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Making joints Techniques for strengthening models/Bob Walker I


n the world of technical writing, they say that important topics should be revisited every seven or


eight years. I make every effort to keep this column light but informative, avoiding the high-tech complexities as much as is possible, so I try not to be a technical writer as much as the subject allows. There are times when I have to be a bit of a techno-nerd, though. Be- sides, just who are “they” anyhow, some nameless experts that no one has actu- ally ever met? Bah! “Expert” is “ex” (which means used to be), and “spurt” is a drip under pressure, so “they” are a bunch of drips that used to have a high stress load. I have to ask myself, do I really want to take advice from these types? As you can see, I have difficulty with authority figures, anonymous ones.


particularly


I wrote about making joints several years ago (June, 2005). The title of that column was “Specialized attachments.” I thought I had better reread it so there would be little or no repetition for this one; then I thought better of it. Let’s take this one on its own path,


Scratchbuilder’s Corner


without influence from past efforts. In this way I can avoid plagiarizing my- self. So: glue Stick A to Wall B. There, I’m done for this month. Somehow I don’t think Chris or Jim are going to buy into this, so I’d better babble on a bit about joints. I can think up all kinds of smart-alec references to them, but I won’t. I have never actually met anyone who has had this particular misfor- tune, but we have all heard the urban legend of the guy who spent all night in his hotel room feverishly rebuilding a contest entry of some sort. The model, of course, was roughly handled by some evil airline baggage person. You know, its the beautiful contest winner that decided to make itself into a kit the night before the event opened. I have no doubt that this really happened to


someone, and possibly multiple some- ones. (See, the dog really did eat my homework!) What we will try to accom- plish here is to avoid joining those ranks. Weak attachments may well work for those structure models be- yond elbow length from the edge of the layout. Close to the edge, portable mod- ules, contest entries, rolling stock, and the like are each a horse of another col- or and should be made of stouter stuff. There are times when two items to be joined just do not have the marrying surface area to form a strong bond. No matter how strong the adhesive is, the joint is a weak one and will be prone to failure. If your luck is like mine, that failure will cause a domino effect, and the resultant cascade of failures will be of epic proportions. The safest bet is to figure some way to strengthen those joints.


In most cases I try to use a short chip of brass wire to act as a mounting pin: a pin for A and a hole in B—you know what I mean. For small sizes such as ¹/₁₆″×¹/₁₆″ stripwood or styrene, I use an eighth inch or so of .020″ wire with a


When a plaster wall is dropped (left) repairs can be made. Chunks of plaster and stripwood were used on the back side to reinforce


70


the joint. Serious bracing is in order on most walls and roofs (right); here, stripwood is installed where it cannot be seen.


APRIL 2014


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