November 18, 2009—Who is doing anything to get kids interested in building things and introducing them to the manufacturing trades? The Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation is. We just added a link to their web site at www.nutsandboltsfoundation.org to the LINKS page. Check out this page for other links to items of interest to craftsmen as well.

November 12, 2009—You may have looked at Fred Heim's 1/2 scale wooden construction equipment and Peterbilt truck in the Mechanical Woodworking Projects section. He recently retired as a boat builder and spent the summer cruising the waters of Florida in the 31' fantail launch Rachel H that he built for him and his wife to enjoy in retirement. Well, "retirement" doesn't mean Fred has stopped building things. Now he has started working on model boats. Photos of the first of his efforts has been added to his page.

November 9, 2009—Polish artist in metal, Szymon Klimek just donated one of his finest pieces for display in the Vista Craftsmanship Museum. After a nervous wait by both Szymon and us, UPS delivered the delicate 1835 Adler locomotive this morning. It made the trip half way around the world without a problem, testifying both to the fact that the delicate art must be stronger than it looks and also to Szymon's extra careful packaging. It is now on display for our visitors, a significant addition to the museum's fine projects in metal. You can learn more about it on Szymon's page or by going to the Other Projects on Display page.

October 27, 2009—The two new model airplane engines mentioned below have now been added to the Other Engine Manufacturers page. Both Russian engines are from the "Cold War Era," and they are both still new in the box. The engines were kindly donated by Richard T. Mack of Fallbrook, CA.

October 23, 2009—Today was a good day for donations. First we received two interesting model airplane engines from Richard Mack. They are both Russian made models from the "Iron Curtain" era of the 1950's and are new in the box. One is a small CO₂ engine and the other is a 1-cylinder, 2-cycle. UPS also brought a heavy box from Michael Molitsky containing 55 back issues of the NAWCC bulletin filling in all the holes in our collection from 1974 to present. We now only need issues older than #176. Our thanks to Mr. Mack and Mr. Molitsky for your generous donations.

October 20, 2009—A new engraver and miniature gunsmith has just been added to the museum. Links to Damien Connolly's page can be found from both the engraving and gunsmithing sections, because he fits into both categories. Be sure to examine the talented Australian's tiny 1/5 scale Kentucky long rifle. It is made in a scale much smaller than is usually attempted for a miniature gun. There is also a great photo series of how a very delicate brass inlay is created for the lid of a very fancy display box for a rare revolver.

October 20, 2009—Xu Yan, the gunsmith from China has added a new miniature mortar to his weapons collection.

October 1, 2009—I-Wei Huang has amazed and entertained the robot world with his steam punk robots. Now his small, bug-like swashbots made from R/C helicopter swash plates have gotten some attention in the national media from Discovery Channel to magazines like Popular Science, Popular Mechanics and Make. See his page for links or watch this YouTube video.

September 25, 2009—William Gould has won awards in the past for his 3D CAD renderings. Nine new renderings of a steam engine and several historic racecars were just added to the bottom of his page. Using SolidWorks, Bill has created a look of total reality in his renderings.

September 21, 2009—Although visitors to the on-line museum can see work of many superb craftsmen from around the world, the physical museum in Vista, California has some unique individual displays that have been donated or are on loan. A new page in the on-line museum describes some of these other exhibits so those who can't make it in person to the museum can see what the visitors see. If you can stop by the Vista museum, you can examine these items in detail.

September 21, 2009—Miniature gun maker Antonio Rincón of Columbia has just submitted photos and a description of his latest work in 1/3 scale—a Le grand nécessaire d'armes boxed rifle and pistol set. These have been added to the bottom of the "Pistols and Rifles" section of his page.

September 15, 2009—Toy Farmer Magazine for September, 2009 featured Jerry Kieffer's John Deere tractor model in an article on scratch built farm toys. His is far from a "toy" and the only one of the lot that actually has a running engine. CLICK HERE to see a high quality PDF version of the article or go to Jerry's page on the 1936 John Deere "D" Tractor model for more details.

