Irv, 

I'm happy for you and your snow.  Here, we were at 80° today, but I can see snow on the mountains (5-8 thousand foot level).  Go figure!     80° meant yard work instead of modeling.

I'm cheap, so here's a typical selection of what I use for holding small work square.  The two blocks of wood have square cut ends.  The other is the head from a 1 foot square, with the rule portion removed.  Sometimes, for bigger work, I use a pile of books and a scrap piece of masonite.  Again, cheap.

Don, I don't see anything cheap the way you do it. I call it "tools of opportunity".

More money for actual train stuff !!!!!!

That's great if you've got the wood. I don't. Besides N Scale is lot more unforgiving than HO so the wood pieces wouldn't necessarily give me 90 degree angles. Thats why I was asking about the jigs sold by MicroMark.

Irv

I use many of the Micro Mark Gigs and fixtures and they sure make modeling a lot easier when your trying to get walls squared up or aligning. it's that 3rd and 4th and 5th hands you always wanted and well worth the costs of the jigs and tools.

I've used the Micro Mark tools for years and I own at least 70% of them that are sold in the catalog so in my opinion: Yes buy the squaring Jigs and fixtures they will pay for them selves in no time.

Dan

I agree with Dan.

I try to spend a percentage of my hobby budget  on tools; over the years this has meant the adoption of a variety of tools that make my modeling easier and more productive. I love their magnetic jigs, for instance, and I find the "duplicator II" to be invaluable when it comes to scratchbuilding

As a matter of fact, I need to order one of those 90 degree clamps me self...

one of those jigs sold by MicroMark

Are you referring to the right clamp? Those are made by Coffman Graphics and can be ordered directly too. I got one right clamp as a Father's Day present but have not had much luck using it. I think I need someone to show me how it should be used. While it does a great job holding pieces square, it doesn't help you set the edges. I am not sure how to explain it.. but presuming one piece buts against the other (for instance, DPM kits) then it can be kind of a pain to make the edges flush even if they are square.

Anyway, I am still hoping to order some machinist squares at some point.

Chris

I was referring to the clamps shown in the lower left hand corner of page 36 of the Winter 2010 Mircro-Mark catalogue. I really do need to get something so that I can join the walls together and finally finish the building I've been working on. Now I have to wait until I get on Thursday before I order them, I don't think these are the same as those sold by Coffman but i could be wrong. It won't be the first time, I am married after all.

An alternative might be the magnetic gluing jig that appears near the top of page 13.

Irv

Hi all,

While I have purchased my fair share from the nice folks at Micro-Mark,..

Plate glass(as a work base) and a square has always worked well.

Dr Dirt

Irv, I felt your pain over the last 24 hours. I flew into JFK last night from over seas, only to find my connecting flight to Boston was cancelled due to weather (NYC weather).

And so was the morning flights.

We quit, I think wisely, early, rented a car, and left JFK at 7AM this morning. I was very chagrinned to hit Hartford (just a little over 2 hours from my house), and have to turn towards Boston where my luggage, and car was parked.

After finally getting home, I can see why you don't go out on these days - that area is a mess when it drops 12 inches of snow - the only good news was that roads were pretty empty of traffic!

PS - the plate glass and square might make a good option. I use the Micromark magnetic jig, and put a square on the inside.

This was the second snow storm we had during February. I was at work on Thursday morning when it started to come down. I let my class out early because the parking, which I could see from the window was getting covered. My students were happy and you can probably understand why.

When I got to my car on Thursday morning, it already had about two inches of snow on it. I cleaned it off as best I could and headed fro the Staten Island Expressway which leads to the Verazano Bridge and took that to the Belt Parkway into the Van Wyck. It is normally not a bad trip but Thursday traffic stopped dead at Knapp Street. I got off and took Knapp to Geritsen and then to Avenue U to Belt. It was crowded and the streets were slippery since they hadn't been cleaned that well. But that's Brooklyn for you. The 45 minute trip took over 2 hours to get home. I parked my car in front of the neighbor's house and it's still there. I will try to move it tomorrow.

We spent Friday morning trying to dig my car and my wife's minivan out and we were able to make progress. It doesn't look so bad tonight but we'll see in the morning. They're expecting more snow on Monday, tuesday and Wednesday So March is coming in like a Lion this year.

It you were at JFK, you could have given me a call since it's about twenty to twenty five minutes away from me on a good day. Chances are you took the Van Wyck over either the Whitestome or Throggs Neck Bridges to get to Hartford so weren't too far away from me. Let me know the next time you're going to be in the aea and maybe we can get together.

Irv