I'm not a fan of this one though. Somehow, I have cleaned up something greasy, and now all it does is smear grease on the rails.
Doubting that there is a way to clean it up, this one has gone in the bin. I can't understand why I've kept it around so long, and more than once I've picked it up and realised my mistake!
Fortunately, I have a couple of non-greasy rubbers, so my track is clean!
Spotting a bottle of Low Odor cement in a shop, I thought I'd give it a try - can a smell-free product really work?
First impressions are, yes it can. The liquid cement flows freely, once applied using the brush in the lid. Sticking power seems good, but it is slower than MekPak. Not a lot, but Mek tends to be pretty much instant, whereas there is a noticeable wait with this stuff.
What about the smell? Well, there is a slight odour, but you have to sniff hard to spot it, so I'd say it does what it says on the bottle.
Price? Between five and six quid for a 40ml bottle. So, more expensive than buying Mek in a big bottle, but not too dissimilar to the smaller bottles. The bottle design is worthy of note, you'd have the be pretty clumsy to knock this over.
Definitely worth a go if the smell of building plastic models bothers you.
Looking at the brass plate on the top, this has quite some pedegree.
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J. Radbone and sons, were a Birmingham-based toolmaker. I won't try and put the history on here, as there is an excellent version online already. The factory it was produced in was apparently, in Whitmore Street, although there is no trace of it now. Over the years, Radbones was taken over, eventually becoming part of the Stanley Tools company.
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As a spirit level, it still works perfectly well. The brass corner plates ensure that, despite the wear on the wood, the level still sits where it should.
I don't need another spirit level in the toolbox, but this has character. I can't work out how old it is, at least 63 years, since that's when the makers were first absorbed by another company. It could be a lot older though, so I wonder whose hands this level has been in. What did they measure with it?
To be fair, I bought a replacement some time ago, and this has just been kicking around on a shelf and gradually degrading. The foam has gone brittle, and bits keep falling off. As you can see, it's more pancake than U-shape. It just goes to show that some things simply fall apart over time.
And before someone shouts "inbuilt obselecance" - I think that well over a decade (possibly two) of use isn't bad for a foam cradle. I know, in the old days, we had cradles made from granite...
A guest post from Terry Smith, with details of a useful device to move wheels on axles.
I've made a wheel pusher from a plumbing fitting.
Basically, I've have removed the olives from a compression ring union fitting (8mm pipe), done up the nuts tight and then cut a 3mm slot straight through one side with a small angle grinder. This allows me to use the fitting without having to take the wheel sets out of the truck.
Simply by chance, one full turn of the nut gives a back-to-back setting of 1.132" which is a figure I settled on a few years back as an aim for re-working wheel sets that needed it, for my operating circumstances.
This fitting works much better with more and finer control than my previous method of removing the wheel sets from the trucks and using a NWSL HO sized wheel puller/pusher. It is much quicker as well.
First up, a roll, and I can't resist tool rolls, of BA sockets on long extensions, plus their handle. There's no makers name, but they run from 0BA to 4BA. Since many nuts and bolts on larger scale models, such as the retaining nut for boat props, are BA, this is much better than messing around with pliers! The nuts on the back of 16mm scale couplings are BA too, which is where Iver used this set.
Useful too. Ideal to get into the smallest spaces on models. Whowever JW was, I hope they are happy that I'm giving this tool a good home.
All for a fiver - not bad!
While many people boast about using something from the local market that costs tuppence-ha'penny a gallon, I've always preferred to use "proper" modelling glues. Ideally, Zap Green, which I've always found to work really well, sticking quickly, and filling little gaps
Once you open glue, it starts to go off, and when I started a project for Garden Rail that needed superglue, I quickly discovered the bottle of Zap on the shelf had gone off. It was stringy, and the joins really weren't setting.
Now, I think I have some spare in storage, but decided that as I needed to nip out to the local shops, I'd see what The Range had in stock.
I picked up a few candidates, including, for a just over a pound each, their own brand stuff. "How bad can it be?" I reasoned.
Actually, it does the job very well. 10 second stick is promised, and that seems to be delivered.
Best of all, there is a brushable glue, handy for lots of jobs, and rarer than it should be. Even Zap don't seem to make it any more, which is a real pity.
Am I converted? Not quite, but perhaps I'm now less of a snob.
Pantograph Mills are fascinating. A tool I've wanted to own ever since reading about them in an old MRJ. If only I had the space.
I came close - our club owned a non-working one for a while, but no one had the skills and enthusiasm to get it going, so off it went for scrap.
Truth is, CNC machining and then 3D printing technology has largely eliminated the needs for mills like this, but I like the hands-on tactile approach. Maybe one day...
