Retro Modelling help needed (and lathe)

I suppose a lot of us in our younger days experimented with rocketry, we used to get the biggest rocket that we could and strap a couple of bangers to it so that their fuses were lit by the rocket jet effluent, by the time the main propulsion ceased and the rocket was on its way down then the payload of bangers would explode. We moved on to producing explosive mixtures which we laid on the railway lines and the extreme weight of the train passing over would detonate it, very dangerous but we were young and immune to dangers or so we thought.

Dave

In the '30s a model engineer might have picked up a treadle round bed Drummond from a war widow. Many of those lathes still available.

An aero modeller would have used his late grandpa's old razor as a knife for spruce and bamboo as balsa for modellers was probably rare and expensive. Tissue paper was common but heavier than available now and well thinned shellac also readily available. Rubber for the motor was available as pneumatic tyres for bicycles had been around for decades.

In the sixties I used a safety razor blade with a bit of brass sheet wrapped around it held by a 4BA bolt through the hole they have in the middle. It must still be around my workshop somewhere.
WRT trains when I bought a fly press it came with some steel dies that were for pressing into cardboard to emboss the strapping on the sides of H0 coal waggons, but I gave them to a railway modeller.

I hope you're going to do the retro experience in full! As kids my mum and dad both made toilet paper by cutting up old newspapers and threading the sheets on a string loop. Unlit outside lavatory of course, particularly unpleasant on a cold wet night. Males peed in a bucket and the stale urine was carried 1/2 mile to the allotment for use as a fertilizer. Dress up warm with mittens for hobby work in the scullery because only the kitchen and dining room had coal fires. Brush your teeth with Bicarbonate of Soda, and make your own animal glue by boiling down the cat. Hours of fun to be had!

Dave

Hi Stewart; I promised you some photocopies, and I have lost your address! Could youPM it to me again please. The copies are all ready to go.

Maurice

Hi Stewart. As in my previous post, I have lost your address and so haven't posted the photocopies that I promised. I have sent you a couple of PMs but had no reply. Sorry about this. Blame my computer! Please PM your address again, and I will post immediately.

Maurice

Don't forget the fret saw and rest clamped to the kitchen table. My father used one extensively for his model boats.
An ex RM he made a model of each ship he served on.

Hi Stewart,

If you want retro there is an Australian guy who produces videos on YouTube (I know - more technology but it's not all bad) At the moment he is producing a series on his building a version of the Antikythera machine (ancient Greek mechanical computer) and is doing it using tools and methods that he believes may have been used by those ancients.

He has even made his own files from case hardened mild steel and uses these to cut the gear wheels. His videos include ones which explain how he believes those Greeks adapted their methods and tools in making the machine. Well worth watching.

He goes by the name 'Clickspring'. Just search on Youtube for him and 'Antikythera machine. These videos are also very well produced and are as polished as his excellent craftsmanship which I can only dream of achieving. His videos on making a skeleton clock are also excellent.

His video on making hand files is here: