doctorwayne's Get off yer duff Challenge (Part II)

[doctorwayne]

Sorry for the late reply: I started it this morning, then went out for most of the day working elsewhere. It's now about 8:00PM, and I've just now finished - nice to see that it didn't disappear, like a long-winded in-progress composition over on the MR Forum usually does.
If I don't have suitable photos available, I pause to shoot them, then edit as necessary and place them in photobucket...,.and, as usual, also tend to ramble on a bit. I hope that this reply won't make you regret requesting "more information".

Andrew, I usually.... well, probably always, drill right through, and then after placing a spacer between the car's body and the grabirons (a strip of .030" thick styrene seems to work well, and I store one in the drawer where the grabirons are kept) I use my X-Acto knife to bend-over the protruding ends inside the car. With the spacer centred - not touching the portion of the grabs which enter the car's body - ca is then applied inside the car to the area where the wires protrude through the side. The placement of the spacer is to guard against the ca wicking through the hole and cementing the spacer in place.
For house cars, that's usually enough, unless the folded-over protruding ends will interfere with something inside the car...the car's floor or a weight mounted inside the car, for instance. I often leave the ends sticking into gondolas, too, as they're pressed against the inside surface and, once painted, aren't all that noticeable.

Here's a boxcar with the grabiron ends left inplace...



...and a gondola with the same...



If you don't like the looks of them, though, let the ca fully cure, then use an old #11 blade in your X-Acto to pick at the exposed ends until they're free of the inside wall of the car, and bend them back the opposite way to what they were bent during installation. Usually, the metal will fatigue and the protruding piece will simply break off, but some may need to be flipped back and forth a couple of times.
Here's a gondola with the bent-over ends cut off using the method outlined above:



I save the trimmed-off bits of wire and dump them into a plastic blister off the piece of cardstock which comprises the packaging for Krazy Glue, but any such plastic bubble will work. Metal trimmings from other projects are also tossed into the same container, and when enough has been accumulated, I dump in enough A-West Blacken-It to more or less cover the heap. This is left for a day or two, then, if any of the liquid remains, it's carefully dumped back into another container - usually an empty bottle of the blackening agent and re-capped. This prevents contaminating the new blackener, and can be re-use (with whatever amount of new blackener might be needed) for your next batch of "scrap".

Here's a just-started collection of scrap wire, shavings, trimmings and broken stuff...



...and some processed and dried material...



I should also mention X-Acto blades. I use mostly #11s, but also #17s and #18s. The latter two are very easy to re-sharpen, and the ones I have have been in-service for many years. They're also easy to shape using a cut-off disc in a motor tool, allowing use in some confined or unusual situations. Here's one example (the coupler was the actual subject when the photo was taken):



When a #11 blade is new, I use it mainly to cut-out decals, although the initial cutting is done with an older, re-sharpened blade, staying well-away from the desired images. Each cut-out piece is then trimmed, using a new blade and working on a piece of glass or other hard surface, using a downward chopping motion rather than simply slicing. This is done as close as possible to the image itself. Chopping pushes the cut edge downward, whereas slicing raises it, which makes settling the edges more difficult during decal application. I also trim the corners where the image does not come right to the edge as on an "O" or ""8", for example. All of this rigmarole is to aid in making the applied decal film less obvious. To carry that topic a little further, the decal is applied on a gloss surface, and once fully set and dried (overnight at least), another gloss coat should be applied over the entire area. This equalises the finish of decaled and undecaled areas, making them more similar in appearance. After that, the clear finish of choice (flat or semi-gloss) can be applied.

Back to blades. Once the decal chopping has been done, the blade is usually resharpened and used for whatever tasks may be required, and continued, with re-sharpening as needed. This phase ends when the tip of the blade breaks off, which it will. Don't throw it away, though: it's still useful for heavy-duty cutting (thick styrene, for example, which requires several scorings before it can be snapped apart). Continue to use such blades where the missing tip will not affect results, re-sharpening as required.
You'll eventually end up with a bunch of such slightly damaged blades in service, and those in the worst condition can be moved a little further down the useage scale. If you need to cut brass, or phosphor bronze wire, one of theses blades will do the job quite neatly: working on a hard surface (glass or metal), simply place the heel of the blade (the sharp edge at the deepest part of the blade, near the handle) at the proper point on the wire, and press down very firmly, taking care to restrain both pieces of wire on either side of the cut. This works well up to about .015" or .020" in diameter. For heavier wire, place the blade on the target area, then press down firmly, using the blade to roll the wire beneath it. A couple of back-and-forth moves will either sever the wire or score and work-harden the cut point to a degree where it can be easily and cleanly broken by hand.
These techniques will also work on stainless steel wire, which is much harder, but the upper limit of diameter is probably .015" or .012" at most.
This useage will further damage the blade, usually by create indentations in the cutting edge, but the blade will remain useful for further such work until most of the cutting edge is ruined.

Don't throw it away yet, though. If not too much of the blade's tip has broken off, or if the blade is already used for wire cutting but still has its tip, it makes an excellent applicator for ca: simply pool some ca on that hard work surface, then dip the blade's tip into it, and apply a controlled amount of glue to the place required - if it's an easy-to-reach spot, you can use the blade held in your finger tips, or secure it in an X-Acto handle for a longer reach, such as applying ca to grabirons inside of a boxcar. When each such job is completed, use the back (non-cutting) edge of another blade to scrape off the dried ca, leaving it ready for the next time.
Another use for old blades past their cutting prime is for mixing epoxy. I use a piece of .060" sheet styrene for a mixing surface, and simply squeeze out the proper amount of epoxy and hardener onto it. Then, hold a blade either in your fingertips or a proper handle, and thoroughly mix the two components. After wiping the blade to ensure that there's not an excess of either component left on it, you can use the blade, tip end or, using your fingertips to hold it, butt end, to apply the epoxy where it's needed. Once the epoxy has set, I use a #18 chisel-type blade to scrape the remaining hardened epoxy from the mixing surface, leaving it ready for the next use.

Hope all this blather will be useful to somebody.

Wayne