness at all. But I do cut aluminum and brass at times so I got 2 blades and use one marked "M: for metal - non ferrous metals only! I am very happy with the set up and showed it at the last NRG conference in 2018. Kurt

I use a carbide blade 98% of the time. I know there is more lost to sawdust with a carbide blade than the Thurston blades, but in the overall scope of things the ease of use of the carbide blade outweighs the lost wood due to the wider kerf - at least in my opinion. Kurt

I have the cd or flash drive ready for sale for those wanting it. Kurt

BUILDING CHAPERON FROM THE MODEL SHIPWAYS KIT $13.99 on CD – Free Delivery – US Only $15.99 on Flash Drive – Free Delivery – US Only I built this model starting in 2009 and completed it in 2010 from the newly released kit from Model Shipways – part of Model Expo. The construction of the model was documented in a series of six articles in Ships in Scale Magazine (SiS) starting with the Sept./Oct. 2009 issue, culminating with the July/August 2010 issue. Over the years, modelers have contacted me about supplying copies of various parts of the series they were missing and unable to obtain. Some of the back issues were out of print for some time and when Ships in Scale went out of business in 2018 all the back issues containing the articles were no longer available. Scanning magazine copies isn’t legal as SiS owned the copyright to the articles as published in the magazine though I own the copyright to the original text and photographs. Each time I got a request I had to copy the text files and photographs and email them to the modeler. I like to help other modelers, but this was taking a lot of time and energy, so I decided to take the time and put the series together into a digital book. The digital book contains the complete series as it was written. The magazine’s editor moved some parts of the assembly sequence around to fit space considerations without worrying about them being out of sequence. The correct sequence has been restored. I decided to double space the text for ease of use in the shop as the PDF format isn’t like a magazine where the number of pages is limited. In addition to being back in the original sequence, the photographs are all color rather than B/W – a big help when looking for details of construction. I have added a bit of information at the end showing two great models of Chaperon built by John Fryant. One is scratch built and the other is from this kit. The CD is only $13.99 with free delivery. A flash drive for those w/o disc drives is $15.99 with free delivery. Sorry but the free delivery is for US only and payable only by PayPal – at least for the immediate future. The CDs or flash drives ship in a mailer box for protection. Due to high shipping costs to other countries, a reduced file size PDF – but still very good image quality - will be emailed to non-US purchasers. Sorry but no sales to Russia or China except to full NRG members. Contact me by PM if you have questions or to order. Provide your email and I will provide mine. I can send a PayPal invoice with my PayPal address.

Not on my saw. If mine makes a noise it is with the flip of the switch and it's one "clink". There is a bit of sound from bounce in the motor and drive belt when operating but it makes a very slight, hardly noticeable, non metallic noise that disappears completely with a slight lift of the motor. Might be a bit of imbalance in the motor pulley - but I have used mine since 2003 - 16 years of pretty heavy use. If mine was making the sound in the video I would be checking it out. I had an addition to the house - the addition of a second floor over the whole house and my shop over the 3 car garage and I used this saw to do all the red oak trim. Much easier to move from room to room than the big chop saw - and as accurate if not more so. Cut through 3/4 read oak like it was balsa wood. Kurt

Here are the links for the saw and sander reviews. Anybody who has one of Jim's tools will agree they are the best. Kurt Saw Review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OncQ9__278Y Thickness Sander Review https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVCAYqrY3eM&t=1036s

Mine does it occasionally. Seems to be related to the height of the blade. I have checked it carefully and can't see any obvious sign of anything hitting on an adjacent piece - so I haven't been very concerned about it. Kurt

Yes. Scroll down the home page here and click on their banner sponsor ads - they go right to their web sites. Both are East coast. Kurt

George: Your idea of making some small washers is good. I have copied below text from part 4 of my series of articles om building the Philadelphia. I used some small washers I had in my parts supply and C/A was completely adequate to hold them together so I think soldering might be overkill. The photos show before the washer and end of the eyebolt were touched up with black paint and the other photo as completed. The washers are small and the photos show some unevenness of the bolt end - which might look like peeing - but at the scale of this detail it is not able to be seen w/o magnification of the close up photo. Hope this might help a bit. Kurt I wound up using a small 0.8mm (0.0315”) I. D. washer from Scale Hardware over the end of each bolt and secured with a very small drop of C/A glue. The C/A glue filled the very small gap between the washer and bolt and secured the washer to the hull and bolt as shown in Photo #63. When the bolt was cut off with a flush cutter, the end of the bolt and washer was touched with a bit of flat black paint. The result is a very convincing simulation of the washer and peened bolt arrangement on the boat as shown in Photo #64, a close up view of the final assembly.

There are two wood suppliers who sponsor this forum. Crown Timber Yard and Syren. Both have very good quality woods. Syren is not primarily a wood supplier but the wood Chuck has is excellent. Kurt