Ron L

Worst picture gallery ever. I gave up after looking at two pictures. I'll still buy it. As long as it looks good on a shelf I'm there.

I'm hacking up some existing ones but I do have a few custom pieces that are still on paper. Well, digital paper that is. Once I get the drawings done I can have a few mock-ups hopefully next week. I leave town Friday so if I'm quiet that's because I don't get back until the 22nd. What design did you have in mind?

Been working on these on and off for years but finally have some real progress now that I have some work bench space. Never been that impressed with the aftermarket wheels out there for 1/25 scale cars, especially for the "Pro touring" look for vintage iron. So I made my own. They use a multi-piece machined aluminum rim with resin center. They can be configured to any offset needed. The first two pictures for example are of the same 18" wheels. Today I worked on the 19 inchers (and cleaned the Chevelle): The offset is adjustable - I just snapped the pics without even realizing how deep they were set in. I think the 18s would work better on the Corvair but the 19s still look good from different angles. Here's what the Corvair looked like for the past 3 years. You might have seen it in Contest Cars 2007(?) from NNL West: I've got lots more centers to machine and cast. You won't see any goofy designs from me, just proven ones. I'm not one for blingy wheels that have lots of weird curves and spikes.

I picked up a resin body at NNL West 2004(?) and didn't know what it was based off of until two years later. Looks dumb if you ask me, but it was $10 so I figured what the heck. I still haven't done anything with it.

Who was it that ran the kid table last year? I hope she's doing it again this year; my daughters are looking forward to hanging out with her daughter again.

Neat stuff, I missed out on this build-off. THat's what I get for not visiting often.

Everyone in our house jumps when the 60-gallon fires up, me especially since I stand right next to it when I'm at my workbench. Of course it never comes on when airbrushing as that tank lasts for months if I just leave it off. One time I forgot about our friendly neighborhood 3-legged cat sleeping in our laundry pile, and when the compressor turned off I heard him hissing at it. When I looked at him he was meowing at the compressor and gave it the dirtiest look, then he hopped on out of there. He still sleeps here but I don't use the compressor when he's around. Funny guy, not much bothers him. He even let me vacuum him with the shopvac while he slept.

Hah, I thought about that too and realized not many models at all have antennas.

I have no cats or rats to bring. Rats are easy(?) but all my cats are big time projects. Oh yeah, I'll be there anyway. Here's an idea, how about something to mark our cars so we know who's from the MCM forum? Something unique yet subtle, like a scale cheeseburger made out of colored Sculpey. I dunno...

I thought you were joking, but some people look for any reason to fight. So... Don't like my response? Ignore me. Don't like the thread? Stay out. Want to put rules in place? Post them in clear sight, and enforce them. Self policing does not work on forums; you end up with another HH or MCL i.e. sift through ###### to find the gold nuggets. This place isn't far behind so do I bitch and moan? No, I come back every few days, sometimes weeks, instead of every few hours. Now that I know this thread isn't my cup of tea I don't feel the need to read it again. Isn't that easy?

Never read it, never cared. When I want my off topic fix I go read the fark.com forums. If you came here for something other than models and the loss of that upsets you, well that's your problem. Since we're sharing what we like to do on this site, all I do is read General and once in a while dab into the Workbench section. I don't read any other section - there's just too many. Hmm.. Post-apocalyptic future Pope mobile project...

I have no idea what this build is about, but there are some cool things in here. Flex fuel flathead? That's great... Ken, after months of losing sleep on what to paint my 1:1 '67 Mustang, I think you just made up my mind. Maybe I'll hop into this build, once I get around to casting 24 batteries for my all-electric street rod. That fits the theme, doesn't it?

You're lucky you have a store close by. Ours is about 45 mins away and I don't even know how big the place is. I bought my stuff sight unseen, just basing my purchase off of websites and forums with threads like this one. I've also heard a lot of the displayed items at HF stores are pretty abused and normally not adjusted at all, so what you see may not be what you get. Don't forget you'll probably want mini tools with the adapters to fit the standard tool holder, such as the ones included in this kit, because the tools that fit the holder are going to be way too big for modeling use. I don't think they carry the mini tools by themselves anymore, I ordered mine just like that link showed except without the extra stuff. Your local store might have them. That's all you'd need to get started on the lathe. For the mill, a set of the cheapest end mills would do you fine. I've yet to wear mine out and it's been abused at work long before I got it. The chuck will slip or you will stall that motor before you break a bit. Best not to find out though, as I hear those plastic gears can't take much punishment although my abused mill is still on the original gears.

