Jim Byrnes, the owner
and brains behind Model Machines LLC, began building models over 40 years ago - the first one
was a plastic kit which his father gave him at age 5. His first wooden ship - also from
his Dad - was of 'Charles W. Morgan', and that model sits in his Dad's Living Room today.
Jim is currently working on ship #15 - a scratch build of "Old Ironsides", the USS Constitution,
as she was launched in the fall of 1797.
When Jim made the transition
from kits to scratch building, he very quickly realized that he needed a different "kind" of tool,
manufactured to a higher specification, and capable of much finer work, than those he had been
using to build kits. He was able to buy sanders, but what he really needed - and immediately -
was a small, precision saw. Many of the ones on the market at the time were plastic, and most
would not cut to the tolerances he needed. With a 25 year career as a machinist, Jim thought
"I can build a better mousetrap."
He started designing with AutoCAD, and the first plans took him six months to complete. Then Jim moved the project into his machine shop - he worked nights perfecting his first 4" Table Saw, and that took another six months. At the end of a year of planning, design and testing, Jim had what he calls "the perfect saw" - one that is accurate to 1/1000th of an inch. 
As most modelers do, Jim likes to talk about what he's doing, and the word started to
get around that Jim could engineer precision equipment that just wasn't available anywhere
else. His first product was a precision Draw Plate, but when modelers
heard about his saw, Jim started receiving e-mails asking if he was selling them. Pretty soon,
he had 25 orders ... then 50 ... and Model Machines LLC was born.
The next major milestone was a rave review of the saw posted by Phil Krol on the Model Shipwrights web site ... and more orders came in ... Today, Jim has a dedicated workshop where each table saw and thickness sander is manufactured and assembled by hand, one at a time, and thoroughly tested before shipment. Jim says his background in the Laser industry probably explains why he strives for such close tolerances and insists on such high standards in making his saws and sanders. "I aim for perfection in everything I do in my daily job - and in my own shop, it's no different," he says - then adds, "This is what I do ..." |
Telephone407.657.4663 Jim Byrnes |
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