Bob Cleek

What a beautiful chest of drawers! It would be just the thing for storing small hand tools where they could be readily seen and retrieved. French fitted drawers would be particularly "tasty." Is it purchased or home-made? Time was that chests similar to this one were made for medical and dental professionals, but they are very hard to come across these days, at least at an affordable price. 

What a beautiful chest of drawers! It would be just the thing for storing small hand tools where they could be readily seen and retrieved. French fitted drawers would be particularly "tasty." Is it purchased or home-made? Time was that chests similar to this one were made for medical and dental professionals, but they are very hard to come across these days, at least at an affordable price. 

What a beautiful chest of drawers! It would be just the thing for storing small hand tools where they could be readily seen and retrieved. French fitted drawers would be particularly "tasty." Is it purchased or home-made? Time was that chests similar to this one were made for medical and dental professionals, but they are very hard to come across these days, at least at an affordable price. 

I'd agree with you in many instances. However, I must disagree when it comes to airbrushes. Airbrushes are one of those things that will definitely limit the quality of anyone's work to the quality of the airbrush used regardless of the user's talent. This is because an airbrush is a precision instrument and precision costs money to produce no matter how you cut it. A high-quality airbrush for merely spraying paint can be had for less money than a quality airbrush with a wider spectrum of control features, assuming the user is willing to accept the fact that the only variable he has any control over is the qualities of the material he's spraying. That said, it's hard to believe that at the price they are selling them these Chinese-made "hoseless" units can be all that well built. 
 
Looking at the picture posted above, I'm not so sure holding the cannister and pushing the "trigger" button at the same time would be all that easy or comfortable to do, particularly with a hand limited by peripheral neuropathy. 

I'd agree with you in many instances. However, I must disagree when it comes to airbrushes. Airbrushes are one of those things that will definitely limit the quality of anyone's work to the quality of the airbrush used regardless of the user's talent. This is because an airbrush is a precision instrument and precision costs money to produce no matter how you cut it. A high-quality airbrush for merely spraying paint can be had for less money than a quality airbrush with a wider spectrum of control features, assuming the user is willing to accept the fact that the only variable he has any control over is the qualities of the material he's spraying. That said, it's hard to believe that at the price they are selling them these Chinese-made "hoseless" units can be all that well built. 
 
Looking at the picture posted above, I'm not so sure holding the cannister and pushing the "trigger" button at the same time would be all that easy or comfortable to do, particularly with a hand limited by peripheral neuropathy. 

I'd agree with you in many instances. However, I must disagree when it comes to airbrushes. Airbrushes are one of those things that will definitely limit the quality of anyone's work to the quality of the airbrush used regardless of the user's talent. This is because an airbrush is a precision instrument and precision costs money to produce no matter how you cut it. A high-quality airbrush for merely spraying paint can be had for less money than a quality airbrush with a wider spectrum of control features, assuming the user is willing to accept the fact that the only variable he has any control over is the qualities of the material he's spraying. That said, it's hard to believe that at the price they are selling them these Chinese-made "hoseless" units can be all that well built. 
 
Looking at the picture posted above, I'm not so sure holding the cannister and pushing the "trigger" button at the same time would be all that easy or comfortable to do, particularly with a hand limited by peripheral neuropathy. 

And it's probably likely it could have lasted indefinitely if there had been a way to dry out the condensation inside the tank, as there often isn't. I'll bet the compressor was just fine. Unfortunately, likely due to products liability insurance issues, the compressor tanks are often more costly than the compressors themselves. Consequently, when the tank goes, you might as well throw the whole unit out and buy a new one. Running a hose to a separate portable tank such as are sold for filling auto tires is sometimes a work-around for a tired old tank, though. 
 
I thoroughly agree with your point: buying the best tool you can possibly afford is always the lease expensive course.

