Category: Useful Tools
5-Minute Epoxy Rant
We use 5-minute epoxy here at Raildig all the time, everything from building with XPS foam to repairs where a CA glue may not be quite enough. Instead of using the common syringe style dispensers I prefer the 4 oz bottles sold in a pair where you get one bottle of resin and one of […]
Secret Glove Color Test
Just a bit of a lark here, seeing what color gloves I’d like to use in future videos. I have one more color on the way… gray. Can’t believe I forgot to order those at the same time as these. Just taking a break from shooting a real video and thought this would be fun […]
Coffman Right Angle Clamps
In this video we’re going to do a little work to my Coffman clamps, both the original right clamp and the mini right clamp. These clamps are designed to hold kit or scratchbulding parts at a 90 degree angle when gluing them together. I’ve used the Coffman right angle clamps for years, both the Original […]
Rexbeti 6″ Digital Caliper
Recently my old 4″ digital caliper threw in the towel, flashing random numbers on screen, turning on and off for no obvious reason, etc. Time to go shopping for a new caliper! One feature I’ve wanted for some time is a thumb roller adjustment wheel for more precise adjustments. I went with the Rexbeti 6″ […]
Proxxon Hot Wire MDF Fence Kit
My Proxxon hot wire foam cutter is one of my favorite tools for making perfectly square cuts in extruded foam, or XPS. A much talked about shortcoming of the Proxxon is its miter fence. I find it has a bit too much play in it when cutting larger pieces of foam. I’ve seen a few […]
DIY Sanding Boards | 3M Super 77 XPS Foam
We started out with a simple DIY sanding board video and once we got to the 3M Super 77 adhesive, we had to keep going and make a little diorama out of XPS foam! I’ve been using this simple idea for a perfectly flat sanding board for years and thought I’d make a few new […]
Mod Podge Hard Coat | XPS Foam
I often put together small little scenes for our own Raildig products on Extruded Polystyrene Foam, or XPS. It’s terrific stuff to work with but it dents and dings easily. I wanted a way to avoid this and while I could put together little fascias from sheet styrene, I wanted to see if I could […]
Basic Airbrushes Video
For the longest time I resisted airbrushes just because I thought they were too complicated for my needs, that is just adding single colors to my N & Z scale building kits. When I finally bought my Paasche H single action brush, I could have kicked myself for putting it off for so long! Sure, […]
Our First Solder Pot For Tinning Wires
A solder pot is one of those little tools I’ve been meaning to purchase to tin the wires we use in our Raildig products, but over time you get pretty fast with a flux pen and regular soldering iron, so I kept putting off this purchase. When we got a couple of new large orders […]
LED Light Modifier | Bad Bayou Halloween Style
It seems every year when I break out this Micro-Trains inspired N scale Halloween shadowbox, I can’t help myself, I have to fiddle with it just a bit! This year I’ve added some overhead lighting to brighten up our Bad Bayou toxic ponds. Not too bright, this is the Bad Bayou after all, but I’ve […]
