Built some scratchbuilt cannon barrels for the Skyraider

Oh yeah, they look good Probably need to use some automotive primer prior to the gunmetal or it's not gonna stick to that brass and stainless!

Looking sweet Mike!!! Why didn't you use evergreen tubes?? Were they too thick?? I was just curious as it seems everyone uses the hypo tubes, and I wasn't quite sure why.

QUOTE: Originally posted by kik36 Looking sweet Mike!!! Why didn't you use evergreen tubes?? Were they too thick??

Yes, that is exactly why I didn't use them. The smallest diameter they sell is 3/32" which is too big. I tried drilling down the center of the small Evergreen solid round material but it was impossible to get it straight enough, so I looked at the K&S web site and found that they had the brass tubing small enough for my use.

QUOTE: I was just curious as it seems everyone uses the hypo tubes, and I wasn't quite sure why.

There is no plastic tube small enough to simulate to scale the diameter of the barrels of the 20mm cannons on the Skyraider, and especially the .50 cal barrels on WWII fighters when you build those.
Just think about it for a minute, a .50" bore in 1/48 scale would only be .0104" in diameter on a model. That is small!
The hypodermic tubing is the only way to get anything that small and perfectly round.

Mike

QUOTE: Originally posted by MusicCity Oh yeah, they look good Probably need to use some automotive primer prior to the gunmetal or it's not gonna stick to that brass and stainless!

I am definitely going to prime it first Scott.
Thanks for the kind words by you and Heath both. I appreciate it.

Mike

Hey Mike!
If you are interested in the napalm canisters from the Dragonfly kit, drop me an email with your snail mail and I'll dig a couple out for you.
And the cannons look good. Gonna have to find a doctor friend, I guess.

Randie

Nice job on the cannons. Hope to see pics of the finished build real soon. Keep up the good work.

Great Job Mike! Hey, what did you use to cut the tubing? I'm curious because I have to scratchbuild some smoke grenade launchers for my Bradley. (I Lost One) If you used a Dremel which bits did you use? Thanks -Spencer

Thanks guys.

Randy,

I will shoot you my email address if I decide to use those napalm tanks.
I appreciate the offer my friend.

Rick,

I will post photos as it goes along.

Spencer,

I used my Dremel tool with the emery cut-off wheel.
The cut-off wheel works great and is needed to sand the ends flat on the stainless hypodermic tubing. The brass I used is soft enough that I was able to sand the ends flat with one of the Dremel sanding disks. I put the sanding disk on top of the emery cut-off wheel and used it that way so that the emery wheel acts as a solid backing for the sanding disk. Just make sure you ALWAYS wear safety glasses when you use your Dremel. If that emery wheel explodes, and they do on occasion, you can lose an eye and that would not be good.
Be safe and I hope this helps.

Mike

Those cannons look great Mike. I need to get something like that working on my spit as I've broken the smaller barrel off both of the cannons. Those really look excellent!

Thanks Josh.

It really wasn't very hard to do.

Mike

Thanks a bunch Mike. I guess I'll just buy the 20 pack (or whatever amount's in there I can't remember) at Wal-Mart. There is one with a picture of a guy cutting some model RR track. I guess those would be the ones. I can't find a pic of that package, but here's a link. Could you let me know the number of the particular ones you use? I'd greatly appreciate it. http://www.dremel.com/html/home_fr.html
Also, can you shape plastic with those? It says you can't, but it seems like you could. I'm not sure though and I definitely don't want to hurt myself, nor anyone else. If not, which bits would you suggest? I always wear safety goggles no matter what task I'm performing when I'm using power tools.(had to get a splinter removed once in the ER because I was wearing safety glasses instead of goggles. went right over the top!)Thanks Mike. -Spencer

QUOTE: Also, can you shape plastic with those? It says you can't, but it seems like you could.

They are difficult to shape plastic with although I have done it. They are very aggressive and the plastic gets hot so quickly that it just melts out of the way.

QUOTE: I'm not sure though and I definitely don't want to hurt myself, nor anyone else. If not, which bits would you suggest? I always wear safety goggles no matter what task I'm performing when I'm using power tools.(had to get a splinter removed once in the ER because I was wearing safety glasses instead of goggles. went right over the top!)

