Here are a couple of cool tools that I have and have used with great success over the years.
The first is a 4" long piece of solid aluminum rod, I think the more recently made ones are stainless steel, that is drilled with a small hole on one end at the edge and ground concave and slotted at the other. This one happens to be for N scale, but I think they make other scales too.
The hole is to insert a rail joiner into and then push on to the rail without hurting your tender little fingers. The other end is slotted to fit over the rail and enable you to slide the joiner into any position you want. I'm explaining this since I don't know if you can see the diagram on the packaging.
Tool #2 is a nail driver called The Gandy Dancer. We were discussing how to drive the track nails into plywood and this is the answer. The painted square brass tube has a solid round "shepherd's hook" shaped sliding brass rod insert that is powered by a rubber band. The rod is magnetized.
How it works is you pick up a nail and draw it up into the tube with the magnetic rod. The farther you pull up, the more force you get to drive the nail. Place the end of the tool over the tie you want to nail down and release the sliding rod. As a test with the 1/4" rubber band shown, we drove a track nail through the plastic laminate and totally into the plywood under the hobby shop counter. In other words, you can generate a lot of force here. Practice is required so you don't over drive the nails. Again I state this for you if you can not read the print in the picture.
I have no idea if both of these companies are still in business. One has a phone and address, the other, just an address. Maybe one of our AZ members could check on Crossbuck for the nail drivers.
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Edited by ginzokid at 08/07/2007 5:30 AM
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Edited by ginzokid at 08/07/2007 5:33 AM