It's worth mentioning that the quoted lengths are the thread, and don't include the head itself.
Allen keys are included to do these up, and good quality ones too. None of your alloy nonsence that turns to cheese after a couple of uses.
OK, I went to the biggest show in the country, so what did I buy?
A really nice Stanley screwdriver. This is an updated (it has a different handle) of a tool I like a lot. The grip is excellent, there are four bits, and you can turn it with a spanner on the metal "nut" at the base of the handle. I have four, and lent one of them out, never for it to return.
Oddly, this tool came from the Londis in the atrium as I nipped out to buy some drinks. I love the idea that the little supermarket also sell exhibition supplies, including document holders, tape, hi-vis and hard hats.
Is this a cake fork, or a fish fork? I've decided it's for cake.
Most important, it's an LMS fork, so I can scoff cake with a railway connetion.
And that's it. Apart from some materials for work projects, I didn't buy any goodies for myself. Not that I really need any more toy train stuff!
I like to buy souveniers. Ideally, they will be ones I'll use in the future, such as my Swiss shirt. (Nothing special, but I realised our evening meals were a bit more formal than expected, so bought a check shirt, which I will wear in the future, but it will always be my Swiss shirt).
This lieelt tin tray is from Strasbourg, and ticked the boxes of fitting in my rucksack, and having a use other than just looking pretty.
When working on projects, instead of the components littering my workbench, they can sit in the tray, so I don't lose any of them. Hopefully.
And I'll always remember Strasbourg when I use it. Does anyone else have similar souveniers?
On the right, my old box for tiny drill bits. It's a plastic container from RS Components, which I saved from the bin in the 1990s. At the time I worked for the Ministy of Agriculture, and can't remember why it came my way.
It's done valliant service holding my collection of small drill bits. I usually fish around with a dial caliper to find the size I need rather than keeping them in one of those boxes with the non-sliding cover and marked places for each bit. It's easy to end up with loads of those with half the bits missing. For many of the jobs I do, a "near enough" bit will be fine anyway.
Sadly, the box has worn out. The hinge at the back, only a thinner bit of plastic, has finally given way. Red gaffer tape sort of works, but isn't firm enough to let the vestigal catch on the front do its job.
Last week, I mentioned that my gas soldering iron was leaking, making it useless. A replacement was in order, and after a little digging around online, I opted for the cheapest option that could be picked up locally, the Rothenberger Micro Soldering Iron & Torch Kit from Screwfix.
The kit is more comprehensive than it reall needs to be, containing the gas torch, a soldering iron bit, hot knife, a couple more nozzles, solder and a cleaning sponge. All in a nice carrying case, which seems strong enough to survive a bit of abuse.
Fiddling around, the soldering iron confused me. You can't unscrew the torch to fit it, and only after puzzling with the instructions for a while, did I realise that bit fits over the torch. The other parts then screw on to the end of the soldering bit, in place of the pointy bit.
Of course, it was the torch I wanted, so I filled it from a cigarette lighter filler, it takes very little gas, so I assume the reservoir isn't huge.
Turning the gas on using the nicely clicky slide switch, and pointing the end at a lighter fires up the flame. The length of this can be set using the control on the side. It roars quite nicely, and provides plenty of heat to melt solder on an O gauge kit. Just what I want.
First impressions are positive. I'll let you know how I get on later.
O gauge kits mean big lumps of brass, and for soldering these together, there's nothing better than a small gas torch. Using one allows me to blow solder along any joint, with the stuff running like water.
Digging out my torch, I noticed it was emply of gas. Not a surprise, it's ages since I'd used it. What was a surprise, was when I filled it up, the gas started leaking from the joint between the handle and clear section.
There's no obvious was to get in here and fix anything, so I've been looking at Screwfix for a replacement. I'll let you know how I get on with this.
We were looking at the dregs of the collection, but no matter. These belonged to someone whose words I have enjoyed over the years, and will act as a momento. Some, probably the Olfa cutter, might even have appear in one of his books.
All three are actually useful, so they won't be tucked away in reverence, that's not the point of tools to my mind. They will join Alan Gibson's. John Web's and my grandads tools in my toolchest. And when I use them, I'll think of the person in whose footsteps I'm following.
First up, a No.101 drill bit, capable of making a hole 23.5mm wide. This equates to 0.9251969 of an inch, which doesn't sound that useful to me, but then I can't really work Imperial measurements once you start messing with 8th etc.
It is a proper railway tool - embossed with and LMS stamp, I'm thinking that it has to be at least 75 years old, and probably more ancient than that. It's a good sized lump of metal anyway.
More of a mystery is this spanner.
