Topic: "A must have for all modellers" - really?

...available at all good model shops!

Sorry chaps, couldn't resist.

PDR

Looks like his mate is selling the epoxy for the mixing mats on BMFA ads.
"151 Adhesives" epoxy resin  £2.99,no wonder I cannot find any in Poundland now
John

Some modeller thinks he has a good idea, has the balls to manufacture and market it and all we can do is take the urine!

Sad times indeed 

Gary, You have a good point - the chap who's had this 'idea' has had the balls to market it, invest in it. I wasnt extracting the Urine as much as pointing out what a difficult market he's pitching at. While such an idea might seem relevant in the land of 60 minute make overs and add ons - I have a feeling he will find trading difficult in the model market.

Modellers buying a plastic matt to mix epoxy?   *( in a shed full of scrap bits) - these are the same chaps who brew thier own fuel, grow thier own balsa and recycle wall paper for covering.

I once saw an article 'how to make a tail wheel from a cotton bobin' - it described the process on a lathe and it only took a few hours - saving all of 99p on a tail wheel.

and as for pop bottle for tanks - I'm just waiting for WM or Kavan to sell Cola - so I can use them.

Steve

* Epoxy - once had a customer who avoided buying epoxy to fit a Bulk Head - he used Wall Paper Paste as he could get his hands on that for 'free' - his engine remains in the River Mersey.
 

Yep, why buy a fuel tank when you can find some old pop bottles or other old containers hanging around the house? Still I suspect some modellers spend a few quid on fuel tanks.

I'm reliably informed that you can make a fuel tank from some tinplate and a few bits of brass pipe.

Old pop bottles do make excellent canopies and cowls though. It's all a part of what modelling is all about, for some modellers. Other modellers might prefer to buy every single item ready made and might feel the need for a bespoke scrap of flexible plastic.

Take battery coolers - the choice is there to grab a one foot length of square section plastic drainpipe, or a piece of Correx, a computer fan and a couple of crocodile clips, and make your own unit for a couple of quid or one can purchase a bespoke item from Graupner, for about 20 quid.



Horses for courses. Personally, for mixing glue,  I think I'd prefer to stick to using a scrap of plastic - or the excellent idea of a bit of parcel tape - rather than waste my cash on an Almost Ready To Flex option

Any way I'm off...I just read a hints and tips article on how to make a wheel out of a cotton bobin, it only takes a couple of hours and all I need is a small lathe. Far better than buying a wheel at £2.99

If one were to save £2.99 by using a piece of parcel tape, or a bit of card, or a Post-it note, or a piece cut from an ice cream carton, or a Pringles cap, or a bit of plastic blister packaging, or a freebie CD to mix epoxy on, then that £2.99 could be used to buy a tailwheel (or even three of those 99p tailwheels  ).

Seemples.

I'm reliably informed that you can make a fuel tank from some tinplate and a few bits of brass pipe.

Old pop bottles do make excellent canopies and cowls though. It's all a part of what modelling is all about, for some modellers. Other modellers might prefer to buy every single item ready made and might feel the need for a bespoke scrap of flexible plastic.

Take battery coolers - the choice is there to grab a one foot length of square section plastic drainpipe, or a piece of Correx, a computer fan and a couple of crocodile clips, and make your own unit for a couple of quid or one can purchase a bespoke item from Graupner, for about 20 quid.



Horses for courses. Personally, for mixing glue,  I think I'd prefer to stick to using a scrap of plastic - or the excellent idea of a bit of parcel tape - rather than waste my cash on an Almost Ready To Flex option

Very impressed with your battery cooler having taken advantage of your kindness in offering me a quick blowing job on my battery...in your cooler..oooer that sounded wrong...should I post or hit delete...be a devil...post it.. ( thinks back to those old animal house films where the devil and angel appear on bother sides offering conflicting advice...does that happen to any one else or is it just me?).

Anyhow...very impressed will be making my own version when I get a moment.

Also been looking at your 'Dolly' pics - Kev and I are thinking of a version of that...

Slightly off topic - I did some running repairs on the PZ Extra - the new BNF model and used the Multiplex Zacky Elapor cyno...wowee does that stuff stick foam and painted surfaces...

Flying it with no spats on grass now or I loose the UC out of the foam most flights.

Why was I thinking abot the Extra? well I wicked in some more epoxy into the UC mounting tonight to try and make the UC repair more permanent and I used a scap piece of ply and another scrap bit of plastic to mix the epoxy with. I'm like many others - I have no shortage of 'scrap' to use for many different jobs including mixing epoxy.

The Extra - PZ



With spats...



The Extra is the  reason I was using 'scrap' to mix the smelly stuff tonight. It no longer looses the UC out of the foam with the spats removed.

