Shopsmith Forums

Well, I finally, and I mean *finally* completed my first (real) woodworking project!

First, a photo of the finish product(s).


Four Missiles by J L Smith, on Flickr

What you're looking at are four missile models at approximately 1:90th scale. The largest one is a Titan IVB space lift (for scale, it stands about two feet high), and the next-largest is the Atlas IIAS space lift. The black one is a Peacekeeper (now deactivated) ICBM, and the smallest one is our current Minuteman III ICBM (I think it should be a bit taller though).

These four represent a crazy amount of hours in work -- mostly in making and correcting mistakes!

But, it was a great learning experience. Some things I've learned, which I'm sure the veterans know for sure

1) Plan plan plan! At least 50% of my work was caused by improper order of operations. Granted, I had *never* turned wood before this project, so there was a bit of a learning curve, but still, planning would have helped immensely.

2) White spray primer and spray gloss are a very poor substitute for glossy white spray paint! I can't tell you how many times I'd just *look* at the white primer wrong (before gloss) and I'd get a mark on it requiring touchup. About 30% of my work (combined with problems from #1) was dealing with paint issues.

In fact, the Titan IV was originally a 3-tone paint job that I just screwed up and never recovered from, so I made it 2-tone.

3) Speaking of spray paint - When the manufacturer says apply in 50+F temperatures, they mean it. The aforementioned gloss spray caused wrinkling when I applied it in too cold of weather

4) The SS performed great Lots of wood turning, as I was learning the ropes (I have about 5 or 6 scrap missiles that were failures). Disc sander came in handy for various things too. Drill press of course to get the holes in the base plates and missiles, and of course the table saw for cutting down the 4x4 stock and cutting the base plates.

I even used the horizontal boring on a few of the missiles because of their height and because it was easier to get a level drill that way (remember my point #1? yeah, I'm a genius and didn't drill the holes until after the missiles were completely assembled and painted!)

5) Cherry burns very quickly.

Thanks for reading!

Sure the tall ones are not RPGs.

Thanks for sharing. Nice job.

These look good.

Thanks for the recounting of your process. I’ll keep them in mind when I finally do something.

NASA wants to hire you. Turning on the lathe is fun, isn't it?

garys wrote:NASA wants to hire you. Turning on the lathe is fun, isn't it?

Thanks and yes it's fun, but I'm definitely ready to do "normal" work after so much turning . My next projects are two custom frames and a flag box then I can finally return to my sons toy chest.

jerm wrote:Thanks and yes it's fun, but I'm definitely ready to do "normal" work after so much turning . My next projects are two custom frames and a flag box then I can finally return to my sons toy chest.

Have fun with the flag box!:D

JPG40504 wrote:Have fun with the flag box!:D

Thanks haha, believe it or not it'll be my second one. My first (I guess you could count THAT one as my first real project) was made on a cheap Ryobi table saw that I gave away after getting the SS.

I didn't know about wood much back then, and after cutting the box and making splines (or pins?) for the joints, I discovered the tip of the box didn't line up because the sides of the triangle had twists.

That's when I discovered just how strong wood glue is. I glued the heck out of the top of the box, knocked in the spline and clamped her straight, then crossed my fingers and waited 24 hours

Here it is


First Flag box by J L Smith, on Flickr

It's quite obvious I didn't know what the hell I was doing

jerm wrote:Thanks haha, believe it or not it'll be my second one. My first (I guess you could count THAT one as my first real project) was made on a cheap Ryobi table saw that I gave away after getting the SS.

I didn't know about wood much back then, and after cutting the box and making splines (or pins?) for the joints, I discovered the tip of the box didn't line up because the sides of the triangle had twists.

That's when I discovered just how strong wood glue is. I glued the heck out of the top of the box, knocked in the spline and clamped her straight, then crossed my fingers and waited 24 hours

Here it is


First Flag box by J L Smith, on Flickr

It's quite obvious I didn't know what the hell I was doing

Actually not all that bad considering.

The splines cannot help with pulling/holding the joint at that straight in angle. All they would do is prevent the two halves of the joints from 'sliding'.

Looks like the angles were cut too small or the length too short.

Be glad the bottom part had square ends.

P.S. You have a good eye for photo composition and getting it 'captured'.