Saturday, December 15, 2018

Slide of the month Extra - Ship in a Bottle


December 2018

Time to make: 3 hours

Original design: Mike Ward 

Find it here



Going only on a picture and knowing it was built in a small hand sanitizer bottle, I sought out as many instructional videos I could find on YouTube and How to sites. The journey was a fascinating odyssey as I learned how to make a ship in a bottle. The ship you see here is a variation of a fishing boat in the early 1900's before many converted to powered sailing.

The ship was carved from a piece of scrape maple and painted using craft paints. The mast is a wooden skewer and the hinge is a bent pin.  I used some standard methods of hinging the mast, pulling the mast and sails up using long threads coming out the mouth of the bottle. The water is tinted EasyCast epoxy that I very carefully poured into the bottle first and let setup a bit before putting in the ship. Once the epoxy was hard, I pulled up the mast and sails and while holding them tight, I added a drop of super glue to areas holding the thread. One of the most challenging aspects of this project was cutting the unnecessary threads. To do this, I took apart a multi blade razor blade head and taped it to a skewer. (If you do this wear gloves during the disassemble of the razor blade head and attachment to the skewer.) Very carefully I reached in and cut away the excess thread using my cutting tool. Next, to hide the screw top, I tied a woogle and placed it on the neck of the bottle then added the cork to seal the bottle. Finally I glued a wooden loop to the back of the bottle.

EDIT 10/31/2020:Thanks to John Alexy for reminding me where I saw this slide so I could give proper credit!

Sunday, December 2, 2018

Slide of the Month - Snowman



December 2018

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

December 1993, page 67

Original design: Jeff Springer






The calendar said fall but Mother Nature say "Hold my coffee". Holy cow, was there even a fall this year as snow came before the leaves were raked (or even off the tree).

A fun little chip slide made of maple and it's lightly sanded so the texture would still be there when I painted it with hobby paint. The nose is a dowel that was sanded into a cone shape to look like a carrot. Its finished up with a wooden loop and a couple of coats of poly.


Friday, November 16, 2018

Slide of the Month Extra - Stratos



 November 2018

Time to print: 4 hours

Modifications: 1.5 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Boy's Life -

Design:





"Mission to the edge of Space" was what was claimed by Red Bull when the Stratos capsule carried Felix Baumgartner  to a height of 38.9694 kilometres (24.2145 mi). In a televised event, Baumgartner set a records for the highest altitude free fall and the fastest vertical speed (breaking the sound barrier). This was 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1.  His record for highest altitude free fall was broken by Alan Eustace  two years later.

One thing to note, the scientific community considers the Karman line (100 kilometres or 62 miles)  to be the edge of space.

I found this model out there on the Internet but I wont post the link to the file because I had to make so many modifications, I don't think it is worth all the time I spent getting this model prepared for painting. The model was spray painted black originally and the outside was hand painted silver. The decals  extensive and were done with water slide paper.  

Thursday, November 1, 2018

Slide of the Month - Camp Saw


November 2018

Time to make: 1 hour

Original design: Bill Andrews

Source : Boys Life Slide of the Month Sept. 1988 page 62












A neat little slide in between other projects. The handle of the saw is a piece of aluminum hanger wire or fence wire that I bend to shape and cut a slot into the ends of the wire. The blade is from a broken scroll saw blade I broke on an earlier project and it was glued in place with some super glue. The tensioning handle is made out of a piece of aluminum flashing and is painted black. The log is a stick from the backyard with a 3/4 " hole drilled through it for the neckerchief. I slot is cut into the front for the saw and it is glued into place with super glue. A couple of coats of Poly finishes it off.










Monday, October 15, 2018

Slide of the Month extra Bowie knife

October 2018

Time to make: 3 hours

Original design: Bobby Duke Arts 


Modified version: Bill Macfarlane











I happened on to Bobby Duke Arts You Tube channel and how he made a small knife from a stainless steel bolt. Hmmm...I think I could do that.

First a word of warning, stainless steel has chromium, molybdenum or both in it and if you want to try this slide, do it outside were the fumes are dissipated. Please do not do the forging in a closed area.

