Another year already?

  Hi again.

  I ran in to an old friend and he reminded me that my blog has been stale. I tend to drop pics on Facebook but some people are not using social media so here is some of the same info again.

  First off, the car is a definite go.  Unbelievably it actually works. Been learning more about printing decals and have a box of decal paper ready to go. Also practicing masking off things to get sharp lines. Here is the final race version layout.

   The driver mold is finished and the guy looks to mean business.

  Going to buying  a lot of chassis to be able to provide them as ready to run cars as well as kits.

  So this is the only one of its kind right now. They told me you can not get that car, because no one makes them and never will.  The amount of work expended was ludicrous, but it made sense at the time...................

   This model is one of about 5 I want for my personal use and the next few years I will be making all of them.  It may just  be an American thing, but guys in particular have an attachment to the cars we drove as kids.  I remember riding along and hearing the latest hit by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.....................

  On my OTHER hobby, I think I have finally recovered from the shock of Age of Sigmar.  After several years of not having much interest in minis gaming I have become enamored by 9th Age.  It is not hyperbole to say these are the greatest rules since the 10 Commandments.   They are all free!Reading them now and planning to roll some dice in the new year.  If things go as planned I will be even hitting some tourneys this summer.  There is a store a short drive away that has some players and it is nice to be excited about the hobby again. Here is a clip of the greeting I expect at the tourney.

 

    Not really, but that video always gives me energy to get up and keep going. 

   (Note to Dave- I can loan you an army if you want to play old school)

 So of course, since I have a custom slot car to race I need a custom miniatures army to game with.  And the graphite keeps cranking out.

  I call these the "Brides of Set".  They are wearing veils covering the lower face which I intend to paint with fangs.  This project is slowly moving ahead. Until something explodes.................

  How this works is the EDM machine can burn this block in to metal creating a negative cavity that will fill with plastic and create models. But the burning action erodes the graphite also. It is going to be tricky to see how much details transfer. If the graphite electrode becomes "dull" by erosion it can be placed back in the mill and sharpened. This is a steep learning curve and a slow and tedious process.  Sometimes it seems a bit too long and tedious...............

  Trying to get more done but only have my spare time. If you think finding time to paint an army is tough, try to find time to build one completely from scratch! But it will happen somehow. 

  Day job has me working in a machine shop environment and learning a lot about milling and lathe work.   It has been incredibly beneficial to see how things are supposed to be done. I just wish I had learned all this 10 years ago.

  So that wraps up the year. I hope everyone is settling in for the winter and ready to paint all the models Santa brings.

  Have a Great Holiday folks!

"My Cup Runneth Over"- or at least my well.................

  Hello everyone. Wow, fall came very quickly.   Best time of the year by far, and life is going by in a peaceful kind of mellow existence.

  Ok, now for some update on business and hobby news.

  The latest episode in "What else can go wrong" is the fact it was a very wet summer with extraordinary rains. The storms were many and fierce as they say. My basement office and hobby area was flooded. But the worst was not from the walls, it came from the well. At some point in the past wells were placed in basements, which seems like a smart idea because the pipes will not freeze. But if the well overflows, it has no where to go.

  I made the situations infinitely worse, which I am too ashamed to provide details for. Suffice to say I took a minor issue, and with great expense and sweat pouring labor, turned it in to an unmitigated disaster.

 

 

 

 

  So you can notice the bottom foot of the wall had to be removed. Mold grew quickly and the entire area had to be cut out, carpets removed, and everything new painted with mold proof paint and drylok in the event future leaks occur.

 

 

 After a month or so everything is better, the well is sealed and I have vinyl flooring with rubber cove base trim.  This gave me an excuse to go through the piles of junk and some of it is going on E-bay. I have more things to do than years to do it in.............  Overall the basement needed this and the end result is a hobby/office area that is cleaner, better laid out, and much more organized. Within a month it will be a mess but for now it is very nice.

 

 

  The car mold is progressing nicely and it has been great fun painting my own car. It sort of feels neat having the only one on the planet.  Here is a recreation of the Pop-Kola car raced by Benny Parsons. For some odd reason I am now a racing fan as a result of my interest in slot car racing. Cars have always been a part of my life, from working in a junk yard at 16 onward. But racing has been sort of boring and not of interest.  Not lately.  The only sport I tend to watch anymore is Nascar.  People laugh and poke fun, but there is a lot of strategy going on behind the scenes once you get to understanding it.

