While I was out on my day off I stopped by Warren's Train Shop in Ogden just to see what was there. Mostly they carry HO items, so I don't normally go in. Today I was glad I did. They have moved the store to the far end of the building and it is expanded. Let's see what I got!
Hey! They had just gotten some rail joiners. I'm afraid I'll run out and can't buy any, so I stocked up.
I'm about out of Tenax 7R adhesive, and they didn't have any, so I bought the Ambroid Pro Weld, which is just as good.
On my grocery list were some code 70 rail joiners, so I got some of those.
The only supply for the Rick's Ramp that I didn't have were some nut/bolt/washer castings, so I bought some that were period appropriate, as well as the right size. These will fasten the warning rail that goes on the sides to the deck.
Always fun to go to the train store, and Warren's is a great place if you are in Ogden and like HO.
On this blog I try to be very conscientious that the majority of readers are not Warren Buffet and can't go out and spend billions on everything. Money is tight these days, the economy is still not great, and the hobby has never been more expensive.
My solution? Shop more at the local dollar store! Everything shown was $1 each. Let's see what I got today...
I used a lot of window cleaner. First off, I work on sheets of glass that have to be cleaned frequently. This is also what I use in my ultrasonic cleaner. For me it is cheaper to buy the $1 per item stuff when I'm just pouring it away. You can't get a new trigger bottle for much less than a buck, either.
Project pans! I love to keep my projects together on one or two pans so that I can move them on and off the workbench. These are a bit deeper than the flat pans I've been using. These pans are steel, so they are magnetic. You can use magnetic parts holders and tools using these.
I got a few brownie pans as well....
These pans have high sides and are perfect for holding paints at the airbrush booth. Should something get knocked over it won't get in your socks! I'll use this one for staining wood as well.
I've had a lot of pans before, but they were always used ones. Now at the dollar store I can get shiny new ones and they are made of STEEL, not aluminum. These muffin tins make great parts holders especially when you are cutting a lot of different wood parts.
Rubber bands are fantastic clamps and I use them all the time. Most of the time I don't try to remove them, I just cut them. Thus, I use a lot of rubber bands. Cost is $1.
Index cards have tons of uses. Mostly I use them to hold spots of glue, but I can put small parts on them, or make notes. I also use them for paint mixing samples.
Goo Gone is a staple in the shop. I mostly use it to clean resin castings, and to remove sticky stuff from my glass work space.
I bought some big emery boards a few weeks ago, but forgot to get some small ones for windows and other model areas.
The legendary Bob Walker uses these. If you don't know Bob Walker just pick up the latest Railroad Model Craftsman Magazine (RMC) and read his scratchbuilding articles.
Bob recommends these for when your tools look like this on the workbench...
Now they look like this! Everything is together and up out of the way.
Hey! Look how I can store my rulers! These trays are handy as I can move them off and on to the workbench without having to pick up all the tools. When I'm done with a project I just lift up the tray and sort out the tools into the tool boxes.
I use a lot of little cups like these. Mostly for glue, water and paint. You can't have enough of them.
This was something new! The dollar store had magnifying glasses for $1 a pair! Wow! I may go back and get quite a few pairs and stick them all over the shop.
See! You can get a lot of cool stuff for just a dollar. Other items I buy regularly are toothpicks, small paper plates, glue, clothes pins, tissue paper, paper towels and about every consumable item you can name.
So go call your wife and tell her you want to take her to the dollar store. She'll be thrilled!
I constantly need stuff for the model shop and have been keeping a "want list" for quite some time. But it is on a shared spreadsheet on Google. So I'm going to move the list to the right column. That way, if you have good ideas about what to get or where to get it cheaper, maybe you'll share it with me!
I need some advice. I'm building a scratch-built flat car based
on the LOP&G prototype shown attached. On each end where the coupler arm extends from the end of the car is a rather elaborate attachment which I need to copy. Would I be best to try to take a piece of wood or plastic and carve it out or what. I'd like to try to make the model as much like the prototype as possible. If you have a chance, please share your thoughts about this. I've got an instrument for making the rivet dimples so I'm doing that with sheet styrene then gluing it to the underlying structure. That seems to have worked so far. Tedious.
Hope you and your family have a Blessed Christmas.
Dr. Revis Butler, Jr.
Click On Photo To Enlarge
Just to introduce Revis, I'm rather ashamed that he is asking me for help when he just got through winning a first place ribbon for passenger cars in the SER Region Convention!
This device is called a coupler pocket. It was cast metal and designed for hard shocks from banging the cars together. The "fins" are all cast into the one piece. This was before welding was common.
I'd approach this piece as a plastic project. Using very thin styrene sheet, probably .005 and .010 sheet styrene from Evergreen Scale Models, I would construct the whole piece. The styrene is available at most hobby shops. I'd make the base square (see diagram) out of .010 and cut a square hole for the coupler shank.
Using strips of .010 I'd make the front box square out of four pieces. I'm not sure of the dimensions here, but you might be able to estimate the dimensions from the coupler itself. Then using .005 styrene, make the "fins" or angled supports. Once it is all glued together and dry, test fit it on one of the cars.
To make a functional model, it may need to be a bit wider than the prototype in order to work well. After the first one is assembled you can make a silicone mold and cast the parts in resin which will make it much stronger.
My wife is the coupon queen. You can see her blog at www.rainydayfinances.com. I'm always after her to get me coupons for model trains, so she did. Reverend Rick had one of these cool little foam cutters with a single "stick" blade and I just had to have one. So Marie got me a 40% off coupon on the Hobby Lobby website and I bought it today for $12.71. What a deal! The coupon allows you one item at 40% off. Last Sunday I got a coupon for Michael's, another hobby & craft store and got 50% of an 8 lb box of polymer clay that I use for making cypress trees. What a deal!
