Enlisted - Spray booth. Just have to buy a saw.

I built a (very) poor-man's light box just under a year ago. If I detail how I built it, does that count? I'm unsure of the timing rules and what really constitutes a "tool," but I'm interested!

I'm going to feature a couple things I recently assembled from leftover pieces of flooring I installed in my workshop.

First up, I needed a way to paint the nose cones of the cruise missiles in the mobile launcher I'm building:




Next, I was getting tired of storing my paints in a coffee can and having to hunt for the color I needed:


There may be more tooly goodness yet to come!

Very nice!!

I did make a new paint rack myself as well, need to take pics of it, as well as the balsa/basswood strip maker I think I made since the last campaign. (at least I can't see where I entered the strip maker). Hopefully time will allow me to do some of the other tools/jigs I have planned....

I have a more pressing "tool" to take care of, and that's making a home in the shop for the Anycubic Photon 3D printer my wife finally caved on and let me Buy. Since i'm in the basement, I'm going to create a Enclosure for it so that I can warm up the resin a bit, as the constant 60f temp is a bit low for some resins. It'll also allow me to vent it outside if need be by tying it into my spray booth vent. My plan is to start on this project this weekend, so I can get the printer into "production"

Matt

And for my next trick....

I recently acquired a Paasche professional spray booth, in which I installed some LED lighting. I'm really excited about the set-up, but I had the lights, the fan, and my air compressor plugged into a power strip. Whenever I turned on the power strip everything came on at once, which wasn't great. I wanted a way to control everything collectively or individually so...



That's the guts. Everything but the switches was stuff I had laying around the basement. I had to order the switches because I wanted illuminated rockers--when I have my Bose headphones on I can't always hear whether the fan or compressor are running.

Here it is all hooked up:


Came out pretty good for a one-day project, and best of all, it works!

Very professional looking....

Thanks, Matt!

Very nicely done! Congrats!

Badump....

Will be taking pics of the Stip making tool this weekend. been busy working 10+ hour days and troubleshooting a new toy for the shop....

Here is my new tool. It’s a drilling fixture for rod, tubing, and sheet. I’ve made one of these for use on a milling machine in a larger version, but this one is set up for use on a Micromark or Proxxon precision drill. If needed, it could also be used to hold tubing when trying to sand an angle on a disk or belt sander. It works extremely well if you have a t-slot angle guide like the one on the Proxxon TG 125/E or TSG 250E

Wow, Paul! That is very cool! Man, I wish I had the money to stock up on more metalworking tools. Did you mill that from aluminum?

Here's my next tool: A jig for holding suspension arms perfectly straight. It's slotted and adjustable to accommodate different hull sizes.

Thanks Mark,
Yes, the base is milled out of 1/2” aluminum stock and the clamp is milled from 3/16” steel barstock. Brass stock would have worked too, but I had some scraps I picked up from eBay on hand. I love my Sherline lathe and mill. They are very small, but work well for my purposes since I didn’t have room to go larger. A friend of mine has the Taig lathe setup but it took up too much space.

I love the suspension jig! Trying to get all parts of the suspension aligned has always been a major pain. Great thinking.

Paul H

Paul,

I'll second you on the Sherline tools. I have the 5400 Mill and 4400 Lathe (with riser blocks). I find they'll do almost anything I need them to.

Truly impressive work here, and a few projects that should be marketed to all modelers! May I now present my project, which has the complexity of a bottle rocket compared to the Saturn V's posted here so far So here's my photography lightbox!

The box itself is a "Large" sized moving box from Home Depot with four windows cut into it. Three of the windows are covered with fabric to diffuse the light; truthfully I forgot what it's called, I just went to a local tailor/clothing maker and asked her for a cheap semi-sheer fabric, I think she said it's used for lining hats or dresses? I don't know, she just brought out 4-5 fabrics and let me pick the one I liked best. Finally, the inside is just a sheet of poster paper. All in all, this cost me probably $5-6.


