Welcome to my model building blog!

This blog is dedicated to the wonderful hobby of model building. It's mostly about Automobiles, but I welcome tips and tricks from all modelers, no matter what your into.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Homemade lathe from a rotary tool!

Here's a cool tip. Have you ever had to make you own small round parts? Such as, an air filter, wheel backing or other round part? How about a wheel that needs to be a little smaller? Don't have a mini lathe to do such tasks? Got a rotary tool, similar to a Dremel? Do you have a vise or maybe vise grips to hold the tool in place? Then you have a lathe. Take the piece of plastic you need to make round and drill a small hole through the dead center of the piece (you can always fill this later with modeling putty) then undo the screw that holds the attachments to the shaft. Then put your piece of plastic on and tighten the screw. Ever used a cut off wheel with your rotary tool? Well, your piece of plastic has now been mounted onto the tool the same way you put on a cut-off wheel. Put the tool sideways into the vise and secure it. Turn it on and voila, your piece of plastic is now spinning sideways, just like a lathe! Hold a piece of sandpaper up to it and sand it round. Heck you could even take the rotary tool outside and hold it down on pavement while spinning and grind it down that way, but this is more accurate.

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