I am building a large fleet of passenger cars. The cars are built with brass car sides from Athabasca,Brass Car Sides and GHQ. So far I have 350 cars nearing completion . Each car has about 12-14 grab irons. None of the grab irons are "standard" sizes. Quick math tells me I have to make and apply 4900 grab irons. Is there a better way then doing them painstakingly and slowly one at a time ?? Any nifty tools or gadgets to keep me being driven over the edge into the vodka bottle?? Randy
MicroMark has a bending jig. It is expensive but amortized over 4900 it might pencil out to a good value. http://www.micromark.com/grab-iron-bending-gauge,9768.html
Wow , thanks , I knew I saw this someplace I could remember for ther life of me where it was ... I think its worth a shot and the price is tolerable (about the same price as a bottle of good vodka, with better results) I ordered it immediatly of course. Randy
randy, if you really need that many grab irons i would give craig from blma a call and ask him to do a custom run of 5000 grab irons. maybe even a matching drill jig.
Did you look at the sizes it bends? I'm not sure it's going to be really useful. FWIW, I've used a Feeler Gauge in the past. I find the measurement I want and tape it together. Definitely not perfect, but it does work. Jason
Thats a very attractive option as well , I will give him a call tomorrow and see what can be done. I feel that the bending jig may be useful anyhow (besides ..I love tools) I have feeler gauges but I think for a project this size it would be not much different than making them one at a time ...
You can custom make your own jigs. I would use HO scale spikes mounted in plywood to bend them up. It would be easy to have a few different jigs mounted on the same board to cover the different leingts that you will be needing....Mike PS the bottle of Vodka would be a good compainion