 

 

   Working on more today, and expect more pictures as I finish them up. The street car is going to be epic.  I have been trying to find a good place to have decals printed. After looking on Craigslist for months and answering repeated ads for free lance graphic designer I gave up and learned how to do it myself. The best place on earth to get decals printed is Cartograf in Italy, but prices are $4-5 per sheet with a minimum of 300 sheets.  What I want is some prototypes to play around with. I purchased the decals above from Patto's Place in Australia.  My printer does not print white ink which limits what I can do. I am awaiting some white and clear decal paper in the mail to print out some of my designs.

This has been a real undertaking and no sane person should ever put this much effort in to having a slot car model.  Remember, the first plan was to build my own Warhammer army, and that is not over yet......

   This week has been one of running parts. The basement has taken a lot of time and inventory is depleted. My goal is to not stop until everything possible is back in stock.  The parts below were designed by Elliot to compliment his Heroclix walls. This mold is utter crap because the parts stick to the wrong side. Each sprue has to be pried out manually but it eventually became obvious it was time to just break down and do it or throw the mold away.  The previous product is gone and replaced by a new one with a mix of old and new parts.

 

 

  While Elliot envisioned these as a game accessory for super heroes to smash and move around on, a customer sent me these pics and he made some nice 28mm terrain for any tabletop wargame.

 

 

  I always enjoy getting emails from people and seeing what they are doing with things. I was looking at a battle report from Historicon and the pics had a bunch of my buildings in it.  Nice. I once actually got an email from a self described fan- imagine that!

 

 Ok, so back to that Warhammer army.  The unresolvable problem is the concept of heroic scale. But eventually that has to be sorted.  I have contacted someone to do some sculpts for my jungle themed primitive warriors. Why this army was dropped from 2nd edition WFB is a mystery.  So these are his designs and after the car is sorted (still need windshield, interior, and driver molds) some sort of mini figures are going to be tackled once again.  Most likely I have some more tests to do before these are in the breach.  I am going to try to make something like some more infantry for 40K before I tackle this entire army.  The procedure is-   try, fail, learn, repeat.

 

 

 

 So as the year winds down and the shop gets visitors of all sorts. This deer seemed oblivious to the machines running inside. And there is a toad in here that has been pushed out the door numerous times but keeps coming back to hop across the floor at odd times to cause alarm. Assuming he eats bugs or something else to earn his keep.

 

 

   One last thing I would like to share is a link to something a few local guys are doing.

 

Little Wars TV

 

  Years ago I used to game with these guys a little, when I was doing more historicals. These guys are rules writers and publishers, as well as gamers.  It has been at least 10 years since I gamed with them or even talked to many of them but I have enjoyed watching their videos and rules reviews.  They actually have a building strictly to conduct their hobby and seem a decent bunch. It has been so long for me that I have never met many of them.  They really do make historicals look great.

 

  Ok, have a great fall and enjoy the best time of year.

  





"They didn't say you couldn't."

  Hello again everyone.

  By now summer is in full swing and times are great for enjoying it all.

  Lots of odds and ends to report, as well as some comments found online by some smart people. Which will eventually lead back to the title.

  First some pictures showing that persistence eventually finds a way of making things work out. Perfection is always elusive, but good enough is not a bad consolation prize. What follows is the worlds rarest slot car. There is only one as far as I know on the planet.

  First test- not so good.

 

 

Better....

Better......

Better still.......

 

 

And getting to be acceptable.

 

 

This car took more effort than painting a real one. Along the way there were casualties.

 

 

 I begin designing the hood and bumpers in the morning.

 

So that is good news. I am curious to see how the tiny slot car market -with limited companies supporting it-  compares to the GIGANTIC gaming market with hundreds of vendors.

 

  But the gaming market is not going to be neglected for much longer. Some circumstances have forced my hand, and I am going to pay the cost to get my figures sculpted.

 

  My thoughts on this are to fund the first batch of sculpting myself, make those models to prove the concept. Then go to kick starter to pay for the rest of the sculpting for the entire bloody army.

 

 So there is that.

 

 Stop reading now if you have blood pressure problems..............................................

 

  Now, why the sudden activity? Well there is a book out called "Who Moved My Cheese". Companies make employees watch it about the time they are getting down sized. And simply put, times are changing.

 

"They did not say you couldn't".

 

  That saying comes from Smokey Yunick, a renowned race car builder from the 60's who literally bent every rule imaginable to win.

