From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:vsvcfc$2gc98$1@dont-email.me...   
      
   On 4/6/2025 5:45 PM, Jim Wilkins wrote:   
   >.....   
      
   SCULPY!  Lots of tackle makers use the stuff to make masters.  Others   
   hand carve, and yet others Frankenstien pieces and piece together with a   
   hot knife.  My only "practical" use for 3D printing I came up with was   
   to print master molds to make silicone molds to cast resin work pieces.   
   Catalyzed resin is way tougher than most (99.999%) 3D print resins and   
   plastics filament prints.   
      
   > The current project is a draw plate or roller pair to make replacement   
   > yagi TV antenna elements from aluminum flashing. I can almost form the   
   > open-seam tubes around a transfer punch with a soft hammer and anvil after   
   > roughing the curve on the press brake. They are fragile enough to not   
   > damage the shingles when blown down.   
      
   And to think we all made fun of Radio Shack back in the day...   
   Bob La Londe   
      
   --------------------------------   
      
   RS was useful but they deserved the insults, I could test electronic   
   components and found much of their stuff a little out of spec, though   
   surprisingly a "50V" rectifier bridge withstood 600V. They had some of the   
   ICs for my homebrew 8080 computer including the modulator and demodulator   
   chips for an FSK cassette modem. The TV antenna that's gradually becoming   
   home-made was an Antennacraft HBU-33 from them. Its insulators are all   
   wax-filled wood now, the original rivets have been replaced with aluminum   
   screws or smooth-shanked studs if they carry signal. After cleaning the   
   connections Ox-Gard paste keeps their resistance below 20 milliOhms for   
   several years.   
      
   I used epoxy to rebuild damaged circuit boards by freehand sculpting and   
   restoring flat surfaces and edge connector keying slots with Scotch tape as   
   the mold. Much can be built from office supplies when they are all that's on   
   hand. Some structural sheet metal repairs on my car began as plastic   
   (heat-moldable) report covers.  Perhaps the hardest epoxy sculpting job was   
   restoring and modifying a broken-in-shipping 3D printed toy prototype for   
   the WowWee mobile robot family. I tend to be assigned to the stranger   
   projects, perhaps because they are thought less likely to succeed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)