The Sherline Miniature Machinist's Newsletter

Number 2, February 15, 2008

Customer Projects

An award winning model by Mark Jones

 Mark's award winning Caterham Super 7

Mark Jones makes very detailed, high quality decals for the model industry through his company ModelMaster in Orange County, CA. He is also known to the model car community as this year’s “Best of Show” winner at the Greater Salt Lake (GSL) model car contest put on by the International Plastic Modelers Association (IPMA). You may recall that Sherline modeler the late Augie Hiscano won the first of these contests held in the 1960’s and several in subsequent years spanning over 4 decades. He broke new ground going from customizing existing plastic kits to custom fabricating and machining almost every part from the frame and suspension on up from metal. Eventually a special award for craftsmanship was instituted called the “Augie.” Mark also won that coveted award this year. His winning entry, a model of a Caterham Super 7 features so many custom made metal details that very little is left of the original plastic kit that formed its basis. The detailed metal parts are made using a Sherline tools.

New Products

Ceramic Tool Holder, P/N 2265

In the past decade, use of carbide insert tools has become standard practice in professional machine shops and also in many home shops. Carbide allows you to cut harder materials like stainless steel or titanium and abrasive materials like fiberglass. However, if you want to cut hardened tool steel the newer ceramic tools make that possible, even on small home benchtop machine tools. Sherline’s holder includes a triangular ceramic insert. The shank is 3/8" square, so it is held in the optional P/N 7600 tool post. Learn more about the ceramic tool holder at www.sherline.com/2265pg.htm or read more about using carbide and ceramic insert tools at www.sherline.com/carbtool.pdf. Order Sherline P/N 2265 ($60.00).

Shop Tip of the Month

An Indicator Holder for the Lathe by Jim Knighton

 Completed indicator stand shown in use on the lathe

There are times when you want to use a dial indicator to measure runout on a part being chucked up on the lathe. On big machines, machinists often use magnetic based stands to hold the indicator, but the Sherline lathe is primarily made of non-magnetic metals, so what to do? Some people screw down a thin steel plate next to the lathe to take a magnetic lathe, but Jim Knighton has a good solution on how to turn an indicator stand that clamps right to the crosslide table. He shows setup photos of how he held the material to turn it on the lathe and a photo of the finished stand in use. See www.sherline.com/tip45.htm. With a little aluminum and a spare hour or two, you can add this handy fixture to your shop.

Did you know?

∙ Machine exploded views—If you’ve misplaced the instruction manual that came with your machine, you can still find an exploded view on the Sherline web site any time. Here are the page addresses for the various views and also for the latest copy of the whole 48-page instruction manual. (You might want to open the appropriate files for the machines you own and bookmark the page for future reference.)

4000/4400 lathes, manual—www.sherline.com/LathExPN.pdf

4000/4400 lathes, CNC—www.sherline.com/CNClatheX.pdf

5000/5400 mill, manual—www.sherline.com/MillExPN.pdf

5000/5400 mill, CNC—www.sherline.com/CNCmillEX.pdf

2000 mill, manual—www.sherline.com/2000expl.pdf

2000 mill, CNC—www.sherline.com/CNC2000X.pdf

Sherline Assembly and Instruction Guide, 6th Edition—www.sherline.com/InstVol6.pdf (2.66 Mb, 48 pages)

∙ You can take a tour of the Sherline factory right from your own computer. See www.sherline.com/factour.htm.

∙ Interested in attending a model engineering show? We have a page that lists the larger shows at www.sherline.com/shows.htm. There is also a series of links from there showing photos from the shows we have attended.

Joe Martin Foundation News

Ron Colonna wins 2008 Craftsman of the Year award

 Ron with his quarter scale Offenhauser 270

The foundation has just named the 2008 winner of the Metalworking Craftsman of the Year award. Ron Colonna of McKeesport, PA was selected as the 12th winner of this award. He will be presented with a gold award medallion and a check for $2000 at the North American Model Engineering Society Expo in Toledo, OH on April 20, 2008. Ron has built many fine engines over the years. In fact, one of his projects, a model "Whizzer" motorbike won Sherline’s Machinist’s Challenge contest in 2002. He is best known, however, for the ¼ scale 270 Offenhauser engine he built. Ron went the extra mile while building it by documenting the process and producing a set of plans and a book on how to build the engine, passing on the knowledge he gained to others. More on Ron and his engines can be found at www.CraftsmanshipMuseum.com/Colonna.htm.

New Exhibits—The Foundation’s physical museum in Vista, CA has recently added several new exhibits. Photos can also be found in the on-line craftsmanship museum. When in Southern California, come by for a tour and see them in person.

• 1/32 scale Manitowoc construction crane by Larry Simon. Larry once worked as a draftsman for the crane company in the 1950’s and built this fine model over a 15 year period. Larry is also our museum tour host and volunteer on Mondays.

• 1/12 scale electroformed copper body for a NASCAR Dodge race car by Michael Dunlap. This includes the original molds to make the body. We have set up a display that explains how a model like the one that is presented to NASCAR’s top winner each year is made. He also contributed an in-progress electroformed 1/12 scale Penske IndyCar body.

• A tiny steam engine by Jerry Kieffer. Master miniature machinist Jerry Kieffer has donated one of his early engines—a steam engine that is actually smaller than the one currently listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as holding that title. It has a 0.25" diameter 6-spoke flywheel and is only 0.40" long with a 0.059" bore and 0.060" stroke. It can be seen in Jerry’s “Other Engines” section in the on-line museum.

• Five more vintage model airccraft engines have been added to that colleciton thanks to private donations. A Cox .020 (Denny Bevis) and .049 (Tom Boyer), an OS 2-cycle (Art Pesch/Hobbico), a tiny .003 cubic inch CO2 engine (Joe Martin) and an interesting custom machined single cylinder engine of unknown origin (Jim Hayes).