7mm vee and switch blade filing jigs?

[Guest WM183]

Hi all.

 

Does anyone make vee and switch filing jigs for 7mm? And also, does anyone know a good source for 7MF track gauges? I want to begin building a bit of track and a couple points, and I have hand-filed and built the bits before - in N scale no less - but unsure if I want to try that with 7mm? I mean... in this case, is bigger easier or harder?

Amanda, the Jigless

[Lochgorm]

Amanda, These jigs are available from the Scale 7 Group stores: 

 

https://www.scaleseven.org.uk/index.php?id=165

 

I don't know if these components can be sold to non-members of the group but membership costs £25.00 and one of the benefits is a 10% discount on Slaters products.  Therefore the membership cost can be recouped.

 

Charlie

[Guest WM183]

29 minutes ago, Lochgorm said:

Amanda, These jigs are available from the Scale 7 Group stores: 

 

https://www.scaleseven.org.uk/index.php?id=165

 

I don't know if these components can be sold to non-members of the group but membership costs £25.00 and one of the benefits is a 10% discount on Slaters products.  Therefore the membership cost can be recouped.

 

Charlie

 

Oh cools! The discount on Slater's stuff alone is nice! I will join them. I'd do S7 but part of my love for switching to 0 is NOT having to rewheel my locos. 

[dpgibbons]

Could somebody please give me more details on the S7 store item 41-SFS "31.5-1-5web Sliding Track Tester Large" and identify any other gauges I'd need for O-MF turnouts.

[brossard]

Those jigs etc. look to be a good price.  I made all my turnouts without jigs though.  Vees were made by tacking copperclad strip to ply offcuts at the appropriate angle.  I used a Dremel grinding attachment to remove the bulk of material then progressively finer files.  Blades were done similarly.

 

 

My method for constructing crossings is to glue cc or brass strip to the template and to solder the rail to the strip.

 

 

Good luck with your track Amanda.

 

John

[Guest WM183]

Hello all,

Thank you much for the replies! I think I'll try to get some jigs for filing, due to my previously mentioned less than perfect eyeballs. Besides, I can always sell them on if I do not need them.

Jim, I will PM you. Thank you so much for your very generous offer!

All the best!

Amanda

[Mike Bellamy]

 

Have a look at the Gauge O Guild You Tube channel here - yes some parts of the Guild are gradually moving towards the 21st Century ! 

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh5IoF5fm4Qvl7KezNU1O2A/videos

 

There are 4 videos (each about an hour long) about point construction presented by Rick Williamson. There should be some hints and tips there to help you. I keep promising to find time to watch them myself and actually get on and do some modelling . . . . ! !

 

Mike

[Simond]

There are also a range of show-and-tell point & crossing descriptions on here, including one I did in my Porth a Dinllaen thread.  
 

 

(you’ll have to read on a few posts, but there’s loads there)

 

 

 

if you are going to make your own pointwork (and I highly recommend it) you might as well go to 0-MF, 31.5mm gauge with 1.5mm flangeways.  It gives as good running as S7, but accepts all normal 0-F wheelsets, and it looks much better than 0-F to my eyes.

 

I wouldn’t say that they don’t help, but you don’t need any jigs for filing.  Some hardwood or similar material the same thickness as a rail is high is very helpful, as is a good bench vice with safe/soft jaws, and a toolmakers’ clamp, and some decent files.
 

I’d start by making a couple of points using copperclad sleepers, this is a wonderfully adaptable method, for if you get it wrong, just unsolder and try again.  You can use them in your fiddle yard once they work properly, and make the decorative C&L ones for the scenic part of your layout.

 

worth having a look at Templot too.

 

hth

Simon
 

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by Simond

[Guest WM183]

Hi Simon and Mike,

Thank you for the links and videos! I will read through your thread Simon, and I will also watch those gauge 0 guild videos. I do plan to do 31.5mm gauge, if I can locate some good track gauges for that size. The big saving grace of O gauge is that even though it is "out of scale" compared to a dead-scale track, it works out to an error of about 3%, which I can easily live with. Scale couplings also are a huge plus.

Lots of reading to do, it seems!

Amanda

[daifly]

4 hours ago, dpgibbons said:

Could somebody please give me more details on the S7 store item 41-SFS "31.5-1-5web Sliding Track Tester Large"

Take a look at the item 41-S7. It’s use should be self-evident.

Dave

[daifly]

25 minutes ago, WM183 said:

 I do plan to do 31.5mm gauge, if I can locate some good track gauges for that size. The big saving grace of O gauge is that even though it is "out of scale" compared to a dead-scale track, it works out to an error of about 3%, which I can easily live with. 

31.5mm gauge will give better running but at the cost of increasing the fudge factor to 4.5%!

Dave

[Simond]

Increased fudge factor...?   0MF  Yes I’ll admit that.   S7. No compromise 

 

improved running over 0F....?   0MF & S7. Yes both, without a doubt

 

improved appearance over 0F...? 0MF & S7 . Yes, both, Certainly

 

able to accept RTR stock without modification?  0MF, yes, absolutely.  S7.  Not a chance.  It may, of course, be the point...

 

yer pays yer money and yer takes yer pick..

 

atb

Simon

[Guest WM183]

14 minutes ago, Simond said:

Increased fudge factor...?   0MF  Yes I’ll admit that.   S7. No compromise 

 

improved running over 0F....?   0MF & S7. Yes both, without a doubt

 

improved appearance over 0F...? 0MF & S7 . Yes, both, Certainly

 

able to accept RTR stock without modification?  0MF, yes, absolutely.  S7.  Not a chance.  It may, of course, be the point...

