Making Miniature Tools

[rgsparber]

A very demanding part of the machining hobby is the fabrication of miniature machine tools. High precision is essential along with great magnification. This article presents a few samples plus a technique that lowers the bar a bit.


If you are interested, please see

https://rick.sparber.org/MakingMiniatureTools.pdf


Your comments are welcome. All of us are smarter than any one of us.



Thanks,

Rick

[mklotz]

Chuckle. I caught the giant paper clip on the first picture. On real paper clips the ends of the wire are cut off perpendicularly; your giant has the telltale sharp peaking one gets when cutting with wire nippers.

Still, it's a great joke. On my miniature drill press vise thread...

http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/m...ess-vise-33837

Christophe teased that I was using a scaled up kitchen match. Did that give you ideas?

For your next deception, how about a ten inch diameter Lincoln penny obverse.? (Easy scaling, pennies are exactly 3/4" diameter.)

[rgsparber]

Marv,

I'm not surprised I couldn't get past you. The idea came from my days at Bell Labs.They had a 3-foot long paperclip made from 3/8 inch-rod. It got a lot of milage. They also had a bowling ball with a chain bolted to it. If you were getting married, they would jump you and attach the chain with a big lock. At the end of the day it was your responsibility to find the guy with the key!

Rick

[rgsparber]

OK, I have squared off the ends of the paperclip and also took new pictures without any grain in the background. Maybe I can fool a few more readers...

Did anyone notice the date in the footer or the search parameters?

Rick

[mklotz]

I missed the date for sure but I didn't miss the fact that you misspelled my name. Not a biggy; nearly everyone does.

Bell Labs! While in college I spent a summer at Western Electric (Allentown, PA) helping a Bell scientist build an infrared photography rig for picturing electron flow in power semiconductors.

[rgsparber]

I missed the date for sure but I didn't miss the fact that you misspelled my name. Not a biggy; nearly everyone does.

Bell Labs! While in college I spent a summer at Western Electric (Allentown, PA) helping a Bell scientist build an infrared photography rig for picturing electron flow in power semiconductors.

Marv,

Misspelling your name is a big deal to me. It is now correct. Sorry.

Yeah, Bell Labs was a fun place to work. I miss those people and the daily technical challenges.

Rick

[Workshopshed]

Strangely I was just thinking about giant paper clips just the other day. Thanks for the plans.

[Altair]

Thanks rgsparber! We've added your Giant Paper Clip to our Miscellaneous category,
as well as to your builder page: rgsparber's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Giant Paper Clip by rgsparber

tags: clip

[wizard69]

OK, I have squared off the ends of the paperclip and also took new pictures without any grain in the background. Maybe I can fool a few more readers...

Did anyone notice the date in the footer or the search parameters?

Rick

Didn't fool me, but that is because I read all the comments first. Nice idea that is certain to catch a few people in the right situation.

One thing that has always amazed me is a well done model train setup and the videos taken from the "cab" of these models. The realism can be amazing with obviously thousands fo hours put into a layout. I'd be satisfied to build a flat bed car that could fool people such one day.

[mklotz]

One thing that has always amazed me is a well done model train setup and the videos taken from the "cab" of these models. The realism can be amazing with obviously thousands fo hours put into a layout. I'd be satisfied to build a flat bed car that could fool people such one day.

This one is long (about an hour) but fascinating...

Note how the train dutifully obeys all the signals along the track, even those in hidden areas.