Features
Practicing one miniature tool skill per small build
Six small builds aimed at a single tool skill each: repeat cuts, small holes, flat sanding, scribing, printed textures, and reproducing a documented interior.
What to take away
- Six small builds carry the core tool skills: a picket fence, a shop front, a peg rail, a table top, a plank wall, and the Assembly Room.
- Each build drills one skill onlyrepeat cutting, printed texture, drilling small holes, flat sanding, scribing, and reading a documented source.
- Tool and material are named for all six, so nothing needs hunting before you start.
- Two or three evenings per build. Longer means the drill has become a project.
- Repeat accuracy is a jig problem, not a patience problem.
Six projects, six skills
| Build | Skill | Tool | Material |
|---|---|---|---|
| Picket fence | Repeat cutting | Razor saw, miter box, clamped stop block | 1/16 in basswood strip |
| Shop front | Printed texture | Inkjet printer with pigment ink | Coated matte paper, typically 120 to 200 gsm |
| Peg rail | Drilling small holes | Pin vise, bits of 0.5 to 0.8 mm | 1/8 in dowel, 1/16 in basswood rail |
| Table top | Flat sanding | Glass plate or rigid block with adhesive paper | 220 to 600 grit paper, strip stock |
| Plank wall | Scribing | Scribe or needle in a pin vise, steel rule | 0.5 mm styrene sheet |
| Assembly Room | Reading a source | Scale rule, printed plan | Park Service furnishing account |
Work down the list in order. Each build is small enough to finish before boredom sets in.
Six builds, one skill each
Build
- Picket fence
- repeat cutting, stop blocks
- Staircase
- small-hole drilling, alignment
- Panelled door
- flat sanding, crisp edges
- Plank floor
- scribing pressure, consistency
- Shop front
- printed textures
- Historic room
- everything, in order
Skill taught
- Picket fence
- Staircase
- Panelled door
- Plank floor
- Shop front
- Historic room
The picket fence: repeat cutting
Forty identical pickets cannot be cut by eye, and trying is how people decide they are bad at this. A stop block clamped to the saw fence makes all forty the same.
Picket fence: repeat cutting
- Clamp a scrap block to the fence at the picket length.
- Cut one picket against the block and measure it.
- Move the block once if the length is wrong, then clamp it hard.
- Cut the rest without measuring again.
Tool: razor saw and miter box. Material: 1/16 in basswood strip. Wastage per part sets your material cost, and the yield maths sits in the costing sheet behind a miniature kit run.
The shop front: printed textures
The shop front introduces printed paper: brick, signage, wallpaper, tiny book covers. Pigment ink on coated paper holds against light and handling better than dye ink on plain stock.
The University of Illinois preservation program's guide to digital prints sorts inkjet papers into uncoated, swellable coated and porous coated, and inks into dye and pigment.
Toner can offset and lose the image under high heat. Never press a laser print against the warm inside of a lit book nook.
Tool: any inkjet printer. Material: coated matte paper, typically 120 to 200 gsm, cut with a steel rule and knife.
The peg rail: drilling small holes
The peg rail is a back board with a row of dowel pegs, and it teaches straight holes at small diameter. Tool: a pin vise with a 0.5 to 0.8 mm bit. Material: 1/8 in dowel, 1/16 in basswood board.
Peg rail: drilling small holes
- Prick each hole centre with a pin so the bit does not wander.
- Drill half a turn at a time, clearing dust as you go.
- Back the board with scrap so the exit hole stays clean.
- Glue each peg with a touch of PVA and let it set.
Ten holes teach more than two. If the bit wanders on your first attempt, work through the drilling basics that come before a real project.
The table top: flat sanding
Flat sanding is about the block, not the paper. Tool: a glass plate or a rigid block with pressure-sensitive adhesive paper. Material: 220, 320, 400 and 600 grit, plus strip stock or a glued-up panel.
Table top: flat sanding
- Glue the panel oversize and let it cure fully.
- Stick 220 grit to glass and rub the panel in figure eights.
- Work up through the grits, brushing dust off between each.
- Check flatness on a straightedge before any finish goes on.
Sand through the grits before finishing. Stain penetrates the grain while paint sits on top, as wood finishing explains.
The plank wall: scribing
Scribing cuts plank lines into sheet stock, which is faster and flatter than gluing individual boards. Tool: a scribe or a needle in a pin vise, guided by a steel rule. Material: 0.5 mm styrene sheet or 1/32 in basswood.
Plank wall: scribing
- Tape the rule along where the plank line belongs.
- Draw the scribe along the rule one way, lightly, three or four times.
- Do not push. A heavy first pass tears the surface.
- Wipe the raised burr with 600 grit and dust it off.
Styrene takes a cleaner line than soft wood. Scribes sit in the cutting and shaping group of the five categories of miniature tool, where the trade-offs against knives and files are set out.
The Assembly Room: copying a documented source
The last build stretches every skill at once, so borrow someone else's research. The National Park Service account of how the Assembly Room was furnished shows what a good document gives you and where it stops.
The Park Service does not know how the room appeared or where each man sat. The arrangement shown is the best possible one given the physical and documentary evidence.
The detail is concrete. A large chair and table on a raised platform face two semi-circular rows of tables. Windsor chairs group around them, folding screens sit in the front corners, and heavy green woolen cloths cover the tables.
Only two original artifacts remain, the Speaker's chair and a carved frieze. By 1773 there were eleven tables, one for each of Pennsylvania's then eleven counties. Knowing what you know is the skill.
The same six-build structure applied to light is in six builds that teach one lighting skill.
