As some of you may know, I'm helping out with the disbursement of the late John Webb's workshop stuff. Basically, all the tools and materials accumulated over many years modelmaking. They were all put in a room after a move and never sorted out, so it's quite a challenge.
The most interesting items are the tools John made for himself. Several of which have caused a bit of head-scratching as to exactly what they are.
The first appears to be a rivet press - at least that's out best guess. I think it is currently missing a spring under the tool and an anvil underneath it. We've not found either of these sadly.
You might wonder why he didn't use a proprietary tool such as the excellent GW Models version. Well, the consensus of opinion is that this offers the advantage of being able to handle an entire 4mm solebar in one go whereas others require you to move the piece being worked on in the clamp.
Now, all this is a guess as obviously we can't ask the builder. Other suggestions are welcomed.
That's a beautiful piece of kit - and the platen resting on top of a linear screw drive is pure genius.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that not needing to reclamp the item being worked on might not be the real point of this.
For me, the screw drive (complete with line marked on the home made knob) just screams out "repeatability".
Something like this allows you to position rivets - or centre punch holes - the same distance apart every time.