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Pins and needles.. (for building)
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Pins and needles.. (for building)

My dad used to use "ball-point" sewing-pins to stick-down his balsa pieces during an airplane build. My mom still curses him for the pin-marks and "Ambroid-blobs" left on our old dining-room table..

Here's some ball-point pins that I recently bought. These won't hurt your finger as much, when pushing them through the wood and into a base-board. I usually measure the "shaft" with a caliper.. and mark the package..

At .0205" these shown above are of the smallest diameter of most of my other sewing-pins.
Then there's the "safety-pin".. (inventor Walter Hunt-U.S. Patent# 6281 dated 1849) spring-steel with a perfectly-formed "eye-coil".. on one-end.. and a protective "clasp-closure" on the other end. Available in many sizes from tiny.. to large.

Aero-Modeling uses include (but certainly not limited to..) pushrod guides (with clasp-portion cut-off.. and legs imbedded/glued into structure), fair-leads/thimbles...
control-line lead-out eyelets/guides..



or even a quickie-link for a C/L pin-stooge..


Then there's "eye-pins"... which can be found in the "craft-jewelry" department.

Uses include (but again; not limited to...) pushrod guides for 1/2A or sub-1/2A flying models, lead-out guides for 1/2A or sub-1/2A C/L models.. not to mention rigging for flying-wires on 1/2A scale flying models. Wouldn't it be rewarding to build at least one scale stick and tissue "Golden-Age" airplane with flying wires?
Just some food for thought...
Re: Pins and needles.. (for building)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X3aLTl1pa9c
Bah, just lost a paragraph response to your.....food for thought. Planted a seed of a song I couldn't get out of my head all afternoon. Written by Sonny Bono, sung by Cher, and many others. I liked the Searchers version, and Tom Petty's too.
Back on track of the thread. My wife has some long very thin pins used for quilting. I haven't used them yet, but I'm sure they'd pierce and hold stringers to formers with out splitting the wood like the hobby shop sourced T-pins.
Bah, just lost a paragraph response to your.....food for thought. Planted a seed of a song I couldn't get out of my head all afternoon. Written by Sonny Bono, sung by Cher, and many others. I liked the Searchers version, and Tom Petty's too.
Back on track of the thread. My wife has some long very thin pins used for quilting. I haven't used them yet, but I'm sure they'd pierce and hold stringers to formers with out splitting the wood like the hobby shop sourced T-pins.
Marleysky- Diamond Member
Posts : 2927
Join date : 2014-09-28
Age : 68
Location : Grand Rapids, MI
Re: Pins and needles.. (for building)
@Marleysky wrote:https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X3aLTl1pa9c
Bah, just lost a paragraph response to your.....food for thought. Planted a seed of a song I couldn't get out of my head all afternoon. Written by Sonny Bono, sung by Cher, and many others. I liked the Searchers version, and Tom Petty's too.
Back on track of the thread. My wife has some long very thin pins used for quilting. I haven't used them yet, but I'm sure they'd pierce and hold stringers to formers with out splitting the wood like the hobby shop sourced T-pins.
The beginning guitar-riff to that tune reminded me of another song of more recent years. I thought it might be a Tom Petty tune.. but I couldn't find it doing a search.. maybe it was another artist.
If your hobby shop T-pins are the size of the ones I have.. (.046" shaft-diameter) then they're much to big for sticking down thin/narrow pieces.

They're almost twice the shaft-diameter of most of my other pins. Check-out this roll of 5000 pins I bought for a buck at a King's department-store decades ago..


These "ball-point" pins are my smallest at .0205" diameter..

Re: Pins and needles.. (for building)
The ball point pins have been my choice for years and, IMHO, an excellent replacement for the standard steel head pins.
Using a safety pin for a lead-out guide is a great idea.
Using a safety pin for a lead-out guide is a great idea.
Re: Pins and needles.. (for building)
They're also an excellent source for a pushrod-guide. The "clasp-end" of a small safety-pin (with pin latched) can be imbedded and glued into a pocket in the fuse-side. The clasp by design; makes an excellent anchor with the glue. Once installed and the glue cures.. it's not going to pull-out without taking the surrounding wood with it. The two legs of the pin assure that the "eye" stays perpendicular to the pushrod. Installation could be as quick as jabbing the appropriate-size flat-blade into the soft balsawood to form the pocket. Apply glue to the clasp.. put a little in the pocket.. push the clasp into the pocket and wipe-off the excess glue with a tissue.

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