Hello all,
I came upon a way to extend the life/limit the wear on the point form tools (sorry Tim and Ron). Being a rather cheap individual, and really enjoying the pristine appearance of my point form tools, I wanted to find a way to preserve their finely ground surface finish as much as possible...
I found that self adhesive 0.005" thick Mylar, which is marketed in craft stores for home lamenating projects, works pretty well for this purpose. I cut the Mylar into strips slightly wider and longer than each piece of the form tool, then laminate it to the tool pieces after cleaning the metal with alcohol. Take care to clear the slots in the tool so not to foul the rail.
Use the tool as before... I've found that the Mylar is good for about three turnouts worth of filing rail parts. I realize this is being exceptionally anal, but that's me! When it looks as though the Mylar is about shot, it is easily stripped off and replaced...
After dong a few turnouts, I've not found an appreciable angular deviation in the filed rails because of the Mylar. I was still able to produce very fine points on all rails.
Hope this is of some use to others...
JeffB
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