Good evening
I am taking a break from landscaping work on my baseboard to have a go at a couple of Dundas kits.
The first is the Ffestiniog semi open coach. I have the bogies running smoothly and coupling height sorted.....a bit of hassle as I used Peco ones rather than Bemo as recommended.
I have drilled body sides for hand rails as instructed but can't get rail bent to required size.
Could anyone suggest a way to do this?
Many thanks!
A happy new year to all the members of the 009 society.
Hi Peter, making handrails by just bending the wires in a plier does not quite work out, one might get one handrail to fit and the second is too big.
Last year (hard to believe it's over) I purchased from DCC concepts their 4mm scale handrail bending jig and ruler. I use it mostly for that purposes "bending jig" my handrails are consistent each time.
They scale out from 6" to 4 feet. Very handy.
On the other hand you could make your own jig out of a scrap piece of wood.
Suppose you want a 6" handrail, measure the required length from the edge of the wood using a straight edge (ruler) and drill a small hole where the 6"ends. Having done that then score the line straight with your knife so that the wire to be bent has a little channel/trough/vee or what ever it's called to sit in to prevent it
from moving.
Next, take your brass wire and make a bend in it. Place the bent part in the hole with the rest of the wire sticking out over the wood edge, then bend again, remove and voila you have a handrail. Trim/cut the the ends of your wire to fit the depth you require on the model.
Hopefully others will share their methods of making handrails.
Hope this helps,
Robin.
Many thanks Robin,that is really helpful advice.
I used the plyers technique when making coaches for my garden railway but in 16mm scale I was able to get away with it...just!
I will try your jig idea and if I can't manage that will contact DCC.
Wishing you and all members many happy hours of modelling and enjoying all the other aspects of this wonderful hobby in 2024!
Happy New Year!
I bought an etched brass handrail bending jig at an exhibition after similar struggles getting consistent results by hand. It has been a great help.
Coincidentally I came across a YouTube video of a related jig for cutting and bending wires for electronics breadboarding - U-shaped wires but with the insulation still in place along the horizontal run and bare bits for the vertical sections at either end for plugging in to a breadboard or soldering to a circuit board. It was 3D printed with separate divisions or markings for the overall wire length and the bared ends.
Assuming that all the pairs of holes for the handrails are the same distance apart then a method I've used is taking a pair of 'snipe nose' pliers (with tapered jaws).
By marking the sides of the jaws where the width matches the hole spacing (that's the space from the inner edges of the holes, not their centre distance) you'll have a jig for bending the handrails. Just hold the wire in the pliers alight with the mark, bend down the wire on both sides of the plier jaws and cut the tails to length, and repeat until you have a set for the coach.
You could use a fine permanent marker to mark the pliers up, or scratch a mark with an engineer's strobe or tip of a modelling knife / scalpel. The latter will be more accurate but the former can be removed with solvent once the job has been done and avoids any confusion if using the same pair of pliers to make different sized handrails.
You may well want to get one of the etched jigs anyway, but the above technique will suffice until then.
If the holes aren't the same distance apart then I'm afraid making the handrails will be a case of measuring each set of holes (callipers maybe?) placing the wire in the pliers where the width of the jaws matches the hole spacing, and bending the wire. It's probably best to do the hole measuring and handrail bending one at a time (avoids trying to fit the wrong bent up handrail in the wrong set of holes) and there may still be a bit of trial and error involved.
A handrail bending jig made by Bill Bedford models is available from Wizard Models. I would say that like most things "practice makes perfect" and it does take a while to get it correct 100% of the time. Barry
Just had a look at the Wizard website both handrail jigs are "out of stock", DCC concepts may be the only way to go. It might be worth emailing Andrew at Wizard to see if he is getting some more.
Many thanks for the feedback.
I made a jig as Robin outlined above and started producing handrails.
A very simple yet effective idea.
Once I've finished handrails, the rest of the kit should be ok!
Thanks again for your responses.
I am now onto the painting stage. Trying to get something like this! The instructions refer to cherry red but I can't locate this type locally. Phoenix used to do a FR red but don't seem to stock it anymore.Can anyone suggest brands/makes or even a mix to get this shade of red?I'm presuming the top half is cream of some variety.Many Thanks