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Old 06-20-2019, 12:54 PM
btingley btingley is offline
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Construction Jig

This is by no means my original idea but I do not remember seeing more than a vague reference to using Lego blocks as an aid to constructing paper models.

I salvaged a piece of steel from a junked DVD player, ordered 4x4 mm neodymium magnets and a bulk bag of assorted Lego blocks from E-Bay and found some 3/16" polystyrene tubing from Evergreen I had and voilą. I made sure that with the 4mm polystyrene spacer and magnet in the tube of the 4x4 Lego blocks the top of the magnet did not extend above the tube of the Lego blocks before superglueing the spacer and magnet in the tube. If it did so it would make the brick wobble in use and scratch the steel base.

I was pleasantly surprised that the Lego blocks had plenty of holding power and I could use the other un-magnetized blocks to build various shapes of jigs.
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Construction Jig-lego-papercraft-construction-jig.jpg   Construction Jig-img_20190620_101844382.jpg  
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Old 06-20-2019, 03:23 PM
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southwestforests southwestforests is offline
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Hey, that's an idea!
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Old 06-20-2019, 03:32 PM
missileer missileer is offline
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I use them for wing root angles, but I never thought of using magnets for a more stable jig setup. Good call!
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Old 06-21-2019, 02:11 AM
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a380 a380 is offline
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i had posted about using lego blocks as building jigs several years ago.

i use the sides to align and glue parts that need to be 'squared up'. works fairly well.
Construction Jig-p1020405.jpg

i also built this micro sander using legos. this was a proof of concept, as it were. my intention was to build a more sturdy unit with machined metal parts but never got around to it. again, works fairly well as it is.
Construction Jig-p1020404.jpg

actually this reminds me; I have been meaning to start a thread about diy tools that people use for model building. i have few things i would like share and hopefully others will showcase theirs. i'll get around to that too, someday
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Old 06-21-2019, 08:20 AM
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ridetheory ridetheory is offline
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I have a magnetic gluing jig from Micro-Mark, but I like the idea of LEGO, because you have flexibility in making jigs of different heights.
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Old 09-29-2019, 12:43 AM
jrw52 jrw52 is offline
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I know there is a jig for balsa and tissue planes
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Old 09-29-2019, 07:22 AM
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CMDRTED CMDRTED is offline
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very good idea. I use these as spacers when I vacuform canopies. instead of magnets I use pieces of sculpey putty that keeps them stationary on a base.
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Old 10-08-2019, 09:58 PM
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THE DC THE DC is offline
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Thumbs up Cool!

Quote:
Originally Posted by a380 View Post
I have been meaning to start a thread about diy tools that people use for model building. i have few things i would like share and hopefully others will showcase theirs. i'll get around to that too, someday


Now that I'd watch!
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