Mike's models: Railing and ladder jig

Here is a jig that I made for making the railings and ladders on my scratch built Titanic. It may be of interest to ship bottlers and card modellers instead of using thread etc.

Railing & Ladder Jig.

The main frame consists of three pieces of wood. The two sides are curved along the top edge, allowing the top piece to be curved from end to end.

The tensioner is a car handbrake cable tensioner (used when the cable has stretched too much to adjust).

Tensioner view from top.

Tensioner view from underneath.

Jig view from underneath.

A drawing of the required railing is generated using MS paint or similar, printed out and glued to the railing former using a glue stick (Pritt).

Electrical or telephone wire is then wrapped around the former, following the outlines of the stanchions.

The former is then fitted over the locating pins on the jig.

Wires are then fitted for the required rails (in this case three rails), between the tensioner and rear tie-off.

The ends of the wires are tack soldered to stop them unravelling and wooden spacers are made and fitted at each end.

The tensioner is tightened to make the wires taught. The curvature of the jig ensures that the rail wires are pulled down onto the stanchion wires.
The wires are adjusted to lie over the lines of the drawing and then tack soldered at each end.

Solder flux paste is brushed over the wires.

The wires are then soldered using a fine tip on the iron.

IT HELPS TO GENTLY HOLD THE WIRES DOWN WITH THE TIP OF A SMALL SCREWDRIVER AS YOU SOLDER.

DO NOT PUT THE SOLDER ON THE WIRES.

Put a small amount of solder onto the tip of the iron and then put the tip on the wire joins. The flux will allow the solder to flow from the tip into the join.

When all joints are soldered, check all joints with a magnifying glass. Any over soldering can be drawn off with the soldering iron tip. Any dry joints can be re-fluxed and soldered.