Advice on belay pins and rails

Jeff T

Jeff T

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Sep 1, 2020
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Location
Cicero, NY
I am looking for thoughts on belaying pins and rails. My current model (https://shipsofscale.com/sosforums/threads/san-francisco-ii-cross-section-al-1-50-by-jefft.6051/) instructs the modeler to drill 1.0 mm holes for the belaying pins, but supplies pins that taper from 1.5 to 1.7mm. I tried drilling the holes to 1.7mm, but both times I tried the wood split on me even after drilling a 1 mm hole first. Unless I get some better idea(s), I think am am going to drill a 1.2 mm hole (tried and it works) and turn down the pins to 1.2 mm. I am very interested to see if others have a better way to manage this. Also, is this common of kits? I really don't want to buy different pins; I‘m already spending more than I want on this "learning" kit.

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G'day Jeff, this is common on some kits, other kits they are OK, you might have to look at what sort of wood they have given you for the pin rails, if it splits you may be better off cutting some new ones, if you do this then drill the holes first then cut the rail to shape if you know what I mean, the only other alternative is as you said turn the rest of the pins down, hope this helps,

best regards john,
 
John,

Thanks for the advice. It seems like pretty solid advice. For this build, maybe a bit late though. Any thoughts on the rigging the belaying pin with the smaller diameter? More difficult or about the same?
 
Jeff T said:
John,

Thanks for the advice. It seems like pretty solid advice. For this build, maybe a bit late though. Any thoughts on the rigging the belaying pin with the smaller diameter? More difficult or about the same?
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The one that you have turned down looks OK, or do you mean just buying thinner pins,

best regards john,
 
At this point I am planning of turning the rest down unless I get some sage advice on another method. Since it's a cross section there are only a couple dozen to do. It took me maybe 2 minutes each to do 2 of them.
 
If wood splits I make if harder by putting a coat of thin CA on it. Try a test piece and see if it works for you. Just make sure the CA has dried thoroughly, otherwise the drill bits get gummed up and are a pain to clean. Obviously the CA will darken the colour of that particular piece of wood.
 
Jeff T said:
At this point I am planning of turning the rest down unless I get some sage advice on another method. Since it's a cross section there are only a couple dozen to do. It took me maybe 2 minutes each to do 2 of them.
Click to expand...
I am also building the SanFran Xsection model. I had the same problem and turned down the pins with a single edge razor. I used a wider plank and drilled the pin holes in the center then trimmed the plank down to the proper rail width and shaped rail corners.. The extra width kept the wood from splitting'. I wish the pins were longer ..very difficult to properly rig them..
 
AndyMan said:
I am also building the SanFran Xsection model. I had the same problem and turned down the pins with a single edge razor. I used a wider plank and drilled the pin holes in the center then trimmed the plank down to the proper rail width and shaped rail corners.. The extra width kept the wood from splitting'. I wish the pins were longer ..very difficult to properly rig them..
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Thanks for the advice. Cutting the holes into oversized stock and then cutting down to size is something I will have to keep in mind for the future. I am not sure if it will bite me later, but I also flipped the larger of the two pin rails so that the gap between the sets of pins is over the gun and not so that pins are over the gun.
 
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