 

   I related previously about playing a game of WFB in which my opponent deployed his canon in the water. While the rules forbid MOVING in to the water they did not specifically forbid deploying in water. So we played a game with a canon floating like a cork firing away with sopping wet gun powder. 

 

  So how does this relate to the act of running a mail order business?

 

  In 2010 the US entered in to an agreement to foster greater economic opportunity for developing countries around the world. The idea was someone weaving baskets in the rain forest would be able to sell online and get preferred shipping rates. These are really good rates. A 4.4 pound package costs around $6 to ship globally. In comparison my international shipping has gotten to the point that an order of 2 packs of bases costs $22.50 to ship. International sales have vanished.

 

 "They did not say you couldn't".

 

  Well, among the places that signed up as "emerging" economies are Hong Kong and China. The result has been more and more sellers on Ebay and Amazon offering direct shipments to buyers with free shipping or extremely low cost shipping.  The USPS is required by treaty to deliver the packages and eat any loss. Except they can not keep losing money so they have to raise rates on domestic shippers. It does not take a PHD to see where this is heading.

 

"They did not say you couldn't".

 

  And it is even more interesting.  Smaller items frequently weight much less than 4.4 pounds. SO they are compiled in to bundles and shipped. Once they reach the US that bundle is torn open and poured in to the USPS system. And if you look at an average package of a single base weighing 3 ounces, a 4.4 pound package could contain 20 or more of those smaller packages.

 

  So imagine 20 of my packages shipped in one of these small bundles for $6, or me shipping 20 packages domestically at $3.50 each. The difference is a lot. I may get some discounts depending on my feedback and seller rating-but the standard starting rate is $3.50 and they are paying $.30.

 

"They did not say you couldn't".

 

  So I spent  a lot of time trying to figure out how people are coping with this. For a lot of E-bay sellers there is no solution. Just go out of business. They were doomed. Others are trying to make unique items. However, there are several stories about people simply having their products copied and sold alongside of the US based seller. For much less with free shipping.

 

"They didn't say you couldn't."

 

  So here is a solution that seems to work, from another online seller.

 

  "As an online merchant here in North America I have to send my inventory to a warehouse in China just to send it back the US. Costs me $15 which excludes labor to pick, pack, package and label to send the same packet down my street and only less than a $1 to have them pick, pack, package and label and ship from China. This basically means e-commerce in North America is as good as dead ! They also have compiled shipping which an alien concept for online merchants here in North America. Let say if you buy something on eBay or Amazon that weighs less than 1LBS, but you are still being charged the flat rate for 2.2lbs as you pay individual shipping to individual sellers which carriers like DHL, Fedex and UPS benefit. Not so in China they have warehouses and services that let you compiled all your purchases from different sellers until it reaches 2.2lbs before you authorize them to ship ...this is an awesome advantage that they have ! I am sure that the item you bought from eBay is from one of these service warehouses"

 

 

  So an American company is shipping stuff around the word twice just to take advantage of this E-packet treaty. You know something is wrong when you have to go to such lengths to deal with a government policy.

 

  The point is China is going to take over the market for generic items like bases. Accept it and adapt. Consumers love it, as I have for years been buying cheap stuff on E-bay with free shipping. It is not going away and is not going to change.

 

  Proxie Models has to change. So look for some new directions and some new focus on getting products out the door. It is good to have a reason to get moving.

 

  Anyhow, look for some more news as it comes available.

 

  Thanks to everyone who reads this and supports my efforts. It continues to be a grand adventure filled with learning and making really neat things.

 

 Have a great summer!

 

 

 resources below for more information.

 

resource 1 you tube

 

resource 2 you tube

 

resource 3 article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Everything looked OK, and then it came to an end.

   Just a quick update and some pics.

  Things in the shop are progressing well.

  The core of the car mold is done.

  And in to the tank to mate the surfaces up.

  Those hoses provide a flow of solution that displaces the metal that is getting pulverized with electricity. It also adds to the " Mad Scientist" feel of the shop to have a tank of liquid bubbling with arcs of electricity in it.

  Here are the assembled parts. There is still a great deal of shimming and adjusting to do before it gets tested.

   On the left is the top of the car, and on the right is the core and sides of the car. The steel wedges crush the sides in and hopefully create something resembling my old Mercury.

   The ACT machine is still down for parts so no progress on any minis. I ordered a breakout board from Amazon and had to wait 3 weeks for it to arrive from China. It promptly fried all of the driver boards and so I ordered replacements from E-bay and had to wait 3 weeks for them to arrive from China. They did not work at all so i ordered an integrated board and had to wait for that to arrive from China...................

