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More Camelback Straightedge Castings Available at Martin Model

jwearing

Hot Rolled
Joined
Aug 26, 2017
Gary Martin is now selling a full line of straightedge castings, 6", 12", 18", 24", 36", and 52". Also triangles and right angle blocks. Prices, weights, and photos are on martinmodel.com under "misc".

I have no affiliation. I just purchased an 18", and a couple of 45-45-90 triangles from him. He sent me these photos to show me his selection. I just received the castings yesterday, they look great, although I haven't started to machine them yet.

Gary has his castings fully annealed. When I spoke with him, he explained that annealing also has the benefit of relieving internal stresses. Are there any heat treatment experts here that can verify that?
 

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Gary has his castings fully annealed. When I spoke with him, he explained that annealing also has the benefit of relieving internal stresses. Are there any heat treatment experts here that can verify that?

Depends on the temperature for that alloy-grade, and how long the casting is held at that temperature with respect to the thickest cross section, and the rate of cooling.
John
 
Gary Martin is now selling a full line of straightedge castings, 6", 12", 18", 24", 36", and 52". Also triangles and right angle blocks. Prices, weights, and photos are on martinmodel.com under "misc".
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Gary has his castings fully annealed. When I spoke with him, he explained that annealing also has the benefit of relieving internal stresses. Are there any heat treatment experts here that can verify that?

Short answer, yes. If the heat treater says "fully annealed" it means that the time at temperature is calculated to be sure the entire section is up to heat. And it also implies that the cooling rate is such that there's no sudden temperature change to quench one area or another and introduce new stresses.

Of course if the heat treater is lying about that then all bets are off.

IMO, I'd assume it's an experienced, professional outfit and you can trust what they say. The castings are, as they say, fully annealed and thus of uniform hardness throughout and absent any temperature induced stresses.
 
I bought one of the tiny ones from Gary, scraped it in and painted it. Most of the stuff I work on requires larger tools but this was just too cute to pass by. It prints well so it's not just a pretty face, though I might keep it out open on a desk just for decoration.

P1010508.jpg
 
I can't understand how Gary makes money as he sell them so cheap. More power to him I guess. I have had students bring them to class and they look good. I was told Gary works as a pattern maker at a foundry and casts things on the side. Warren Jones gave me a 6" bronze SE and it is handy as hell on small compounds.
 
Hi Richard,

Since the bronze 6" costs more than the cast iron 6", there must be some advantage. What is that?

Cheers,
Bruce

One thing, if you count it an advantage, is that you own a straightedge made from a more expensive metal than cast iron.

Another might be touted as a tool that will never rust so I suppose you could use it under water with confidence.

You can expect that the ways of the machine you're working on will never be galled by moving the straightedge around, though I haven't encountered that problem myself.

And someone who has and uses one will have to report on how well the scraped bronze surface wears in comparison to iron.
 
I was told Gary works as a pattern maker at a foundry and casts things on the side.
He used to work at Columbia Steel Castings. He's been an independent patternmaker and educator for quite some time. From reading his client list, he seems to work with several foundries, but I don't believe he does any casting in his own shop. I am certain he didn't up to a few years ago when he moved. I sent him some CAD files for custom iron parts, and he made loose wood patterns and worked with a foundry that didn't require matchplate patterns to pour and anneal the parts. Very convenient for me, as all I had to do was pay Gary. More recently, he made a small custom stainless steel run of his stock quick indexer and I'm sure that was done at a different foundry.

I believe Gary does a lot of the "in-house" pattern work for at least one regional foundry, but as a outside vendor, not an employee.
 
I bought one of the 12 inch straight edge castings from Gary yesterday at Cabin fever. It's a very nice casting, fine grain iron absolutely no surface hardness and free cutting. I got bored from walking around and went and bought a file and found a table and had all the the casting flash filed off and ready to paint in about twenty minutes. $85.00
 
Yesterday I had the time to stop by and have a chat with Gary at Cabin Fever. I managed to ask him a few things that, I thought, would be of interest to several people here.
First, his primary business is commercial pattern making and he has three employees working under him. He makes patterns for several foundries all over the West Coast, from California to Washington.
He also teaches woodworking and pattern-making classes. And, in the times when the pattern work is light, he builds custom furniture in his shop.

The Martin Model business is mostly a hobby business that he carries on mostly as service to the society, without any significant gain. He used two small family business foundries relatively close to his place and that is the main reason he could keep the prices so low, up to now.
However, the owner of one of these foundries recently passed away at age 71 and the business closed. The owner of the second foundry is already 75 years old... If also that foundry were to close, the casting costs will increase dramatically.
Now he is already experiencing a cost increase for the heat treatment, passing from $0.50/lb to $1/lb. His advice is to profit of his low prices till he can keep them so low.

Talking about the future he is contemplating the idea of traveling to various places to teach pattern making, perhaps even tooling a trailer with the necessary wood-working equipment and have it as mobile workshop. But, ideally, he would count on equipment at the seminar location.

I have encouraged him to join PM and contribute with his experience, since there are several members interested in learning more about casting, which in many cases becomes the only viable alternative for a replacement part no longer available.

Paolo

PS I have ordered the heavy-duty 45° square (the other two are a little too narrow for my taste) and, perhaps, I will start a separate thread about machining and scraping it.
 








 
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