Wordless Wednesday #487 - New Year, New Tools & Ready for 2025!

A Few Words about Wordless Wednesday #381 - and an Unboxing!

Wow - I'm really starting off 2022 with a bang, posting-wise. Talk about feast or famine! Well, I don't expect I'll be able to sustain this pace, but for now I have a lot to post about so want to try and catch up while I can...

I always love seeing what Santa brought folks - and often see things I didn't know existed and sometimes get some cool ideas. So here's a few quick words about what I got (railroad/layout-wise) for Christmas. . . starting from the top . . .

• Those two block-looking things at the top of the photo are, actually, blocks. 1-2-3 blocks, to be precise (see what I did there?) and they're great for assembling structures.
• At the top corners are some much-needed packages of foliage from Heki. This stuff makes excellent brambles and general brush along the ROW. Even though I'm not a huge fan of doing scenery, I AM a huge fan of collecting every type of scenery material I can.
• What's Christmas without books? Although my layout design days are (probably) behind me (for the time being, at least), like many in the hobby I always enjoy a bit of daydreaming - and little jewel layouts, and imagining how I can fit them in various/sundry rooms, are definite dream fodder.
• And speaking of books - who gets Volume 2 of a set? Someone who already has Volumes 1 and 3, that's who. These books from Bob's Photo are always great sources of prototype information and inspiration. And now this set is complete!
• Those masonite looking things to the left are actually sidewalks that I plan to use in Middletown...
• And the pastels to the right were recommended by Lou Sassi in his "HO Layout for Beginners" Sure, I have a lot of pastels already, but who am I to ignore Lou's advice?

Oh - and I almost forgot that funny tube-looking thing under the blocks from Nicpro . . . Turns out, that contained a full set of micro paint brushes(!) So here's the promised unboxing . . .

These brushes are very cool - and if they're as good as their packaging/presentation, they should work really well for detail & figure painting. Can't wait to try them out!

So, what'd Santa bring YOU for Christmas?

Tuesday Tool Tip - Toolchest Top

Earlier this month, while in the middle of my (partial) deck rebuild, I still made a little time to make a top for my tool chest.

I use a little 3-drawer chest to hold the most common tools I need on the layout and it typically goes on top of a larger, roll-around chest of drawers I used around the layout (be sure to click here to see what I'm talking about). The only downside is that the top isn't all that sturdy - especially when I put a bunch of stuff on it.

So I decided to use a piece of scrap plywood and some scrap strip wood to make a sturdier top, along with little "guardrails" to keep things from falling off. I traced the top onto the plywood, cut it out with a saber saw, and glued the stripwood on. After the glue dried, I spray painted the whole thing with gloss white spray paint.

Then it was just a simple matter of squeezing out a large bead of construction adhesive around the perimiter...

... and centering the plywood on top, pressing & weighting it down to cure.

Not only does this make the top of an otherwise sorta flimsy chest much more sturdy, it makes the entire thing more rigid.

The Wednesday forecast is looking great - which is to say, rainy - so it's perfect for getting down into the basement for some long-overdue layout time. And I'll get to see how this whole thing actually works out!

Tuesday Tool: Hot Foam Cutter

One of the things I got this past Christmas was this cool foam cutter:

I have a Woodland Scenics hot wire foam cutter on loan, but it only has the thin wire which takes forever and isn't easy to control precisely. Also, ever since my and Bill's excellent adventure with a big hot knife foam cutter over 3 1/2 years ago, I wanted something a little less - um - dangerous.

So, it was time to get my own tool which includes the best of both worlds. On to the "unboxing"!

There are two trays of attachments. Here's the top tray....

... and here's the bottom tray, which includes extra wire and a stand.

It comes with two rods which will allow you to cut foam like you can with a hot knife, but since they're not as thick they won't create as much fumes.

And here's the hot wire attachment - similar to the WS tool.

Other than the versatility of the attachments, the other two features I really like over the WS model are the on/off switch (the WS model requires you to press and hold a slide switch to energize the wire), and the fact that the attachments are so easy to change - just pull one out and press/snap the other one in.

Here I did a little test over by the Middletown Meat Packing area . . .

I really like using a hot foam cutting tool over a steak knife or rasp (ugh!). All those little statically-charged foam shavings drive me nuts and get all over the place. But with a tool like this, the only thing you have to worry about are the fumes - and the size of wire/rod is small enough that not as many fumes are generated.

At under $30 ($10 less than the WS model), it's inexpensive enough to give it a try. And if you do, , be sure to let me know how you like it.

Monday "Modeling" - PanPastel display/storage

As I mentioned in my last post, one of the things I got for Christmas was this cool Pan Pastel storage rack from Motrak Models . . .

It comes in kit form as pieces of laser-cut Masonite. So while it's not a railroad kit per se, I think putting any sort of kit together qualifies as "modeling" - at least a little bit.

So follow along as I put it together - start to finish took less than 30 minutes. . .

Here are all the parts laid out. In addition to what comes in the kit, you'll want a sturdy, flat surface to work on, some wax paper, clamps, and - of course - wood glue.

I have a large piece of plate glass on-hand that I like to use as well. It's certainly not required, but is handy for creating a surface which is perfectly flat. Bonus: it also protects my nice wood table.

Might be overkill, given the glass, but I went ahead and added some wax paper on top. The paper alone would probably be sufficient protection for whatever surface you're using.

First thing I did was lay out the parts. The instructions claim everything goes together only one way, and they're right. You really can't mess up. But one thing to note - especially if, like me, you plan to glue both back parts together along their common edge - is to make sure the bottom piece is oriented correctly. Note the alignment of the bottom slots/tabs in the pic above. Not right.