September 4, 2009—Several new engine photos have been added to the age of award-winning Indian model engineer Iqbal Ahmed. He has recently completed a live steam 0-6-0 tank engine in 45 mm scale—a reduced size version of his Indian Glory engine. He also sent a photo of a Wetzel twin-cylinder stationary engine and will soon follow with photos of a Stirling engine he built after attending the NAMES show in Toledo, OH and seeing such engines in action there.

September 2, 2009—Since there is no rule that says the Foundation is limited to one achievement award each year, a second Special Achievement Award is being presented to Szymon Klimek of Poznań, Poland for the unique combination of engineering and art found in his tiny brass sculptures. He is being sent an award certificate and engraved gold medallion along with a cash award of $500.00. Szymon is the second recipient of an achievement award this year, with Lou Chenot having received the first at the NAMES show in April for his work on the 1/6 scale Duesenberg. Szymon has mentioned that he intends to donate one of his creations for display in the Vista, CA Craftsmanship Museum, so hopefully visitors in the USA will soon be able to enjoy his work first-hand.

August 30, 2009—Word was just received from the family of engine designer Jerry Howell that he passed away unexpectedly on August 29th. A link to the funeral home web site is posted on his web page at www.craftsmanshipmuseum.com/Howell.htm. More details will be available on that page as funeral plans are finalized. The passing of Jerry is a great loss to the model engineering community, as his plans and kits were a source of well designed and documented projects for many builders. He was not only a superb craftsman himself, but he shared freely of his knowledge and expertise as well. We particularly regret that he did not live to see the completion and first running of the Foundation's Howell V-4 engine, which is very near ready for final assembly.

August 17, 2009—Australian model engineer Ross Bishop has been building live steam engines since he was a  young lad. His latest is a 2-8-0 "Standard Goods" locomotive that runs as good as it looks. Some of his other projects are shown as well on his new page. It is linked from the "Model Engineering—Steam" page.

August 17, 2009—Two new photos of progress on Ron Colonna's Novi V-8 were added to his page.

July 22, 2009—After attending the Western Engine Model Exhibition in Vallejo, CA last weekend, we returned in our van with another 40 superb pieces from Paul Knapp' collection. These include all four of Lee Root's engines, a Ferrari V-12, two turbojet engines, a patented swash-plate 4-cylinder Stirling and many other very interesting engines. These have now been added to the museum display. Photography is now being completed and by tomorrow we should have photos of each new engine on the engine collection page of this web site.

July 9, 2009—Our thanks to Jerry Kieffer for donating 139 back issues of the NAWCC Bulletin to the museum library. We are still missing issues 1 through 188 plus 41 others since 1977, but we do have 156 issues from 1977 to date. The issues we are missing are: 1-188, 190-217, 244, 262, 265-267, 277, 281, 284, 287, 290, 301, 323 and 347. The most recent issue is number 380 for June, 2009.

July 9, 2009—Antonio Rincón of Columbia has created his newest miniature weapon, a flintlock hunting shotgun after a design by Joseph Manton. See his page for six new photos of this miniature weapon plus more on his other outstanding work.

July 2, 2009—Jerry Howell has designed a new hit-n-miss engine called the Farm Boy. See a photo of the new engine at the bottom of the page on Jerry. Plans for the engine are available from Jerry. Five new photos of progress on the Howell V4 engine project were also added to that page.

June 24, 2009—A second craftsman in two days has been added to the Unusual Projects page. Randy Boni carves intricate and lifelike animal and human figures from old logs using the unlikely instrument of a chainsaw. What might seem like a tool of destruction becomes an tool of creation in the hands of an expert artist. Randy is the 78th to be featured in the on-line museum.

June 23, 2009—A new addition to the recently introduced Unusual Projects page, GarE Maxton is a maker of very challenging puzzles. The precision machined metal objects are made up of many interlocking pieces of various metals, finishes and patinas and make an attractive desk sculpture when assembled. He has been building a worldwide following for these limited edition pieces for several years, and they are....well, unusual! Check out his new page.

