Nolan Hinshaw wrote:

I was so much older then; I'm younger than that now.

Great insight, Nolan. Me too <g>.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history

Gentlemen,I have built four RCS Rutland stock cars,Three Westerfield CN and one CPR as well as one F&C B&M stock car.All well worth the effort and much easier to build than one P2K stock car kit.Not bragging,but the results are well worth the effort.Armand Premo
----- Original Message -----
From: Anthony Thompson
To: STMFC@...
Sent: Friday, August 20, 2010 12:25 PM
Subject: Re: [STMFC] Resin sanding?



All I can say is, I did build one resin stock car and don't
look forward to repeating the experience. The final model is great,
but getting there wasn't.

Tony Thompson Editor, Signature Press, Berkeley, CA
2906 Forest Ave., Berkeley, CA 94705 www.signaturepress.com
(510) 540-6538; fax, (510) 540-1937; e-mail, thompson@...
Publishers of books on railroad history






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GUYZ,
 
I keep hearing about stock cars kits, yet I have never heard how difficult they might be to assemble. In truth, I have not done one as yet, though I am looking for a few. Can these be any worse than drawing the sides and using it as an assembly template for Evergreen strips?  Trick to this method is to keep the pins out of your finger tips!
 
Fred Freitas

GUYZ,
 
I keep hearing about stock cars kits, yet I have never heard how difficult they might be to assemble. In truth, I have not done one as yet, though I am looking for a few. Can these be any worse than drawing the sides and using it as an assembly template for Evergreen strips?  Trick to this method is to keep the pins out of your finger tips!
 
Fred Freitas

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The YV never had a need to run stock cars so I don't ever see the need to
built a resin stock car kit. But it seems that one of the problems is
getting constant pressure when you are sanding, regardless of the grade of
sandpaper. I once purchased a small sheet of "rubber" at the hardware store
to temporarily stop a leak on a water pipe (the rubber and a pair of
radiator clamps did the job). I wonder if a piece of rubber attached to a
block of wood (with contact cement or double sided tape) could be used in
lieu of your fingers during the sanding operation? The rubber would allow
the block to conform to the surface variations of the resin side and,
hopefully, also let the piece slide back and forth on the sandpaper without
slipping. If that works as envisioned, it would even out the pressure as you
sand.

Just an untried thought...

Jack Burgess
www.yosemitevalleyrr.com

On Aug 19, 2010, at 1:32 PM, Bill Welch wrote:

I agree with Ed that the minor rib on Hutchins roofs are often
exaggerated. Another point to remember is that on FGE./WFE/BRE cars
rebuilt with this roof there is no such rib or really crease. My
theory is that they purchased Hutchins parts but supplied their own
steel panels. For those of you building the modernized Westerfield
model of the ex-PRR R7 reefers, you need to remove the rib cast into
the middle of the roof panels.

Bill, as I think I have pointed out in a previous post, the Hutchins
information in the Car Builders' Cyclopedias is ambiguous. In the
illustration in the 1931 CBCyc, the shallow intermediate ribs between
the seam caps are shown, but in the drawing that accompanies it (and
also appears in the 1937 CBCyc) they are not. So IMHO a more likely
explanation than your speculation above is that at some point in the
late 1920s Hutchins stopped putting the shallow ribs on the roof
sheets, and they were no longer present by the time FGEX began
applying Hutchins roofs.

Richard Hendrickson



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Friends, I am once again engaging in my usual summer push-on-the-porch to build at least several fine kits, some really challenging, and others merely enjoyable. I have no grand plan or scheme, but simply choose those projects that catch my fancy and interest.

One of my current projects is a thoroughly delightful Westerfield Milwaukee Road 36' drop-door stock car kit, and as one might expect, the exquisite flat sides with their myriads of slats and fine bracing are all laid out in high relief on a relatively thick tough slab of resin. Now, the entire project depends upon cleaning out all flash between these fine slats and braces without collateral damage, the produced spaces to be squarely and smoothly cleared. In this regard, all know what to do: sand the backs of these sides until the flash between the slats becomes so thin that it can be easily cleaned out with the hosts of various sharp instruments that are right at hand (none of which really fit, or do the job!).

So the sanding of these large pieces begin: a segment of 220 grit wet-or-dry sandpaper is laid out flat; the side is placed on its back; and with fingers spread-eagled the length and width of the slide, the side is moved back and forth with sufficient pressure to engage the cutting sand paper granules, but not enough to grab the sandpaper and bunch it up with the creases that will only cause future problems.

Well, after a considerable length of time (I count to 100 slowly, with about three swipes per count per bout of sanding), I take a look and- I find that the flash is indeed minutely being removed, but primarily only under the tips of my "light" fingers. I change the position of my fingers, but I do not get very far because the sand paper is now loading up. I wash the sandpaper with a drop of detergent, dry it on a tea towel, and then get back to sanding. I rotate the side; I try to flatten my finger tips; I change my finger positions; I load up again; I wash again, and so on. Finally, I detect that the the bloom is off the rose on this once-fresh sandpaper (resin must be harder than I would imagine), and new sand paper is called for.

Now, I steal the small broiler pan out of the toaster over, fill it with detergent water, submerge the sandpaper, and commence sanding again, this time underwater. Things move faster (the paper is now self cleaning), and at least an elapsed 1/2 hour each after starting, finally the sides are becoming thin enough so that the flash between the slats and braces is thin enough to attack with my sharp sticks. However, at the same time, the sides are also becoming thin enough to become somewhat delicate to the handling that is still necessary.

But wait! The much thinned flash must still be removed so that the slats and braces have clean sharp edges, both in fact and in perception. This is undertaken with my principal sharp stick: a #11 Xacto blade whose point has been specially honed on an Arkansas stone, and whose "square" backside has also been flat-sharpened- i.e. the 90º corners are also made as sharp as possible so that with only only the slightest tip, the backside will cut -actually scrape- just about as well as the knife edge on the other side. With this wonder tool, and a variety of stiff brushes, pokers, etc. and about an expended time of @hour, at last the exquisite, now fully-fenestrated sides are ready for their ends to be mitered to fit the car ends (also mitered).

I write this all up so that I can learn from others how THEY handle this relatively common but time consuming and tedious situation. My finger prints have probably been erased from my fingers during previous bouts of such resin flash sanding with much smaller pieces, the skin of the fingers being freshly sanded -bloody even- along with the target resin part.

I will say that demanding kits like this make me realize once again what a fulfilling delightful hobby this is!

Denny










H-mmm.
Denny S. Anspach, MD
Okoboji, Iowa