I can't stand it

Attaching thin, acrylic rods to stands and keeping them vertical has been a challenge for me this past couple of weeks, but I have finally hit on a 'system'.

The six lengths/heights of stand that I am making: 500, 400, 300, 200, 100 and 33.3 mm (box purely as a 'backdrop' for the photo).

It began with a calculation.

Two posts ago, I was seeing how high I could go. I had put together a stand or two for each length and found that I can go up to 500 mm long/tall—600 mm was too unsteady. That’s good enough, I reckon. I wanted to know how many of each length that I could produce, so calculated lengths x number and came to this distribution for the 80 x 1 m lengths of rod that I have.

Lengths (mm)	Number	Total (mm)	1:20 000 (m)	1:20 000 (ft) approx.	Represents
500.0	50	25000	10000	33000	Very high altitude
400.0	50	20000	8000	26000	High altitude
300.0	56	16800	6000	20000	Medium-high altitude
200.0	56	11200	4000	13000	Medium altitude
100.0	54	5400	2000	7000	Low altitude
33.3	48	1600	23*	75*	Wave-top
		80000

* 1:20 000 is a nominal vertical scale so that these stands relate to sensible altitudes, but the 33.3 mm ones I consider to represent 20–30 m (at 1:700).

This should be enough stands for each altitude.

I was pleased that I did the calculation as not only did it work out how to divide up the 1 m lengths, but it has awoken me to the size of the ‘challenge’. Making those thin, rods stick to a horizontal base is quite fiddly and tricky. I thought that I’d try to do a few at a time, two or four, but if you divide 314 by 'a few’, you get a big number. I'll be making them for months. I will need to construct at least ten a day, every day, so that, hopefully, I have them done in a month.

It had been 'fun and games' to get the d@mned things to remain vertical and at 90º while the glue set. Leaning them against boxes, other boxes or things to wedge them vertical. "This is gonna be a nightmare", I thought. I threaded one through a hole in a steel square (carpentry) that I have, which lead me to a sudden epiphany. What if I make small holes in a piece of wood and use it to hold the tops of the rods straight?

Using empty cardboard boxes, lengths of plastic, and a carpentry square to try to keep the b@stard things upright and vertical.

I got a piece of scrap wood from the garage, drilled 2.5 mm holes, supported it in the middle with some of those empty boxes from the clean-up of my table and then was able to hold the plane stands vertically.

Solution inspired by using the hole in the carpentry square. I drilled holes in a piece of soft pine, initially 2.5 mm, later increased to 3 mm as the former were too tight, spaced at 60 mm intervals since the bases that I have made are ~50–40 mm square-ish. The result reminds me of a test tube rack.

Now I am in business and am able to do 16 stands at a time. That number ‘built’ each day should mean that I can reach the target of 314 within three weeks.

Keeping 'em straight and steady and also much, much easier to 'construct'.

I can stand it after all. Just have to work out now where & how I am gonna store the stands when not in use.

With a production line started, I am able to do some painting of the 1/700 ships and my long-neglected figures in addition to construction of stands. Did a bit of each on Friday and yesterday and will do some more today.