Following the video, I used a 1/2 x 3 1/2 inch stainless steel bolt and ground off the head of the bolt.  Using a propane torch and vice grips to hole the bolt, I heated the bolt to a cherry red color.  Using a hand sledge and a small anvil I began to pound the the bolt flat. Once I got it to a 1/8 inch thickness I smoothed the surfaces to remove the hammer marks. Next I found a picture of the legionaries Bowie knife and printed it out. Using an xacto knife, I carefully cutout the knife for a pattern. After the pattern was glued to the bolt, I used a permanent marker to trace around the pattern and when the marker was dry, I removed the pattern. Instead of using an  angle grinder to cut the shape, I used a dremel tool with a cutting wheel. Lots of time sanding with the dremel and file work to get the shape and bevels right. I chose black walnut for the handle, epoxied the wood to the knife and drilled the holes for the brass pins - also glued in place. More sanding to shape the handle then finally to a polishing wheel to finish the knife. The sheath is made some scrap leather and I added a leg loop so I could add a lower loop for the neckerchief.

It came out really well and turns heads when others see it. To answer the question I often get, yes it is sharp ... really really sharp.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Slide of the Month - Dutch Oven Diner



 October 2018

Time to carve: 2 hours

Finishing: 1.5 hour

Boy's Life - November 1983

Design: Kenneth Koob








There is nothing as good as a Dutch oven meal at Scout camp! My first time having anything from a Dutch oven was a peach cobbler at JLITC training at Camp Rotary. (Remember how much it rained that week Mike Ryan?) When it was done, there was a hole in the middle and a round stone next to it. One of the adults thought the stone had been placed in the center of the cobbler when it was being cooked. (It turns out that the center had been cut out when it was done to cool it down.)

Some good Dutch oven recipes

Beef Stew

Pizza

and a Troop 8 favorite

Black Forest Dump Cake

I made the Dutch oven from Oak because the grain gives the oven a cast iron look. The beef is a piece of maple, the onions are carved from matchsticks, the potatoes are wooden skewers, and the carrots are the ends of toothpicks. The lid and pot handle is a piece of beading wire, and the feet of the oven are also toothpicks. Everything is painted with hobby paint and finished off with a couple coats of poly.


Saturday, September 15, 2018

Slide of the Month Extra - SpaceShipOne




September  2018

Time to print: 4 hours

Finishing: 2 hours

Thingiverse July 13, 2011

Design: 7777773

Try it yourself


 
On December 17, 2003, the 100th anniversary of the Wight Brothers first manned flight, SpaceShipOne became the first private craft to achieve supersonic flight. September 29, 2004, Mike Melvill  piloted the craft into a sub orbital space flight. The second flight into space, for the X PRIZE requirements, was on October 4, 2004, the 47th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch,  by Brian Binnie.

I had the pleasure of seeing this craft right next to the Spirit of St Louis and the Bell X1 at the Smithsonian and it was amazing!

This was a challenging project to print because printing off the Ultimaker 2 made the wings to thin to use but the Orion print was more usable with the help of UV glue and some sandpaper. I spray painted with white primer and the black and red are done with paint pens. The stars, as well as the other lettering, were done on water slide paper. The tricky part was overlaying the stars on top of each other to give it the right look. I finished it off with a coat hanger loop and a couple of coats of poly

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Slide of the month - Bucking Burro



September 2018

Time to make: 5 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"


Original design: Lew Weston






It's funny when my son first saw this slide, he instantly thought it was Pedro from Boy's Life and looking at it now I can see the resemblance. Perhaps it's time to send off a letter to Pedro, lets see;

Dear alfalfa milkshake drinker,

Any chance this slide of the month was based on you?


Carved from a very hard piece of maple and caused me a lot of time resharpening my knife.  I painted the body of the burro with hobby paint and the details with paint pens. I sealed the slide with a couple of coats of poly and glued a wooden loop to the back. The main and tail are made from 325 black paracord with the center cords removed. I then super glued to drilled holes and frayed the cord with a pin.

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Slide of the Month Extra - Coleman Lantern


August 2018

Time to make: 1 hours

Slides N' Woggles Issue 2

Original design: Greg Firestone May 2000

Modified version: Bill Macfarlane  August 2018













When I was a Scout it seemed every Scoutmaster worth their salt had a Coleman Lamp in the campsite. While some were white gas others were propane. It was my first purchase as a Scoutmaster years later in a Troop in Ogdensburg, NY and I still use it today in my current Troop.