Mike is exactly right, don't take a chance. Those abrasive wheels will explode at the drop of a hat. I have blown up so many of them over the years I could fill a bucket with them. They are very brittle and the slightest side load on them and they will let go.

The easiest and quickest way to cut brass tubing is with an X-Acto knife. Lay the tube on something hard like a piece of glass, put your X-Acto knife on top and push down a little, then just roll the tubing. The knife will score right through it and leave a nice, smooth cut. It will have a chamfered edge on the cut so if you want it square, just file it down a little.

Thanks for the info Scott. I'll probably try both ways and see which one I prefer.

QUOTE: Originally posted by riffraff247 Thanks a bunch Mike. I guess I'll just buy the 20 pack (or whatever amount's in there I can't remember) at Wal-Mart. There is one with a picture of a guy cutting some model RR track. I guess those would be the ones. I can't find a pic of that package, but here's a link. Could you let me know the number of the particular ones you use? I'd greatly appreciate it.

The ones I used are similar to the #540 cut-off wheels.
My "Dremel tool" is from Sears and has the Craftsman name on it so the numbering for the parts is different.
The package I have of cut-off wheels is Sears No. 25024 and there are 36 to a pack.
The sanding disks are Sears No. 53084 and they are Med. grit and also in a pack of 36.

Mike

Thanks Mike, I just got back from Wally's, bough a package of 36 for $4.97. This kind...

http://www.dremel.com/productdisplay/bit_template.asp?SKU=409&Color=CC0000

Probably the same. (36-pack) These are the ones with the RR modeler on the Dremel package. So we'll see. They don't really tell you the grit # on the package other than Reinforced or Heavy Duty, etc. I guess these are probably finer going by the other package pics. lol You'd think they could be a little more specific wouldn't you? The only sanding discs they had was a package deal, $11.97 for a sanding pack. Luckily, I still have a few sanding discs and some other bits that came with the original Dremel purchase so I should be able to get it done. Thanks -Spencer

Spencer,

Those are the same thing as I have I think.
The model that I mentioned earlier is 1-1/4" in diameter and mine are 15/16" which is the same as the ones you just bought.
They don't have a grit rating because they are emery cut-off wheels.

Mike

Oh, right. I didn't think about that. Thanks Mike.

Riffraff,

If you want to use a Dremel for plastic, get a Dremel Mini-mite. If you use it at a low setting it won't melt platic. I don't know if you can shape with it, but I do know that you can cut with it. You can probably shape with it as well though.

DJ

I have this one,> and a regular one with no speed control. I have a bunch of scrap styrene sheets from a recent job. So I'll definitely be experimenting in the near future. (soon as I finish painting the Brad seats)
-Cheers

Hello happy needle cutters . I hope you will forgive my rudeness as I ask you this : am I right when I think you have great difficulties to find needles to make cannon barrels out of them ( or anything else ) ?
Let me tell you a little story : twenty years ago, I made a little guitar repair for a living ( and it worked so well that I had to get a job in Public Administration, and here I am; maybe I was not good at this job, but that is another story) and I needed a syringe to inject white glue in a crack on a guitar neck. So I went to the nearest "pharmacie" ( it's the french word for drugstore) and they looked at me in an odd way as they must have thought that it was heroïn and not glue I was going to inject ( okay, I came from my workshop and was not wearing my tuxedo, but...) So when you wanted to inject heroïn this time, you had no choice than to share your syringe with other addicts ( not me , I was only a white glue addict ) and you could eventually catch a number of diseases including AIDS, I fear. Nowadays, maybe for this terrible reason, you can get as many syringes and needles you can afford; I buy them by boxes of 100 needles in a medical supply 500 meters from my home and a box runs around 3 Euros. Maybe a path to explore.

By the way, Mike, your barrels are very nice.

QUOTE: Originally posted by Torio Hello happy needle cutters . I hope you will forgive my rudeness as I ask you this : am I right when I think you have great difficulties to find needles to make cannon barrels out of them ( or anything else ) ? Let me tell you a little story : twenty years ago, I made a little guitar repair for a living ( and it worked so well that I had to get a job in Public Administration, and here I am; maybe I was not good at this job, but that is another story) and I needed a syringe to inject white glue in a crack on a guitar neck. So I went to the nearest "pharmacie" ( it's the french word for drugstore) and they looked at me in an odd way as they must have thought that it was heroïn and not glue I was going to inject ( okay, I came from my workshop and was not wearing my tuxedo, but...) So when you wanted to inject heroïn this time, you had no choice than to share your syringe with other addicts ( not me , I was only a white glue addict ) and you could eventually catch a number of diseases including AIDS, I fear. Nowadays, maybe for this terrible reason, you can get as many syringes and needles you can afford; I buy them by boxes of 100 needles in a medical supply 500 meters from my home and a box runs around 3 Euros. Maybe a path to explore. By the way, Mike, your barrels are very nice.