Well put, Davkin, good points all around. Another thing to consider is that the basic Sherline lathe does not come with a 3-jaw chuck, almost a necessity IMO, and that's another ~$100. Apparently the handwheels can't be manually zeroed on the basic model, either. As for size, I'm almost tempted to pick up the 4x5 micro Sieg lathe from HF someday. Only 36lbs! When UPS dropped off my 7x10 I wasn't home, and the package was left leaning against my front door. I had to take the thing apart so I could carry it to the garage before I could close my front door again. I'm no lightweight and I do weight training twice a week, but carrying 100lbs. of oddly-shaped and greasy cast iron isn't easy! The X2 mill took two people to load it into and out of my hatchback. I almost went for a used all metal lathe from craigslist, similar to what Brian F. posted, for a mere $300. Came with lots of tools, a bench, and other stuff. Then I thought how the heck am I going to load this into my car, carry it down the driveway, and set it up inside the garage. All for turning a few model car parts - no thanks. Read up on cnczone.com's forums, there is a dedicated area for these specific brands. You think you're confused now.

Not sure what you mean by "power driver", perhaps power feed on the X-axis? When I mentioned power feed, I meant on the lathe. Power feed on a mill is nice if you've got long, wide pieces to machine. The Sherline site is confusing. You're right, it's about $1800 although the $935 price you quoted is for the mill and lathe. The Mill conversion is $805. The X2 conversion will only cost me about $1500 because I already have the mill. The play issue on the X2 will be moot because all the leadscrews are replaced with ballscrews for a CNC conversion. With those prices it would be silly to spend the money to convert an X2 but keep in mind the X2 will handle heavier parts than the Sherline. Depends on your needs. Backlash is the play from moving the handwheels back and forth. Let's say you put your tool up to the rotating part on a lathe, and set the dial to zero. Backing the tool away from the part by reversing the handwheel, the wheel rotates a certain amount before the tool actually moves. That's your backlash. But - advancing the tool back to zero, regardless of backlash, will always be at the same spot. Is that a problem? It depends. If you're turning a part that's stepped, .5" one diameter then .75" the next step, then backing the wheel out .25" by looking at the wheel will only back up .2" if your backlash is .05". There are ways around this, one is by turning the whole piece in a way that you're only moving the handwheel one direction and preventing back and forth adjustments. Another is installing a DRO (digital readout) so that the DRO shows the actual tool movement and ignores the play in the handwheel. Me, I ignore the handwheel's marks and go by test fitting, eyeballing, and measuring with a caliper, which I would do anyway regardless on how accurate the machine claims to be. Of course the easiest and cheapest thing to do is reduce backlash through adjustment and/or learn to compensate for any, but I still like to check it manually as I go. Everyone has their methods and you'll learn something new every time you machine something.

Agree, and you will get to a point where there just isn't an attachment or setup you can do. I have seen some decent results on a Chinese machine, I bigger fear is not being able to do something on it that you can on a Sherline. Sherline seems like a far more versital machine. Others seem limited on tools and attachments. They all have the same attachments available. The difference is paying $200 more for a Sherline gets you none of those attachments, where you would have a complete kit with a Sieg. The Sherline also does not have power feed or thread-cutting capability, but I said that already. I don't know about you guys, but I would find it very boring and tedious to turn a handwheel by hand to turn down a long, thick piece of aluminum that requires multiple passes. Furthermore, my experience with Chinese made stuff in general has been less than satifactory. So that rules out everything Chinese, then? Based on the ###### your typical drive-through burger chain churns out it means American food should be avoided? The other thing is, what else is someone going to say who dropped a G on a Chinese machine that gets the job done and hasn't used anything else. "Ya, sure it's great." People tend to promote what they use and own regardless if they even ever tried anything else. You also get the same from Sherline buyers who've never tried a cheaper lathe and/or want to justify the extra hundreds of dollars they spent. And some of these machines are just too big - a 440lbs Grizzle seems a bit excessive for anything I'd be doing. Some of the links and other mentioned machines are nearly as much or more than a Sherline. Weight is definitely a consideration. Not easy to move a 200# lathe if you decide to move work stations. The Sieg X2 mill is under 100lbs, the 7x10 lathe is 80lbs. A tad heavier than a 24lb Sherline, but if the Sherline weighed more I'll bet they would use that as another sign of superiority. There has been a couple people who measured this and found once you cleaned the grease and properly lubed the machine the Chinese machines had up to .050 tolerance, where as the Taig and Sherline was down to .001. The Sherline was generally preferred because the headstock rotated 90 degrees. No other sampled mill did. The Harbor Freight is the cheapest, but wasn't anything more than a fancy drill press and no a true mill. Luckily my lathe didn't come with the red stuff slathered all over it as mini-lathe.com showed, but that's an old page and perhaps they do it different now. Backlash isn't a concern depending on what you need the machine for. Are you building precision stepped-diameter shafts to fit into custom brass sleeves for a $2000 grandfather clock, or are you making pulleys for a non-functioning model car? Even so, a good dial caliper is a must-have to check your progress regardless of your backlash. I made those rims I posted earlier without even looking at the indicators on the handwheels - it's all eyeballed and/or constantly checked with a digital caliper. The Sieg mills have columns that rotate, but it is generally recommended not to move them from zero anyway. Moving it away from vertical requires you to re-tram the bed when returning it to zero to ensure a parallel machining surface. It is usually a better idea to use a tilting vise instead. What website tells you the HF isn't more than a fancy drill press? Which model were they talking about, considering they have at least 3 or 4? Now that I've got a nice collection of tools and know what I'm doing (more or less), I wouldn't mind having one of those cute Sherlines to carry from room to room, or to a buddy's house to scratchbuild some stuff, etc. But I don't have $700 to throw at one, nor will I find a need to do so, unless the $700 is really burning a hole in my pocket. I know I've got a Sherline CNC mill package in my future if I ever scrounge up the $2500. There are $1500 conversions for my X2 but for CNC I'd definitely step up to something else and ready-to-run on top of that.

