I was impressed when I read a post by Dave K a.k.a. rrkreitler on RRL forum called "N Scale Diorama Construction Thread". Here is a link to his thread.
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10558
What impressed me most, besides the level of excellent N scale modeling, were the tools he uses to accomplish that. I am always on the lookout for new ideas regarding tools and I was blown away with this flexible arm clamp. Here is a pic of the tool I mean.
So I wanted one too. Not having the access to the commercial product I made my own. Here it is.
The flexible arm is robbed from my sound system. It is from a microphone stand. The flexible neck isn't as flexible as the commercial item, so I added extra nuts to the main clamp so I can set it up in a variety of different ways. The big wing nut is to lock the arm still and to loosen it and turn it and lock it down again in a different position quickly.
I cut the mike stand shaft in half (it was just a table top model) and welded a bolt to the end of the shaft to fasten it to the clamp. I put the washers on the sides to make it easy to turn and tighten, no tools needed.
This is what it looks like assembled.
The business end of the tool has a coupling nut welded to the end, to get a better grip. It also has a washer cut in half and welded to the sides for tightening. A long bolt has its head cut off and an angle ground on it, then welded to the mini vice-grips. The wing-nut is to secure the head in any position required. I also sharpened the tips of the vice-grips to clean them up for finer work.
I wanted to have a clamp similar to the one in Dave's photo, but I was hard pressed to find one like that. Then on Boxing day I was in Canadian Tire and found this little bar clamp for $2 that was perfect. I drilled a 1/4" hole and welded 2 bolts together to make the mount. The clamp is held on with a lock-nut. This allows the bar clamp to revolve around the bolt and still be held firm.
When the bar clamp is not in use, it can be stored on the main clamp as you can see in the second pic of this thread.
I also have an old flexible neck lamp I am eyeing for a second arm.
I thought this may inspire others to do something similar. What do you think?
Now I need to put this tool to work!
TrainClown
http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10558
What impressed me most, besides the level of excellent N scale modeling, were the tools he uses to accomplish that. I am always on the lookout for new ideas regarding tools and I was blown away with this flexible arm clamp. Here is a pic of the tool I mean.
So I wanted one too. Not having the access to the commercial product I made my own. Here it is.
The flexible arm is robbed from my sound system. It is from a microphone stand. The flexible neck isn't as flexible as the commercial item, so I added extra nuts to the main clamp so I can set it up in a variety of different ways. The big wing nut is to lock the arm still and to loosen it and turn it and lock it down again in a different position quickly.
I cut the mike stand shaft in half (it was just a table top model) and welded a bolt to the end of the shaft to fasten it to the clamp. I put the washers on the sides to make it easy to turn and tighten, no tools needed.
This is what it looks like assembled.
The business end of the tool has a coupling nut welded to the end, to get a better grip. It also has a washer cut in half and welded to the sides for tightening. A long bolt has its head cut off and an angle ground on it, then welded to the mini vice-grips. The wing-nut is to secure the head in any position required. I also sharpened the tips of the vice-grips to clean them up for finer work.
I wanted to have a clamp similar to the one in Dave's photo, but I was hard pressed to find one like that. Then on Boxing day I was in Canadian Tire and found this little bar clamp for $2 that was perfect. I drilled a 1/4" hole and welded 2 bolts together to make the mount. The clamp is held on with a lock-nut. This allows the bar clamp to revolve around the bolt and still be held firm.
When the bar clamp is not in use, it can be stored on the main clamp as you can see in the second pic of this thread.
I also have an old flexible neck lamp I am eyeing for a second arm.
I thought this may inspire others to do something similar. What do you think?
Now I need to put this tool to work!
TrainClown
