Making the pintles

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

A quick hinge preview for you. I won't install the hinges until after the shutters are painted. I have drilled the nail holes into the straps. The wire nails I will fabricate will go all the way through the shutter and then be bent over and clinched on the opposite side of the wood.

I have used a patina product called "Instant Rust" from Modern Options on the hinges. It is real rust but just a light surface coating. I have not used this product before, I am pleased with it. I purchased it in my local hardware store, it is part of a line of decorator products.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

The pintles I am using to hang the shutters are very simple to make. I have used annealed steel wire. Make a simple 90 degree L shaped bend and then cut to length. Don't forget to dress off the end of the wire so it is smooth with no sharp edges left from being cut by the pliers. The other end that goes into the wall can be pointed. That is what the cup shaped grinding stone in the Dremel motor is for, dressing smooth the end you don't want to be sharp.

Dollhouses come in cans?

I have started fabricating the shutter hinges. They will be strap hinges with a pintle support that comes out of the wall of the house. A very basic type of hinge that is not difficult to make.

Research told me a thickness of 3/16 of an inch was used for some real hinges of this type. That meant I needed metal of approx .01 inches to create a 1:12 scale part. Digging into the drawers of metals I have on hand I found a tinned can that was a good match. As I wanted steel for the hinges that also meant it was a good choice. There was a strip of metal wound around the key used to open the can. That is what I am working with.

The tin and plastic coating on the can must be burned off with a torch. This is a job to do outside as the fumes are not good for you. You can anneal the metal at the same time as you burn off the tin. I have given my metal a hammered finish so I had to again anneal the area I was going to form into the hinge barrel as the hammering work hardened the metal.

I am forming the end of the strap around a piece of music wire that I am holding in a vise. Music wire is very stiff and strong so it makes a good forming rod. Tonight's new discovery was that my pair of nylon tipped pliers I purchased at a bead store make easy work of the forming. I can grab onto the metal and hold it against the music wire without damaging the metals. The nylon is soft enough to gain a grip onto the hinge strap so I can pull the strap around to form that tight circle. The top surface of the vise acts as an alignment guide so I get a barrel that is at the correct square angle instead of being crooked in alignment. Of course my forming pin must be clamped at exactly 90 degrees to the top of the vise for this simple trick to work. Or if your don't own a vise you can drill a perfectly perpendicular hole the same diameter as the music wire in a piece of hardwood as use that as your forming tool jig.

Now that I have the hinge barrel formed tomorrow I can cut the strap to length, drill holes in it and even do some decorative shaping of the strap if I wish to do so.

Celtic Sea Monster

A Celtic Knot Sea Monster carved from jeweler's purple wax. It will become a necklace pendant. I jave just about finished carving this character, only a little more fine detailing and polishing left to do. I got the design from a Dover Publishing book of Celtic art.

 This summer I am taking a lost wax casting class at a local art college. It is something I have wanted to try for many years. 

I must say I have really enjoyed carving this material, so much easier than dealing with wood grain. It is a good portable project too as long as the weather is not so hot your wax melts. 

Another material I am learning to carve is Plaster of Paris. My friends, "The Guys from Texas" have told me much about it as they carve it for details for their roombox projects then make molds and cast the pieces in resin. This technique of carving in plaster then molding in resins is used by most of the high end dollhouse builders. I am surprised by how easy and pleasant it is to carve. First mix up your plaster into the basic size form you need then let it cure at least a full day before you begin carving. But be sure to complete the carving in a day or two or the plaster becomes more difficult to carve. 

Plaster is very inexpensive. Dental tools can be used as well as wax carving tools, wood carving tools and files. I put a sharp, beveled cutting edge on my dental and wax carving tools. 

One of these days if all goes well I will have a bronze sea monster to show on the blog.

Window Latches

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

The working window latches are just about done. I can see that I need to move the catches on the upper and lower edges over to the right a little more. Digital cameras are so fantastic to use for an instant critique. It really gives you a fresh perspective and virtual set of  eyes that have not been staring at a miniature part for far too long.

