Folks:
I usually handle dust in a gondola or open hopper. Scale effects mean I don't need an enclosed car.
You have to be joking..right?....Dust is the ultimate weathering! I use a vacuum to get up the big chunks like stray ballast, loose ground foam, and anything else that falls from my hobby knife. A nice coating of dust makes the layout stand out better!
Seriously, I create dust with washes and chalks. I vaccuum everything twice a year and use a soft paint brush to break up the tough spots. A bit of real dust on the layout is one thing. Allowing the layout to go so long without a good cleaning that it becomes filthy is not acceptible in my book....chuck
While I'm here...you know those cheap figures you can't even remember where you got, the ones that look horrid but fill a need nobody else makes, so you have to use them, but they absolutely refuse to stand up properly, always falling down no matter how many different ways you adjust their feet?
Am I the only one tempted, while running the mighty shop vac, to play Oz, and give them the ride of a lifetime through the Cyclone Vortex dust filter?
I bought a MINI-VAC attachment set at Harbor Freight The attachments attach to a regular size shop vac hose, and then narrow down so all you have is mini-attachments. Works great for getting into small cramped nooks and crannies.
TheK4Kid
I vacumn when the wife says so and we break out the Water Vacumn every three months. I havent really touched anything except taking a old fat makeup brush to dust off my buildings. Then again I dont have much anything except two computers to haul dust bunnies out of the cases. Between those computers, two HEPA airfiters and arkansas rain, not too much gets too dusty around here.
In fact, My natural gas furnace probably burns any free floating dust left in the home via the fresh air intake in the middle hallway.
Ever since we got rid of our two cats (They found a good home in the next town) the house dust is not a issue.
Dust, schmust.
It's all the cat hair that keeps my sound equipped locos relatively silent against the loud droning scream of my Craftsman shop vac. Dust control is a secondary result of this process.
Ted M.
got trains?™
See my photos at: http://tedmarshall.rrpicturearchives.net/
I use my vacuum cleaner to get the dust of the tracks
It works great, have a look: http://lux-modellbau.de/html_uk/gleis_vh.htm
Reinhard
Ballast, waterways, roadways, bare rock, all these can take the hammering from a 1 inch nozzle on a big shop-vac without a problem.
For buildings, rolling stock, and vegetated areas, an array of brushes from tiny to quarter inch wide to one inch wide are used to "herd" dust into safe pickup areas for the shop-vac, and then a less powerful dust-buster goes over the delicate areas for good measure.
If anything comes loose, it wasn't properly fixed to begin with, and a better job of attachment is achieved second time around.
Figures and buildings aren't fixed to the layout in any event, half the fun is in changing them out and moving them around. They are set aside while cleaning.
Jay
C-415 Build: https://imageshack.com/a/tShC/1
Other builds: https://imageshack.com/my/albums
I am fortunate enough to be able to push the layout outside the garage and let mother nature do her thing naturally. For those times when there isn't a breeze, I have a keyboard vaccum cleaner.
Bob Berger, C.O.O. N-ovation & Northwestern R.R. My patio layout....SEE IT HERE
There's no place like ~/ ;)
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
tomikawaTT wrote: I don't handle it if I can avoid it. I just suck it up with a vacuum cleaner. Stubborn deposits may have to be agitated with a soft brush to convince them to move.This is also a good way to determine which items of scenery need to be reglued (or glued to begin with.) If the vacuum won't uproot them, moving the layout probably won't disturb them either.I use a vacuum with a clear dust receiver, so it's easy to spot and retrieve the non-dust items that get sucked up.Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
I don't handle it if I can avoid it. I just suck it up with a vacuum cleaner. Stubborn deposits may have to be agitated with a soft brush to convince them to move.
This is also a good way to determine which items of scenery need to be reglued (or glued to begin with.) If the vacuum won't uproot them, moving the layout probably won't disturb them either.
I use a vacuum with a clear dust receiver, so it's easy to spot and retrieve the non-dust items that get sucked up.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Sheesh, Chuck, that's the low tech way to do it. I used to work in the semiconductor equipment biz. I'm building a class 10 clean room. http://www.ee.byu.edu/cleanroom/particlecount.phtml
Andre
I don't concider it weathering
Seriously I've done a couple of things. Drop ceiling in the train room and a couple tools I find that work well for me are a small camera lens brush ( rubber bulb that you squeeze with a soft brush on the nozzle ) and I bought a cheap $9 two aaa battery powered keyboard vacum,it's not powerfull enough to pull any people or details off the layout ( as long as they are well glued )seriously two good "dustings a month" and it's not all that bad.
Rob
I have been reviewing a number of train setups trying to decide what to buy.
One constant theme I have seen is that all the setups have been dusty...some to the point of filthy.
How do you handle the big D?
TMT