Pontremoli is situated at the very tip of the Northwestern corner of Tuscany The town’s emblem

View of the old Roman bridge and the Castle overlooking the old town. Typical street inside the old town

On the left is the street I grew up in – the picture is taken from my house. On the right is a picturesque view at the bridge, symbol of Pontremoli

The centuries old tradition of “ il Falo’ ”- It has been traced back to the Etruscans who lived in the area just before the Romans. It depicts the struggle of man over nature as it is celebrated during

the month of January. Young people today still tend to the tradition and build the fires throughout the Lunigiana valley.

On the left is the Castle On the right is the railroad crossing where the train would come out of the tunnel behind the yellow house. I would be waiting

alongside the tracks paralyzed with fear

My secret tools

by Giuseppe Aymar, DDS, MMR

Cute “ Renaissance Paige”

My early years

Who would have known

As of today

The workbench

Made from ripping the house original front door lengthwise and placed end to end.

Divided into 4 sections

L to R : spray booth/painting- cutting & assembly- decals application- soldering

Spray booth is on left side of workbench

It is vented to the outside to eliminate noxious/harmful solvents

Extensions of my hands

I carry 4 different airbrushes- 2 Paasche, one Iwata and one Aztek. Plus I use a sandblaster that hooks up to the air compressor via a quick connect.

Aztek on the left and sandblaster on the right

Iwata compressor has multiple ports for three airbrushes. I keep my solvents in the corner.

Behind the paint booth

If there is space, make use of it.

Cutting and assembly

The self-healing green mat ( 18 x 24 ) has been indented in the workbench’s top . I routed the top the depth of the mat. This allows for a smooth surface between the wood top and the mat, useful especially when cleaning

Decals and gluing

Glass surface (18 x 30 ) is also indented in the bench’s top for a smooth transition with top. Here is where I cut and apply decals plus do most of my “joints” gluing since the surface is smooth, hard and the glue can be easily scraped off.

Soldering station

I use that white soldering pad as a base so as not to burn the wood top. It also helps pin down pieces to be soldered. Many times I will pin down a balsa pattern to the pad itself and have the pieces to be soldered pinned to the balsa .

Soldering equipment

We’ll look at each one separately later

Styrene corner

I keep all the shapes made by Evergreen.. You never know when you need that particular shape. It took me 3 years to acquire them all. A few at a time.

Paint rack

Always evolving according to paint needs

Must have- basic bread and butter to be able to model

Small parts bins – all labeled- there are 40 bins per case for a total of 80 bins plus 4 large bins- Each bin is divided into 4or 8 subunits with an average of 500 available storage spaces for my parts. And they arte all full.

Custom designing bin for maximum flexibility

I made cardboard separators to further divide each bin for very small parts and thus acquire even more storage. This bin has 8 spaces

Different view

The cardboard separators are cut to fit over the long spine . The slots on the cross members fit precisely over the slots on the spine for a seamless construction.

Made into a 4 bins

Air reservoirs and cable bundles require more space

Clear markings on all the bins for easy retrieval

All partitions inside each bin are cataloged appropriately.

8 bays for small pieces

Metric screws

4 bay for longer pieces

Large trays

Parts that do not fit in smaller trays, obviously

Large tray holds parts that cannot be bent

Large photo-etched parts

Large bins for parts that cannot be bent

Storage place below the bench

Two rows of shelves cantilever from the wall. Bins full of large supplies are stored here. Like the ultrasonic cleaner, scale, large bottles, etc

Storage below the bench

More storage . Also you can see I nestled a pencil sharpener between the drawers. Got to use every available inch of space.

Clamps storage.

Clamps are “clamped” to a styrene sheet protruding from under the shelf above the workbench in the cutting/assembly section. This way they stay organized , are out of the way and easily reached.

More clamps

This is over the decal area.

DC and DCC power stations

They feed into test tracks on the shelf above. See next slide

Magnetic rack

I keep most tools on this rack to my left at arm’s length to facilitate retrieval.

Magnetic holders

I keep these at arm’s length to my left for easy retrieval.

Magnetic holders

Not all tools are ferrous so some tools do not stick. These holders allow the tool to be saddling the bar.

Magnetic holders

I like to have space between instruments so a not to use too many Band-Aids for my poor fingers.

Magnetic holders

Who says I have too many magnetic strips?

Screwdrivers, x-acto knives, small drills handles

Made tool holders from styrene tubes glued to spacers to stack them and allow fingers to retrieve tools without bumping on tools above or below.