I have a feeling it's a railway tool as well - something for screwing the bolts that go through rail chairs if my guess is right. 53 cm long and with jaws 4cm wide, but what's the point of the pointy end?
There might be a BR stamp under the paint, but I'm loath to scrape it off to investigate further.
And is this 909 or 606 stamped on the handle? And what does it mean?
A little Friday mystery for you. I'm sure there is someone who knows the answer!
Only later did it occur to me that it was the perfect test subject for a recently purchased Liquid Chrome pen.
I'm a bit cynical about silver paint that claims to look like chrome, but I'd read about these, and the seller assured me that it was every bit as good as promised. I know, but I have some faith in these guys, and since they turn up at shows, I can alway go and moan.
However, I was pleasently surprised. The paint is on the thick side, perfect to hide the layers on a 3D print, and dries quickly to a very high shine. You really can't tell it's not proper chrome.
On balance, I should have bought the 1 or 2mm wide tipped version as getting in the tight areas on the figure was impossible. I picked up some paint on a small brush to get around this - it works if you are quick and apply more than you might normally do.
All this went on a satin black paint job from a Halfords rattle can. Working out which bits should be shiny wasn't east as this seems to vary, and there are a lot of replica costumes out there with odd interpretations of the "uniform".
All in all, I'm impressed. This stuff isn't cheap, but it's worth the money. Pity that they don't produce brass and copper versions - not those would be really useful.
Molotow Liquid Chrome website.
I bought mine from Modelingtools.co.uk
Arriving at the market, and speaking only English, I decided that I was going to buy something. It didn't really matter what, this would be a souvenier of me stepping out of my comfort zone.
I didn't fancy owning a H&M Duette, or some battered HO Marklin items, the only train stuff I spotted, but a set of small weights looked good. I use weights a lot for modelling, and so these would be a regular reminder of my trip (better than a minitaure Manneken Pis, which is pretty much what the souvenier shops offer) and actually useful.
Waving them at the trader, he opened with 20 Euro, and I countered with 10. That's a bit pricey for little lumps of cast iron, but I was on holiday, and not speaking the lingo, aren't in a position to argue too much. 10 was fine anyway, they are really nice little things, and you pay easily as much for urinating babies...
However, it seems that these weren't the only weights I had bought.
Oh no, the trader isisted I take these as well for the money. They weigh 940, 913, 381 and 375g. Basically, I'd bought just over 3kg. Which I had to carry around for the rest of the day. Thank goodness I have a rucksack.
Once I'd lugged my load back to the station, it was fortunate that my plans included an hour and a half's trainspotting. I could sit on a grit bin and take the weight off my shoulders. Another good thing is that Eurostar don't weigh your luggage, although what the security people thought of them when the bag was x-rayed is a mystery!
Back home, I'm sure these will be useful tools, and I'm glad I bought them. It's certainly added some memories to the trip!
Has anyone else bought modelling stuff on holiday?
Under the shelves on the back wall of this coach are just such a problem area. Pondering this, I remembered that some time ago, I'd aquired a Proxxon 28594 power sander and perhaps this might be just the tool for the job.
To be honest, I'm not that good at resorting to power tools - something more profesional modellers do at the slightest opportunity, for speed, and often accuracy. I'll carry on hand working something, partly because the tool isn't set up and doing so takes effort, but mostly because I'm not in the habbit, although I probably should be.
The first snag is that while I'm sure I once had proper self-adhesive sanding pads, these are long gone. No worry, some normal 240 grit sandpaper attached to the sanding head with double-sided tape worked perfectly well - I was soon smoothing away under the shelves and in all the hard to reach areas.
A technique is required - when using the tool, put your finger in the indented area, a bit further forward than you see in the photo. I kept my pinkie back for clarity, and also because I hadn't worked out what to do at that point.
Another thought - use coarser sandpaper. 240 grit is fine, literally, but I could have gone for 120 and been fine.
I've not worried about a second coat of sanding sealer, but the resulting bare wood look works well inside the coachs, so I'm happy, and will try to keep this useful tool closer for future jobs.
You can't have just one 3-link coupling hook, a spare is essential for when you lose or break the first at a show. Hence, I'm converting a smaller torch than yesterday's to do the job.
For both, a wire has to be attached, with a hook on the end, the torch body. Firmly.
Both torches are made of an unsolderable alloy, so it's down to epoxy glue, but I want to do a neat job and that's not easy with this stuff.
Unless you have a Tamya paint stirer to hand. Dip this in the glue and dabbing neat fillets in the wire/toch body interface, is easy.
Glue can be scraped off the paint paddle once it has dried and the thing is as good as new.
