DCC Impulses Column - 3
Making large holes
Installations frequently
require a large round hole
for sound to get out. Large
drills are expensive and
sometimes difficult to
control.
A tapered reamer comes to
the rescue, especially in plas-
tic models. Drill a reason-
able sized hole and use the
reamer to enlarge it.
Hint:
If you cut from one
side and then do a light
burnish from the other
side, the resulting hole
will be nearly cylindrical.
Stripping fine wires
A good pair of strippers
designed for fine wire is one
of the most valuable tools
you will find for decoder
installation. Yup, they will
suck up the better part of
a $20 bill, but there is no
substitute!
4: My wire strippers. Don't
settle for poor quality.
4
3: My tapered reamer that
I use to make the larger
holes.
3
Fine sanding
Leslie Eaton, MMR, gives lots of clinics at the NMRA national
conventions. At one of the first of hers I attended, she sug-
gested that modelers should have a Sally Beauty Supply dis-
count card, as they have lots of tools and supplies to make
modeling easier.
One of the best tools from there are emery boards. I get them
in a range of grits. The photo shows a black 100 / 180, a blue
220 / 320, and a pink 400 / 600. Used by themselves, they
will round the surface they are sanding. If you put them on a
rigid surface, like your workbench, and move the object being
sanded across them, they will sand straighter. The harder you
push into them, the more rounded the corners get.
5: Emery boards are a great sanding tool and come in
different grits.
5
MRH-Jun 2013