Bins under workbench hang on wall

I keep things like glues for easy reach

Preparing for my next project

I use metal side of paint booth to display pictures of my next project

Scale caliper- Indespensable

I modified it by adding passenger cars measuring tool

Does it look like a surgical tray? Model beware!!!

Left to Right:

Files- twizzers- screwdrivers- x-acto knives- small drills

Clamps- from my wife’s extensive inventory

They can be shaped by hand to conform to any shape so as to clamp odd shaped objects

More clamps

A variety of clamps allows flexibility for various shapes, materials and situations. One does not have enough clamps, EVER ! Let your imagination run wild.

More clamps

I use these mainly to hold parts when airbrushing. Converted wooden pins are glued to a strip of wood. Clamp each part separately-Just made them so they are brand spanking new.

On top one can see plastic holder for wheels so that when spraying the surface and axle of the wheel it protects the thread.

Tools used on brass, styrene, wood or strathemore

Needle nose, twezers, medium grit saw blade, drafting & measuring tools, fine toothed saw blade.

Tools I use on brass

Scissors- locking clamp- cross tweezers- three prong pliers (orthodontis tool-makes bends in wire to any angle)- flat nose pliers ( makes 90 degree bents on sheet metal)- wire shaper ( orthodontic tool ) one side is flat while the opposite beak is round and tapered allowing making continuous loop of desired diameter on wire.

Aha! The dental tools !!!! Au parbleau!!!!!

Long tip explorer. I use it to dispense tiny amount of cyanoacrylate. The rest are used for making objects in wax : trimmers, wax spatula,carvers- once done I will make a mold of it and use in casting the object multiple times.

Bending, crimping, cutting tools

Used to make loops in wire and adjust gladhands in couplers- small/large wire cutters- needle nose pliers

Critical tools

Machinist square, small square, protractor, machinist caliper for precision measurements to .001 mm

Altered gauge showing horizontal extension

The extension allows measuring from the railhead to any part of the model

Cardboard shapes to be used for partitions

I would determine where the cuts are going to be made depending on whether 4,6,8 partitions

My soldering section

That’s a busy place indeed.

Spot welder

This was used in orthodontic offices to spot weld brackets to bands. It is good for small jobs and it can hold pieces together in preparation for a final soldering joint.

Resistance soldering

Very elegant way to solder small pieces especially when they are close together without risking de-soldering the piece right next to it. The heat is concentrated exactly where the point of the needle is and it heats up and cools down instantaneously without affecting neighboring joints. It works in tight spaces also.

Hi heat soldering

This baby can heat up a large area in a hurry. Best used for large surfaces. The downfall it will melt existing solder joints if one is not careful- Need to have heat sinks properly positioned on the workpiece.

Weller variable soldering station

I do most of my soldering with this venerable station.

Microscope

Used mainly on macro LED’s work. Those pesky little magnetic wires can be tricky when need to be soldered very close to each other like in the back of a macro LED.

Light duty soldering station

Used mainly for soldering LED and micro LED leads as we want small amount of wattage or very fine wire.

10 x optivisor

Refer to slide #4 as to the reason for it. Actually no matter what age, it is a great adjunct to see small details and imperfections!

The dental drill- my secret weapon!

This old thing does a bunch of chores for me. The foot rheostat allows invariable number of speeds. It drills holes in wood, brass, styrene- With a disk (see image ) it can cut through anything and also can plane anything- Clamped vertically to a vise it becomes a drill press-In conjunction with the sensi-press table and a vise it becomes a milling machine.

Breaking in new locos or testing

I made the test track where the tender sits on level track while the drivers sit on casters inside the well. Thus the loco is level with tender.

Diesels sit on casters only. The test track is connected to both DC and DCC

Test track #2 Voltage, amps draw, pulling power

I made this track so it can be adjusted from flat to any degree. Thus I can test pulling power of locos on flat ground or at various degrees of steepness. The kadee coupler gauge at the end on the left checks coupler height and glad hand position. The white tunnel is the silhouette of the outside measurements of the new Mark 4 NMRA gauge If equipment fits through it, it won’t have any clearance problems on the layout.

Test track additional use

The test track is marked in units of weights( ounces). So in this case the caboose needs to weigh a total of 4 ozs per NMRA specs. Thus no matter the length of the equipment I can instantly know the correct weight.

Middle of test track

Re-railer and magnetic ramp

Test track additional use

On the hinged end the loco is coupled to an old postal scale. I can read the volts and amps it takes for this loco to pull at whatever degree of rise I choose, while simultaneously the scale gives me the total # of ounces the loco can pull. I then transfer that info to find out how many cars the loco can pull ( average 40 ft car) See next slide.

This is the next slide

Self explanatory