I'd agree with you in many instances. However, I must disagree when it comes to airbrushes. Airbrushes are one of those things that will definitely limit the quality of anyone's work to the quality of the airbrush used regardless of the user's talent. This is because an airbrush is a precision instrument and precision costs money to produce no matter how you cut it. A high-quality airbrush for merely spraying paint can be had for less money than a quality airbrush with a wider spectrum of control features, assuming the user is willing to accept the fact that the only variable he has any control over is the qualities of the material he's spraying. That said, it's hard to believe that at the price they are selling them these Chinese-made "hoseless" units can be all that well built. 
 
Looking at the picture posted above, I'm not so sure holding the cannister and pushing the "trigger" button at the same time would be all that easy or comfortable to do, particularly with a hand limited by peripheral neuropathy. 

And it's probably likely it could have lasted indefinitely if there had been a way to dry out the condensation inside the tank, as there often isn't. I'll bet the compressor was just fine. Unfortunately, likely due to products liability insurance issues, the compressor tanks are often more costly than the compressors themselves. Consequently, when the tank goes, you might as well throw the whole unit out and buy a new one. Running a hose to a separate portable tank such as are sold for filling auto tires is sometimes a work-around for a tired old tank, though. 
 
I thoroughly agree with your point: buying the best tool you can possibly afford is always the lease expensive course.

And it's probably likely it could have lasted indefinitely if there had been a way to dry out the condensation inside the tank, as there often isn't. I'll bet the compressor was just fine. Unfortunately, likely due to products liability insurance issues, the compressor tanks are often more costly than the compressors themselves. Consequently, when the tank goes, you might as well throw the whole unit out and buy a new one. Running a hose to a separate portable tank such as are sold for filling auto tires is sometimes a work-around for a tired old tank, though. 
 
I thoroughly agree with your point: buying the best tool you can possibly afford is always the lease expensive course.

My initial impression is that if these "self-contained" airbrushes which have recently hit the market are really the best thing since sliced bread, the big-name airbrush companies would be making and selling them, too. The jury's still out and I have no first-hand experience with them, but for the low prices of a lot of them, compared to the cost of a decent airbrush alone, I greatly suspect that the airbrush part of them isn't close to the traditional airbrushes in terms of quality and reliability. 
 
I agree that if one is "just painting models" and not interested in airbrushing fine lines and "special effects" such as weathering and camouflage patterns, a less expensive "plain vanilla" high quality single-action airbrush would be the way to go, They aren't all that expensive. That said, for a few dollars more, why not go for a double-action model because you never know when you might need one. 

I would suggest to go with a regular small air compressor and an airbrush.
The compressor will let you to adjust the pressure more easily.
And to me it looks like one has to have a compressor to recharge the canister. So why buy such a unit?

 

Thanks for the updates! She's really coming along beautifully. 

I just saw your post. For some reason, I overlooked it when it was posted.
 
When shaping flint or other fracturing stone (e.g., obsidian or chert) by striking it with a non-fracturing rock as when making arrowheads, a process called "knapping" or by striking a piece of flint with a piece of iron to create sparks, it is customary to hold the fracturing stone in or on a patch of leather in a manner which protects the hand holding the stone from being cut by the razor sharp edges of the stone you are striking. 
 
http://survivaltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/flintknapknife.jpg
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

The truth of the matter is that there isn't a mini-table saw selling anywhere for around a hundred bucks that is suitable for the purposes you intend to use one for. This is because the two essentials in any small table saw are accuracy and torque. Each requires manufacturing costs directionally proportional to the degree of accuracy and the amount of torque the machine can produce. The $100 Chinese mini-table saws generally run 12 VDC high speed / low torque motors running around 5,000 RPM. A high speed motor is fine for lightweight work or for abrasive work. (e.g.: a ceramic cutting disk on a Dremel mototool for cutting brass tubing.) For cutting, torque, the twisting power of the motor shaft, is required. Less expensive powered tools trade speed for torque. In some applications, this is acceptable, but not where the motor lacks the torque to meet the demand of the job and "stalls out" or overheats. Simply put, high torque motors cost more to produce, which puts them outside the range of the $100 Chinese Amazon Specials.
 
