04/12/2010
BENDING BRAKE LINES TO FIT THE ATHEARN DASH 2
HT-C TRUCK SIDE FRAME
I have been meaning to put this up on my web site for a long time. Today on Andy
Harman's Dlist, a fellow lister asked what was the best method for making these brake
lines. I was in a good mood today and decided it was a good time to put this article up.

The following methodology is what I have come up with that works best for me. It is fast,
accurate and keeps the bends all in the same plane.
The first thing you want to get is a copy of page 27 from the September 1984 issue of
Mainline Modeler. There is a great template on this page. You can see it in the above photo.
Getting started I cut a 3.5" long piece of 0.012" diameter wire. You can see it above laying
over the top view template.
Making the first bend. I approximately center the wire over the template and hold it in place.
Holding the wire in place and starting from the left, I now use my tweezers and hold the
wire at the first bend line on the template. The left tip of the tweezer is at the dotted bend
line.
Here you can see the wire being held in place right over the template.
While holding the wire and pressing it firmly against the template, I use a small flat blade
screw driver and make the first bend. I bend the wire until it follows the template.
Here you see the first finished bend. It follows the template perfectly and the wire is all in
the same plane still.
Following the same steps, I hold the wire in place again over the template.
Again, I use my tweezer and grab the wire with the tip of the tweezer at the second dotted
reference line for bending.
Holding the wire firmly with the tweezer, I use the screw driver to make the next bend and
keep bending until the wire follows the template.
The second bend is finished. You can see how well it follows the template and that is again
is still in the same plane.
Holding the wire in place again, I set up for the third bend.
Taking care to keep the wire in place, holding it firmly in place with my tweezer I make the
third bend.

The fourth bend is made in the same sequence. Hold the wire in place, grab it with your
tweezer and make the bend.
Making the fourth bend completes all the bends in the same plane.

Now you need to make the bends that attach the brake line to the brake cylinders.
Unfortunately at this time I do not have an Athearn HT-C truck side frame to complete the
article. I will locate one very soon and finish this up. Please say tuned.
The tool I have found to use for the bending of these brake lines using my method are
these chisel nose tweezers. I bought these LA CROSS brand tweezers at Walgreens.
These have a very nice tip and are ground true and it grips excellently.
I cut the template out and tape it to a flat surface. Here it is taped to my work surface. It is a
piece of 1/4" plate glass. The only part of the template I use is the diagram that says (top
view).