I really thought you were on to something by using the crown moulding but it looks like you have had to do a lot of work to make it work. I’m sure in the end it will be worth it every time your train stops at the station.
Keep up the good work
@David - It wasn’t really warped, just not enough attention paid while assembling to make sure it was flat and true while the glue dried.
@Shawn - Yes, I think I need to go with the real wood planks. With all this detail I think I will leave the ends of the roof open, not closed off like the prototype, so you can see the structure inside.
@Todd - It wasn’t so much work. Once I decided on the look I wanted it took an hour or so to modify 12 braces. If I add the stiffener that will be another hour or two, but its all fun stuff to do.
Thanks everyone for the comments. It keeps me interested in making progress to post.
Good News - The clamp rig straightened out the frame and it now sits nearly flat…
So tonight I flipped it over and glued and pinned it to the uprights - it’s starting to look like something now (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)
I did learn that Eric was right about the grain direction on the crown moulding slices. If I try to pin nail them the pins just split them. So more baby steps with just glue and clamps. I got 4 braces glued on tonight, more tomorrow then some more pictures.
Daktah John said:
Good News - The clamp rig straightened out the frame and it now sits nearly flat…
I’m thinking Shark Tank and try to cut a deal with Lori !
Nearly?
and if you predrill holes, and then use small pins, like sequin pins, you can still pin them boards. I prefer HO track nails myself, but then I am an odd duck.
Looking good, John. You’ve put a lot of time and effort into the details that will make this one fine build.
David, I didn’t realize you were a duck!!!
If you want more busy work , you could drill those pieces that crack and glue toothpicks in. Wood pegs are old school.
John
Nearly = within a 16th on my table top which I’m sure isn’t perfectly flat either. It started out well over 1/4" off. Close enough for railroad work.
For the braces, glue alone is just fine , thank you. I have enough to keep me busy building all the roof framing and planks. I keep having bad ideas on how to do that. The latest is to slightly grove the roof planks on 16" centers to give the rafters a place to be glued into.
I HATE being detail oriented. It would have been so much easier to make the sub roof from a sheet of foamed PVC board, bu NO. I need to actually use planks. Finalized the drawing this morning and as soon as we return from shopping It will be down to the shop to make this happen…
I expect you to use finish cut dimension wood, no rough cut will do Sir.
(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
Daktah John said:
I HATE being detail oriented.
I understand this statement
John Caughey said:
I expect you to use finish cut dimension wood, no rough cut will do Sir.
(http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
OK - When it’s done I’ll figure out what scale will work out to finish dimensions and call it that!
Devon Sinsley said:
Daktah John said:
I HATE being detail oriented.
I understand this statement
This is why model by eye works well for me instead of model to scale.
Big photo dump tonight.
Railroad management announced yesterday that all trains have been annulled due to encroachment to the right of way by the on-going construction of a new passenger shelter for Wall Station…
Meanwhile, the construction crew continued to add braces to the framework. Note that in the Spirit of Mik that the washing machine was chosen as the photo spot today…
While the glue dries on the braces, I began to figure out how I was going to build the roof and rafters. Since the rafters are only 3mm thick, pinning the roof frame together is not going to happen. So how else could it be done? I thought about building a jig to glue up the roof frame and then realized that the planks themselves could serve as the jig and eliminate a step. First I needed to cut enough of the Cedar planks I bought years ago at ECLSTS to length. I don’t like measuring individual pieces when cutting many of the same size, so I set up a stop block on my miter saw and cut a bunch at a time…
And ended up with a nice stock of roof planks…
So my idea is to cut slots in the roof planks to glue the rafters into. I did a quick test with a piece of scrap…
The rafters are just about the same size as a single saw kerf and with a little pressure will pop into the slot…
The next challenge is to set up the saw to cut a bunch of slots on scale 16" centers. In 1:20.3 scale, 16 inches works out to exactly 20mm. So I set my saw fence for 20mm and cut a whole bunch of spacers from scrap wood. After putting all the spacers on the blade side of the fence I set the fence to where I wanted the first cut to be. I added a piece of heavy paper between one of the spacers that I will remove before making a second pass on each slot to widen the slot just slightly…
Using the miter gauge I pushed a test piece threw the saw, removed a spacer and repeated until my cut piece was against the fence. This was the result after 20 passes through the saw. Test passed - slots on nearly perfect 20m centers…
With about 10 roof planks on each side I certainly don’t want to pass 20 planks through the saw 20 times each. Not only would it take too much time, but repetition can add an element of danger to using a power tool. So, can the job be made smaller? Sure! Cut 10 planks at a time - but I’ll need a method to hold them in perfect alignment trough multiple passes over the saw. Tape would work, but can slip. How about self adhesive vinyl? Why sure, that should work!
First I set up a simple corner jig to get the planks lined up. Next I used a few strips of masking tape to temporarily hold them in alignment…
Then I flipped the group over and coated them with self adhesive vinyl to join them together as one. After trimming the excess with my Xacto, this is the result…
And this is what the other side looks like without the tape…
Now 10 planks at a time can be run through the table saw to create the slots for the rafters. That will be tomorrow’s task.
Meanwhile, the glue on the braces has dried enough to remove the clamps and show the result…
I’m still on he fence on the 4th brace at each end. To help me decide I set up a real life comparison using gravity and trick photography.
As is…
With the 4th brace…
In the home stretch now. I think I might just finish (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-smile.gif)
Great progress. I like the vinyl trick. The 4th brace looks better to me just looking at the photo, but I like symmetry.
Boy I sure love the way those braces turned out. I know it was not as easy as hoped for but once you got the details right and then implemented them on the model it was worth it. Straight braes would have looked fine but the detail of the molding takes it over the top. Good trik to add tot he bag of knowledge. And heck its re purposed modeling. . .right up my alley.
Seeing it together I am with Dan 4-4-4 would look better. It does compress it somewhat but the symmetry looks more “right” to my eye. (really i just want to add to your work load)
Why are there missing braces? There is no question which way looks complete.
Thanks for asking.
John
John Caughey said:
Why are there missing braces? There is no question which way looks complete.
Thanks for asking.
John
Early on in the drawing stage there was discussion that the inside braces looked too crowded. Now that it’s actually built it seems to look better with all of them in place. Decision is made - all posts will have all 4 braces.
Daktah John said:
Decision is made - all posts will have all 4 braces.
Whew!! That is a load off my mind. Thanks.(http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-laughing.gif)
EDIT: I guess it’s really a load off your mind, John
I’m my own worst second guesser… I wondered why I slept better last night, now I know … The Braces!
Thanks!
John