Reserecting a Starret #257A Surface Gauge

 It's been - well a long time since I have posted anything to the blog.  In that time not much modelling was done either.  For various reason's I haven't been able to spend much time doing my hobbies. The biggest reason is due to a nagging wrist injury. Any type of work involving my dominant hand caused too much pain to have any fun.  Through a bunch of physio, exercises and strength training - along with switching to my non dominant hand for mouse work, I am finally back to a place where I am not in pain and can start doing some modelling again.  My work bench was in a bit of a state of chaos.  So I started with a big clean up.  While organizing things I came across an old friend.  This Starret #257A tool steel Surface gauge which I inherited from my former employee and Leadhand at work when he unfortunately passed away.  

It was in pretty rough shape as he hadn't used it in years.  I decided it would be a good idea to spend a couple evenings cleaning it up and getting it back in service.  I started out by disassembling it and cleaning it with alcohol.  I followed up with  polishing out any surface rust using a purple Scotch Brite pad. It was missing the snug and scriber.  So I ordered a replacement snug from McMaster Carr - I fortunately had an extra scriber in my machinist tool box.

After another cleaning with Acetone the base was ready for bluing to protect it from rusting again.  I decided to hot blue it with a propane torch.  I did this out in my garage work shop, on top of a couple of thin steel flat bars.  I think it came out great.  I did have couple of oil spots show up on the surface when I heated it, some oil or grease was down in one of the threaded holes which I failed to clean out. It spurted on the surface when it got hot and left some spotting.  Oh well, it's a reminder to make sure to clean out every nook and cranny on the next project.  

This great old tool now has a new lease on life. It will easily last my lifetime and probably a few more. Next to it is my Starret #56c tool steel surface gauge (the smaller version). Starret also makes a cast steel version of the #257 which is less expensive.  If you interested in getting one of these for yourself, heres a link to the Starret online Catalogue.

https://www.starrett.com/products/precision-shop-tools/surface-gages

Tool Box Tuesday #1

I spent some time a few weeks ago and modified an Engineers Square.  I milled the thickness of the head such that it sticks out only 0.045" from the beam on either side.  This makes scribing or laying out on thin material much easier, as the blade can fully rest on thin sheet stock.  I will put it to good use on single sheathed, board by board boxcar patterns.

I also machined a small photo etch bending tool.  Its about 2" long.  I also own a 5" bender made by the small shop but I wanted something smaller that is easy to hold in one hand.  It also works great for snapping brass strips.  I accomplish this by scribing the brass in the bender and then bending it back and forth a couple of times.

RPO Part 2

Over the weekend I made substantial progress on the RPO.

I scratch built new sides from Evergreen styrene sheet and strip.  Commercial sized strip was used to keep things simple.

In the first photo you will see some finger clamps I constructed to assist in the process of making the sides. I saw these over on Joe Smith's Blog and thought they were just great.  Mine are made of mild steel with a piece of Tig welding wire pressed into a drilled hole.  They are basically a mini finger to hold things while your gluing etc.  What great idea and now that I have them, I can't live without them!!  Construction is done on plate glass set against a metal scale.

The first layer is made of a piece of 0.010" thick material with 0.060" quarter round on either end. The second layer is all made from 0.010" strip of varying widths.  A piece of 0.100" and 0.080" strip is attached along the top and bottom of the sides respectively.  The top and bottom of the three doors are made with 0.080" strip centered on the pencil lines.  These are made longer than actually needed.

Here is a close up of the side as described above.  The strips are set 0.010" off of the top and bottom strips to leave room for upper and lower door sills.  The top of the side is against the scale in this photo.

Next I applied the mutton's to the upper half of the door to frame door window openings.  The mutton's are 0.040" styrene and the outer edge is 0.080" which will be covered with a 0.040" quarter round door jamb that will leave a 0.040" door boarder to match the mutton size.

Here is both sides with the doors and windows all framed up.

Next the remaining areas were filled with 0.010" sheet to complete this layer.

The third layer starts by adding 0.040" sheet on top of the second layer using individual pieces followed up with 0.010" x 0.040" strip set vertically at the top and bottom of the door openings.
Unfortunately I didn't take a close up photo. Finally I added the 0.040" quarter round on either side of the door to form the door jamb.

Next up is to cut out the window and door window openings, followed by adding the belt rail and letter board using 0.010" strip.  I will fill any seams with putty and sand if needed before mounting on the car floor.