  Another update as soon as the car mold gets tested. Good or bad it will get done. And even if it needs a bit of finishing the design and milling skills acquired by tackling it have been invaluable.

  I can not stress this enough to people- just do it and see what happens. For some reason people fear failure, but in reality there is no failure. You make it or you learn. Both of these are wins.

  Online sales are in a bit of a slump, perhaps due to increased shipping costs. The issue is complex and I wrote a very long explanation and then simply deleted it.  No one wants to hear someone whining about unfair shipping practices. It is what it is and we must prevail in spite of the challenge.  If you like you can read this-article about shipping problems

 

 But this is not going to keep working forever.  Being able to change and adapt is the only way to keep going. 

  Currently I am exploring a couple of options. Included is shifting in to a supplier position for small companies or looking in to entering the retail chain. I will keep you posted in a future update.

  Have a great spring everyone and enjoy the weather. 

Fake news..........creates fake conclusions.....................

  Well here is the latest news.

   Been working on standardizing things across the entire work flow. I am just too darn slow and have to take shortcuts wherever possible.  This means getting things that work and then sticking with what works. I have decided to make both CNC machines more compatible. They both run MACH 3 software but the drivers and settings are all different.

  Here is the newly organized workstation, with new Craigslist desk and wall mounted monitors. Note the sound bar beneath the shelf and sub at my feet. There are a LOT of speakers around the shop to blast music out. I recently discovered Scandinavian metal and so have the neighbors!  Novakon on the left, design station and PC gaming platform in the center, and ACT machine on the right.

  Those plastic tubs contain plastic mixed with incompatible colorant. I have to pick all those specks of orange out.....................................ughhh............

  Products are better organized thanks to some filing cabinets modified.

  The top contains various colorants. Previously things were stored in cardboard boxes originally used for Harley shifters. One perk of working there is I got hundreds of these really great boxes.
    The large Novakon- (curse this P.O.S.!!)  is actually doing OK.  The issue is it requires a 32 bit operating system and an older style printer cable.  I went as far as to caulk up the leaks, install a working E-stop button and limit switches, and a nifty light. It is going to get an automatic tool zero in the very near future.  how to   I purchased a government surplus Windows 7 PC with 32 bit operating system and install the MACH 3 software on it. So I have a complete back up system for both CNC machines in the even either computer fails. Both currently run Windows XP. I plan to keep going as long as possible on this antiquated system. As long as everything can keep working reasonably well it saves a lot of money.

  So in order to make things bulletproof, I want to make the ACT machine more reliable and standardized.  The standardized figure holding fixture has been made again. This time it looks very likely to work.

 The graphite block is held in the open rectangle and there are linear bearings with 8mm rods to allow the EDM machine to burn the image in to metal with out the binding up and face breaking that happened before. The action is smooth and effortless.

  So I need now to be able to make the electrodes without any more delays or crap breaking. This requires the ACT machine to run without a hitch. In order to iron out the wrinkles. Before starting I had to take an honest look at the machine. It was a hopeless nightmare of patches. The limit switched and E-stop did not work. (Safety? we can bypass that!) The spindle was controlled via the circuit breaker box on the other side of the shop, and so was the dust collector.

This is much nicer.

And here is more new wiring. Sometimes it is worth it to take some time and do things right. This is the VFD for the ACT machine. I was manually setting speeds but when the new system is in place the PC will control this.

 Which brings us to this little contraption.

 

  At first glance, this looks a bit confusing. But the bottom is the breakout board that interprets signals from the printer cable and turns them in to action. Go left, right, up down, etc. It also send input signals back to the computer.  E- stop, limit switch is reached, etc. This is what I needed to replace. It is going to be the same one used on the Novakon, since I have a notebook full of data on how and why things are wired.

 

  

 

 

  Using my tester, it seems that the 4 small boards taken out did not really do anything. I removed them, and bypassed the wiring. If they did not do anything, who needs them? So this is the new set up.

 

  Unfortunately, it burned out as soon as I applied power. Why? Well, it seems I should have tested the tester. I frequently buy things from Harbor Freight, and you get these neat free gifts. One of them is an electrical tester. Mine had a short in the one probe. Depending on how the wire was bent coming out it made contact or not. So, it was giving me fake news. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not. This thing only runs on 12V DC power, so it is not life threatening. I have better testers for 110 and 220 voltage thankfully. But it is extremely important to have reliable information when configuring complex wiring systems.