June 18, 2009—Though several years late, some photos of the heat treating process used to case harden the cam on the Seal engine were added to the Seal Engine Build Page. They were shot April 13, 2007 by Larry Simon as Tom and Pam hardened the cam.

June 17, 2009—Four new photos of progress on the Howell V4 engine were added. Tom has completed the valve lifters and wrist pins, plus he has test-installed the pistons (without rings) and rods to make sure there are not binding problems.

June 2, 2009—Australian Harold Manwaring is featured in the woodworking section as a model engineer who built a running steam locomotive entirely from wood. Now he has completed a Tubal Cain designed walking beam stationary steam engine in wood as well. See 15 new photos that have just been added to his page on this fine wooden steam engine.

May 28, 2009—Maurice Nysether started making engines at age 73. Now 90, he has sold a few but retains about a dozen or so running internal combustion engines that he takes to shows and fires up whenever possible. Since he lives only a few miles from our museum in nearby San Marcos, CA, he was able to bring his engines by for us to photograph and to learn a little more about this interesting World War II veteran B-17 bombardier.

May 27, 2009—The Howell V4 engine project is coming along nicely. Tom has completed the fan, pulleys and oil pump, and Larry Simon has built a number of special tools needed to assemble the engine. See the photo updates of all the new parts.

May 7, 2009—Today, a new section and two new people were added to the museum. The "Unusual Projects" page features craftsmanship that is a little different--tiny arrowheads, a giant temple model, art crafted with a chainsaw and more. Expect the unexpected, but also be inspired by some truly gifted craftsmen who don't follow the usual path. Two new people are introduced through this section today as well: Szymon Klimek of Poland crafts brass objects that could be called jewelry, art or model engineering--you decide. In addition, we introduce Alec Gerrard of England who spent over 30 years of his life building a giant 1:100 model of Herod's temple on his farm, and he's still not done.

May 7, 2009—The Home Shop Machinist magazine, May/June 2009 devoted a two-page spread to honoring the selection of Richard Carlstedt as the Foundation's 2009 Metalworking Craftsman of the Year. Scans of several magazine articles in addition to this one have been added to his page. There is also coverage on Sherline's page devoted to the 2009 NAMES show where Richard received his award.

May 5, 2009—Fred Heim's latest boat project, the Rachel H has now been launched in Florida at the Mt. Dora Boat Show and is ready to be returned for a summer on the Charles River while Fred and his wife enjoy his one themselves. Photos of the launch in Florida close out that section of his page. Also, three new photos of the latest progress on Lou Chenot's Duesenberg taken at the NAMES show were added.

April 29, 2009—A very rare Lee .51 (one of seven made) was just donated to the Craftsmanship Museum by Jerry Nelson and is now on display as part of the vintage model airplane engine collection. In addition, Roger Ronnie's finely engraved brass watchmaking tools, the Verge Twister and the Oil Reservoir are now on display in the Vista, CA museum along with an explanation of what they are used for. A photo of the display was added to Roger's page on watch and clock tools.

April 27, 2009—Sixteen new photos have been added to the page of Spanish motorcycle model builder Pere Tarrago. He recently completed a vintage BMW R2 that is worth taking a look at. Also included is a link to a brief history of the original bike.

April 18, 2009—At the North American Model Engineering Society (NAMES) Expo in Toledo, Ohio, Craig presented the award for Metalworking Craftsman of the Year to Richard Carlstedt. Also winning a Lifetime Achievement Award was Louis Chenot from Joplin, MO for his work on a 1/6 scale Duesenberg. Each is featured on this web site, so check out their updated pages with photos of the awards.

April 14, 2009—Sadly, Robert Washburn passed away yesterday. Robert and his wife Frances were the founders of Strictly IC magazine, which for years was the only publication specializing in model internal combustion engines. Robert and Frances were the co-winners of a Lifetime Achievement award from the Joe Martin Foundation in 2007 for their work in expanding the hobby of engine building.

