A Working Spray Booth and Other New Tools..

Things are finally settling down after dealing with everything needed to get done after my Dad passed away this month.  I was able to do some work, mostly cosmetic, on the layout, like staining the turnout ties, and weathering all of the exposed track.  

A closeup of the rail weathering.  I've been using the Floquil rail brown paint markers.

Another look at the rail weathering.  I've since cleaned all rail surfaces and test run trains over the entire layout to make sure I didn't miss any spots.

I stained all the Fast Tracks turnout ties with Hunterline Tie Brown Stain.

Two of the more exciting developments have been things not directly related to building the layout per say, but help with my enjoyment of the hobby as a whole.  I was able to get a blower for my homemade spray booth and I finally purchased a Dremel drill press and a new Dremel Moto-Tool to go with it for my work bench.  Two of my excuses for not trying to tackle building some of the resin kits I've acquired through the years was one: I didn't have a functioning spray booth to paint them, and two: after trying with much frustration to drill holes for grab irons with pin vises, I really wanted a way to drill them out with some sort of powered drill press.  I had tried using some high speed bits in a battery powered Dremel but broke bits because I didn't hold the tool steady enough. (Pierre, I know I was not doing something right, but I couldn't figure it out)  I hope using the new Dremel at low speed in the drill press will help me make short work of drilling grab iron holes accurately.

I picked a blower for the spray booth via Harbor Freight when it was on sale plus I had a 25% off coupon which saved me another $20 on it.  This particular blower is used normally for a dust collector, and has a high CFM output.  That's a 10' flexible vent hose and there will be another on the output end of the blower to direct fumes out the window vent.

The Dremel Drill Press was something I always wanted, but never got around to buying.  I had a bunch of points to use on one of my credit cards and I redeemed them for Lowes gift cards which I then used to buy the new Dremel and Drill Press. 

Hopefully next month I will have a few of the guys over to help shakedown the layout.  I'll be "leasing" some motive power though till I get my fleet equipped with their sound decoders and stay alive capacitors.