Most useful tools

Oct 16, 2003 24 Replies
C

Not sure if it's been done before but I was wondering what the team consider to be their most useful tools (for railway modelling), I'll start off with the stuff I use the most ...


  1. Good knifes in the main I use X-Acto knifes with selection of blades with a Stanley knife for heavier cutting
  2. Dremmel hand drill, worth every penny of my money my wife paid for it
  3. Airbrush ... need to get a new one with a compressor - "canned air" is just to expensive.
  4. Selection of files

5 Vice, I have a small conventional vice I can fix to more or less any work surface with a lip and I also have a contraption with a couple of alligator clips fixed on a rod to hold items for soldering.
  1. Soldering Iron got a good 25W one but after melting a white metal casting last week it's evident that I also need a low power one (hope to grab one at Beckenham next weekend if last years mobile tool emporium makes a re-appearance.
  2. Selection of brushes - from 2" down to 000
  3. Twist drill
  4. Home made "pick/scriber" made from sprung steel - gets bits of dislodged ballast etc out of pointwork, check rails etc. sharpened at the point it's also good for scribing plasticard.
  5. Multimeter ... my 50(?) year old Avometer finally died on me last year - replaced with a cheap digital thingy.
  6. Track rubber
  7. Straight edge - my wife's "icing steel" previously used for cake making
  8. Steel rule
  9. Compass (drawing that is)
  10. Bench light/magnifier
  11. Round nosed pliers
  12. Snips
  13. Bench power supply unit with various leads
  14. Coffee maker (or very dutiful wife)
  15. Pin hammer
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M

well, pretty well everything you listed, although I also have a small setsquare for helping get angles right when scratchbuilding buildings.

my most used tools are a digital camera, and of course the 'puter.

the computer has been my most essential tool of all since I started modelling Japanese railways, what with research on the net, the Yahoo groups covering the subject, fotopic sites stuffed with images and being able to print off Japanese adverts, writing and maps to stick on various billboards on my station (and elsewhere).

Pete

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C

Yup, like that, I have a set of measuring rods that together with a miniture set square especially made by a wargaming friend to toolmakers standards for use with "6th Edition Ancients" - don't ask! that I use when building buildings - the set square is only an inch by an inch and a half and is idel for internal angles.

Again yes, the internet nearly got my #19 spot but caffeine is caffeine :-)

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M

Dont wince too hard but I find a pair of toenail clippers handy, I have done of lot of conversions based on Peco N chassis and the clippers have proved invaluable in trimming away unwanted detail.

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M

Oh yes - Ladies nail files, the type sold in cheap packs at the supermarket. Essential

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C

...

Used to be known as "Emery boards"? ... bit like sandpaper on a semi-flexable lolly stick? Used to use them a lot when I was churning out plastic models (again for wargaming) haven't used them in years though.

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M

Still known as emery boards. Very useful, and cheaper than the sanding sticks from model shops.

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S
1) Screwdriver - for removing paint tin lids. 2) Screwdriver - for stirring paint. 3) Screwdriver - for levelling ballast. 4) Screwdriver - for scraping away stray ballast. 5) Screwdriver (the round end) - for hammering in track pins. 6) Screwdriver - for levering up track. 7) Screwdriver - for prising decoders from sticky pads. 8) Screwdriver - for spacing expansion gaps. 9) Screwdriver - for bending over the tags on Peco point motors. 10) The round end of a steel rule - for doing up screws.

-- Regards,

Steve Jones, Brummagem, England

Big Trains:

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Trains:
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A

:-) I like that. I guess we all use "the wrong tool for the job" sometimes. I'm just building my first kit (a DC Kits 105) and am just building up my toolbox.

Recent aquisitions :

A set of neadle files (£5 from Homebase) An Xacto knife and a rasor-saw for it.

Also essencial - a decent pair of snips for cutting flex-track.

Adrian

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M

my finger The one that pushes in fish plates - ouch the one that gets hot when soldering - double ouch the one that catches on the burr when checking for smoothness

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J

Wooden spring clothes pegs - used as clamps when gluing or soldering. Can be hacked about to get in to tight spaces.

Alloy spring hair clips - also as lightweight clamps for soldering or gluing.

Big chunks of metal to use as weights to hold things down, or in place.

Bit of 1/4" plate glass - a poor man's surface plate.

Jim.

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J

In message , Adrian writes

The worst thing about buying needle files in sets is that after you've bought your first set, any replacement costs £5 for just the one file, as you have to buy a set, including the files you don't want.

I wish those razor-saw blades were a bit harder, so they'd last a bit longer.

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H
2,3 and 4 inch engineers squares, scale rules, tapered broaches, are good for kit bashing/scratch building.

Ian Gearing

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M

don't need to, turned 40 today (happy burthday to me la la la) so this describes me perfectly ;)

Pete

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C

The saints be praised I feel young again.

2 years, 2 months and 12 days before I hit that particular milestone.
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M

2 moddlers scalpels - one small with microsurgical blades (they come coated in oil though, so they can't actually be used for surgery, curses), one heavy duty with an angled blade. Cocktail sticks. Miliputt - White and Grey Blu tack A damn good quality set of clippers and side cutters. I have a heavy duty one, Swiss made (inherited from my Grandad who made watches), where one handle passes through a hole in the other so the jaws don't mis-align.
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I

I'd add a set of 'Helping Hands' to the list - great for holding wires and fiddly stuff in place for soldering...

Ian J.

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E

Chris Wilson

Rivet embossing tool.

It may seem like a bit of a luxury, when you can get similar results from a blunt scriber and a sheet of lead. However, try as I might, I just can't get consistently sized rivets with the scriber. Once you've used the embossing tool, you'll never want to be without it!

-- Enzo

I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.

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C

Difference in approach ... my stuff is still all RTR (with a few mods) ... kit building to come.

However after doing a bit of work today, I ought to add ...

Hot glue gun Hot glue gun and a Hot glue gun

Chisel (used as Steve Jones's screwdriver )

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I

I forgot about the HGG. Yes, very useful...

Ian J.

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