Tool Time

You will see the new name and web address for the blog and wonder what’s going on. 

Those with long memories, may remember that my first steps in large scale modelling were in 7/8ths inch to the foot scale. But I was overwhelmed by the size and details, and stopped working in the scale long before this blog even started. 

Now that my 16mm scale layout is ready to go to shows, and I’ve absorbed what I can do in 16mm scale. I felt the need to try my hand at some 7/8ths details. I don’t know why, I just felt the need to do this. 

I found some dimensions, and made a large screwdriver, using a couple of thicknesses of styrene rod. The handle was shaped with a file from 1.6mm rod, and the shaft from .75mm rod with the flat tip sliced off with a sharp blade. The end of the handle was drilled out with a tiny drill bit, the shaft inserted, and fixed with styrene cement. All this was done under the view from an Optivisor.

A scale 18” long large screwdriver

I had made a screw driver. I had made a flipping screwdriver! A pretty good looking screwdriver at that. Bolstered by this success, I tried a spanner, (wrench to my American friends). With just as acceptable results. This was cut and shaped from a 2 x 6mm strip. The camera eye is unforgiving in the image. But to me it looks great.

A big old spanner. One for about 3” nuts and bolts.

I’m making tools! I’m starting to feel pretty good, so I carried on. Another smaller screwdriver. The screwdrivers were actually easier than I thought. I followed this with a smaller spanner. Then a couple of crowbars (pry bars) followed. These were actually quite challenging, as the styrene strip was being heat bent almost as far as it would go. Then to finish it off, a Sledgehammer, which was an absolute piece of cake considering what I’d already made. 

A 7/8ths inch scale tool wagon?

After a break for the weekend visiting friends and running in a 5K (1st in my age group, thanks for asking) I added a wood clamp and a tool box. The wood clamp was measured from one that the friends we were visiting had weathering away in their front garden. The tool box is rather more conjectural being made to a size I thought appropriate of about 18” long. Eighteen inches in 7/8th’s is about 33mm. Sizes of items are difficult to get used to.

It was a conscious decision to make the jaws of the clamp open and offset

The tool wagon, it contains full size tools I don’t even own,

There we go, a selection of 7/8ths inch to the foot tools. Made just to see if I could do it. It certainly gives me a sense of achievement. The wagon the tools rest on is the first wagons made for my abandoned 7/8ths inch layout.