I was looking at an article on weathering and they used a set of old wheelsets to cover the axle holes in the truck frame while painting the frames. This gave me an idea for a fast spray masking tool and it works great. Thought I would share it with you all. I used a piece of poplar 1 x 2 with a notch cut in it to clear the truck bolster (with wheelsets removed!) and then glued a few strips of .030” styrene to build up the thickness and make a close fit between the truck sideframes. I also added a nail with the head removed to act as a support/guide. I tried it with a rattle can to test it and it works great and takes about 10 seconds to load it and even less to remove it.
I’ll join the rest. Excellent idea, in fact! I really love things like this that let anyone use some common skills and easily create something to make model railroading simpler and better.[B][Y]
Thanks guys, I just did this today in about 20-30 minutes. I have a full woodworking shop in the basement below my layout room so these things can be done rather fast and painlessly. I plan to make more or multiple ‘stalls’ if you will, but had to try it out first. Glad you like it and can use it.
I followed Dennis’s pattern of trucks on pins placed in rows on a block, although I used a cruder jig made of dollar store bamboo skewers (with a bit of masking tape to make a tight fit between the screw hold and the skewer) stuck in holes drilled in a board. Not sure why you wouldn’t want to paint the inside of the truck, I always use a truck tuner to clean and true the axle “bearing” holes anyway before putting the axles in…
While I seldom need to paint sideframes (I do it with a brush, with the trucks on the car and the wheelsets in the trucks) I gotta give you full marks for designing a simple, easy-to-use jig for accomplishing this task. [tup][tup]
i hate to nit pic but,—you are able to paint the top of the bolster which is completely hidden when it is on the car but you can not paint the sides of the bolster which often show under the car depending on how you look at it.
still, the bolster is not that easy to see and painting the trucks as you have done looks pretty good.
Neat idea. I just hold the truck using a pair of clamping pliers (hemostat) in the center hole. I can swivel the truck all around to get paint everywhere I want it to go.
Bob- thanks for the tip. The only thing I will add to my version is to make either a two or four notch holder, to do two sets at the same time for a pair of cars. Did you notch the jig with a router or just pass it thru a blade several times to clear the material? Great idea for a nice addition to the workbench!!! ( and inexpensive as well !) Cedarwoodron
I used a bandsaw and then filed the bottom flat (didn’t want to bother setting the table saw?). I may try my next one without a notch at all. I just realized I can just put some pins (nail with head cut off?) on a 1x2 and the truck sides will still set below the top of the board; much easier and you can space out the nails for as many as you want. Just a thought, but I haven’t done it yet so it may not work as well. Will try and see what happens. Thanks for the comments…
WELL, FORGET THE NEW BRAINSTORM IDEA, YOU HAVE TO CUT NOTCHES OR THE AXLE HOLES WON’T BE COVERED!!!
