does anyone have any suggestions for drilling holes in engine shells to install grab irons, snow plows, and other custom details? I was thinking of buying a pin-vise to be able to use the small enough drill bits required. Will I be able to drill through locomotive shells with a pin vise? The Micro Mark catalog has one where you push down on the top and it spins the drill, so you don’t have to turn it with your wrist, and I really like the idea of doing that.
Is there any resources on HOW to go about detailing engines and cars, etc? Like, MR has an article on “super detailing an SD40-2” that Pelle wrote, but all it does is tell you what he put on the engine, not HOW he did what he did.
I use a pin-vise that has to be turned with the wrist or mostly just with My fingers.I would think that I wouldn’t have as much control with one I have to push down with, just My [2c]
I will admit that I would be lost without My pin-vise, I don’t know how I got by without one. Mine came from Micro-Mark and was a birthday gift from My Girlfriend.
You’ll proabably want a #82 bit, maybe a smaller one. You wanna know a secret? I;ve been usig a dremel. I’ve been told it’s bad, it causes the plastic to melt (yes, it does) but I have not seen any injury to my protos I drilled this way. but it went quickly, and the onlty real inujury is to the bit, so this could be a viable way if you have a lot of stantions
Use a pin vise and small bits. I would not suggest the one you push down, to hard to control with a small bit. Use a pin or needle to mark the hole and then drill it with the pin vise.
I first mark the location with a needle then use a pin vise.I run the bit through a bee’s wax block,use light,steady pressure.Go slow and try to stay at a 90degree angle to the work.Be careful as the smaller bits will snap if the line is not true.
I also keep a good supply of bits on hand and usually start a new project with a new,sharp bit.
Don’t get the one you push down on. You’ll just break bits with it. Get the one you twist with your fingers. It doesn’t take much to drill through a plastic shell. I’ve got the MicroMark #21104 double ended one and works fine for $7. #81651 is nice cause it comes with a descent drill bit set.
I think you need a #77 bit for doing .012" grab irons. (I think…) I recommend getting a six pack of the popular sizes. They are very fragile.
Do not get the spiral type pin vise/manual drill, with anything smaller than a #74 bit it’s likely to break the bit, (don’t ask how I know). Use a sewing needle held in the pin vise as a center punch, but you don’t actually punch, just push and twist a little.
I would recommend getting the Xacto drill stand, it has the most common drill bits we use, Nos 61 thru 80. Get extras of Nos. 80 thru 76. When drilling with the small bits, only exert light pressure - let the drill bit do the work or they’ll snap and break and keep the bit perpendicular to the surface.
Use a #79 or #78 bit for grab irons. Glue the grabs from behind with CA, then trim the excess wire with side cutters (Xuron rail nippers are great for this). I use a strip of .020 or .030 styrene between the grab and the model to keep all the grabs equally spaced. I use a small plastic condiment cup (McDonalds) to pour a little puddle of CA and a piece of wire inserted in the end of a piece of dowel to apply the CA. DO NOT apply CA directly from the bottle or you’ll end up with a mess.
There is no such thing. The smallest drill bit sold in Walthers or MicroMark is a #80 (.0135 in). Use a pin vise, not a dremel with something that small.
Well, there are smaller drills, but you can’t get them from Walthers or Micro-Mark. Small Parts sells them down to #97 (0.006 in. dia.), but they’re rather pricey, at $5.75 apiece. Other places have ones down to 0.004 in. diameter or so, in the $7.00 apiece range.
Where things can get really fun is if you need to tap some of those tiny holes. There are taps and dies available going down to 0000-160 if you know where to look.
My point, really, is that the world of tools doesn’t end with what Walthers, Micro-Mark, etc. sell.
These fine drills and taps are out there, but they’re not something you’ll find at a typical hobby shop. And frankly, they’re not really anything that most people would use, unless they want to make threaded truss rods and turnbuckles on Nn3 rolling stock.
I’m aware that there are drill bits smaller than a #80, but they are uncommon and typically not used in MRRing. It would be very unusual that P2K would suggest using a bit that small for installing detail parts. Even DA doesn’t does have parts that require use of bits smaller than #80 even for their wire grab irons and eyebolts.
I agree with “Flashwave” about using a Dremel or other motor tool with very small drill bits, except that I also use a foot-pedal speed control. That lets me control the speed of the tool with my foot and use my hands to hold the tool and the model. The motor tool turns small bits much more smoothly and steadily than I can do with any kind of pin vise, and makes it much easier to drill lots of small holes. I also use a small drill press for drilling with tiny bits when working with parts that can lie flat to be drilled. I use a speed control with the drill press too – if you go too fast and melt the plastic, it often fills the hole you were trying to drill, so you haven’t accomplished anything.
I’ve used a drummel at low seed so that I don’t melt the plastic and on one when I broke the drummel I cheated and heated the ends of the railing up with a lighter and set the hot metal into the plastic, I was lucky and got it in place on the first try, I would never do that again.
Okay, I’ve got a question on this subject. I have several different pin vices, and they all exhibit the same problem. The collets of these things all have 4 segments as opposed to what you get in the three-jaw chuck. I have trouble getting the small diameter bits (the 75’s through 80’s) centered in the jaws. If I roll the pin vice along a flat surface with the bit secured, the end of the bit can be seen to be whipping around. This of course leads to the “I just broke the last bit of the size I need” problem.
So, the question I have is how everyone else gets around this?
I linked to this Small Parts website and found some interesting machine tools listed but where I found these - I will refer to them as “substandard size” for the lack of a better term - drill bits you mentioned I could not find the exact size for these #81-#97 bits; some of my machinist books may possibly have the information. I do, however, know that they exist. N-Scalers have long used these “substandard sized” bits for installing handrails. These bits are listed in the Grobert catalog.
The original poster hails from Delmar, New York whereever that’s at. Here in Central Arizona there are several jewelry supply houses and they either handle them or can order them from Grobert. If the original poster has access to a jewelry supply house that’s where he needs to go.
I manually hold the bit in place while turning the chuck. Kind of hard to describe, but I get good result. I have one with a flat handle that rotated at the end, I’ve only had a problem with the smaller chuck not opening, but that’s an easy fix.
I also use a pin vise to drill holes manually in styrene or other plastics. I usually use a template to position the holes. I make my templates from card stock. You could use thin brass sheet for a more permanent template. If you bend the template at a 90 degree vertical angle you can make a jig that holds the template in place against the end of a box car or other car and accurately drill all of the holes for grab iron ladders.
While building a whaleback tender I manually drilled the holes with a pin vise for all the handrail stanchions. I wrapped a card stock template over the tank and drilled the holes on a 90 degree angle to the tanks tangent. I did this by eye by sighting down the side of the car and lining up the drill with a triangle fastened in a clamp at the appropriate angle at the other end of the tank.
Micro Mark sells a press for manually and accurately tapping holes. It has a crank handle at that top that also allows you to accurately drill holes at a 90 degree angle. I have found this press to be very helpful when working with plastics.
Have you teried sizint the “chuck” down before inserting bit? Try cranking it down until it’s too small for you to slide the bit in, wind it back just a tad until the bit just slides in enough that it won;t fall between the coilets, and then tighten it down.
Or, check an LHS or a hardware store, they may have a special chuck for small bits on pin vises
Oer offer to have a buddy over to hold the bit while you tighten it idown. then offer him drink(s) and come back to pinvice/dremel/etc when he leaves or passes out in couch. Also, get another chuck and leave this one for stantions so you do’nt have this problem in the future.