Similarly, accuracy in any powered tool depends upon mass. The weight of a powered tool is generally the quickest way to judge its quality. In micro-table saws we're not talking forklift grade weight, but the principle still applies. "Fit and finish" is also critical to accuracy.  Saw fences that are adjusted with stamped metal wing nuts are a sure sign that the machine isn't going be capable of the accuracy one requires to do decent modeling work. Stamped metal parts instead of CNC-machined parts are another indicator of low quality and undependable accuracy tolerances.
 
If all you have to spend is a hundred bucks, I agree with Allen and Roger: you'd be better off tuning up your full-sized table saw with a finishing blade and dance with the girl you brought. Of course, a decent specialty table saw blade can cost you more than $100 these days, as well.  
 
It is worth noting that MicroMark and Proxxon, retailers of modeling tools and supplies, each also offer respectable micro-table saws. While they are in the same price range as the Byrnes table saw, the Byrnes machine is a much better built machine, more technologically advanced, and generally considered a better value for the money.
 
If I were you, which I'm not, I'd save my money until I could afford to buy a Byrnes Model Machines table saw. Byrnes Model Machines - Thickness Sander (Yeah, I know it says "thickness sander," but that's actually the saw page.) They are presently on vacation but are supposed to return the end of this month. The price of their saw isn't listed at the moment, I guess because they aren't shipping any until they return from vacation. One will probably run you six to eight hundred bucks, depending upon the cost of shipping and the options you elect to have on it. I know this is a lot of money for anybody, but for anyone who wants to even just cut their own strip wood for modeling, this saw will pay for itself in surprisingly short order. It will also hold its value and you will be able to readily sell it if you ever wish to do so. (Which, if the lack of eBay listings are any indication, isn't likely to happen.) I don't own stock in the Byrnes Model Machines company, but I hold Jim Byrnes and his products in high regard. The Byrnes "Jim Saw" is universally recognized as the finest micro-saw of its kind ever made and is an especially excellent machine that will afford you pride and joy of ownership and use for generations to come. It's worth skipping a few dinners out, shots at the local bar after work, or even a few hours of overtime on the job to acquire one! 
 
While it's advice that's ignored as often as it's offered, when you need a tool, buy the best tool you can afford. The most expensive tool is the one you have to buy more than once!
 
 

Thanks for the updates! She's really coming along beautifully. 

"Tow" is "short and coarse fibers of little value separated from the longer and more valuable fibers through hackling in the manufacture of rope. Tow is occasionally used in the manufacture of inferior qualities of rope." (International Maritime Dictionary, rene de Kerchove, 2nd Edition, Van Nostrand and Reinhold Co. 1961, Litton Educational Publishing]
 
"Tow" is also the short bits of fiber that break off of natural fiber rope, particularly hemp and sisal ("Manila") rope. On a large square-rigger, a lot of tow would find its way to the deck and collect in wet piles and muck things up. Hence the bosun's call, "Sweepers, man your brooms. Clean sweep down fore and aft." Another general meaning of "tow" is simply "worn out rope."
 
"Tow" was sometimes collected and saved for use in canvas pockets for padding of various sorts in rigging and so on, and for caulking material when mixed with tar to make oakum. Worn out or rotten line was often recycled into oakum as well. Quality oakum, however, was made not from lengths of worn-out line or "tow," but from new, long hemp strands. The highest quality new hemp line or oakum is made from the strong fibers from center of the stalks of the cannabis plant, which are whitish in color. (Oakum used by plumbers to caulk iron pipe joints is usually made from tarred jute or burlap.)
 
"Fibers and flyings" are what fill the air in a textile mill or rope walk and if you've ever been in a running textile mill, you will know that there is a huge cloud of fibers, little bits and pieces of broken fiber and dust, and "flyings" which are longer thin threads thrown off in the milling or spinning process, which must be continually cleaned up as they pose a large fire hazard. "Flyings" from the mills and ropewalks were used to make high quality oakum. 
 
