Making Small Things

My shop at home is populated with small tools. About the largest metal cutting tool I have is a small Delta drill press. It'll still put a half inch drill through cold rolled steel, but it's nothing I'd call large. By way of comparison we've got a drill press at work that'll easily shove a one inch drill through some of the toughest stainless.

With the small tools I have, I considered myself pretty good at making small things. Until I hit on this most recent project, anyway. A scale modeler approached me about making some small things for the group he's with. I hoped it would be a paying job, but that was not to be the case. Still, I'm not someone who can resist a challenge, so I took on the job anyway.

The parts they need are an order of magnitude smaller than anything I've ever made. I managed to make some round parts for them that came in about 0.020" in diameter and about 0.200" long. It was a bit of a coup to pull it off, from a mechanical standpoint, but it worked and the parts were accurate. I stretched my definition of small, and was able to stretch my definition of "Hey, I can do this!"

It couldn't last, of course. The next set of parts were smaller, and then smaller still. I hit a limit of what I could do. I've spent the last six months trying to work my way out of this particular wet paper bag. So far no dice, but I do think I finally have a solution in sight. Only time will tell.

It gets worrisome when your hobbies start keeping you up at night with spinning gears in your head. But such is life. I hope this pans out.