Try as I might I could not find a key chain version of the Coleman Lantern Greg Firestone referenced but one day wandering though Dick's Sporting Goods or Walmart, I came upon a string of Coleman Lantern LED lights that was suppose to be used around the RV. I had found my source! First I cut off one of  the lights leaving enough wire to use. Popping off the top, I removed the wires from the sides and drilled a hole in the back to pass the wires through.  Next I cut out the base using a Dremel tool and drilled a hole in the back to pass the wires though. I sourced some parts from Radio Shack years ago (anybody remember when there was a store or two locally?) including a micro push button switch, a button battery holder, and a button battery. Stripping the ends of the wires I  checked the polarity of the LED by touching each side of the wires to the positive and negative side of the battery. I marked the wires and then created a simple circuit by soldering one wire to same polarity on battery holder, the other LED wire to one side of the switch, and a spare wire from the other side of the switch and battery holder. I put the battery in and tested the circuit before hot gluing the batter holder into the base of the lamp. (I make sure the open side was out so I could change the battery in the future.)

With a quick push of the button the Lantern lights up!







Wednesday, August 1, 2018

Slide of the Month - Whistle Slide


August 2018

Time to make: 1 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

August 1979,  page 52

Original design: Tom Dwyer









A fun functional little slide with high note and a lower note that kind of reminds me of an English Bobby's whistle. I not sure how a whistle really stops crime but I'm sure if that didn't work there is always "Stop or I'll say Stop again"

I started with a scrap piece of maple that just happened to be the size I needed. I marked the centers on both sides and drilled a 1/4 in hole  2 inches deep on one side and 2 1/2 inches on the other side. (The difference in the depth give the whistle the different tones.) Next I cut the 90 degree with a coping saw the cut the angle cut down to the 90 cut. To make the whistle work I cut a 1/4 inch dowel an inch long and flattened just the top down the length of the dowel. A lot of how much to take off is trial and error so I would put the dowel into the mouth piece, blow into it and if it didn't work take off a little more. When I got a sound I glued it in place and repeated the process on the other side. Now when gluing, the plug wasn't inserted deeper that the mouth piece so about a half inch will stick out of the whistle. When everything was dry, I cut off the excess plug and then began to shape the whistle. A bit of sanding to finish the shaping and round the rough edges before finishing with some shellac. A word of warning here, there is a good chance that any hard finish may block the little hole in the mouth piece as it dries. So if I had to do it again, I might use some foil to block the hole (hindsight).  To finish it off, I drilled some holes, in the half inch section with no other holes, and super glued a coat hanger loop into them

Saturday, July 21, 2018

Slide of the Month Extra - Shenzhou



 2018

Time to print: 3 hours

Finishing: 1.5 hour

Thingiverse 2013

Design: Craig_H
Modifications:  Bill Macfarlane






Shenzhou is the capsule from Chinese manned space program and translation I like the best is "magic boat". Similar to the Russian Soyuz spacecraft but on a larger in scale. On October 15, 2003  Yang Liwei became the first Chinese astronaut to be launched into space. He orbited the earth 14 before reentry and landing in Inner Mongolia.

Based off a design by  Craig_H, I added a second set of solar panels on the orbital module to more closely resemble the Shenzhou 5 mission. The solar panels are super glued on the craft with a slight rotation. The slide is painted with paint pens and the flag was done using water slide paper.

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Slide of the Month - Liberty Bell



July 2018

Time to make: 4 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

July 1999, page 50

Original design: Will Scarlet






"Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof" is the inscription on the Liberty Bell. And you can find more information on the Liberty Bell at the Nation Park System's web site here or listen to the podcast. Also what to hear what they think the bell sounded like before it cracked (base on computer models)?


I really like this one! Carved from maple this took a long time to carve and even when I was done carving I still felt like I could have done more. I wasn't really sure until I applied some Early American stain to the slide and WOW the feel of the bell came through. I attached a wooden loop and finished it off with a couple of coats of Poly.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

From old to new - Survival kit updated




2018

Time to make: 2 hours


Original design: Bill Macfarlane








So I was thinking, what would I like in a survival kit that could fit inside a neckerchief slide like the one from William Poese. Well I would want a good length of paracord but where to put it? I had seen some pouches done by Stormdrane and decided to make my own survival pouch without the tin.

