Hello happy needle cutters . I hope you will forgive my rudeness as I ask you this : am I right when I think you have great difficulties to find needles to make cannon barrels out of them ( or anything else ) ?
Let me tell you a little story : twenty years ago, I made a little guitar repair for a living ( and it worked so well that I had to get a job in Public Administration, and here I am; maybe I was not good at this job, but that is another story) and I needed a syringe to inject white glue in a crack on a guitar neck. So I went to the nearest “pharmacie” ( it’s the french word for drugstore) and they looked at me in an odd way as they must have thought that it was heroïn and not glue I was going to inject ( okay, I came from my workshop and was not wearing my tuxedo, but…) So when you wanted to inject heroïn this time, you had no choice than to share your syringe with other addicts ( not me , I was only a white glue addict ) and you could eventually catch a number of diseases including AIDS, I fear. Nowadays, maybe for this terrible reason, you can get as many syringes and needles you can afford; I buy them by boxes of 100 needles in a medical supply 500 meters from my home and a box runs around 3 Euros. Maybe a path to explore.
You know, I’d think the same thing, as would most reasonable people. Making clean and new needles available would really cut down on the transmission of some nasty diseases. However, we have the war on drugs here, and the people behind that have decided that if needles weren’t available to drug addicts, they simply would stop using them, so it’s extremely difficult to get needles now, unless your’e a diabetic, which I’m not. In fact, if I remember correctly, having needles may be illegal (misdemeanor), as they’re paraphanelia. I like your posts Torio! Drugstores here are sometimes called pharmacies as well.
Madda, a little french expression more : " Ravi que cela vous plaise" which could translate : " I’m glad you like my posts “. As for different ways of thinking, we had evidence long ago that scarceness of means didn’t eradicate any need, and this is most general philosophy. Charles Henry Samson, the man who cut the head of Louis XVI, of Robespierre and of many others said : " Quand la folie des hommes est décidée, elle ne reste jamais médiocre” ( When men’s foolishness is decided, it nevers stays mediocre ) . So for addictions. If I understand well, needles are forbidden, but not steel tubes out of their mounts, right ? So the evident answer is : go back to the source and maybe you could make a joint buy, for those who dwell in USA . My neeedles come from either Kendall which is a british company or from Terumo which seems multinational, if this can help.
PS Another little story about different ways of thinking; the other day, I was looking after the Robert Mikesh’s book at Monogram Publications " Japanese aircraft interiors" and I found one on ebay but I could not even see the final auction, not saying I couldn’t bid, for a clever European Administration Office head ( or maybe a clever French Administration etc…) decided that the view of this book could awake my inclination to racial hatred, when I could buy every book on nazis concentration camps I could want to; we even had an University teacher in History who was a negationist, but no Mikesh book for poor little Torio.
You know, I do read French a bit, but it’s been so long since school that I struggle at it now. I had about 5 years in school and spoke it pretty well, but a foreign language is like math, it leaves without practice.
I plan to hit the drug store and see if they’ll sell me some insulin needles. I’ll take my model with me so they can see I’m not a junkie.
I guess people have always been like that, but I guess we can always hope for improvement.
Madda, I wish you good luck for your quest. By the way, note there are a number of different diameters for different uses so you can slip one needle inside another to simulate a number of different things ( barrels, pistons…). Another idea : what if you proved the drugstore attendant that you are not using needles for an illegal use giving him back the plastic mounts ( technically speaking, they would no longer be needles, and en route for the different diameters) ?
Just a path to explore
Everyone else,
As for needles- Pharmacies sell syringes for certain allergy medications these days.(in case you don’t have an insulin card) Maybe you could talk with your M.D. I don’t know.
Many larger cities these days have needle exchanges, thank goodness, where the addict can exchange old needles for new ones. Some of them provide people with cards allowing them to possess syringes. So he/she doesn’t throw them in the gutter while running from police. Therefore, small children, or adults for that matter, don’t get their hands or feet on them. (fact- 99% of intravenous drug users have contracted Hepatitis C nowadays, no thanks to the war on drugs!) Yes, it is a lower class misdemeanor.(Class-C, I think) Punishment varies from state to state.
One can also go to a feed & supply store. If there happens to be one around, they sell vaccines already prepared for dogs, cats and horses, etc. Maybe you could give your pet his annual shots.
Well, guys, if you can find needles, I’ll show you something I’ve “imagined” ( in fact, it’ s a variation of something you already know) and it could save time ( I wish it could save life, but I think my idea was not brilliant enough this time). More on this in a short time, I hope. Meanwhile, I can already tell you that the doctor is not the murderer ( what am I speaking of, myself ? nose too close of the glue bottle…)
I am a dental tech, but not a dental assistant. We only deal with the patients to match the shade of their teeth, and not with needles at all.
What I do have at work however is a great great motorized handpiece with a quick chuck and tons of bits, stones, discs and wheels. I even have an air powered handpiece with high speed friction grip burrs. I haven’t had to mess with a dremel at home because of this. I also have lots of old hemostats that I take home as they loose their usefullness at work, so I never have to worry about tweezers.
Sadly though, no needles. I have been thinking about taking my Spit to the drugstore and show them what I need and what I need it for. That might work I think.
Thanks Mike! You da man!!! [bow]
I went to their site but, couldn’t find hypodermic tubing. I was about to post and ask where to find it. THEN! (slapping forehead and doing my best Homer Simpson) DOH!!!
Do a search, Stupid!!!
Thanks again.
Great link Mike, simply great. You’ve saved me lots and lots of hassle. I’ve bookmarked this site for keeps. Any idea what gauge I should look for to be the cannon ends on a 72nd scale Spit?
The Spitfire had .303 machine guns correct?
So take .303 and divide it by 72 (1/72) and you get .004" in 1/72 scale.
According to smallparts web site the 32 and 33 gauge hypodermic tubing has an inside diameter of .004" [:D]
The 32 gauge is .009" on the outside and the 33 gauge is .008" so either would probably work. You could even go bigger if you are not trying to be exactly correct to scale.
Glad you guys liked that site, Styrene (Gip) told me about it a while back and I bookmarked it too.
The only negative thing is that they only ship 2nd day air on orders under 10 lbs and it costs $10.95. Get a few people together and buy a bunch and that will make the shipping cost seem like nothing. [;)]
Well, the mgs are in the wings and the barrels are flush, so I’m not worried about them. The cannons however, are two part affairs, a thicker base, then a barrel that sticks out from that. I don’t remember offhand what measurement the cannons were, but it can’t be a whole lot larger than the mgs. Either way, thanks for posting that site!