Having looked at the 'Must Have' mixer...stick a length of carbon or rod to it and it would make a good fly swat.

Or may come in handy when our new sofa arrives - regard the moggies to trying to adpapt the furniture as a scratch pole.

Steve

I want one!
I want one!
I want one!
I want one!
 

But it's red. 

You do appreciate, don't you, that a pad made from a blue polymer will promote much better mixing of the epoxy.  The benefits are slight, but observable by true connoisseurs...


OK - confession time.  I've got one.

No, not really - but I do have a promotional coaster made from the same stuff that a previous employer produced many years ago.

(in blue, BTW...)

Mike

 Use an old mouse mat, flex the cured poxy off no sweat, lasts nigh on indefinitely. Stirrers ? Rolled up fivers of course.

Use an old mouse mat, flex the cured poxy off no sweat, lasts nigh on indefinitely. Stirrers ? Rolled up fivers of course.

Tried that, had to buy a new mouse. 

Last night - I had to mix up some epoxy and finally found a 'use' for one of those 'buys'.... you know the sort of thing... the bargains that never get used.

It started some years ago when I got a Costco Card. I was browsing around Costco, throwing the occasional bargain in my trolley - such as 200 green biros and a 50 packet of Swan Vesta's matchboxes - along with 48 bowls of Mr Chungs no preservative Genuine Chicken Noodles when I saw a huge box of take away meal cartons (plastic or polypropolene?  ) - Now I know a bargain when I see one. I thought 148 cartons for £4.00 would have hundreds of uses. So I got two boxes. When I got them home I used a few in the modelling room for nuts bolts and bits and bobs...soon I ended up with an entire desk of bits and bobs in take away plastic cartons. I treid using some to freeze meals - that didnt work as the meal expended and the carton popped.

We even made sail boats and went a local lake to have free running chinese carton sail boat races...then last night...I used one to mix epoxy. It was a revelation.

Cue...music!! ( fan fare for the common man - ELP)

I mixed my 'poxy on the lid.

After using the epoxy - an hour or two later I was able to store the now open epoxy in the tub and bent the lid and guess what...the epoxy came off... I then placed the lid back on the carton with the epoxy inside. Instant storage and mixing palet for re use.

I could market these as a store your epoxy mix container - for re use - maybe?

148 - at this price (head maths ) they work out less than 3p a carton. - with the model trade margin - I could sell them for at least 3.5p - I still have about 260 of them.

Steve

... I thought 148 cartons for £4.00

That's a strange quantity for them to be sold in Steve!  Neither a gross, nor 150. 
Or have your years as a purveyor of fine servos influenced your recollection of that number? 

That's a strange quantity for them to be sold in Steve!  Neither a gross, nor 150.  
Or have your years as a purveyor of fine servos influenced your recollection of that number?  

Damn you've rumbled me - do you thing the mods spotted that blatant mention of 148s.... It was actually 144 - you are correct 12 lots of 12  - of cause I could slip in (titch 44....) would anyone notice..

 

Amazingly despite having two boxes of these we still save Take away containers as they 'might' be useful. We already have boxes of new ones!


I have found another use today. These take out containers are air tight and my cyno I keep in the fridge - BUT open cyno despite cling film makes the food taste of cyno ( my wife doesnt like this) and the open cyno sets with the moisture ( never put open cyno in the fridge!) So cling and one of these containers and open cyno is able to be stored  in the fridge.

This make cyno last upto (HS) 80 days  and(HS) 55 minutes longer.


Steve

Well folks, not for the first time, it seems that I was mistaken.

I've been on a visit to a clubmate's workshop this evening, and there, amidst all the superb models and model engineering equipment he made a point of pointing out a rectangle of red, very flexible plastic. It was the mixing mat from the mag. He demonstrated how well it worked and how flexible it is and I'm a convert

It would be brilliant stuff to make a model out of. Not sure what you could use to stick it together mind you.

One thing I would say to all propeller driven aircraft that is a "Must ?Have" and at a very reasonable price is one of THESE

I eventually got one of 'those' for less than £7, delivered to my door in just over a week direct from HK. What a brilliant bit of kit, far more use than a bit of red bendy plastic!
Thanks again for the link NFG. 

I use one of the wifes old catalouges,hundreds of mixing sheets all for nada.I find the packs of five knickers or bras for the well endowed pages particularly suitable.Al.

I like your thinking...  You squeeze out your epoxy then wonder how you're going to stir it, then all of a sudden, a stirrer appears! 

Really it's passing the other three minutes that's the problem.Al.

4 1/2, surely? 

No mate,i wasn't counting the fag.Al.