The handle in the center of the latch is a fragment of one of the Vintag brass findings I got at the Fusion Bead store in Seattle the other day. The brass rod has a darkening patina applied to it. No bling allowed on this dollhouse but there is a richness of texture and detail that tells its own story in this structure.

In case you are wondering about scale the brass rod I used is 1/32" in diameter.

While they are not a replica copy of any particular window latch they are of the early style that was found on old houses. They will do nicely.
.

Never enough Vise

You can't make tiny metal parts without good holding devices. The photo above shows a little guide block I am building as part of my window latching system. The square part is a bead I found into which I have drilled another hole. In that hole I have soldered a piece of 1/32" brass rod that has been trimmed to length and will be filed into a point. The pointed rod pin will go into the window frame and help keep the guide block secured in position. A dab of superglue will secure the guide block to the window frame surface. The pin primarily keeps the block from shifting side to side when under pressure and also adds extra surface for the glue to grab onto.

I have to use a needle file to point the pin and also to remove oxidation from the soldering process. Hard to hold anything that tiny with fingers so I have it held in a pair of flat nose, smooth jaw parallel pliers. You can find them on the internet using that keyword description. When the pliers grip the jaws stay parallel along their length. That creates a good grip that is also a gentle grip and it won't scratch my piece. The pliers I am using allow for a long part to go right on through them which is another useful feature. Update: You can now purchase these pliers online direct from my favorite hardware store Hardwick's in Seattle. Click here to order them.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

Another essential tool for making my window locks is a high quality bench vise. The vise on the right is called a pattern makers vise, the vise on the left is an Eron block vise. The long bar in the pattern maker's vise is a parallel which raises the object I am holding up to the height I need it to be but keeps the object squared to the surface and supported from underneath. I used that when drilling the hole in the bead to accept the pin.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

These small vise are created to a high quality standard. The jaws are smooth on the inside. When you tighten them the jaws stay parallel to each other, that is essential for micro machining work. Cheap vises lift one of the jaws as you close them and you only get pressure at a small point when that happens. It will also gouge your work due to that shift out of parallel.

Another good feature is when working with them on the bench I can flip them around from one side to the other and still have a flat surface to rest on the bench. That lets me work on small parts from several different sides without moving the part in the vise.

Every year I add a few new quality items like good vises to my tool collection to help me make small metal parts. I have a Panavise but it just does not compare in ability to the pattern maker's vise for most tasks.

Hinge project

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

Today I was able to spend some time making practice hinges for my doll house cellar door. My first practice pair are shown above, they are not finished yet.

The camera is a great critique tool, turn on that macro lens function and you simply can't hide the flaws in the work. I can see that the sizes are not a close enough match, the top hinge is just a little too wide as it enters the details on the end. Not enough emphasis on the taper on that strap. The brass looks like iron under room light but shows up brassy under the camera flash, that won't do as dollhouses do get photographed.

I am certainly no blacksmith yet. Good thing this is a rustic dollhouse. I will need to do several more pairs before I get it all figured out. I do want them to look weathered and rusty which is a good thing. That way I don't have to drive myself crazy trying to get them looking like a Tiffany jewelry piece.

Getting brass to look like rusted steel without putting paint on it is tricky. But a little aluminum oxide grit blasting with a air(brush) eraser and a combination of several chemical patinas has got it heading in that direction. I will have to record what I do, in what order and what formulas I used that worked.

I need to work on the pintels next. A pintel (pintle) is a hinge pin that slips into the single knuckle on my hinge strap. I am not quite sure which way to approach the fabrication of them so I suppose it would be best to try several ways of making them and see what looks best.

I try to make most of the components that go into my projects. I want them to be as unique as possible while still referencing historical architecture sources. This approach is like slow cooking versus fast food. It takes extra time and I have to learn a whole lot of techniques.

The spiral curves on the end of the strap are called rams horns. Those were fun to make with a special type of pliers, the package they came in calls them coiler pliers, but they are also called looping pliers or wrapping pliers. I took a several hours of one on one instruction from IGMA artisan Alan Hamer several years ago and he introduced this handy tool to me. Alan used to be a blacksmith and took up making the same kinds of items in miniature after he suffered injuries that would not allow him to do full size smithing. Alan teaches at the IGMA school in Castine, Maine.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009