I was drilling handrail holes for template use on my FA's nose and I drilled the bottom hole too far and drilled right through the shell. How would I go about repairing the hole w/o filling it back up? I don't want to just lay a sheet of styrene because it will interfere with electronics and LED wires going in at a future date. I'm asking here because I really need a repair how to for correct mistakes like this.
I am sorry I don't have an answer to the hole repair. We'll use this thread for the eventual link to the How To Forum if we get some good answers and I am sure we will. In the meantime I will move this thread to the Inspection Pit where we can get some more coverage.
Well I am placing a hand rail in, but I have no idea what kind of material I should use to fill the hole partially. I just need to make a backing on the hole so my Handrail's don't slide all the way through.
I'd just put a bit of Squadron putty on the tip of my finger and squeeze some of it into the hole from the inside. That way you won't leave any extra material on the inside of the shell. You won't be able to control the depth, so you may need to drill it again once it dries. Ed .
I guess I'm still confused on what exactly you're trying to do. You drilled a hole to put a handrail in, but the hole is too big? or too low? Is it one of the situations where it is too low to work, but too close to be able to drill a completely new hole (the center of the correct hole would be right on the edge of the current hole)? Will you be gluing the handrail in place? Maybe you can just bore out the hole in the direction it needs to go, then use a filler epoxy to glue and fill the remaining negative space.
no I drilled the hole too far and went through the entire shell. My shell is about an inch thick and I only meant to drill the bottom hole half an inch in so I could glue the hand rail in. I've heard of squadron putty before, and will give that a try. Thanks Ed And no the hole is actually too low, but I'm going to hand bend my handrails to make up for that. I can't acurately match AristoCraft's stock paint so I'm going to modify the hand rails to cover that up.
OHH, Ok now this makes sense. Maybe you could try putting masking tape over the hole from the inside of the shell, then fill the hole with putty to the level desired. Once the putty dries peel off the tape.
I see now. This is G scale or a garden railway..."shell one inch thick." My N scale techniques may not work here. IMHO, I would try to fill the hole with the same material as the shell is made of. A styrene rod might do it. It could be glued in place, cut off, and sanded smooth. I think we need some better ideas here.
I've gotten some really good suggestions and I'm going to try each one to see how they work, and I'll let you know the results afterwards~ Thank so much for the help.
An alternate might be to insert the handrail to the proper depth and secure it with masking tape or similar. Then press in Squadron Putty. epoxy, or other adhesive from the rear. This way you not only have a hole at the proper depth, but the handrail is now "glued" in place.
I would fill the hole from the back side with a plug of either putty that will harden or something like Gorilla Glue. First place a small piece of Saran Wrap or similar food preservation wrap inside the hole and tamp it into place at the depth you need from the outside. Then, working inside the shell, place a bit of moistened Gorilla Glue on a toothpick and insert enough of it to almost fill he hole behind the wadding you inserted earlier. Let the glue set for about two hours and then remove the wadding or insert the rod with the fixative of your choice from the outside of the shell. Or, from the inside of the shell, nip off a small length of toothpick point and glue it into place. Test the grab you want to place on the outside of the shell for depth. Let the plug dry, and then nip and sand away what you don't want protruding into the shell. Then glue your grab from the other end.
Suggestion for preventative measures.....wrap a small piece of masking tape around the drill bit at the desired depth. Drill until the tape touches the material being drilled....Voila! OK, so it's dumb simple, but it saves the occasional "Oh S**T!" :tb-hissyfit:
Okay so what I've done is I have discovered that the Ozark Miniatures Grab Irons I had on order will fit the length of the holes I drilled. I'm going to take some styrene tubes, cut a small portion of it off, glue those to the back of the grab irons and mount them in the front. In the rear, the hole has been filled with some squadron putty, sanded and sealed the hole. The Grab Irons were going to be White so I have nothing else to worry about since the chipped green paint will be covered by my front Grab Irons. I thank everyone for their help and in giving me a bunch of useful ideas to help solve this problem. Next time, I'll be a little steadier with my drill bit.
