What Did You Buy Today?

[Aaron_W]

That looks like some serious equipment for resin casting. What do you cast?

Model stuff, mostly for trucks and emergency vehicles. I've duplicated kit parts that I'd like more copies of as well as parts I've scratch built. I've even done a couple of model truck cabs. I never really trusted the HF pot and it was kind of small and awkward to use with a concave bottom, so didn't do a lot of pressure casting with it. The point of using pressure is it crushes any air bubbles making a better quality part.

Now that I have a 3D printer, lathe, mill, bigger compressor and a pot that doesn't scare me I'd like to get more serious about making stuff that I can not only use myself but also maybe sell some to other modelers and get all this stuff to help pay for its way.

These are fairly simple parts, but the emergency lights, siren, antenna base, mirrors and wheels / tires on this model were cast resin parts that I did. Not shown but I also cast the transmission, transfer case and front powered axle. I also made the decals. The tool boxes, tank, pump parts, tools and railing were scratch built. The pickup itself is an off the shelf plastic model kit, with some modifications to make it a lower trim level.




This is a 1980s Ford F700 cab I cast. It is a little rough because I couldn't fit it in the small pressure pot, and also an early attempt at casting something like this. Oddly for such a common truck nobody offers a 1/25 scale kit of it.




I've been gathering the information to scratch build a Hall Scott 1091 engine which I will cast when done. The 1091 was one of the most powerful truck engines in the 1950s and 60s, very popular with fire departments and loggers on the West Coast (Hall Scott was a California engine builder). I think it would be a fairly popular item for truck modelers and nobody does one.

 

[brino]

Now that I have a 3D printer, lathe, mill, bigger compressor and a pot that doesn't scare me I'd like to get more serious about making stuff that I can not only use myself but also maybe sell some to other modelers and get all this stuff to help pay for its way.

These are fairly simple parts, but the emergency lights, siren, antenna base, mirrors and wheels / tires on this model were cast resin parts that I did. Not shown but I also cast the transmission, transfer case and front powered axle. I also made the decals. The tool boxes, tank, pump parts, tools and railing were scratch built. The pickup itself is an off the shelf plastic model kit, with some modifications to make it a lower trim level.

Please, please, pretty please...... could you give us a run down of the process.
I have never even read about it.

I realize it would require it's own thread, but I am very interested to learn about it.
I'd love to hear your experiences, highs and lows, troubles and tribulations.

Thanks for any additional info!
-brino

 

[Tim9]

Picked up a little machinist vise. The jaw width is 1-3/4”.
I just had to have it when I noticed the toolmaker’s initials were same as mine. It was only 25.00 plus shipping. So for 40.00 it’s okay. I was pleasantly surprised to see the metal is definitely tool steel. A sharp file barely cleaned up the nicks. Really a nice little and well made vise.

 

[Aaron_W]

Please, please, pretty please...... could you give us a run down of the process.
I have never even read about it.

I realize it would require it's own thread, but I am very interested to learn about it.
I'd love to hear your experiences, highs and lows, troubles and tribulations.

Thanks for any additional info!
-brino

I can probably do that, the basics are not very difficult but there is some trial and error when learning what works and what doesn't.

 

[Tim9]

3-D printing has really evolved over the past 10 years. I wasn’t impressed at first because I received a printed gear on a SB thread dial and it was not up to par.
But I’ve been reading a lot of you guys doing some pretty damned neat stuff lately so read up more about the technology. The filament and resins have seemed to be a real game changer.
It’s really a damned cool technology. Very useful. I just wish I was a little better on the computer stuff.

 

[hman]

I guess I'll climb onto the Grizzly mobile base bandwagon. This is the base under my first machine tool (still have it!), a Harbor Freight mini-mill. Bought both the table and the mobile base from Grizzly. Don't know if they've gotten their act together, but at the time (2008 or 09), none of their ##^$#!@@!!! mobile bases were correctly sized to fit their equipment tables. So I had to improvise - moved the "long" base bars to the sides, then cut the "short" base bars in half and added angle iron extenders. This is a view from the rear. And no, the "big wheel" on the front corner is NOT for rolling along the walls. There's one on each front corner, located to protect my ankle bones from hitting the caster mounts ... a painful experience! Didn't take me more than once to decide to do something about it.

 

[Aaron_W]

3-D printing has really evolved over the past 10 years. I wasn’t impressed at first because I received a printed gear on a SB thread dial and it was not up to par.
But I’ve been reading a lot of you guys doing some pretty damned neat stuff lately so read up more about the technology. The filament and resins have seemed to be a real game changer.
It’s really a damned cool technology. Very useful. I just wish I was a little better on the computer stuff.

I've been watching 3D printers since about 2009, and was really on the fence between buying my first lathe or a 3D printer in 2015. At that time 3D printers just were not where I needed them to be and the cheapest ones worth considering were over $1000. Not sure exactly when, but somewhere around 2017 they made it over the hump. Print quality shot up and prices came crashing down. Now the under $1000 printers are doing stuff that only commercial grade ($10,000+) printers were capable of 5 or 6 years ago.

 

[Papa Charlie]

Well, I finally won a couple of items on Ebay for what I think are some reasonable prices.

First item, or should I say items as I got both in the same auction, is a Starrett S-579-H Telescoping Gage set and a Starrett S-831-E Small Hole Gage set for $79. The pictures from the sale show the hole gages have some surface rust on them. I will want to remove that when I get them, but need to figure out the best way as to no damage the gages.

Any proven methods you have to share would be very welcome. I was thinking some WD40 and fine 3M pad.





Then I won a Starrett 473 Pitch Gage, 6-60 pitch for $29. This appears to be in very good shape.

 

[finsruskw]

Papa, I just snagged a new gage for $19
No box though.

 

[Diecutter]

Papa, I just snagged a new gage for $19
No box though.

$10.00 bonus for thinking outside of the box!