Oakum is made by taking long fibers soaked in thick pine tar and simply twisting and rolling them into "ropes." The caulker has to prepare the oakum by unraveling lengths of the loosely twisted fiber from the loose ball (or "bale") of oakum and rolling the pine tar-soaked strands back and forth between the palm of his hand and the top of his thigh. (If you see a guy in the boatyard with his pants covered with tar on the front of his upper leg, he's a caulker! )
 
So, "The white ocham to be from flying & not from ground toes or decaid White ropes." means, "The white oakum specified here is to be made from mill flyings of the top-quality virgin white fiber of the plant and not from ground up tow or recycled rotten white hemp rope."
 
Quality oakum will result in a longer-lasting caulking job. Using old, weak fiber from worn out, rotten, or "decaid" rope will rot and decay in short order. The Admiralty wanted to use "the good stuff" because they didn't want to have to recaulk in short order because the stuff used was rotten to begin with.
 
Caulking mallet, caulking irons, and untarred "bale" of white hemp for making up oakum. See: Oakum - Wikipedia
 

I just saw your post. For some reason, I overlooked it when it was posted.
 
When shaping flint or other fracturing stone (e.g., obsidian or chert) by striking it with a non-fracturing rock as when making arrowheads, a process called "knapping" or by striking a piece of flint with a piece of iron to create sparks, it is customary to hold the fracturing stone in or on a patch of leather in a manner which protects the hand holding the stone from being cut by the razor sharp edges of the stone you are striking. 
 
http://survivaltek.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/flintknapknife.jpg
 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 

In Scouts, after learning how to use flint and steel, we had to master the bow and drill to make fire.  The bow and drill was definitely more difficult, and the carved wooden 'base' was key to accumulating embers to nurture the same way as char-cloth.  Once mastered, a Scout was awarded the "Smokey Eyeballs" certificate.

Thanks for the news. Someone posted elsewhere that they couldn't raise Byrnes by phone or email and they had earlier announced they'd be taking orders again beginning in mid-August, I believe, then later changed that to mid-September. I was starting to worry, hoping all was well with them. They are such nice people. Sometimes we don't appreciate those who provide valuable resources until they're gone and no replacement exists thereafter. While Byrnes Model Machines occupy a rather small niche in the market, they really are a "national treasure."

Thanks for the news. Someone posted elsewhere that they couldn't raise Byrnes by phone or email and they had earlier announced they'd be taking orders again beginning in mid-August, I believe, then later changed that to mid-September. I was starting to worry, hoping all was well with them. They are such nice people. Sometimes we don't appreciate those who provide valuable resources until they're gone and no replacement exists thereafter. While Byrnes Model Machines occupy a rather small niche in the market, they really are a "national treasure."

Thanks for the news. Someone posted elsewhere that they couldn't raise Byrnes by phone or email and they had earlier announced they'd be taking orders again beginning in mid-August, I believe, then later changed that to mid-September. I was starting to worry, hoping all was well with them. They are such nice people. Sometimes we don't appreciate those who provide valuable resources until they're gone and no replacement exists thereafter. While Byrnes Model Machines occupy a rather small niche in the market, they really are a "national treasure."

Thanks for the news. Someone posted elsewhere that they couldn't raise Byrnes by phone or email and they had earlier announced they'd be taking orders again beginning in mid-August, I believe, then later changed that to mid-September. I was starting to worry, hoping all was well with them. They are such nice people. Sometimes we don't appreciate those who provide valuable resources until they're gone and no replacement exists thereafter. While Byrnes Model Machines occupy a rather small niche in the market, they really are a "national treasure."

Thanks for the news. Someone posted elsewhere that they couldn't raise Byrnes by phone or email and they had earlier announced they'd be taking orders again beginning in mid-August, I believe, then later changed that to mid-September. I was starting to worry, hoping all was well with them. They are such nice people. Sometimes we don't appreciate those who provide valuable resources until they're gone and no replacement exists thereafter. While Byrnes Model Machines occupy a rather small niche in the market, they really are a "national treasure."

Jim said he would be closed till mid September for a vacation/shop inventory and business or something…. Should be open now, I ordered a few saw blades from them Wednesday and received order confirmation the same day…. Don’t know if that was computer generated- have not received a Shipped notification yet though so IDK…. But the notice on the website says they were planning on re opening mid September.