Thread: 1930 Ford Model A Roadster - Slow WIP

Originally Posted by Yonnee

Awesome Steve, simply awesome.!!

Thank you Yonnee.

Peter, (_fly_), asked what the other wheel-making jig is, the one I haven't shown here yet. It's a rounding jig, for getting a perfectly round outside immediately after cutting out the centre, working from the hopefully perfectly round hole left by the holesaw.
I thought I'd better show it here and explain the whole rim/tyre shaping process step-by-step, for the benefit of others.
This is the rounding jig: -
Attachment 211658

This is it's centre fitted into a freshly-cut tyre blank for test fitting. A nice fit: -
Attachment 211659

There are 6 steps to the process: -
1. I use a holesaw to cut the outside almost right through, leaving about 1mm. The centre is still needed to cut the middle out.
2. I cut the centre out with a 1 1/2" holesaw.
3. I go back and finish cutting the outside of the wheel by hand with the Dremel Multi-Max, leaving a rough-cut surface.
(The alternative, if the stock is firmly clamped to a backing block while cutting both holes, without moving it, is to finish the outside by centring the holesaw pilot bit in the hole in the backing block that was left when cutting out the centre and finish cutting the outside with the holesaw.)
4. This is where the rounding jig comes in, before any sanding is done on the centre.
The outside is trimmed to just short of the final size on this jig, to ensure that everything stays round.
5. Now, working from the freshly rounded outer surface, the inside is sanded out to size on the sanding jig.
6. Once the inside is done, the outside is finished on the sanding jig. Voila! A perfectly round wheel with a nice even rim and tyre profile without noticeable thickness variations.

Tonight I'm finishing the last main chassis piece, then all chassis pieces are being ebonised, before continuing on the rear axle then the steering gear.

The main chassis bits prepared for ebonising, sanded to 220 grit: -

7pm - Chassis bits into ebonising solution. The timber begins to darken immediately: -
Attachment 211680

8pm - After an hour it has darkened heaps and looks a bit like Tiger Myrtle: -
Attachment 211683

Midnight - Finished. After 5 hours in the solution, the timber is nice and black and the colour should have good penetration: -
Attachment 211744

After saturating the timber with acid, it's a good idea to do a neutralising wash to avoid possible cracking in the future.
I have some swimming pool 'pH Up', but opted for a more gentle sodium bi-carbonate solution.
After this, a good rinse in tap water and the timber pH will be roughly neutral, ready to continue assembly.

Originally Posted by Hermit

After saturating the timber with acid, it's a good idea to do a neutralising wash to avoid possible cracking in the future.
I have some swimming pool 'pH Up', but opted for a more gentle sodium bi-carbonate solution.
After this, a good rinse in tap water and the timber pH will be roughly neutral, ready to continue assembly.

Anyone else wonder why that sink is so clean and polished???
Don't think mine was that clean ever!

Originally Posted by _fly_

Anyone else wonder why that sink is so clean and polished???
Don't think mine was that clean ever!

Ha. Just prior to soaking, I cleaned it with Jif to make sure there was no grease or oil.

Still, I usually keep it almost sterile - a hangover from my home-brewing days. I only stopped a few months ago and haven't lost the habits.
(The plug's dirty - still has a film from making the eboniser.)

Speaking of eboniser, there's another thing I meant to mention, for others, but have overlooked - the mixture itself: -

I used 50g of 0000 steel wool and totally dissolved it into 2 litres of white vinegar. When I use the mixture, I dilute by 50% with vinegar, to make it stretch. I can probably dilute a lot further, but haven't had time to try yet.
It took 400ml of the mixture, with 400ml vinegar, to make enough to soak the chassis.

When soaking the steel wool, air is essential, or the steel wool will take ages to begin to rust. A shallow, flat-bottomed container is fastest, with a thin layer of vinegar across the bottom, covering the bottom quarter or so of the steel wool. Don't put the whole lot of the vinegar in at once.
This way, you get visible rust within the hour.
It takes several days to dissolve the steel wool. Each time the reaction slows, I pour off the fluid into a jar and pour fresh vinegar in.
Turning the steel wool over every now and then helps, too.

