Tool Box Tuesday #3

   A recent trip to Lark Spur Line in Merrickville ON provided me with a new tool for the toolbox.  I came away with an old PanaVise.  I should have bought one of these years ago.  It makes the task of working on the end of a car a pleasure rather than an act of frustration.

  I have tried using cups, angle plates etc. for this task, but this thing makes it easy.  The previous owner added some dense black foam to the jaws and mounted it on a nice piece of wood, complete with rubber feet.  This older model also seams much heavier than the current PanaVise offering I checked out at a train show a while back.

 So what's in the Vise?  A Wabash 12 Panel Boxcar from Yarmouth Model Works.  This is a Resin kit, that also features etched metal detail parts, Tichy brake sprue, Kadee Miner Brake details and Kato ASF Trucks. Of special note are the ladders.  They are made up from etchings formed into a angle iron with holes and individual rungs made from Tichy grabs glued on.  They are great looking and were easy to build, following the kits instructions. 

For gluing the rungs I used Loctite 430 Metal Bonder CA.  The instructions suggest using Loctite 496 which is Loctites Industrial strength General Purpose CA.  It should work fine also, but I had the metal bond version so why not use it.

 Do yourself a favour and go check out Loctites Industrial website.  They have dozens of CA glues and even a special primer that you can put on slippery plastics like Delrin and PTFE(Telflon) to join them with CA.  I tested some of this on a PTFE to Derin joint at work and I was surprised how well it held.

Here is a picture of my progress on the Wabash Car.  Its hard to see in the photo, but the sides have simulated warpage from the welded panel joints.  My wife who supports me in the hobby but has little interest in trains herself, noticed this right away after seeing it painted on my workbench.  She even asked if was supposed to be weld warpage.  She, like me is also an engineer and finds enjoyment in the details of manufacturing.

I used Tichy stirrups instead of the etched ones in the kit.  Not that there was anything wrong with the excellent kit ones, but after I installed them I promptly put the car down on them and bent all 4 stirrups.  They were pretty much fubared.  I hope to get it dull coated and weathered this week.