Tuesday....... woodworking 101
Posted by Dr Diecast at 4/8/2008 7:22 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
So I am officially changing the name of the company to This Old Diecast, LOL. Call me Norm, LMAO. Ok, maybe not, LOL, but I wanted to yesterday. See I work in metal, bondo and plastic but not wood, Balsa or other kinds.
Well if you follow the blog you now know what I was working on yesterday. The 48 Chevy Woodie, thats right. I'm not sure if I explained or not but my customer wants his vehicle duplicated and well when I say duplicated I mean it. He wants me to replace the molded grained plastic, fake, wood trim with real wood. This was something I have never done but felt I would push the limits again and give it a shot. I have utilized some of the stock pieces to pattern the flat side inserts and cut those with no problem. The framing though is a PITA.
See since I am not a woodworker by trade I figured I would experiment with Balsa wood so I can get a feel for what I need to do. I tried cutting and piecing strips together but the Balsa doesn't flex without breaking. So yesterday I decided to buy some thicker sheet Balsa...... lay out the pattern..... trim, cut and sand till correct then split the thicker piece down the middle to give me 2 perfect pieces one for each side.
Well..... all went pretty well .... pattern worked.... trimming worked... I was covered in sawdust (if you can call Balsa wood sawdust) so the sanding worked for the most part..... when I was fine trimming and a couple little tight areas broke but that was ok, I can glue them. Then I tried to split the piece in two and the whole thing just became scrape wood, LMAO. Now I see though I can do this with a harder wood so I will be purchasing some woodworking tools to move forward.
So....next on tap was the bus prototype. Remember this from months ago ? Well I had yet to start building it though I had them in the shop and had them taken apart. So while reviewing the pictures of the real bus and the little toy ones I notice that I need the middle of one of the styles yet the front end and rear end of the other style. Figures..... I buy this from wholesaler and couldn't really tell how close they were to what I needed to start with and in the end its ok but in reality I didn't realize I was going to have to section 2 different buses to make one body that STILL needs to be highly modified. Oh well..... the unknown..... guess thats where I like to be, LOL.
I was also getting ready to prepare the last Concept Cuda to ship when I realized he had ordered the car with the optional Magnum 500 wheels. I had made these as part of the option package but we (partner ) had a problem with the molding process and the master was destroyed. So I, thankfully, had made a mold of it here and poured some way back before BJ's. Well I went to the bin where they were and realized these wheels totally suck and I cannot use them. So I spend the better past of 2+ hours yesterday cleaning up one new master wheel then coating it so I can make a new mold today (quick cast dries in like 30 minutes) then I can pour and paint 4 like wheels. Once done, hopefully early enough, I can get them assembled and get that car shipped. As it stands I will have 66 hours invested into reworking, painting, assembling and shipping these cars but in the end they get delivered and I can get back to other stuff.
So I also got a couple cars (4) ready for paint yesterday. One that is almost ready AGAIN..... is the problem Camaro from Xmas. IF you remember it got damaged in shipping and I am redoing it. Its about ready for paint so that should get shot this week.
Also got a batch of 57 T-birds in and one of those is now disassembled and awaiting its engine swap. The White top is in primer and ready in the paint line also. Hey Pete if you read this let me know what the next repaint is you want done and I might be able to sneak it in with these other cars.
I finally have masking of the flames laid out on the 33 Ford and will be shooting those this week along with the final assembly of the Elke and getting it shipped.
Cool story..... the Elke was a 9+ year build in real life and my customer took pictures along the way. This was a father son build. He emailed me and told me he will be doing a CD montage of the build along with the diecast build and will send me a copy when finished. How cool is that.... I think it is at least.
OK...... well I had a rant but have no time..... I need to get mold making. Hopefully I will have some pics of some of this tomorrow. Oh yeah..... and I have to start building roll bars SOON!.
OK (again) I'm out !