I started with a whistle buckle for emergency signaling. Next I tied a double wide Dragon Tongue  paracord bracelet. This became the sides of the pouch. The front and the back of the slide used the bracelet for anchor point in a simple basket weave. The loop is also made out of paracord.

  The contents include band-aids, a 2x2 gauze pad, antiseptic ointment, roller gauze, matches, striker, hot spark, cotton,  button compass, folding knife (the key), water purification tablets, fishing line, hooks, foam, flashlight, a needle and safety pins. The paracord, with reflective ribbon, is also a survival tool and can be used in many ways. For example, the strands of paracord can be used to/as;

lash together a shelter
make fishing line or a fishing net
make a snare for small animals
the string in a bow drill to make fire
a string for bow and arrows
make a tourniquet for extreme blood loss
mark your path
create a early warning system along with a can and some stones
thread for sewing repairs
dental floss
replacement shoe laces



Friday, June 1, 2018

Slide of the Month - Survival Kit



June 2018

Time to make: 2 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

March 1963,  page 30

Original design: William Poese








A survival kit in a neckerchief slide! This project has a coat hanger "pack frame" to hold the shape of the pack, a leather pack, and a wooden peg closure. The loop is a strip of leather also sewed to the pack. The contents include band-aids, a 2x2 gauze pad, burn ointment, matches, striker, button compass, folding knife (the key), water purification tablets, fishing line, hooks, bobber, pencil (not shown), and safety pins. The one additional item added, for the time, was a nickel for a payphone call. A side note here, the last nickel public payphone was at Taconic Telephone Company and were retired in 2000.

Monday, May 14, 2018

Slide of the month extra - Steampunk slide


Mid May 2018

Time to design: 2 hours
Time to build: 2 days

Original design: Bill Macfarlane

What if the petrol and electronic eras never happened? Would our society revolved around a steam technology? Steampunk stories revolve around the "alternate version of the historic past, especially 19th-century England, and involving advanced technologies usually based on steam power."
That's the premise of this slide.  

Building this slide was really several ideas coming together has I was building it based on what I had available at the time. I had a old empty CO2 cartridge that I knew would be a part of the slide and I cut it in half. Next I wanted to have a copper boiler so I used a 3/4 inch FPT adapter  and I cut it down to just above where it reduced. I sanded off the part you would normally use a wrench on so it would match the roundness of the area just above it. To have the CO2 cartridge fit inside it took a bit of sanding.  Next I took a 1/4 brass tee and cut off one of the female ends. Next I cupped the rough edge of this piece of brass so it would fit the roundness of the outside of the cooper FPT adapter. I clamped the brass piece and inserted the CO2 cartridge then heated the assembly to solder them together. When it was cool, I threaded the top of the CO2 cartridge so it would accept the core of a tire valve stem which the center was removed. Next I wound a brass rod around pen to form the coil and soldered it to the copper base and inserted the top into the core. The ruby glass is lens from a car indicator light that fits perfectly inside the brass fitting. 

Now to show the glow of the fire, I used a led from a flickering electronic tea light and inserted it into a hole drilled into the copper base. The led is connected to a battery holder and a push button switch.

Now I wanted all the electronics to fit inside the slide and to be able to screw a fitting into the bottom to seal it but that didn't work and the slide was already heavy enough. Rethinking it, I ground out the threads from the inside center so everything would fit inside. The base became a thin walled copper cap with a piece of rubber tube so the that friction fits inside the center. I had a brainstorm regarding hiding the switch and went back to the junk drawer to fine a brass elbow gas fitting. I drilled out the center of the elbow to the size of the switch and broke the bit in the process.  To remove the drill I soaked the elbow in alum and water to dissolve the bit and a day later, with the bit gone, I soldered it to a hole in the cap. I mounted the switch inside the elbow so the button was just outside the fitting. In order to active the switch I added a cap to the end and when the cap is screwed deeply into the threads, it pushes the switch turning on the led.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Slide of the Month - Soyuz spacecraft


May 2018

Time to design: 2 hours
Time to print: 2 hours (your times may vary
Finishing: 2 hour
Original design: Thingiverse
Original designer:manboy
Try it yourself: Soyuz spacecraft










Designed for the Soviet Lunar Space program, the Soyuz spacecraft is still in use today bringing astronauts, cosmonauts, and other guests to the international space station. The Soyuz I printed would have been in flight during the time of the Gemini and Apollo US missions. You can read more about the Soviet manned lunar_program here.The space craft is made up of three part as shown in the diagram below.