Grizzly sells the same machines you can buy from other vendors such as Harbor Freight and Micromark. "Sieg" is the Chinese manufacturer of these machines; the places I mentioned mainly put their own nameplates and paint jobs on them. Grizzly costs a little more mainly because their name is more familiar and people associate that with better quality. Harbor Freight has this tiny lathe for about $120 less than their 7x10, which could be a nice simple machine for a beginner or someone who will only turn basic stuff for car models such as wheels, oil filters, pulleys, etc. That's basically what you get with a Sherline but for less than half the price. HF also has them on sale once in a while and they will credit you if it goes on sale within 30 days after you buy it. There is a lot of brand conformity going on when it comes to lathes and you'll find that many of those people have never touched a machining tool in their life.

I like my Chinese lathe. $500 got me the lathe plus a set of mini tools (regular 1/4" tools are too big for modeling), a live center, and other various tools. It also includes gears if I ever want to cut threads. I'm sure the Sherline is great, but bang-for-the-buck it is not. The base model doesn't have a power fed carriage, which won't give you smooth results unless you're really patient, and you can not cut threads with it. Check out http://www.mini-lathe.com/ and decide for yourself if the "shortcomings" are worth the saved bucks. For me it was, and I've been happy with it for over 3 years now. The only problem I've had is the power switch went dead, and I replaced it with a higher quality one that cost a whopping $1.50. I cut mostly plastic and resin on it, with the occasional aluminum parts. I wouldn't cut drill rod or stainless with it (T6061 is already taxing it at times), but what do I need that for in non-operational scale models? I also got a mini-mill from work last year but I haven't used it. Again, for most materials used in scale modeling, most of the milling required can be done with a file and/or rotary tool.

You might find something useful here: http://twotogo.homestead.com/index.html For example.. http://twotogo.homestead.com/mysterytwin.html

Makes sense. ~$55 is pretty much the going rate for semi-dedicated these days. My hosting company for example charges $54.95.

Don't use hardware store paper for models, use the real stuff from 3M or anything where autobody materials are sold. Hardware grade sandpaper is cheap stuff and will fall apart on you, leaving gouges in your finish. Not a big deal when sanding 2x4s, but it can ruin your model. The polish kits and their "fine" 12000 grit numbers are bogus; they don't correspond with any real-world grit numbers. It's another re-packaging trick to make you think it's "hobby specific". You can do just as well with 1500 and 2000 grit automotive wet/dry paper and some 3M rubbing compound.

Er yeah, surge tank. Header tanks are for dry sumps. Tanks for the fix.

The cap needs to be at the highest point to allow burping. Look at an AC Cobra for example, you will see a header tank or an in-line hose adapter with the cap on it because the radiator is much lower than the engine.

For connecting bonsai wire as exhaust pipes I use heat shrink tubing, then paint it to look like clamps. There is also aluminum tubing e.g. K&S that fits perfectly around 2.5mm bonsai wire. I don't know the size off hand - sorry. Afterwards you add thin wire around it if you want the Autozone clamp look. It's best if you could reduce the total number of parts, though.

It's been going downhill for me for the past few weeks. I don't visit or read as much anymore due to the slowdowns which are definitely getting worse. I hit reply on one thread and yes I only clicked once, waited a few minutes, walked away, and when I came back it had posted my reply twice.