There are many things to buy in our hobby that will make a big dent in your wallet as well as straining domestic relations. But when I bought my first RC kit years ago the dealer showed me how to reverse the halves of a wooden spring clothes pin to give it a longer reach. You just remove the spring, shift the wooden pins back-to-back, turn the spring around and reassemble it. The only problem these days is that it is getting hard to find quality wooden pins.

Dsegal,
Great tip. Thanks!!

Ken

excellent tip, but be careful... clothes pins can be quite strong, so they can actually dent softer woods.....

i have used them and glued a lat piece of ply on the end to spread the pressure out a bit.....

I'm an ol' clothespin user myself, but I never though about reversing them. [sm=thumbup.gif]

Thanks for the tip.

FBD.

That's an oldie but a goodie.

I have an old airplane building book that describes the use of clothespins-it shows a bunch of variations, reversing the sides and etc, but also shows some with added extensions using popcycle sticks, straight away as extentions, right angle, 45 angle, all sorts of specialty applications. Those were the days when you made do with what was at hand. They work as well or better than a basket full of spring clamps.

I get 'em by the bagfull from the laundry aisle at any old Kroger or Wally-World. Probably any large grocery chain will have the things. Yes the quality isn't what it used to be, but at these prices you can toss the jukers.

I found them at the 99 cent store. We use them for frequency pins where
I fly. (low tech).

FBD.

FBD Could you elaborate on using them for frequency pins? Into low tech and thus far the club does not have a freq. board. Been under discussion for last 2 years!

I was taught this tip by my father(old school of ambroid[:'(])lol. The other thing was to epoxy a piece of scrap thin ply out at the ends to make them wider and less prone to indent areas of balsa you are clamping

For the lowest tech clothes pin frequency pins, simply write the frequency on one end of the clothes pin. Then it can be either on the board - when the frequency isn't being used - or clipped on to the Tx handle when the frequency is being used. If the frequency pin of your radio isn't on the board it means that you should not turn on your Tx as that frequency is being used already. A step above that is to make a square plate and glue this on to one end of the pin and on this plate have the frequency number printed, etc.

Newc, our club does the opposite, if you want to use a frequency you must clip your pin (with your name on it) to the frequency board prior to turning on the transmitter. This solves the problem of lost pins, not knowing who is using the frequency etc. Much better than having to obtain a pin and put it on your transmitter.

One club I belonged to used that system. You learn to keep track of your pin. No pin, no fly.

That's a clever tip! How much does a bag/box of clothes pins cost and how many in a bag/box?

Our club issues a field pass each year, after you show your AMA card and pay your dues. The color also changes every year. For general flying you clip your field pass on the frequency board. For formal events we issued registered flyers a numbered clothes pin and have "fancy" numbered pins on the board. When the flyer gets his transmitter, he gets the frequency pin and his clothes pin is put on the board. That way we know who has what frequency pin out.

I learned the trick of reversing the pieces when I started in the 70s. But now just what do you to with the ones that are only spilt and have the round knob on top. To find you good ones you might search Ebay. Clothes Pins, Vintage, NIB.