This is more like it. The orientation of all the other parts is dictated by the slots/tabs. Just be careful to be sure the separators (the triangle-y parts) are attached with the tall edge toward the top/away from you (assuming you're assembling the rack with the top away from you as I did).

I tend to be a bit OCD when it comes to glue application, so I squeezed some wood glue into a bottle cap and used a large/micro (?!) brush to apply the glue sparingly where ever the parts would come into contact with each other.

The instructions suggest putting everything together at once - and given how quickly such small amounts of glue start to set up, you'll want to be sure and move right along briskly. In the photo above, I've glued in all of the small separator parts and am preparing the front parts for assembly.

  

As with the small separators, I worked from back (top/away) to front. Here I'm adding the front parts. 

Once all the front parts are added, it's time to add the sides. For the left side, I applied the glue to where I knew it'd contact the other parts.

Once the left side was attached, I rested the whole assembly on that side and applied glue this time to the edges of all the parts rather than to the side part (as you can see, I'd started to apply the glue to the side as before, but decided to try this alternate method)

Once the two sides are attached, you turn the whole thing over onto its front and add glue first for the back splice part . . .

attach the splice and then add glue for the hangar reinforcement at the top . . .

Once those last two parts are attached, clamp it all together as shown and add some weight to the splice (which you can't really clamp).

And that's it! Once the glue cures, you'll have a very nice way to store and display your Pan Pastels for ready reference and access.

Just need to use those included anchors & screws to hang it up nice and sturdy… And yes, that is in fact an extra part. Truly - just in case you lose one.

Thanks to Jeff Adam at Motrak Models for coming up with such a neat idea and designing such an easy-to-build kit. Even though it's not a freight car or structure, the act of building anything is a fun and relaxing way to spend some time.

Tuesday Tool Time - Small Soldering Iron

After an X-Acto knife, a track nail hammer, cutting pliers, and a small screwdriver, one of the first "sophisticated" tools you purchase as a new model railroader is probably a soldering iron. I got mine probably a little earlier than my airbrush, but I've used it extensively ever since for all sorts of projects - wiring feeders, soldering rails together, etc. I've even used it for decoder installation. And it's still going strong after all these years.

So why did I bother purchasing a new & different soldering iron? Well, ask my buddy Bill. He brought a couple of his newly "decoderized" steamers over to the layout to do some test running and decided, pretty quickly, that they needed "Keep Alives" (aka capacitors) installed. "No problem," said I. "Not only do I have a couple on-hand, but I have a great soldering iron you can use if you want."

Well, let's just say beauty (or, in this case, "greatness") is in the eye of the beholder.

After exclaiming how he couldn't believe that anybody could use such a beast for decoder installation, and expressing his awe (or was it incredulity?) that such a newbie installer as myself would even attempt using it on such delicate wires and soldering pads (at least that's how I remembered the conversation), I asked him what he uses. "Something with a much smaller tip and adjustable heat settings - and, by the way, it's pretty inexpensive."

He had me at "it doesn't cost much." At least that's how I remembered it.

Anyway, here's what he recommended and what I got - a Vastar AC222 Soldering Iron Kit.

To have a proper "unboxing" you need a box - in this case, the kit comes with its own toolbox.

Ahhhhh..... pretty

Lift the top tray, and you see all the other cool stuff that's included.

Here's everything, all laid out.

And not only is the iron fully adjustable heat-wise, it comes with a handy on/off switch right on the cord.

One thing I didn't take a close-up photo of is the main reason I got the iron - the fine tip. I've already used it for some decoder work, as well as soldering together some wire to make finescale railings. 

Definitely worth the $23 bucks - even though that's double what I paid for my old Radio Shack iron - over 30 years ago(!) But my old iron will continue providing yeoman's service on rails and feeders.

Let me know what you use for soldering the teeny-tiny wires that come with decoders. I may no longer be in the market for a new iron, but - like Bill - you may be helping someone else get a more-suitable tool in their hands.

Tuesday Tool Time - The FrankenPipe

Most of you that do any airbrushing probably have a nice, sophisticated setup. At least, you have a small, quiet compressor that's a joy to operate and maintains family harmony.

Or maybe you're like me. I have a compressor that I lovingly refer to at The Beast.

Yup, that's a full-sized compressor that I bought a while back to power my air nailer and some other accessories. Nowadays, I don't use the air tools all that much - and I needed a compressor for my airbrush - so I took the cheap thrifty route, figuring I could just use what I already had on-hand.

But going from a large compressor like this down to an airbrush, with its teeny-tiny airbrush hose, required a bit of creativity...

Introducing: the FrankenPipe. Yup - that there's eight (count'em - 8!) different fittings, plus moisture trap and gauge, all connected together with some thread tape and wishful thinking.

The idea was to bring the full-size hose into the paint room and - through a series of different fittings - create a moisture trap/gauge cluster that could be easily and quickly disconnected. Same on the airbrush hose end - but that also required some converting from the small hose to the full-size fittings.

What resulted might not look all that elegant, but it allows me to maintain a lot of flexibility - including adding more standard size hose to extend the reach of my airbrush into (most parts of) the layout room.

I think it actually looks pretty cool. Heh - but sound - well, that's another issue. Let's just say more than a friend or two has jumped out of their skin when The Beast decides to kick in and they're not expecting it!

Oh - and forget about late-night and early morning paint sessions. Ask me how I know . . .