March 21, 2009—The Vista Craftsmanship Museum was opened at 10 AM for a special Saturday tour by the Southern California Home Shop Machinists club. Members came from as far as Los Angeles and Palmdale for this club gathering to see our exhibits. Thirty-three members signed into our guestbook, although there were a few more than that in attendance. The 2-1/2 hour special opening included a tour of the Sherline factory for 21 of the guests. Present from the Foundation were Joe Martin, Tom Boyer, Larry Simon, Pam Weiss and Craig Libuse.

March 19, 2009—Scotty Hewitt was Joe Martin's race car driving instructor, and Joe got Scotty set up with a miniature machine shop and a few tips to get him started. It was a good trade for each of them. This page details Scotty's model engineering success, including his marine steam engine and two CO₂ race cars that won the Sherline Machinist's Challenge contest in Detroit three years running.

March 7th, 2009 was our best attended Saturday to date. Visiting the museum were the Airheads BMW Motorcycle Club and the Poway Cruisers Hotrod club in addition to several walk-in visitors. It was a very satisfying turnout with over 37 people signed into the guest register for the day.

March 5, 2009—A link to Make Magazine was added to the Links page, and four new photos of the V4 engine build progress were added to the Howell V4 page. Tom has completed the camshaft blanks, pushrods, pushrod clevises and installed the intake manifold.

February 17, 2009—Ron Guttu's father George raced an Offy-powered IMCA dirt track car back in the 1930's. Ron found an old photo of it and built a 1/4 scale model of the car with a running Offenhauser engine, right down to molding the knobby tires himself. Although a lifelong auto mechanic, he had never built a model of this level of difficulty before. Take a look at this fine auto as you learn a little more about how it came into being in Ron's shop.

February 6, 2009—New photos have been added to Jerry Kieffer's page on the 1/8 scale Harley Davidson to show the clutch cable and one of the first wheel spokes. New photos were also added to the bottom of the Seal Engine page to show the new cooling tank Tom is in the process of building.

February 5, 2009—Leroy M. Cox may have introduced more kids to model flying than any other person. At one point Cox Manufacturing was making over 1 million engines a year. Their products were featured for years in the Flight Circle in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in the 1950's and 1960's. He was a quality oriented manufacturer who also had a great sense of marketing. Read his story in the section on Production Model Engines.

February 4, 2009—Master miniature gunsmith Michel Lefaivre recently sent photos of his latest project, a 2/5 scale Navy Luger pistol. They have been added to his page along with a link to a magazine article where he describes how the miniature pistol was made. Be sure to check out both the article, which has black and white photos plus the color versions in the "Photos" section at the end of the page. The rich detail can be much better appreciated in the color images.

February 4, 2009—For those of you visiting the museum in person, we have added the physical address and GPS coordinates of the facility to the home page and the "Call Us" page that also features a location map.

January 29, 2009—Although we don't know the individual craftsmen's names, we still treasure the miniature cars they produced. Auto manufacturers in the early part of the automotive era sometimes had their pattern or design shop build miniature versions of their product line to attract attention at auto shows. Now treasured collectibles, we have tried to uncover a little about he cars and how they were made. Paul Bundy's 1/4 scale 1921 Marmon Coupe inspired the page, but we also show some of the others that have turned up.

January 26, 2009—Jerry Brown has sent us a write-up of how he got interested in building steam projects called The Making of a Model Engineer. It has been added to his page. In addition, five new photos of Fred Heim's fantale launch were added to the very end of his page. It is very near its first showing at an East Coast boat show in min-February.

January 16, 2009—New photos of highly decorated miniature rifles and pistols have been added to the page of Antonio Rincon. The Rigby 4-barreled pistol is now shown after being engraved, and the very ornate Boutet carbine and dueling pistols are shown all together.

January 14, 2009—Jerry Brown always loved watching an expert maneuver a giant steam crane. Knowing it would be impractical to buy one of his own, he decided to make one in 1/6 scale. Even at 1/6 size that's a large project. (The 60' real boom is still 10' long in scale.) The completed crane is a powerful workhorse that has been put to the test many times. See Jerry's page for how he went about building this big steam project.

