grab iron drill gage

[ak-milw]

Anyone that ever had to install wire grab irons on your rolling stock here is a little gadget that may help you!!
I started installing the grabs on the Milw. flanger and found it was a real hassle trying to layout the spacing on the car body. So I went to my scrap box and found a .030 piece of styrene and made sure that two ends were 90 deg. square. Then I took my dividers and scribed the grab iron spacing off my print onto the styrene. my grabs are .012 wire, so I drilled the holes .012.
Now I can take my template and hold it on the edge and bottom of the car and drill the holes through the body and they all came out perfect,just this little extra step makes the whole project look better!!
Here is a picture of the template, It dosn't look like much, but it really does a great job.


I will be showing the finished product in the flanger post in the Craftsmans Bench section.

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Yep'great little tool, have had one i made out of brass shim stock in my tool box for 15 years or so. another thought is once you've put the grabs in get a book of match's ,tear one out and slip in under the grabs on the car side, this'll give you a uniformly spaced set of grabirons.

[Trainman1965]

Cool tips and tricks guys. Thanks for posting them. Now if someone will tell me how to use one of the Number 80 drills with out braking it i would be so happy

[ak-milw]

GN,
I use a .30 drill blank for the spacing but it comes out the same as the matchbook.

TM,
First thing you have to do is quit trying to put the # 80 drill in your 3/8 drive black and decker hand drill!!!!!!!

[Trainman1965]

O is that what is going on. Man i thought it would not matter. LOL Not

[lyates]

Andy you still don't know the ingenuety of the southern boys, For TM a portable drill is powered by a windmill and belt driven with a 1" chuck not a 3/8 chuck. I do think that with a little instruction TM can be taught to use a pin vise for his 80 gauge drill bits so maybe he won't destroy them everytime he tries to use them.

Just jerkin your chain there TM hehehe

[ak-milw]

WOW Lee, Your meaner than I am!!

[GN.2-6-8-0]

Originally Posted by Trainman1965

Cool tips and tricks guys. Thanks for posting them. Now if someone will tell me how to use one of the Number 80 drills with out braking it i would be so happy

All jokes aside, use a occational drop of oil on the bit with minimum pressure and taaaake your time....

[lyates]

Andy I was just born mean and never got over it. Maybe someday I will Repent my ways and ask the pardon of TM but it's too much fun right now

[Allegany2666]

I've found this site to be very helpful for a lot of modelrailroad vs "real" railroad data if you scroll down to the section called Useful Standard Dimentions they have a lot of data on handrails piping, track etc.


da Trains! - Railroad Data