Get your wife to help you use coupons and make your $$$ go further!
My shopping list keeps getting bigger. The A, B, C is the priority list. This is actually on a spreadsheet that is shared on line.
A Dremel 1100-01 Stylus w/ Cordless Rotary Tool with Docking Station $69.99 Amazon A Dremel 4486 Dremel Chuck $4.56 Amazon A Sanding sponges - fine to coarse $30.00 Harbor Freight A Ambroid Secur-It adhesive $8.00 Hobby Lobby A Labelle 107 1/2 fl. oz. Multi-Purpose Oil Medium ydftdgfterty $6.95 Hobby Shop A Adjustable roller guides for sawing (x2) flogt $50.00 Home Depot A Locomotive Cradle - SOFT TOUCH CRADLE 80784 $13.00 Micro Mark A Paper clips - all sizes $0.00 Office A 2 oz. Non-Spill Rosin Soldering Paste Flux Model: 64-022 | Catalog #: 64-022 $6.59 Radio Shack A Floquil SP Lark Dark Grey Paint $3.00 Trainmaster A Grandt Line HO Scale Window Grab Bag Assortment $21.00 Trainmaster A Paasche VLN 1, 3 and 5 needles $10.00 Trainmaster A PL Prfessional Wood Filler $5.00 Home Depot A Hobby knives - sevral $10.00 Anywhere B Bannana clip leads set $10.00 Fry's B Digital gram scale $70.00 Fryes B Small anvil $5.00 Harbor Freight B Small bench grinder (hobby size) $20.00 Harbor Freight B Pipe cleaners, assorted sizes $5.00 Hobby Lobby B 6" Hose and hose mount for air brush cabinet $15.00 Home Depot B 8-Piece High Speed Steel Forstner Drill Bit Set $20.00 Home Depot B DCC Decoder Tester $20.00 Loys Toys B Multi drawer storage unit, large, any size x2 $40.00 target B Multi drawer storage unit, short, fit under electrical bench $15.00 Target/Walmart B RRampMeter Circuit Module $49.95 Tony's Train Exchange http://www.tonystrains.com/technews/rrampmeter.htm B Padded stools for shop with back support x2 $100.00 C DHDP - Dummy 9 Pin Plug for Analog Operation $15.00 Digitrax C Embossing heat gun $15.00 Hobby Lobby C Labelle set of lubricants $50.00 Hobby Shop C Dremel wall mounted bit assortment $60.00 Home Depot C Plumbing and trap for shop sink $40.00 Home Depot C Loco/car wieghts $10.00 Micro Mark C Model Maker's T pins (wig pins) 14318 $3.60 Micromark C Vacuum Desoldering Tool Model: 64-2098 $9.00 Radio Shack C Kapton tape for electronics $9.00 Uline C Pana vise with base, 360 mount, soft jaws $50.00 D Networked Computer $300.00
I'm kind of tired today and its raining, so I think I'll just clean up the shop. The guys are coming over FridayI carried this quart of Eggshell paint down stairs. Marie got if for me for free on line at the Glidden site. Apparently they will send you a quart of pain for free, shipping included!
The back to school sales are running rampant, so I bought two of these quadrille notebooks for $0.50 each. Great deal. I use them for making sketches.
Also snagged for the basement were too large storage jars.
The workbench is a disaster, the victim of three work nights. Better clean it up first.
The nut and bolt assortment is always handy around the house. I'll put it back where it goes underneath the bench.
The drills are all out of power, so I'll put the batteries in the charger and put the drill bits back in their holders.
We've been using the drill press, so I'll vacuum it and give it a coat of WD-40.
This little 2 gallon shop vac is light and portable. Perfect for sucking up sawdust.
There! The drill press is clean again.
...and all the drills are in place and charged. Tape measures, bits and other tools are organized in the same place every time so that my team can find them easily. They know when the come over that they can grab a tape measure and a fully charged drill. And a cup of fresh coffee.
Much better! The executive boardroom is suffering from dust and clutter. This is where we go over plans and sit down to make things.
The dust was worse than I thought, so I removed everything and gave it a good sweeping. One of these days this will be a finished crew room and bar.
All the trash and scrap lumber has been removed and everything is nice and tidy. Wow...it is bigger now.
We won't be sawing much any more, so I better clean up the saw corner as well.
I thoroughly blew off and vacuumed the Dewalt cut off saw and the vacuum system. Now to tend to the floor. I didn't take a picture of it when it was done, but it was all clean and neat.
The shop is a bigger mess. I forgot to clean up the coffee from last train night. Also, I had been cleaning and reorganizing my scenery bins, so there is misc scenery stuff everywhere.
The guys love coffee, but it sure is messy. There is always a coffee spill. I cleaned out the coffee pot thoroughly.
Note to self: buy some more hobby knives. For some reason I keep losing them!
There! Much better. Now I can see my electronics workbench.
The main assembly bench was even worse than this because I forgot to take a picture. Lots of project remnants. Flash! All clean. Trash can is now full and all the tools are back in the draws.
I picked up the floor, too.
I bought some cable ties the other day and they need a place in the electronics bench. There are still some open drawers, so we'll use a big one.
I won't need all of these, so I'll put an assortment in the drawer and put the rest in back up storage somewhere in a cabinet.
There! Now we need a label on the drawer so we know what is in it.
I use this handy (and expensive) labeling computer. Its nice, but not cheap.
There! Now we know what is in it. I better label the drawer above it as well.
I cleaned up the main assembly workbench. It was covered with wood.
The metalworking bench is a wreck. I found a bunch of things in the basement that belonged in the shop, so we'll have to put these away.
Zoom! All clean. This all took about an hour. Well worth it. Mainly so that my team can find what they need when they need it.
