grsjax

Never said you shouldn't manage risk, just that saying something is toxic does not necessarily mean that it is. Most government agencies use the "precautionary principle", i.e. that if someone thinks something might be toxic better to list is as such rather than take any risk. It is just another cya move. An example, Professor Blowhard of Grants-r-Us U, head of the questionable science department issued a statement that dihydrogen oxide has been determined to be toxic in rats and should immediately be banned or at least strictly regulated to avoid risk to humans. Professor Blowhard determined this by an experiment using two test groups of lab rats consisting of 6 rats in each group. The first group was placed in 1 liter chambers filled with dihydrogen oxide and the control group were placed in identical chambers filled with air. The first group all died after struggling desperately for a few seconds. The control group all survived with no ill effects. This 100% mortality in the test group is very strong evidence of the toxicity of dihydrogen oxide. Professor Blowhard is asking for a 100 million dollar grant to study the affects of dihydrogen oxide on humans in areas such as Hawaii, Tahiti, and other areas where large groups of humans are exposed on a daily basis. Professor Blowhard and his grad assistants Wendy, Bunny and Sue will spend the next several years visiting these areas and accessing the impacts. A bit over the top but you would be surprised at just how many studies used to classify substances as "toxic" are no more extensive than my humorous example.

There are three types of drill rod, A, O and W or air, water and oil hardening. Which type are you using?

This data should be taken with a grain of salt. I worked testing and evalutating toxic materials for many years and most of the data available is based on very few studies usually with a limited number of test subjects. Unless human studies have been completed with a large and significant test population the data is not really reliable as a guide to impacts on humans. That said it never hurts to take precautions and some individuals are far more sensitive than others. Dust masks and eye protection is never a bad idea.

I will take a few pictures and see how they turn out.

I started work on a Midwest Peapod model and the first problem I ran into was the flimsy building form. The instructions say to glue the formers to the "strong back" but that doesn't work very well. The formers are 1/8" bass wood that has a tendency to split and warp. In addition the formers tend to get out of alinement when you start planking. To correct this I glued a strip of scrap along the bottom of each former and added a triangular support to each side. Much stronger structure. This issue does not seem to be just with Midwest kits. Why don't the kit manufactures include instructions for strengthing the building form using the scrap from the kit. Costs them nothing and makes the work easier.

Howard Chapelle's books have a lot of information on Skipjacks. "American Sailing Craft", American Small Sailing Craft" and "Notes on Chesapeake Bay Skipjacks" are all good references.

Long ago in a former life I took a class is lost wax casting. We used plaster to make the molds and cast brass and gold items. These were single use molds. Easy to make and would work just as well with pewter or Brittanina. An advantage of using plaster is you can pre-heat the molds which gives a better casting result.

Just an update. The Craftsman 3.6v screwdriver works well with the micro chuck. One issue I had was the hex of the micro chuck had a bit of looseness in it. Not a real problem but it bothered me. To correct it I put small strips of clear tape on 3 sides of the hex, that solved the problem. BTW the no load speed of the screwdriver is 200rpm.

Maybe a dumb question but are some of the Midwest kits originally Laughing Whale Kits. Seems to be a lot of similarity between the old Laughing Whale and some of the Midwest offerings.

Trying my hand at building MS whaleboat. Lots of holes to drill for the chench nails.

Thanks for the input. I went online and got a cyber monday deal on a 3.6v Craftsman pistol grip drill. I also ordered a micro chuck that is supposed to hold drills from 0 to 1mm. I would like to have gotten one that would go up to 3mm but none of the ones I found online had good reviews or they wouldn't hold drills smaller than 1/32".

It gets hard on the old hands drilling lots of very small holes with a pin vise. Are there any good low speed power drills available? I was thinking of using a Black and Decker 6v cordless screwdriver with a microdrill chuck but don't know if that would be adequate.

Amazon has a number of collet type and drill chuck type micro drill holders for sale that have standard 1/4" hex shanks for use with cordless drills/screwdrivers. Most will hold as least down to a #97 drill. I would guess that these same items are for sale from other outlets as well.

A piece of fire brick makes a good pad and metal hair clips (the kind that have a spring and long jaws) make pretty good heat sinks for small parts.

I have a number of very small endmills with 1/8" shafts that work well as micro drills. You need to ensure that you have the type of endmill that can do a plunge cut. Not that expensive.

Sitting in a turkey induced haze looking at a piece of mdf on my workbench and started thinking what it could be used for other than as a building board. My local HomeDepot has 1/8" MDF sheets and I was thinking it might be a good material for building forms. Couldn't find any references to it use for forms but thought I would put it out here for comment.

I have an old wooden machinist chest I picked up on eBay for under $50 and it even had a couple of old tools in it when it arrived. No brand name on it but I have been told it was common for apprentists to make their own chests back in the day. Works very well for small tools. A trick I learned to keep the tools from rusting (aside from keeping them clean and oiled) is to line the drawers with the paper that comes wrapped around bearings and cutting bits. I believe it absorbs stuff like sulfides and other corrosive stuff in the air. I don't know what it is made from but it works well and I got a large lot for about $15 off of ebay.

Hi Just a small mod this this method. When you twist the tails use a small piece of tubing just large enough to insert the ends of the wire in. Insert the tails into the tube and hold the ends with pliers. Turn the drill or whatever you are using to form the eye. This results in a very tight twist.

I have both the plastic and metal gauges. The metal one is a bit harder to use as the individual wires can be stiff and tend to bend if you put to much pressure on them. However it gives a better result for fine work. The plastic one is a breeze to use but is coarser than the metal one so can only be used for larger stuff.

Hi Duff I think the species we have here is a different wood. It has an edible fruit (very good eating if prepared right). I think the scientific name is Artocarpus altilis.

I took a chance and bought some lumber off of eBay. Lucked out and was very satisfied with the result. The seller was "Curlyloggerfrancis". He cuts wood from salvage trees and his inventory depends on what he can get this way. I purchased maple, walnut and cherry from him and was very pleased with what I got. Nice people to deal with and they sell a quality product.

Living in Hawaii I run across some interesting wood that isn't usually available elsewhere. While reading an article on tropical woods I ran across a reference to Breadfruit wood being used for building and carving in the south Pacific islands. I asked around and a friend that is a wood turner told me he had a piece in his shop that he had had for 20 years or so and never got around to using. Said I could have it if I wanted it. Wood is light colored and has a fine grain. Before I started cutting it up I thought I would ask here if anyone has any experiance with it for model building. Don't want to end up throwing it away because I screwed up the milling or something or worse using it to build a model and then have it fail in some way.

Not exactly wood but it does come from a tree. Saw some small carvings made from Ivory Nut at the flea market. The carvings had very sharp edges. Has anyone used this for carving parts? Any information on how durable it is?

Hi John Thanks for the info. The wood is hard to come by so I thought I would grab some pieces while they were available. Good to know it is nice stuff just to have around. If I can figure out how to do it I will post a picture of the wood. I can only get offcuts of the wood the owner has left over.

I will try. Not very good with this digital photo thing.