The May 2009 issue of Model Railroader has a creative article by Bruce Dombey about easily making steel coils by rolling colored paper around a dowel stick. His turned out very well, especially after weathering. These can be made to any scale simply by adjusting the paper strip's width and the amount of paper rolled around the dowel. I've been meaning to give it a try and finally did this weekend. He found some realistic dark gun metal colored paper and also some brownish red (to represent coils with a light patina of rust). I found a lighter gray that looked OK for a first try. The strapping that keeps the coils together was made of 1/8 chart tape cut in half lengthwise. I lightly weathered my coils with brown artist chalk. Here is how they turned out next to a trio of commercially available coils...



They fit nicely in my coil cars and are a light load.



I'm going to keep practicing with different papers and try to roll the coils tighter. At $1.03 for two sheets of craft paper I think I can afford to make some more!
Ralph

Extremely nice!

awesome Ralph!! I remember this article, ill need to go at this myself here soon lol

Excellent Ralph i got some thin card to make some as in MR need to get on with it ..... not seen a coil car liked the one in the pic ?

I made a few more coils and darkened them up with more chalks. I think they look more like those in the MR article. The coil car is a model of a type that had a hinged top instead of lift-off covers. They were supposed to be a convenient innovation but, from what I've read, they weren't always very reliable. I've seen a couple of prototype photos. I'll see if I can find one. I have a half dozen of these that I've picked up at flea markets or a couple of bucks a piece. Here's a pic with the cover closed.



Ralph

If you had to measure the thickness of the paper, what would it be?

I've been wanting to do this for a while, have shim stock I can roll up but still wondered if superglue would hold it or just braze it together. Another thing was strapping, just add paint and line it on or cut some electrical tape possibly


Looks good

Looks GREAT! I have a bunch of WP gondolas I need to add coils too, so I have bookmarked this thread, thanks for sharing!

Neat idea. I'll have to try it.
First...I'll have to get some coil cars.

Man!! that's a great idea I'd have to use copy paper in G though

I saw that article. Very nice effort on your part. Maybe wrapping around a small dowel or something would "tighten" the coils?

Ralph
Those look great for the coils that are shipped inner-mill. I have seen dedicated trains with coils that look exactly like the loose ones you made.
They move from one mill to another for another process. Those are not always covered.
Charlie

tomustang Wrote:If you had to measure the thickness of the paper, what would it be?

I've been wanting to do this for a while, have shim stock I can roll up but still wondered if superglue would hold it or just braze it together. Another thing was strapping, just add paint and line it on or cut some electrical tape possibly


Looks good

Thanks everyone! Tom, the paper I used was about the thickness of three sheets of ordinary printer paper, if that helps.

Mountain Man, I did use a dowel to start the roll but I think my problem keeping things tighter occurs when I attach another strip of paper to the already wound roll on the dowel to make it larger. Practice is probably the key.

Charlie, thanks for the feedback! Good to know. When would you expect to see silver shiny rolls or dark gray ones that I have seen photographed from time to time?

Ralph

When would you expect to see silver shiny rolls or dark gray ones that I have seen photographed from time to time?


Ralph, the dark gray ones probably right off a hot strip, and the shiny ones may be stainless. Wayne would have a little more input here.
Charlie

"Reading", as the old Public Service Campaign used to say, "is fundamental!" It occurred to me to read the article a little more closely!
The author says that hot rolls cool to that dark blue gray color and then start collecting a patina of rust. I'm guessing the shiny silver rolls are stainless.
Makes sense to me!

Ralph

Im going to give a whack at the coil bit myself except im going to use plastic strap that i see tons of at work. Ill post pics later.