 

  Basing my decisions on this "fake news" meant the remaining components were not powered properly and died a tragic death at the hands of too much voltage. 24V instead of 12V.

 

  So, another $70 worth of boards are on the way and a new tester is in the shop.

 

   Some new stuff did got run. The Makerspace concept actually came to fruition. Dr. Oogan   link    made a mold and stopped by the shop to run some parts. We had some issues with color.

 

 

 

 

At one point we thought the Arburg had sprung a leak and was mixing water with the plastic. I took the entire thing apart and tested it with crack detecting penetrant. It turns out we just got a bad batch of colorant off E-bay.

 

 

  In the end his traffic cones were created with the proper color.

 

  The flying base adapter is done.

 

  It gave some practice with clear styrene. This is a little tricky and not really sure if this one will stay as a permanent product. The plastic is brittle and cracks under stress.

 The scrap rate is unacceptable so once these are sold out it may not be re-produced.

 

 

 I also finally finished the 100mm round base.

 



  This is the first mold specifically created to run on the new mega-die assembly. The one that allows me to vary the size of the metal blocks and offset them to allow the plastic to be injected from any point.  It was very tricky to set up for the first time. It is so large I did not plan on trying to fit chubby hands in to the tiny space required to attach it. It is just too far to reach to the middle.  In the end I welded extensions to the end of a couple of wrenches and it worked great.

  This success had been really a crucial stepping stone. At this point it really feels like this shop is capable of making anything. And that is just amazing.

  Usually when you get the feeling that things are going well reality has a way of letting you know how wrong you are.

  Sales are strange.  Currently it is not time to panic, but last week was the slowest week in over 3 years.

   I have been on some forums with other online sellers and many are facing some challenges. Both E-bay and Amazon have been trying to get me to pay more fees in exchange for better placement on search results. Many sellers are very suspicious of wild swings in sales numbers and blame it on deliberate hiding of listings or suppression due to this new "pay MORE" scheme. Others are equally upset about the free shipping from China that has simply killed their business. We all got things we would like to see changed, but have to just deal with things as best we can.

  I have listed some items on a sales platform called Bonanza based on suggestions from other sellers. I never heard of it but it seems some people are looking for a better alternative.

  The one blessing of slow sales is more time to work on other things. The whole lemons and lemon aide situation.

  So there is the status. I hope everyone keeps working on what ever motivates you and never give up. Be willing to help others without being used, and be grateful when someone can lend you hand.

  Have a great week. 

 



Quick update-

 

 

 

 

 

  Hi again, still sticking to some resolutions to keep posting. For better or for worse.  2 times a month.

 

   I am looking in to switching over to video updates. I made one youtube video and it was seen by over 100,000 people. This blog is read by about 20....................

 

 

  So here goes- finally got rid of that annoying blue screen saver. 

 

 

 

 

 

  It was not going to be stopping things for long. I was prepared to purchase an entire new machine, and I did buy a complete replacement computer and was in the process of installing the mother board when I noticed the cooling fan had come loose, breaking the seal with the CPU and causing over heating. How it is managed to overheat in my frigid workshop is a pretty amazing feat. But that is out of the way, a back up PC is standing by, things are running again and looking good.

 

 

 

  Here is a picture of just how fragile graphite is. My holding fixture flexed and this poor lass had her entire face broken off. Oh well, back to the drawing board.  Adjusting feeds and speeds is making an amazing difference in the speed at which these can be made. I have reduced the time it takes to just a few hours. And my process eliminates the need for artists and sculptors, which his a plus since none of them answer my e-mails anyhow.



   This car mold requires a LOT of metal to be removed.

 

But I am saving it and able to re-melt it in the amazing 1100 degree centigrade  crockpot.

 

 

 

   This thing really gets hot. Of all the various wounds and injuries I have had over the years I find pinches and burns to be the worst types. So being extra careful here.

  Here I a nifty little trick I learned online. By grinding all the teeth off of a saw blade it becomes a giant circular razor blade. And it cuts blue foam board with out making any dust. The black item is a 3D printed holding fixture to allow the cutting of perfect 4" hexagons. Make a 4" rip, nip the end off at 60 degrees, and then cut at your 4" stop. This create diamonds that fit in this tool. Slide the tool across the blade, flip the diamond and repeat. Perfect hexes.  I don't know why but the razor saw is somehow scarier than the one with teeth. Both will mangle you without mercy but something about the sharp edge freaks me out.




  Ok, have a good rest of the winter. Spring is on the way and life keeps renewing itself.