Thread: Gatto's VW Beetle... Extremely slow W.I.P.

Originally Posted by Yonnee

Try HERE.

After seeing your post, I did a search and found that listing.

Unfortunately, they're coloured: - Green, Blue, Red, Orange, Yellow, Black, White

I emailed them earlier, asking if they also have plain, uncoloured ones.
Also, the listing doesn't specify whether they're single or double-ended, so I asked that too, as well as if they are double-ended, do they also stock single-ended.

Fingers crossed. That was the only Oz listing I could find. Didn't look internationally yet.

You sure that's not the colour of the packaging? Usually coloured toothpicks are plastic...

Found another...


Edit:
Found some single point toothpicks. However, they don't specify timber type...

You might well be right. The cellophane might be coloured. A pity they didn't include a picture. They'll get back to me. Maybe they have single-ended, too.
Otherwise, I'll grab some from the link you just posted - only $2.70 dearer w/ postage.

Edit: Just saw your single-ended edit. The other keywords for single-ended ones appear to be cocktail picks, rather than toothpicks. Checked out Alpen Products, the distributor, but their site doesn't say what they're made of. Just that they're made in Asia.

I hit a snag with my modifications.

Started on the newly designed roof on Saturday, took photos and all. Got it roughly trimmed up with the bandsaw, and then decided it was time to unpack two of my new toys that I'd bought a while ago... my Woodfast disc sander, and by Scheppach scroll saw.
So, a spot was cleared on a bench in my store room (that will eventually become my dedicated woodwork room, but that's another story...), and the two machines unpacked and setup.
A bit of play with both, and all was working well. Now, back to the roof. Grabbed the trimmed up piece, and sanded the edges all nice and square. I figured it was going to easier to handle while it was in one piece, so I set up the router to trim the rebate where the roof will glue to the sides, then drew the back window cutout, and drilled the two bottom corners to 'A', give a nice small radius, and 'B', give me a hole to slot the scrollsaw blade through. Then I cut the window out, and all was looking really good.
Next was to cut the roof into the three separate sections that will form the curve of the roofline that you dont get with the original plans. I had designed the roof to be longer than the original, and carefully marked each of the cut lines to match each of the flat sections of the redesigned side panels. I'd also planned a 3mm gap to allow for the bandsaw cut and subsequent sanding. The cuts were successfully made, and the sander base plate adjusted to the angles required so that as each piece gets glued together, it follows the upper edges of the sides. Sanded each piece to the lines, and the angles were coming together nicely, needing a little tweaking to get the angles to match...

...then it all went south!

The measurements I'd made for cutting the roof up worked perfectly well for a flat piece of paper less than 1/2 a mm thick, but once the cuts were made and angles sanded on a 1/2" piece of timber, all three piece are too flamin' short!!
The measurements for the roof need to be at the rebate and allowing for the angle, NOT MEASURED AT THE TOP OF THE ROOF, which is where I'd drawn it!

Oh well. Luckily I've left the router setup for the rebate. And I can use each of the short pieces to measure the difference between the rebate and the top of the roof. I'll re-draw the correct roof piece for my folder (and anyone who wants copies of the modifications).

Hello Yonnee, a minor setback, but at least you know that apart from a bad measurement, everything else was working out well.
I think that re-making parts sometimes is something we'll both have to get used to if we're not following ready-made plans.

Absolutely what Hermit said. When building from scratch I can't say how many times I had to remake a part. Keep going Yonnee you will get the right piece at some point.

Looking forward to some pictures.

Bret

As Bret and Hermit said I think we all have been there at some stage.
Luckily I have a builtin Radar for things like that I think.
I would use a bit of pine and rough one out quickly to see if all OK then make the real one.
You would be surprised how many times you get a bad feeling and do it again.It wastes less time and material.Just the way I do it. Sometimes I made two off somethings at the same time,just in case I st@&ed one(like the grill on the 34 Chev)

Thanks for the support guys. I know I'm not the first to do it, and it probably won't be the last time I do it either. Oh well... as they say, practice makes perfect. (And it was going so well...)

Shame about the setback . Like everyone else I have made mistakes, ended up throwing it away no point trying to make "a silk purse out of a sows ear".
Trying to make good never really works, look forward to some photo's

Originally Posted by Diggerdelaney

Shame about the setback . Like everyone else I have made mistakes, ended up throwing it away no point trying to make "a silk purse out of a sows ear".
Trying to make good never really works, look forward to some photo's

Thanks Digger, it's all good.
I got out to the shed for 1/2 an hour last night, selected another piece of NGR, and re-sawed it and thicky'd it down 1/2" ready for the redesigned roof #2.

I love my new toys...
...took long enough to unpack them!

Attachment 221639

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I have a couple of days off, and after finishing off dismantling the in-laws on-site annex for the new owners to take the van away, I had a couple of hours to myself this afternoon. So I sat down and re-drew the new roof, and on a spare copy added two optional back windows. The larger back window for this model, and the smaller rear window for beetles prior to 1957. I also drew up the mirror image for the side panel and made copies for the file.
The pattern for the roof is now cut and glued onto the timber, ready for the window cutting and the angle sanding tomorrow, and hopefully, I've got the measurements right this time!

Then I figured, while I was out in the shed, I'll cut out the patterns I'd already glued on a few weeks ago...

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As you can see, the firewall has the steering wheel on the wrong side, but I will be rectifying this. Easily done by drilling the angled hole for the steering column from the other side. The trickier bit will be doing a mirror image of the dash piece with the glovebox and instrument cluster on the opposite sides.

Great new toys Yonnee! They are excellent for building toys and scale models. By the way the steering wheel is on the right side of the car from where I'm standing

Nope, it's on the left. It will be on the right!

Got some more done this morning.
Axles cut, axle housings and windows trimmed out of the side panels, and the new roof cut, sanded, windowed and shaped to match the modified angles on the re-designed sides. And I'm pleased to say that the measurements were spot on!

Now... where's that camera!