 

yer pays yer money and yer takes yer pick..

 

atb

Simon

 

My choice is made; 0MF for me. I'll get all the bodging and building and rewheeling out of my system on the 4mm stuff!

Amanda

[martin_wynne]

3 hours ago, WM183 said:

I do plan to do 31.5mm gauge, if I can locate some good track gauges for that size.

 

 

Hi Amanda,

 

Gauges for 31.5mm 0-MF are available from Roxey Mouldings. They are etched fold-up gauges, and inexpensive:

 

 https://www.roxeymouldings.co.uk/product/1173/7a3150-track-gauge-for-31-5mm/

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

[Guest WM183]

Oh thank you Martin! For a crossing gauge I guess I can just use a feeler gauge? And do I need a three point gauge?

Amanda

[martin_wynne]

5 minutes ago, WM183 said:

For a crossing gauge I guess I can just use a feeler gauge? And do I need a three point gauge?
 

 

Hi Amanda,

 

Yes, 1.5mm feeler gauge for the crossing flangeway. If you use the usual sets of feeler gauges you might need to use two of them together. If you rub them on a magnet, they will magnetize sufficiently to stick together.

 

In theory 3-point gauge would be needed for very sharp curves, below about 1200mm radius, but I don't know of any currently available. In practice, most 0-MF modellers use 32mm flexi-track for plain track, so there is no need for extra widening.

 

cheers,

 

Martin.

[kitpw]

Amanda - I can recommend David Nicholson's article in MRJ227 which explains and illustrates 7mm point construction from scratch.  MRJ 227 is still available from Titfield Thunderbolt bookshop (website https://www.titfield.co.uk/).  I make 31.5mm pointwork from scratch (https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/blog/2502-swan-hill/) using a bunch of my own hand filed and turned gauges from bits of aluminium flat and angle: the hand filed ones are much more useful than the turned ones - see pic below.  The MRJ article is a very useful guide and includes making the tie rods and so on.  Good luck with 7mm!

 

Kit PW

 

[dpgibbons]

8 hours ago, daifly said:

Take a look at the item 41-S7. It’s use should be self-evident.

 

Thanks, but it's not self evident to me. I suspect the lighting obscures its function. Track gauge? Jewellery? Modern sculpture?

Edited August 23, 2020 by dpgibbons

[Guest Isambarduk]

19 hours ago, WM183 said:

Does anyone make vee and switch filing jigs for 7mm? ... I have hand-filed and built the bits before ... but unsure if I want to try that with 7mm? I mean... in this case, is bigger easier or harder?

Amanda, Hi,  I know this will not help you but, just for interest, this is how I recently made switch rails for 'dibateg' when he was short of them in building his Derby Line - Basford North: 

 

Milling Switch Rails

 

 

David

[daifly]

8 hours ago, dpgibbons said:

 

Thanks, but it's not self evident to me. I suspect the lighting obscures its function. Track gauge? Jewellery? Modern sculpture?

The block is c38mm x 63mm. There are two parallel raised strips remaining where the block has been milled away, one towards the top, one at the bottom. The dimension across the outer faces is the track gauge. The thickness of the raised strip is the flangeway width. You can use this for checking gauge and alignments though e.g. turnout common crossings.

[dpgibbons]

I now have David Nicholson's MRJ trackbuilding article referred to above, and it's the best guide I've seen to building 7mm pointwork. Is the gauge above what he refers to as a MINT gauge?

 

Some other things from his article I'm unclear about:

 - Does CMHR underlay foam go by another name in the trade? It's not listed under that description in the S7 shop or by the website he recommends

 - David recommends S7 walnut sleepers but does not offer a source for walnut crossing timbers

 

   

 

  

[kitpw]

Hi dpgibbons - I think that the item illustrated above is a mint gauge but I don't have one so I'm not a 100% certain about that. 

 

The S7 stores stock walnut 10" x 8'6" sleepers but these weren't introduced until post WW1 and then only gradually replaced the earlier 10" x 9'0" sleepers.  On the GWR, 14" wide timbers were used under the crossing nose: I don't think 14" are available anywhere in walnut already cut to size. Again, on the GWR, crossing timbers were stocked up to 30' in length x 12" wide, in 6" increments - after that, they were spliced. The S7 stores show  "Scale 10in wide walnut sleeper (per 12in length). (Photo shows 12in wide sleeper)" in their catalogue which didn't sound like timbering for pointwork.  

 

Since I couldn't source pre-cut walnut in the sizes required, I've used 1.5mm ply for the trackwork on Swan Hill (plain track and crossings), cut on a small circular saw (Proxxon) to suit pre 1920s GWR practice so 14" wide under crossing nose, 12" wide in blocked crossings and points and 10" wide (by 9' long) for plain track.  The timbers are stained using Colron black oak which, oddly, has faded to a grey colour after a couple of years. 

 

I couldn't find the underlay referred to in MRJ227 either: I used green wood fibre flooring underlay from B&Q which has survived three winter/summer cycles in a shed which, although "winterised" is unheated when not in use. The track is laid on 90gsm white printing paper stuck to the flooring underlay with hideously expensive '3M Display Mount'.

 

Kit PW

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/blogs/blog/2502-swan-hill/

 

[martin_wynne]

1 hour ago, dpgibbons said:

Does CMHR underlay foam go by another name in the trade? It's not listed under that description in the S7 shop or by the website he recommends

  

 

CMHR = Combustion Modified High Resilient foam (fire-retardant). Lots of suppliers, see for example:

 

 https://www.gbfoamdirect.co.uk/fire-retardant-foam-fire-safety-uk/

 

Martin.

Edited September 15, 2020 by martin_wynne
changed link