Soyuz-TMA parts.jpg
By NASA - http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/soyuz/launch.html http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/112684main_soyuzparts_lg.jpg, Public Domain, Link

Printing this was pretty straight forward but I did and supports for the solar panels and the area around docking mechanism needed a bit of filling with UV glue. As to painting, it seems like there may have been two colors of green paint used on the Soyuz. I went with the darker of two and used a plastic spray paint. For the rest of the painted details, I used paint markers and the markings are done with water slide decal. One thing of note, I did print to a white decal as the clear decal did not show up well with the dark paint.

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Slide of the Month Extra- Home grown slide




April 2017

Time to make: 1 hour (give or take a few years)

Original design: Nature









An old friend once told me "slides don't make themselves", well maybe I had to do some work but there is no way I could have designed this myself.  I was removing some bushes from around my house about a couple of years ago and I noticed the nice contrast in the colors of this wood. Thinking about a different project, I decided to keep a section of the trunk to see what I could do with it. Knowing the wood would have to be completely dry, I set it aside in my garage until this year. When I started to cut the wood up, I was amazed with the patterns I was seeing and these slides were started. Both were cut about 3/4 " of an inch and sanded smooth. I glued a wooden loop to the back and three coats of clear poly later they were ready to wear.

Monday, April 2, 2018

Slide of the Month April 2018 - Diver's Helmet



April 2018

Time to carve: 2 hours

Finishing: 1.5 hour

Boy's Life July, 1976

Design: Wayne Mason








An interesting idea, weigh down a person with a big metal helmet while pumping air down to them. There is pretty good video of an old diving suit out on you tube.

Carved out of Poplar and the grate is made out of regular paper staples. I also used some small nuts super glued to the carving. Its painted with black, rose brass and yellow brass metallic hobby paint





Wednesday, March 14, 2018

Side of the Month Extra - (Carve a face) 70's Scout



March 2018

Time to make: 3 hours

Design Bill Macfarlane

Original concept: Bill Burch








So while I was carving the Bill Burch slide of the month I got an idea. I was a Scout back in the 70's and I thought what if I did a Scout of that era. Complete with the red beret and sunglasses, it is what I might have been wearing at a Camproee or Summer Camp.

First I sketched out the basic design and with another a block of maple, I cut out the profile of the slide. Taking what I learned from the original care-a-face slide I did, the details like the chin turned out much better than the first. I finished the slide up with hobby paint and gave it a couple of coats of poly.




Friday, March 2, 2018

Slide of the Month March 2018- Carve-a-Face



2018

Time to make: 3 hours

Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

April 1975 page 54

Original design: Bill Burch and John Taylor






Bill Burch had been carving bolo slide for years and has been at many Scout functions including National Jamborees. I was told he had tied over 48,000 slide before his death on September 25, 2012.  A fascinating article about him can be found here and a moving video here. It's with honor I try to recreate the Slide of the Month he did for Boy's Life.

Starting with a block of maple, I cut out the profile of this face then turning it on its back, I cut out the outline from the remaining wood. Lots of cuts and wood removal before I could start shaping the slide. Countless breaks to sharpen my knife and then the sanding.Painted with hobby paint and given a couple of coats of poly.


Friday, February 2, 2018

Slide of the month - Voskhod



 February 2018

Time to design: 3 hours
Time to print: 4 hours (your times may vary)
Finishing: 3 hour

Original design: Bill Macfarlane

Try it yourself : Voskhod slide





The Voskhod space capsule was a larger modified version of the Vostok capsule large enough for two cosmonauts. Voskhod 1 was designed as an unmanned mission and Voskhod 2, a manned flight, included a inflatable airlock for the first space walk by Alexey Leonov
The mission almost ended tragically as Alexey space suit ballooned to a point he could not reenter the airlock. Luckily he was able to reach a valve to release some of the air out of his suit so he could get back through the airlock.

