Odin's Toy Factory

Visit My Etsy Store One important thing to note is that any compressor will work for airbrushing as long as you can regulate the pressure and filter the air. It is worth noting that none of the airbrush manufacturers make their compressors. If they do sell compressors, they are usually rebranded products from China. I have successfully used both a standard two-stage tank compressor and a Harbor Freight Central Pneumatic compressor. I even know someone who used a spare tire as an air source to paint a show car in their driveway (they used to sell an adapter that fits onto a valve stem to make this possible). The Harbor Freight compressor is a reliable and cost-effective option. It is quiet and portable, and it even comes with an airbrush. While I have no personal experience with the Harbor Freight airbrush, I have heard mixed reviews about its performance. It might work if you only plan on spraying paints explicitly designed for airbrushes. However, I often spray cheap acrylics, craft p...

  Handmade Wood Toy Dragon Side 2 Parts Glued In Place I use the paper patterns to align the first set of parts and align the second set of parts to the first ones. The black clamps are from Harbor Freight Tools. These clamps work great for this sort of clamping job. At the cost of $0.99 each, they are hard to beat. The blue clamp is an Irwin micro clamp. I don't use the Irwin clamps much, but they work fine for the ears, and the small pad makes it easy to use. Handmade Wood Toy Dragon Clamped To The Base The dragon pull toy is almost done. I used a router to round over the base's corners and still had to do a lot of sanding. I have to fit the legs and tail, so the dragon sits perfectly flat and square to the surface to get a good glue joint. I sand a little and check the fit repeatedly until it is right. Then I must center the dragon on the base and keep it in place until the glue sets. The clamps hold rules to locate the dragon and prevent it from moving when clamps are appli...

  Harbor Freight Four Inch Ratcheting Bar Clamp/Spreader I use a lot of clamps. They are the first clamps of this type sold by Harbor Freight that I like. I make a lot of toys and use many small clamps. Recently I went to Harbor Freight with coupon in hand to pick up a few more of these clamps only to find that they have changed the clamp.  Harbor Freight Four Inch Ratcheting Bar Clamp/Spreader New Style There are currently three SKUs listed on their website: 68974, 46805, 62242. The ones I have the most of are SKU 68974. I have only seen only two of them. I went ahead and purchased four of the new ones. I decided that for $0.99 each, I would give them a try.   Harbor Freight Four Inch Ratcheting Bar Clamp/Spreader New Style Flashing on the Trigger   The new clamps work ok, but the build quality isn't as good. The knob on the side is tiny compared to the older version, and there is flashing on the trigger that my old one does not have. The flashing on the trigger sha...

Bauer 2.8 Amp, 5 in. Random Orbital Palm Sander I just ordered two of these. I needed two more random orbital sanders because changing sandpaper wears out the loops on the back of my sandpaper before the grit wears out. Price was one of the reasons I purchased this one. I can buy two of these for the price of one of the sanders I was considering and three in some cases. However, the big deal for me was the dust port. It's round and fits my existing system. I'm getting rid of sanders that either do not have a dust port or they have some weird shape that I can't hook up to my shop vac. Most of my corded tools are Hitachi, and I would have liked to have two more Hitachi sanders, but I have been sitting on a waiting list to get Hitachi sanders at a reasonable price for months. I usually buy refurbished. A coupon turned up for the Bauer sanders for $25, so I'm going to give them a try. I also purchased one of these for $20. I have several hundred 1/4-Sheets of sand...

I have done all the repairs and modifications and used the drill press for a while on several small projects. I'm going to call this a success. Replacement South Bend Chuck on MY Grizzly Drill Press The chuck worked just as I had expected. It works with bits smaller than the spec sheet indicates and is much better than the chuck that came with it. So much better than I'm considering buying a larger version for my large drill press. I got exactly what I wanted. A good drill press that would handle smaller bits. I use drill bits down to wire gauge sizes that neither my Shopsmith or larger drill press can handle. For production purposes, I didn't want to have to fool around with adapters or changing chucks. Some of the knobs were damaged, and I replaced them with these red ball knobs I found on Amazon. They came 10 to a bag, but they cost only $7.95. I had forgotten how much better I like ball knobs on a drill press. I plan to add these to some of my other to...

I have a harbor freight bench top drill press that I have used for several years for small bits. It is almost too small and required some fiddling to get the holes drilled in the right place. Not having a crank to raise and lower the table was a real pain. It had a keyless chuck that I found difficult to use and often would get a bit installed crooked. Harbor Freight - Central Machinery - Bench Top Drill Press I had already decided to get something different, and through a process of elimination, I chose the  Grizzly G7943 as the best solution. Grizzly G7943 Drill Press A few weeks later a used one popped up on Craig's list. Mit must have been fate. I have kept a search running for Grizzly tools on crags list for several years. Hits are rare and most things I don't want, high prices, or poor condition. This is the first drill press I have seen.  I had to buy it. According to the seller, it is about ten years old. Not a big deal since they have changed ve...