Walthers Passenger Car Grab Iron Holes

[bogp40]

Just finished the grabs on my B&O sleepers today. I always use a slightly larger bit than called for. A #77 was used in a pin vise. I recommend that to locate the hole before drilling, use a sharp X-acto blade to locate and spin a starting hole like a center punch would for metal. This gives you perfect control for exact location. One thing I noticed on a couple of cars, the long side grabs at the steps were not installed properly. The bottoms of all the grabs were not glued and the hole needed to be drilled deeper. Real care is needed here when pulling the lower portion of the grab out to clear the hole. Dab of CA from a toothpick and done. I don't know if I will be installing the cut levers now, until the coupler operation has proven to be fine- Once the lever is installed the coupler cover can't be removed! All I need now are passengers, lighting and find what color window shades to use. These are really beautiful pieces can't wait for the rest of the heavyweights.
Bob K.

[Anonymous]

Endure the pain, do them by hand. Drilling plastic shouldn't be that hard a task. Try drilling holes in a while metal casting to wear your hand out! I've personally never heard of anyone using a power tool to drill grab iron holes. They are way too fast and difficult to control the extremely small drill bits. I bet you'll break a lot of them too!

I have a pin vice I got from Micro-Mark that has a twisted shaft on it, with a knurled collar. By moving the collar up and down it turns the shaft and the drill. Easier than twisting a pin vice between your fingers. I use this for white metal holes.

Bob Boudreau

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by justair

Drilling by hand is a real pain.

And then, you break the drill. I don't bother and at a distance you can't see them anyway.
Other modelers have used the "Zona Tools Spiral Hand Drill 37-160 and done
six cars with the same # 80 drill
Another uses genuine High Speed Steel Bits . See the Gyros brand in the Walthers catalog.
Do you use sitting people figures? If not then you don't need grab irons.

[Anonymous]

I'm having trouble installing the grab irons on my Walther passenger cars. What size drill bit are you using and how are you drilling them? When I use my dremel, at the lowest speed, I melt the plastic. Drilling by hand is a real pain.