December 19, 2008—Richard Carlstedt has been selected as winner of the Joe Martin Foundation "Metalworking Craftsman of the Year" award. See Richard's page for details on the 13th winner of the foundation's top award. See the Awards page for an explanation of the award itself. Richard will be presented with the actual award medallion and a check for $2000.00 at the NAMES Expo in Toledo, Ohio April 18-19, 2009.

December 11, 2008—A local North County (San Diego) newspaper called The Community Paper did a nice article on the Craftsmanship Museum that brought in a lot of attention and a number of local visitors. It will be archived for viewing on-line for the next four years at http://www.thecommunitypaper.com/archive/2008/12_11/index.php. Our thanks to editor Lyle Davis for the nice free plug.

December 4, 2008—A sensational model steam engine has attracted a lot of attention in the model engineering community recently. Richard Carlstedt of Green Bay, WI built a working model of the recently recovered engine from the civil war ironclad ship Monitor. Beautifully done in great detail, it is the first correct working model of the engine and a worthy tribute to the famous ship. Years of research went into building it, as no plans were ever found. Richard has also built other beautiful steam models and all are featured on his new page in the Model Engineering (Steam) section of the museum.

November 19, 2008—Updates: Five new photos of work in progress on the carburetor and crankshaft have been added to the page on the Howell V-4 engine project. Four new photos of Fred Heim's full size mahogany fantail launch have been added to his site. The new web site address for Wm. Dubin's mechanamorphic sculptures has been added to his page.

October 17, 2008—A significant development in the history of model engines was the development of the glow plug ignition. Ray Arden is credited with that discovery in the 1940's. He also produced a line of engines that were popular after World War II. A biography of Ray has been included in the Model Engine Developers section. At this time we have not been able to locate any photos of Ray, so if you have any in your archives, please submit them for inclusion in this article.

October 14, 2008—Though donated two weeks ago, I just finished making a maple display base for this engine, which reminded me to thank the donor, Robert Meltzer of Irvine, CA. He sent in a very nice MVVS 2.5 cc (.15 cu. in) diesel model airplane engine with prop. The engine was made in Czechoslovakia in the 1960's or so and is popular with vintage style flyers. We didn't have any diesels in our vintage model airplane engine collection (other that the tiny ones on display as part of Paul Knapp's collection) so this was a welcome addition. Our thanks to all of you who are helping the museum a more impressive place to visit every week. (CLICK HERE to see the engine or visit the OTHER ENGINES page.)

October 9, 2008—Due to many requests from people who cannot come during regular weekday work hours, the Vista Craftsmanship Museum is going to be open the first Saturday of each month from 9 AM to 3 PM until further notice. Continuing the program will depend on attendance. If the first Saturday occurs on a holiday weekend, we will be open the second Saturday for that month. New Year's Day this year is on a Thursday, so we will not consider that a holiday weekend. Therefore, our first three Saturdays will be November 1st, December 6th and January 3rd, 2009. As on weekdays, admission on Saturday is also free. CLICK HERE for directions.

September 30, 2008—Two significant donations were added to the museum this week. First, Rex Geivett of Oceanside, CA came by and left five of his fine steam engines on "permanent loan" for display. The next day Donald Holcomb of San Diego, CA donated two WWII era model airplane engines: A K&B "Infant Torpedo" .020 and an Arden .099. These are now on display and photos have been added to the appropriate pages devoted to builders of early model airplane engines. The Infant can be seen on John Brodbeck's page for K&B engines. Since Arden is not covered in the manufacturer's section, a new page for "Other Engines" was added to cover the Arden and any future unclassified engines.

September 23, 2008—Australian woodworker Harold Manwaring is featured in the "Mechanical Wooden Projects" section for the unique all-wood working steam locomotive that runs on compressed air. He is also an excellent wood turner, and we have just added photos of several of his other turning projects to his page.