Clearly wrangling enough light is an issue for me. The flashlight is an ultra-intense LED signal lamp, then I have my floor lamp knocked over as well.


I've seen people make their homemade boxes collapsable, but I found a convenient storage space for mine atop my book-/model shelves.


For as ridiculous as the setup looks, the end results are pretty nice!


There you go. It's ugly and temperamental, but it was also dirt cheap and effective too. I'll chalk that up as a win

Robby, I love the simplicity, and it's proof that success isn't necessarily proportional to the size of the investment. I'm inspired to pull one of the many boxes in the attic out and try the same thing. Going to see if I can take it a step further and make it collapsible so I can stash it in the closet when I'm not using it.

Robby,
We can see that your light box works well! Congrats! The most effective ideas are usually the simple ones. I wish I the had room to have a full size light box that didn’t need to be assembled every time I want to use it. Unfortunately, I end up having a tiny one that has to stay broken down most of the time.

None of these are tools per se, and none as cool as Paul's drilling fixture, but here are a few things I whipped together to kick my paint station up a notch:

1. Lazy susan in the spray booth
2. Airbrush hose hanger under the table
3. Airbrush holder clamped to the table
4. Compressor pad to keep the compressors from walking around
5. Paint shaker (down on the floor waiting to be mounted.

Personally, I would classify all of those items as tools. Fixtures built for specific purposes and customized for your individual needs qualify in the same fashion as a paint booth or a work bench or a jig for rigging biplanes.

Regardless, they are great ideas! They spark thoughts of how I would tackle similar issues in my work space.

Sorry guys, Fighting simultaneous respiratory and sinus infections, I haven't been online much the last few days.

Anyway... Any tool, jig, fixture, whoseit or thingamabob that makes the hobby easier is good to me.

Hi Guys

Here is my humble idea. I have been using this for a few years. My do it yourself photo etch and soldering aid...

If you are like me, you never have enough hands or a stable enough tool to help out until:

Flat steel plates, angle brackets, mini super strength magnets and large button magnets.



Need to push brass together and it just doesn't want to oblige?

example


Pop in a mini magnet against the metal angle. Sit that on four button magnets. Put button magnets on another angle and push it up to close the gap. Make sure the edge sits out from the angle so you can solder the edge (just take care the mini magnets strength does pull on the solder tip)



Use it to hold separate plates together at whatever angle you need:


Adjust the height by adding more magnets or slipping Post-it notes between magnets.



The positions you can use are limited only to the size of the etch piece - you have to have something to hold down! Use other shaped plates, etc.

I hope this kind of fits the bill for a home made tool.. its is something to make modelling easier ..

Peter,
I really like the idea. I think micromark sells something along the similar thought path, but doesn’t use the magnets and angle plates in same fashion. Additionally, I see that you could elevate the base plate on magnets or other brackets and allow tubing or framework of the correct size to drop through and be held on both sides if needed. Using the steel parts also means that the assembly can be used as a ground for resistance soldering as long as the brackets have the labels removed and the magnets aren’t between the brackets and base plate. Tremendous possibilities...

Well done!
Paul H

Thanks Paul.

I find that you can add magnets on one side to change the plate angle so you can also set up various angles for two sloped pieces like the join in the Hummel front armour, etc. The post-it leaves between magnets make any angle or height adjustment a possibility as long as the paper is not too thick to prevent a strong enough grip.

I've even clamped the plate to the bench so I had room for parts to hang down, like you suggest with raising it.

I showed this to my club members a while ago, and they also liked the idea. A 'why didn't I think of that moment' for a few of them.

Brilliant! I have a collection of small magnets in the basement that I was wondering what to do with.

Another Magnetic jig option.....

Use a good quality Magnetic sheet glued to a piece of particle board or Cabinet grade plywood (magnetic side up) and most Iron/steel objects stick to it pretty good.

I think the idea came from an old Finescale Modeler issue (sometime in the 1990's)

*bump* been busy with a new "tool" in the shop (not homemade), an Anycubic Photon 3D printer..... still need to take pics of the other stuff built since BAT IV.