Profil „U“ 2,5 mm

A shape that is hard to make by hand

A profile with a U section has two parallel walls joined by a base. Gluing such a shape from flat strips is laborious and the result never has walls of the same thickness or a precise right angle. A ready-made profile saves work wherever a channel, a rail, a trim or a frame with sides is needed.

Field of use

• Guide rails and tracks for the sliding doors of railroad cars and containers
• Frames and edgings around openings where the edge is to be reinforced
• Gutters, eaves and drainage channels on buildings in a diorama
• Girders of structures where the hollow section is meant to show

Working the material

It is cut with a sharp knife, but it is a good idea to score the base first and only then cut through both walls. In a single stroke the walls close inwards and the section is deformed. Any burr inside the channel is trued up with a flat file with a fine cut.

It is glued with liquid cement for polystyrene, which is drawn into the mating surface. Tack longer runs at the ends first, so that the profile does not warp along its length. The unit of sale is one piece 35 centimeters long.

Additional tips

• A pair of profiles facing each other gives a closed hollow section
• A wire can be glued into the channel to make a guide for a moving part
• The profile can be sanded down from the outside to a lower height without losing the shape of the base

Degrease the profile before painting. The manufacturing film on the surface shows under a gloss color as a broken layer, above all on the vertical walls of the channel.