ITLA Wheel Painting Mask

 A Great Way To Paint Wheel Sets.....by Don Janes

Rapido wheels sets painted in the mask  

      Back in the summer I ordered the Tri-State Fabricating kit from Nick at ITLA.  When I stopped by to pick it up we got into a discussion about painting wheel sets and the masking jigs that were available.  I had been using plastic (possibly acrylic) masks from American Model Builders which come for 33" or 36" wheel sets.  They make several different ones for the various wheel manufacturers such as KD, Intermountain and others since there are slight variations in the diameter of these sets.  I have had good luck using them but it seems like after using them for a while they become brittle and tend to break.  I am not sure if it is due to lacquer based paints attacking the plastic or what but they all ended up breaking at various locations on the jig.  The very thin area around the wheel is very prone to breaking.  

Three different masks have one of the wheel holders break

     I mentioned this to Nick and asked him if he could make something similar out of wood on his laser cutting machine.  I said I thought it should be much more durable than the plastic ones.  Nick told me he would look into laser cutting one and see how it would work out.  Well, fast forward to last week when I received a package of parts from Nick in the mail and inside was a 33" wheel mask he had designed and cut for me. It consisted of two main sections to hold the wheels and several tab and slot pieces that are spacers to get the correct width for the wheel sets.  Another neat thing he incorporated into the design were small tabs on the sides to mount the truck frames on so they can be painted at the same time. A very good idea.  The mask also has the wheel size cut right into the jig so you can see what wheel size it is for. The entire assembly took about five minutes.

This photo shows the assembled mask and the spacers.  The assembly took about five minutes.

Here we see the mask with a pair of TLT truck frames and wheel sets.

     I tried KD, Intermountain and Rapido wheel sets in the mask and all fit nicely.  I did notice the the TLT wheels were a little tighter but still fit in the holes.

The Rapido 33" wheels fit perfectly on the mask holes and were painted dark brown

The extra length of the jig provides a good handle while painting

     I decided to give it a try and painted a set of Rapido wheel sets and it worked great.  There is enough flex to get the wheel sets in place but it is stiff enough to hold them while painting.  The tool has a long handle so you have lots to hold onto and still not get any paint on your hands, a feature lacking with the smaller plastic masks.  I have painted several other wheel sets with good results.  All in all, I really like the masking tool and hopefully Nick will produce another tool that holds 36" wheels which are common on most passenger cars and a lot of the newer freight cars on the rails today.  Hats off to Nick for producing such a good masking tool.  Drop Nick a line at ITLA if you are interested in buying one of these tools.

*Note* I have no affiliation with ITLA, I just like their products.