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Tomix cleaning car - make your own polishing pads ??


sid21177

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Martijn Meerts

I've made grinding pads from regular sanding paper once, and put them on using double sided tape. Worked well enough, so I guess you could do the same with polishing pads.

 

Might even be able to get some polishing paper sheets with adhesive on the back already, in which case it's just a matter of cutting out circles.

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I've made grinding pads from regular sanding paper once, and put them on using double sided tape. Worked well enough, so I guess you could do the same with polishing pads.

 

Might even be able to get some polishing paper sheets with adhesive on the back already, in which case it's just a matter of cutting out circles.

 

 

When I still had a Tomix track cleaner I used to recycle the polishing pads by removing the old tissue, applying some glue to the plastic then gluing it to an old white T-shirt. When the glue dried I then cut the disc out.

 

Cheers NB

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I've made grinding pads from regular sanding paper once, and put them on using double sided tape. Worked well enough, so I guess you could do the same with polishing pads.

 

Might even be able to get some polishing paper sheets with adhesive on the back already, in which case it's just a matter of cutting out circles.

 

most of the polishing sheets/discs are abrasive, i'm having a hard time finding one which is cheap and non abrasive (cloth like)

 

what double sided tape did u use ??, regular brand or something special ??

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Martijn Meerts

A good polishing sheet isn't that abrasive that it'll damage the track any more than just running trains, I've used them before on cars (the 1:1 scale version) to polish up scratches that were repainted and such.

 

I just use regular non-brand double sided tape, but if you want to be sure it sticks you might decide to go for a brand known to make good tape.

 

 

Also, what Nick says works as well, just put on a bit of an old white t-shirt or something, the polishing pads aren't much more than that anyway :)

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ive got some makeup remover pads (hey im always haunting the dollar store isles!) that have pretty much the same consistency as the tomix thicker polishing pad. bit of strong double stick tape or glue should do it and then trim.

 

cool thing about doing this sort of thing is you can try different pads to see what works best for you.

 

cheers

 

jeff

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ive got some makeup remover pads (hey im always haunting the dollar store isles!) that have pretty much the same consistency as the tomix thicker polishing pad. bit of strong double stick tape or glue should do it and then trim.

 

cool thing about doing this sort of thing is you can try different pads to see what works best for you.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

this sounds interesting  :grin - are these pads already treated with some fluid ??

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nope, just a thick cotton fiber pad that i guess you dip in your favorite makup remover! sort of like a 3x of an alcohol swab.

 

seemed very close to the consistency of the kato thick polishing pad.

 

jeff

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ive got some makeup remover pads (hey im always haunting the dollar store isles!) that have pretty much the same consistency as the tomix thicker polishing pad. bit of strong double stick tape or glue should do it and then trim.

 

cool thing about doing this sort of thing is you can try different pads to see what works best for you.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

What brand of makeup do you wear cteno?

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

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none on the face, its all on the layout stuff and trains! actually some of the powders make decent weathering powders and some of the brighter colors are good for odd stains.

 

makeup application brushes (the sort of foam kind) make great weathering tools and you can get them cheap on ebay so each powder color has its own brush.

 

the big soft makeup brushes are great for spreading ballast, dirt and ground foam around.

 

makeup removal pad make great cleaning pads for tracks, engine parts, etc with some isopropanol.

 

im just looking at some nail polish (got a really cheapo set with like 24 colors for $8) to paint some of the chinese cars with to vary the colors more. some have some small sparkle to them, im curious to see if this works on the cars at a distance to give them the bling some car finishes have. others just give a nice solid enamel color.

 

all the nail painting brushes and accessories are great for detail painting and a fraction the price of the hobby store.

 

just got some really cheapo eyelash extensions and im looking if they can be used to make some interesting plantings, but so far that one may be a bust.

 

so haunting the beauty section of the dollar store and ebay has paid off and been really cheap to experiment with things! hey im not proud! i do get some odd looks at times though, i just smile back. hey i lived in berkeley for like 14 years, you learn to never assume...

 

jeff

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I would look at adapting the discs that come for Dremel tools. The are about the right size and come in a lot of "flavors".

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not always so cheap though...

 

http://www.widgetsupply.com/page/WS/CTGY/dremel-polish-felt-wheel-unmounted

 

widget is a good place for odd stuff like this at a good price.

 

my tomix cars are mia right now in some box so not sure what sized would fit well on them. nice thing is you could see about tapping a small hole into the center of the tomix disc so you could just mount the disc with a small bolt.

 

jeff

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yeah but i think if you can find a larger chunk of something that is the right material you can make them a lot cheaper than $1-2 each that the dremel pads work out to.

 

wondering if there are some larger polishing pads out there (like 4" x 6") that might be used for polishing silver, etc that you could hack up.

 

you can also find punches that you could use to cut out the desired sized circles.

 

jeff

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If you know someone with a paper drill that might work or a hole saw with sacrificial layers of wood interspersed with the layer to be cut.  Another option, if you need a LOT of them, would be one of those laser engraving places. They will do a run for $30 a sheet and you could get a LOT of circles out of that.

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if you use a hole saw you will have a center like 1/4" hole, probably not bad as you dont use the center for the rail cleaning. but dont try to drill w/o the center tap bit with the hole saw as it will catch and bind and that aint a good thing on a drill press (even with the center bit hole saws need the stock clamped)! as bob says a piece of sacrificial wood on both sides and good tight clamping would probably do the trick.

 

dont think you really need perfect circles, hand trimming should work fine, just draw the circle and cut.

 

im starting to think that maybe mounting a little nut into the backing disc center then you could use a dremel screw in mandrel end to clamp the pad to the backing w/o having to deal with double stick tape.

 

actually going to the dollar store and harbor freight today, ill look to see if i can find more of those makeup pads. i used mine up in the shop, they turned out great for wiping up wood glue when it squeezes out from joints. the edges are great to get the glue out of the corners and after a swipe or two toss it and start with a new one. wastes less than using a larger rag and a lot less messy! next i have to find my cleaning cars! they went into a box for one of the shows this spring and i have not found them yet!

 

cheers

 

jeff

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