Model Railway Forum

I used a pin vice and small drill on the track on my first layout. I placed the pin in the hole and steadied it with small pliers then used a small hammer to gently hammer the pin home. Don’t pin too deep as the sleepers will deform - this is especially important when pinning points as they have to be perfectly flat.

PS Make sure your baseboard is deep enough to take the pins - I know some silly s*d who didn’t and he had to crawl underneath with a Dremel to cut off every point!!!

PPS Yes, it was me!!!!!!!!

I use a small Archimedes drill or pin vice (whichever I can find in the bench clutter) with a 1mm bit to pilot the baseboard.
1.5mm will give a reasonable clearance through sleepers for most pins.

A pin pusher is quite useful, basically a handle with a short bar protruding that has a thin hole drilled in the end. Here is an example but seems a bit pricey for what it is.

https://www.shesto.co.uk/precision-engi ... in-pusher/

Richard

I used to have a one of these:

https://www.drapertools.com/product/127 ... tting-Tool

It was very effective, but sometimes a little too enthusiastic and could fire the pin into the baseboard taking the sleeper with it!

Bandit Mick wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:33 am PPS Yes, it was me!!!!!!!!

Glad I'm not the only one!
Ted

I used a 0.7mm drill in my Dremel. The drills are quite cheap for packets of 10 on the bay, a steady hand is required
A bit of insulation tape round the drill bit for a depth gauge and not being too heavy handed does the job fine, i pushed in the track pins with a pin punch.

I never push my Peco SL14 pins fully in. I drill a sleeper hole and partly into the baseboard using a SL14 pin minus its head in a drill (Dremel fitted with a conventional 3 jaw chuck or an Archimedean drill). Push the SL14 pin in approx 2/3 its length, then bend over the remaining top portion so as it lays along the sleeper. After ballasting and applying PVA/Water/Meths or Washing Up Liquid mixture and when its fully dried I pull out the pins.
Any very fine hole in the sleeper is later covered over with paint to represent sleeper grim etc though most holes become all but invisible. Pins of any type are really not needed once the track is bonded in place by ballast and the glue has set dry.

I prefer Brian’s method. Think I’ll nick it next time and miss out the glue which on balance was just an unnecessary stage.