In the cradle

Two things came together this morning: Allan Goodwillie's post on the use of ad-hoc jigs to make modelling easier (here: http://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=666&start=25#p3809) and me chasing another upside-down wagon around my workbench. Grrrr!!!!

Whilst fitting and tweaking S&W couplings, my activity seems to require one hand for a soldering iron to melt the parts in, and one hand to hold whatever I'm fixing, and then one hand to stop the wagon sliding around the workbench.  Now I'm not anatomically gifted, so this has become very much of a sweary language moment, particularly when I drop the part that I'm trying to fit.

So out with the camping mat and the steel rule and the craft knife.  A few swipes, a waft of the hot-glue gun and I now have this:

The central fence means that I can use it for either low sided stock on the left side, or taller wagons and vans on the right hand side.  A bit like these:

Held securely in the cradle, they are like this, with the innards exposed for easy work:

When I next go out to the garage, I'll look for a piece of board that I can glue it to.  Whilst it works as it is, a little more weight underneath will make it less likely to slide around.

A note on construction - if you're using a camping mat, unroll it and let it rest for 24 hours, to get the curl out of it.  Otherwise you'll find that your base and fences aren't straight and may even try and pull against the glue into curves.