Looks like brown vinegar: -

Guess I'm lucky mine worked.
I put one pad into an old peanut butter jar and covered in vinegar.
when the vinegar started to evaporate I put a lid on and gave it a shake.
2 days later I topped it up and chucked another steel pad in (as first was gone).
Guess its a 1 kilo plastic jar (so 1 litre has 2 pads in it).

Came out nice and black.

Peter

Originally Posted by _fly_

Guess I'm lucky mine worked.
I put one pad into an old peanut butter jar and covered in vinegar.
when the vinegar started to evaporate I put a lid on and gave it a shake.
2 days later I topped it up and chucked another steel pad in (as first was gone).
Guess its a 1 kilo plastic jar (so 1 litre has 2 pads in it).

Came out nice and black.

Peter

No, not lucky. Nothing wrong with that method. Just a little slower and wouldn't eat as much steel wool.
In fact, it's a clue as to how much I can dilute.
I'm not sure how many pads 50g is equal to, but it's a lot more than 2.
50g is half of a hardware packet of steel wool, not made into pads.
I can probably dilute at least 4:1 and still get good results, I'd say. Thanks for that.

With your mix, the shaking introduced oxygen to speed oxidisation, that's why it worked so quickly. It works fine even without shaking, but takes longer.
The fastest way would be to heat the mixture, then bubble air up through it, like some forms of etching. (PCB manufacture, for example)

The evaporation is a good point too. I noticed that. It evaporates very quickly - much faster than vinegar on it's own, due to the gas production during the process.

The other method of making eboniser that I tried involved first rusting the steel wool with salty water, then reducing the mix to a black powder while removing the salt by heating to keep the salt dissolved, allowing the mix to settle, then decanting off the liquid, evaporating the last bit and crushing the result into a fine powder. The powder is then added to vinegar as needed.
The method ended up being too complex, but the results were very good.
The powder from 50g steel wool: -

Wow it takes more steps to make the ebonizer than building the model. Lol. I have some transtint aniline dye in dark walnut that I think I will use. I used it on a headboard I made for the wife

Bret

Originally Posted by bj383ss

I have some transtint aniline dye in dark walnut that I think I will use. I used it on a headboard I made for the wife
Bret

I found something else that works well for blackening, in a pinch.
When planning to ebonise the whole chassis, I didn't even consider how I would ebonise the bamboo or dowel rods. Neither is affected by ebonising.
I tried timber dye, but couldn't get an opaque black.

I was considering painting or making Blackbutt rods for ebonising, when I just happened to see the 'Sharpie' permanent marker out of the corner of my eye.
It worked great, looks nice and black and stays on properly while the water-based wipe-on poly is applied, since the marker ink is spirit-based: -
Attachment 211932


I destroyed my rear axle last night and had to quickly make another this morning.
A couple of the holes are angled 5° on one axis and 15° on the other axis.
I was a bit distracted while setting up and forgot that the holes are only supposed to go half-way through. Drilled right through.
I made a drilling jig/clamp. One edge of the axle is shimmed 1.1mm for a 5° tilt of a 12.7mm axle, then the table is tilted to 15°.
N.B. The plans said to shim for 5°, but not how much to raise the edge. tan 5° x 12.7mm (hypoteneuse) = 1.1mm.

I had a bit of slippage trouble with the hard timbers, so added the sandpaper for grip. Got everything right except the drilling depth.
The new one, needs cutting to length, then axle holes in the ends still: -
Attachment 211934

Great Idea Steve I will try that. I have 100's of sharpies I have brought home from work.

Another great jig, You are the master of jigs. I think you enjoy making those more than the model. LOL


Bret

Originally Posted by bj383ss

Great Idea Steve I will try that. I have 100's of sharpies I have brought home from work.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. I was, when I saw how well it worked. It might look a bit patchy on large areas, but for small bits and pieces.....

Another great jig, You are the master of jigs. I think you enjoy making those more than the model. LOL
Bret

Thanks. I just like making things, I think.
(And I'll positively cruise through the second Roadster, with all the jigs already made.)