Well if you follow the blog you now know what I was working on yesterday. The 48 Chevy Woodie, thats right. I'm not sure if I explained or not but my customer wants his vehicle duplicated and well when I say duplicated I mean it. He wants me to replace the molded grained plastic, fake, wood trim with real wood. This was something I have never done but felt I would push the limits again and give it a shot. I have utilized some of the stock pieces to pattern the flat side inserts and cut those with no problem. The framing though is a PITA.
See since I am not a woodworker by trade I figured I would experiment with Balsa wood so I can get a feel for what I need to do. I tried cutting and piecing strips together but the Balsa doesn't flex without breaking. So yesterday I decided to buy some thicker sheet Balsa...... lay out the pattern..... trim, cut and sand till correct then split the thicker piece down the middle to give me 2 perfect pieces one for each side.
Well..... all went pretty well .... pattern worked.... trimming worked... I was covered in sawdust (if you can call Balsa wood sawdust) so the sanding worked for the most part..... when I was fine trimming and a couple little tight areas broke but that was ok, I can glue them. Then I tried to split the piece in two and the whole thing just became scrape wood, LMAO. Now I see though I can do this with a harder wood so I will be purchasing some woodworking tools to move forward.
So....next on tap was the bus prototype. Remember this from months ago ? Well I had yet to start building it though I had them in the shop and had them taken apart. So while reviewing the pictures of the real bus and the little toy ones I notice that I need the middle of one of the styles yet the front end and rear end of the other style. Figures..... I buy this from wholesaler and couldn't really tell how close they were to what I needed to start with and in the end its ok but in reality I didn't realize I was going to have to section 2 different buses to make one body that STILL needs to be highly modified. Oh well..... the unknown..... guess thats where I like to be, LOL.
I was also getting ready to prepare the last Concept Cuda to ship when I realized he had ordered the car with the optional Magnum 500 wheels. I had made these as part of the option package but we (partner ) had a problem with the molding process and the master was destroyed. So I, thankfully, had made a mold of it here and poured some way back before BJ's. Well I went to the bin where they were and realized these wheels totally suck and I cannot use them. So I spend the better past of 2+ hours yesterday cleaning up one new master wheel then coating it so I can make a new mold today (quick cast dries in like 30 minutes) then I can pour and paint 4 like wheels. Once done, hopefully early enough, I can get them assembled and get that car shipped. As it stands I will have 66 hours invested into reworking, painting, assembling and shipping these cars but in the end they get delivered and I can get back to other stuff.
So I also got a couple cars (4) ready for paint yesterday. One that is almost ready AGAIN..... is the problem Camaro from Xmas. IF you remember it got damaged in shipping and I am redoing it. Its about ready for paint so that should get shot this week.
Also got a batch of 57 T-birds in and one of those is now disassembled and awaiting its engine swap. The White top is in primer and ready in the paint line also. Hey Pete if you read this let me know what the next repaint is you want done and I might be able to sneak it in with these other cars.
I finally have masking of the flames laid out on the 33 Ford and will be shooting those this week along with the final assembly of the Elke and getting it shipped.
Cool story..... the Elke was a 9+ year build in real life and my customer took pictures along the way. This was a father son build. He emailed me and told me he will be doing a CD montage of the build along with the diecast build and will send me a copy when finished. How cool is that.... I think it is at least.
OK...... well I had a rant but have no time..... I need to get mold making. Hopefully I will have some pics of some of this tomorrow. Oh yeah..... and I have to start building roll bars SOON!.
OK (again) I'm out !
I also think the DVD would be really a neat show featuring both cars being built. I would love to see it when it is done.
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There is not particular order for the repaints, your call. Keep in mine that the Bronze one that is in transit is slated for Pink. The Wife picked the color of Elvis Rose, but I understand the color formula is a guarded secret so I might have to buy the ERTL 1955 Cadillac so we can match up the color. My Son collects Elvis related items anyway, so he can have the car when were done.
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Are you sure you are not Norm Peterson from Cheers? I would never take you the Norm Abrams type. Talk to you soon Pal
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