You know, I'd think the same thing, as would most reasonable people. Making clean and new needles available would really cut down on the transmission of some nasty diseases. However, we have the war on drugs here, and the people behind that have decided that if needles weren't available to drug addicts, they simply would stop using them, so it's extremely difficult to get needles now, unless your'e a diabetic, which I'm not. In fact, if I remember correctly, having needles may be illegal (misdemeanor), as they're paraphanelia. I like your posts Torio! Drugstores here are sometimes called pharmacies as well.

those are pretty cool looking mike. later.

RifRaff,

I wouldn't use that Dremel on plastic. Only use the MiniMite on plastic. That Dremel is great for everything else though.

Dave

Madda, a little french expression more : " Ravi que cela vous plaise" which could translate : " I'm glad you like my posts ". As for different ways of thinking, we had evidence long ago that scarceness of means didn't eradicate any need, and this is most general philosophy. Charles Henry Samson, the man who cut the head of Louis XVI, of Robespierre and of many others said : " Quand la folie des hommes est décidée, elle ne reste jamais médiocre" ( When men's foolishness is decided, it nevers stays mediocre ) . So for addictions. If I understand well, needles are forbidden, but not steel tubes out of their mounts, right ? So the evident answer is : go back to the source and maybe you could make a joint buy, for those who dwell in USA . My neeedles come from either Kendall which is a british company or from Terumo which seems multinational, if this can help.

PS Another little story about different ways of thinking; the other day, I was looking after the Robert Mikesh's book at Monogram Publications " Japanese aircraft interiors" and I found one on ebay but I could not even see the final auction, not saying I couldn't bid, for a clever European Administration Office head ( or maybe a clever French Administration etc...) decided that the view of this book could awake my inclination to racial hatred, when I could buy every book on nazis concentration camps I could want to; we even had an University teacher in History who was a negationist, but no Mikesh book for poor little Torio.

You know, I do read French a bit, but it's been so long since school that I struggle at it now. I had about 5 years in school and spoke it pretty well, but a foreign language is like math, it leaves without practice.

I plan to hit the drug store and see if they'll sell me some insulin needles. I'll take my model with me so they can see I'm not a junkie.

I guess people have always been like that, but I guess we can always hope for improvement.

Madda, I wish you good luck for your quest. By the way, note there are a number of different diameters for different uses so you can slip one needle inside another to simulate a number of different things ( barrels, pistons...). Another idea : what if you proved the drugstore attendant that you are not using needles for an illegal use giving him back the plastic mounts ( technically speaking, they would no longer be needles, and en route for the different diameters) ?
Just a path to explore

Thanks Dave, I'll remember that.

Everyone else,
As for needles- Pharmacies sell syringes for certain allergy medications these days.(in case you don't have an insulin card) Maybe you could talk with your M.D. I don't know.

Many larger cities these days have needle exchanges, thank goodness, where the addict can exchange old needles for new ones. Some of them provide people with cards allowing them to possess syringes. So he/she doesn't throw them in the gutter while running from police. Therefore, small children, or adults for that matter, don't get their hands or feet on them. (fact- 99% of intravenous drug users have contracted Hepatitis C nowadays, no thanks to the war on drugs!) Yes, it is a lower class misdemeanor.(Class-C, I think) Punishment varies from state to state.

One can also go to a feed & supply store. If there happens to be one around, they sell vaccines already prepared for dogs, cats and horses, etc. Maybe you could give your pet his annual shots.

Well, guys, if you can find needles, I'll show you something I've "imagined" ( in fact, it' s a variation of something you already know) and it could save time ( I wish it could save life, but I think my idea was not brilliant enough this time). More on this in a short time, I hope. Meanwhile, I can already tell you that the doctor is not the murderer ( what am I speaking of, myself ? nose too close of the glue bottle...)