Based on the Vostok design by nemilya I was able to modify the model to include the airlock and backup retro engine in Tinkercad. To my knowledge this is the only model of the Voskhod ready for printing on a 3D printer. It was printed on the same SeeMeCNC Orion printer I did the Vostok on because I could not seem to get a good print on the Ultimaker 2. The green is spray paint and the top and bottom is silver craft paint. The inflatable airlock is painted with a white paint pen 

Friday, January 12, 2018

...and speaking of stamps- Stamp shadow boxish



January 2018

Time to make: I lost track of time (I was having so much fun)

Original design: Bill Macfarlane

Years ago I saw a wonderful book that had been cut around illustrations in the book and layered together to form a piece of art. I though to myself recently that this same process would make some great slides so I went looking for pictures of Scouting stamps. I enlarged the pictures to the size I wanted the finished slide to be and made several copies of the image. Using an old 1993 Almanac we were throwing away, I pulled out several pages to about a 1/8 inch thickness. I coated the edges these pages with some Mod Podge and left it overnight to dry. The next day I cut out the images of stamps and glued them to the pages. Using a band saw I carefully cut out the images and pages into their shapes.  Once again using Mod Podge, I sealed the outside edges let it dry over night. Now here is the interesting part. With an x-acto knife, I cut away the background of the stamp leaving just the frame and the principle parts. The first stamp above, for example, I cut away everything but the frame, the Explorer Scout (saluting), the Boy Scout, and the Cub Scout.
I did this through all the layers of the paper pages. Once done I coated the inside of the areas I cut with Mod Podge and let it dry over night. Taking another block of the same image, I repeated the process but this time I only left the frame,  Boy Scout and the Cub Scout.
Mod Podge to the inside cut surfaces and set this one aside to dry. The third block left only the frame,  the Cub Scout  and Mod Podge treatment.
The forth block had everything cut away but the frame and more Mod Podge.
I also took this opportunity to  Mod Podge around the part I removed to give me a solid piece to cut out the Scout symbol. I cut half the Scout symbol out and then Mod Podged.
When dry I cut the other side of the symbol and applied Mod Podge to this side.

 The next day, I painted the inside edges of each with some black paint. When the the paint was dry,  I started with the another block that had nothing cut from it and glued the first block to it using the Scouts and frame as my guide to alignment. For the third layer, I glued the second block, the one with only the Boy Scout and the Cub Scout, to the first and bottom block. The forth layer was the Cub Scout block and the final layer was the frame block. When the glue dried I trued up the sides and the painted the sides. To finish the slide I glued a loop to the back and gave the slide a couple of coats of poly.

I enjoyed making the US Boy Scouts Stamps and even the stamp of the first and only Chief Citizen Scout.



***NOTE: Editorial comment ahead ***
Some might notice I have not include the 2010 Scouting stamp.
 I don't consider the stamp to be a representation of the Boy Scouts of America.


Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Slide(s) of the month - Stamps


January 2018

Time to make: 1 hour

 Boys Life "Slide of the Month"

"Button 'N' Things" May 1959, page 58
Kenneth Damm

"Postage Stamp" July 1987, page 56
Robert Schleicher

"Stamp" May 1978, page 67
Wayne Mason



When I was a Scout, Stamp Collecting Merit Badge was a very popular merit badge to earn during the cold days and nights of winter. Now when you combine two hobbies, (a philatelsideist?), the results can be stunning. 

The first stamp, a 1929 1 cent Ben Franklin, is mounted on a coat button. The loop is a coat hanger which the ends are glued into the holes of the button. But more on this slide later...

 The middle slide is made using wooden knob with  a 3/4 inch eye screw, to form the loop, screwed into the knobb.  The stamp is a 1939 "50th Anniversary of Statehood" for Washington, Montana, North and South Dakota 

The last stamp is mounted on a thin piece of 1/8 inch painted plywood with a wooden loop glued to the back. When is a stamp not a stamp? Well when I was researching this stamp I discovered the Republik Maluku Seltan I have is a private issue stamp with no postal value. Henry Stolow, a stamp dealer in New York, Munich and Berlin, had many stamps of "doubtful validity" created with deliberate printing errors and overprints. In addition he also involved in creating many fake stamps for the Indonesian Maluku Islands as an independent nation.




 Originally, the "Buttons 'N' Things" slide showed a picture of the coat button with macaroni letters spelling out

Pack 3
Den 2

Well, I'm out of macaroni letters but have a couple of other items mentioned in the article which could be mounted on coat buttons. Besides a stamp, a small radio tube and electronic parts were also mentioned as something interesting for a slide. I decided to mount a nixie tube