Wheels of time flats

[mcjaco]

I have a friend who would probably kill to be able to get their Coffee Bender.

I might be able to arrange something.   

[nkalanaga]

mcjaco:  Same here.  In fact, I don't even own a scale ruler, in spite of being in N scale for almost 50 years.  I convert everything to scale inches, then use a stainless steel ruler marked in 64ths.  It's good to 2.5 scale inches, which is better than the scale rulers available when I was starting.

If I really need scale feet, I have an engineer's ruler, 12 inch plastic, marked on 10ths, 20th, 30ths, 40ths, 50ths, and 60ths.  The 50ths will also measure Evergreen styrene. so it does double duty, on the rare occasion I find a misplaced strip.

For plastic or metal strip and rod, 0.01 inch equals 1.6 scale inches, which is also easy to work with.

I use relatively few drill bit sizes, so keeping them separate isn't hard.

Did I mention that I'm cheap?

[Chris333]

I used calipers about 10 times today!

[peteski]

Did I mention that I'm cheap?

I consider tools something which makes my hobby easier and more enjoyable.  If a tool will make my hobby easier is available, and really, really affordable - I buy it. An inexpensive digital caliper pays for itself thousands of times (in making the measurements easier. It can even be used to transfer measurements directly to the material I'll be cutting (the pointed jaws can be used to scribe plastic and soft metals.  Being cheap by skimping on tools doesn't seem logical to me.  But I religiously save all the wood, metal, and plastic cutoffs, and even lengths of wire I  cut off during decoder installation.  You just never know when you will need a small piece of brass tubing or a short piece of 30 AWG wire. 

[thomasjmdavis]

I consider tools something which makes my hobby easier and more enjoyable.

Amen to that. 

[nkalanaga]

Peteski:  Looking at what you consider "fun", and what you accomplish doing it, I'd imagine you have a lot of tools I don't! 

I do save the leftovers, though, and have often found a piece that was "just right" without having to cut a new one.