woodworkers drawplate substitute to Byrne's

[dockattner]

I think this is a good one to agree to disagree. My Byrnes plate goes down to 0.016 which is good for treenails down to 3/4" at 1:64 scale. For the hull planking, with treenails of 1" to 2" the largest holes are fine. Finding a wood species as Bob mentions is another issue. I have found bamboo to work well depending on the species. Bamboo skewers can be split then run through the plate down to the smallest size. There are some tricks to using any plate but getting to 0.016 is readily doable. I have cheap plate with larger holes than on the Byrnes plate but at our most common scales it rarely sees the light of day. Just one more opinion
Allan

I'll defer to your experience Allan.

Working at 1:48 I can get 0.56-0.58 mm trunnel stock (nominally 0.022 inches) out of (non-european) boxwood on the Byrnes drawplate which leaves a number of holes unused. I guess we might begin to wonder about even having treenails at smaller scales but that is quite off-topic. As you mentioned, I have also been able to get bamboo down to an even smaller size, but at 0.58 mm (my target) the end grain wasn't for me. That concern might go away at a smaller size.

But I will reiterate the substance of my post: a revised Byrnes drawplate that DIDN'T skip holes sizes would be gold!

 

[Peter Voogt]

Even the smallest hole in the Byrnes Drawplate is usable. Especially with the 'turn and push' technique on the back side:

You don't need a thin piece of wood to get it all the way through.
With a toothpick you get a point of +/- 0.31 mm / .012" that you can push into a corresponding hole in your plank.
It's all depending on the scale of your build and the quality of the toothpicks. It's all in de details .......
Regards, Peter

 

[AllanKP69]

Especially with the 'turn and push' technique on the back side:

I find that drawing the piece through while holding it an angle for the first passes helps a lot. I change the angle and make two or three passes in each hole once I get to the second row of smaller holes. The last pass for each hole is held straight so the piece is round. This is an absolute necessity for me when I get to the last six or seven of the smallest holes. It takes a little longer but each "stick" is about 10 inches long so I wind up with a few dozen trennals from each one. For a fully planked hull this only takes about 200 to 300 sticks to get the thousands of trennals needed so not so terrible. Takes some time but if time was a problem I would probably look for a different hobby.
Allan

 

[Don Case]

I made my own draw plate. I used a piece of an old hand saw and a "lot" of drill bits. If I was to do it again I would anneal the saw blade first and try and find good drill bits first. The real hard part about making one is to find those good drill bits. Most of them out there are crap. I'm kind of intrigued by Alpayed's method.

 

[AllanKP69]

Don, Not sure how much shipping and duty would be into Canada but high quality bits can be found at McMaster Carr. I imagine you can find some other suppliers that may be closer to home. https://www.mcmaster.com/products/drill-bits/?s=drill+bitts+0.016
They are not cheap, but at least in my experience, they are worth the price.
Allan

 

[Roman]

I have one of the Byrnes draw plates that I picked up from Jim some years ago and it really has no equal. I have also been using a Starret twist drill gauge for many years successfully but as someone else mentioned before, the wood species has much to do with it. Making nails is a task that can test your patience.

 

[Bob Cleek]

I think this is a good one to agree to disagree. My Byrnes plate goes down to 0.016 which is good for treenails down to 3/4" at 1:64 scale. For the hull planking, with treenails of 1" to 2" the largest holes are fine. Finding a wood species as Bob mentions is another issue. I have found bamboo to work well depending on the species. Bamboo skewers can be split then run through the plate down to the smallest size. There are some tricks to using any plate but getting to 0.016 is readily doable. I have cheap plate with larger holes than on the Byrnes plate but at our most common scales it rarely sees the light of day. Just one more opinion
Allan

For those tempted to spend $55 for the MicroMark drawplate, they may be happy to learn that TEMU has them for closer to $20. Of course, read the TEMU listings carefully to avoid rude surprises like things being much smaller than you thought from looking at the picture. You will be subsidizing the PRC industrial behemoth either way you buy it, so you might as well buy from the source through TEMU as pay double to the local retailers.

alloy wire draw plate - Temu

Shop Alloy Wire Draw Plate at Temu. Make Temu your one-stop destination for the latest fashion products. 90 Days buyer protection.

www.temu.com