Pins and Needles. . .

Well, Finally got situated after a move to MI so I started workin’ on my Hasegawa Miura once again.

The Plan . . .

I got around to the interior and wanted to replace the stock turn signal with a better lookin’ plated pin needle.

My idea was to simply cut away the kit-supplied part, drill out the thicker end of the stalk and super glue it onto a section of a small needle that was clipped down to size.



http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/pins02.jpg



The solution . . .

As ya know, the kit parts are very small and don’t take to drillin’ very well. So I stretched some sprue and chucked the clipped needle in my Dremel to use as a "drill bit" to get the right diameter of hole. I was then going to glue this to the needle end and work the sprue down to size much like ya would with a lathe.

As I started to insert the spinnin’ needle into the end of the sprue it was spinning at quite a high rate of speed to get the hole started (13,000 rpm). Before I had a chance to adjust to a lower speed, the plastic began to melt and adhere to the needle end (no glue required).



http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/PICT0207.jpg



This was perfect!

I then lowered the speed to around 6500 applied a little pressure as a thin coating of the plastic continued to melt and build up on the end to the approximate size I needed. I also switched from the end of the sprue to working from the side

Once I was happy with the size, I then worked the plastic with an X-acto blade (again just as you would with a lathe and at a lower speed) to get a precise size and taper. Followed up by a light sanding with a sanding stick and then polishing with plastic polish.

Tip - Keep your blade flat on the needle as you work the end where it meets the plastic or you could scratch the plating.


http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/2-1.jpg



Before removing it from the dremel, I adjusted the turn signal in my Dremel to where there was a bend in the 1 to 1 turn signal and gave it a slight bend also.

All that was left to do was to drill out the steering column and install the new stalk.



http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/PICT0203.jpg
(looks horribly out of scale here. . . but it's just the camera and lighting.)


I also used this technique on the shift knob (pictured below) and plan on trying it with other small and larger parts such as CV joints using tubing.



http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/PICT0210.jpg



Sorry for the crappy phone cam pics. . . I'll take better ones later this afternoon and post 'em up. . .

Hope you can use this technique. . . :)

Wanted to try it out on some larger stock. . .

These are on 2-1/2 inch 8d Galv finish nails that I had layin' around which I sanded the coating off before applying the plastic. . .

Standard CV boot not modeled after any particular one. . .



http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/cv1.jpg



http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/cv3.jpg



http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i213/Lambo63/cv2.jpg


I would work the end down so the nail protrudes and acts as a locater pin. . .

This also eliminates the parts being off center (even slightly) from the drilling out of kit parts. These are dead center. . .:wink:

Interesting stuff.
I've never had plastic stick to something spinning in a motor tool to a positive effect.
nice to see you building again too.

Thanks . . . :)

Excellent! What a great idea! Thanks for sharing!

Excellent tutorial! I will definitely try that for my next build.

Reproduced! I couldn't get it to work with Plastruct styrene, but it works with Tamiya PS. Very neat discovery. It worked fine at my lowest speed setting too (~1k).

Very cool and simple technique.
Thanks for sharing your discovery.

:thumbsup:
Very nice, thanks for sharing.

Sometimes things go wrong for the better.