The methods that we employ in our hobby

[Guest Natalie Graham]

Thankfully long gone is the one where to construct a loco chassis you started with two strips (slabs?) of 1/16" brass and fastened it all together with large cheesehead scews.

[gordon s]

Nor me....

 

No square boards on Eastwood so far. Each one is tailor made to suit.

 

Guilty as charged on other issues though. I guess it's all part of the learning process...

[Ravenser]

Not guilty on that one

 

Out of fifteen boards that make up Ravensclyyfe only five of them have four right-angle corners, two of the rest have six sides, the remaining eight all have five sides apiece....

 

Andi

 

There's a practical reason for it - angled joints are problematic. Blacklade has thin tapering boards and I was getting rather worried about how I could get decent joints between the cross members and the front and back strips until one of our senior club members gave a talk on his baseboard method. This involves essentially single skin ply girders - a single sheet of ply with 2 rails of 1" x 1" top and bottom as stiffeners . The solid 1/2" ply cross members then fit as an interlock with rebated joints - giving a good deal more surface to make the bond and a lot more strength to the joint. If you simply used a butt joint against plain ply , then unless you're a skilled cabinet maker the angles won't quite match and you'll only get a very thin edge where the cross piece and the front/back member actually tuoches, meaning a weak joint

[Steven B]

How many novices get their track plans right first time? It can be unpinned and relaid. Glued track can't.

 

Depends on your glue. I use Copydex which holds the track down very well and is easy enough to remove should you need to relay part of the track (because you've uesed a metal track joiner rather than a plastic one for example!).

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.