HO Handrail Jigs? - Model Railroader Magazine

I bought a Micro-Mark grabiron-bending jig a couple of years ago for bending various sized grabs on O scale models and have used it quite a bit for modeling grab ladders on the four OT boxcars I'm building.  It's very handy, but it's pricey (and getting pricier, jumping several dollars every year--as is absolutely everything), so you should weigh the purchase against future usage.  As I said, it is handy and I've used it for bending brass strip for corner stirrups and brake paltforms on the ends of cars.

I remember that kink of dedicating a pair of needlenose pliers for bending grabs and it's fairly simple for HO, but as I keep telling my friends, "O scale is BIG!" and not everything that works for HO will work in 1/4 inch scale.  I also remember a kink showing how to use regular straight-jawed pliers to make grabs in multiple--but I have enough trouble making them one at a time.  The MM jig makes it fairly easy to line up the bends to keep both legs pointed parallel, but I still keep a couple of pairs of pliers handy for lining them up, grasping the legs and twisting a bit to get them both pointed in the same direction.

My late brother, Dwaine, mentored me when I was a teenager and told me to buy high quality tools--or buy the the best you can afford at the time and replace them with better stuff when you can afford it.  And for Pete's sake (whoever he is), don't be afraid to have duplicates.  No matter how big a workbench I have, I always found myself working in an area not much larger than a square foot--and having to pause in the job to hunt down strayed tools, which seem to come to life and scurry away, to hide under something.  Old dogs and new tricks be damned: I was nearing 60 when I finally decided, after wasting too much time hunting tools I'd just set down and ordered a tool caddy from Micro-Mark.  I trained myself to put any tool I didn't intend to use shortly back in the caddy.  Saves a lot of time!

BTW, I have six pairs of pliers of various kinds and sizes in the caddy, and several more that I don't often use, in tool drawers.

Deano