September 15, 2008—We have featured people in the past who model construction equipment in wood, but never someone who works in this scale. While most go small, home contractor and boat builder Fred Heim takes his hobby to extremes by working at 1/2 size. Take a look at his running diesel powered 1/2 size Peterbilt truck, drop-deck trailer and Caterpillar construction equipment. Be sure to view the Google video link too. Though technically "miniature," these pieces offer a real modeling challenge.

September 3, 2008—Miniature motorcycle builder Pere Tarragó has just completed a new model in 1/5 scale and sent photos of his Benelli 250 Quatro G.P. These photos have been added to his page. An additional comment about Dick McCoy's brother Mike was added to his page as well.

August 27, 2008—The newest addition to the museum is Polish aircraft modeler Andrzej Ziober. Looking at the detail in his models you would not suspect from the photos that they are built to such a small scale—1/72! After getting a PhD., Andrzej gave up a promising career as a scientific researcher to build models full time and has been doing so for over 30 years. In that time he has competed in every major model contest throughout Europe and never failed to win 1st place. This is an amazing record, and when you see his models you will understand why he was awarded one of Poland's highest aviation awards...the first model maker to receive it.

August 15, 2008—An article appeared in Fine Scale Modeler on Young Park's second Corsair. The September 2008 issue of FSM features a belated article on Young's P-51. Both articles have been scanned and linked from Young's page. The links are just above the photo section.

July 30, 2008—The winner of the 2008 Young Artisan's Scholarship Award was announced today. Benjamin Roth of Elgin, ND was awarded a $5000.00 scholarship toward his first year at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, where he will begin as a freshman in the Fall semester of 2008. Details on the scholarship program can be found by clicking on the link above.

July 28, 2008—The additional 50 display pieces (48 engines, a radial engine casting and a miniature tachometer) brought back from the WEME show have now been added to the other 51 engines and objects already on display as part of the Paul and Paula Knapp collection. This is such a major addition to the museum we have added Paul's name to the masthead on the opening page of the on-line museum. See the updated page linked above for photos of these additional pieces. However, to fully appreciate the quality and variety of this collection, you really must visit the museum in person. It is our intent to make this a "must see" destination for anyone interested in model engineering who is visiting Southern California, and the addition of this collection certainly has us headed in the right direction.

July 22, 2008—Joe Enriquez has completed another of his highly detailed 1/87 scale trucks. Take a look at the Mack HWSC water truck that was just added to the bottom of his page.

July 21, 2008—The Joe Martin Foundation was represented by Craig Libuse at the Western Engine Model Exhibition (WEME) held in Vallejo, CA July 19th and 20th. Also at the show was engine collector Paul Knapp. He displayed 50 of the engines from his collection. At the end of the show, they were packed up and returned in the Sherline van to be added to the 51 his engines already on display in the Vista museum. Even if you've been by to see the first part of his collection, it is worth a return trip to see these additions. As soon as they can be photographed and added to his page, we will get them up there. To see the ones already on display, CLICK HERE.

July 7, 2008—A new craftsman has been added to the Clock Making section. Ray Bates is know as "The British Clockmaker" in his home town of Newfane, Vermont. He is originally from England, and is a master at restoring old clocks to their original glory. He also shares an interest in music boxes and "Automata." Be sure to visit his new section, where you can learn about his work and see some samples of his restorations.

July 2, 2008—A "Mystery Project" has been added near the bottom of the home page. Can you identify it or the craftsman who made it?

June 6, 2008—Tom is nearing completion on the radiator on the Howell V-4 project. Five new photos of it in various stages of production were just added to the page on that build.

June 5, 2008—Craig and Tom were invited to speak before the Ocean Hills senior community woodworking club in Vista, CA. About 75 members attended the meeting, many of them retired engineers and professionals and all interested in craftsmanship. Many club members signed up to take a tour of the Craftsmanship Museum in the near future. We thank them for the opportunity to talk about the foundation and show off some of the exhibits. See the PRESS page for a photo from the event.