... later add the cosmetic half-chairs at your leisure. If the rivet positioning is done carefully, the end result looks just the same as using glued chairs on plywood. Beginners can deal with any misplaced rivets by fettling them with the edge of a Dremel abrasive disc. Fitting the rivets to the timbers can be time consuming, but strangely satisfying. An alternative to the tubular rivets is to used single-sided Vero pins. These are a push fit in 1mm holes, so don't need closing underneath and can therefore be drilled and fitted with the timbers on the template. But they do need trimming underneath afterwards. I doubt they would hold in plywood, but are fine in copper-clad or unclad SRBP laminate (their intended purpose). If double-sided copper-clad, remember to gap the underside too! Plain copper-clad with bullhead rail is acceptable to many, especially when painted. But you can't properly fit half-chairs because the rail is flush to the sleeper, unlike when using rivets or Vero pins to lift ...

... noise using the basebords as amplifiers. Less noise is transmitted through the flexibly glued ballast and so you get quieter running, not that important at an exhibition, but in the home.... A cheaper alternative to Copydex is the latex based glue used fitting carpets, usually sold in 5litre(?) plastic cans. Cheers for now John from 33820 St Ciers sur Gironde, France. posted: 23 Dec 2011 12:06 from: allanferguson Copydex does, as stated, remain flexible. But if you try to drill holes in it (as for wiring) the glue film will wrap itself round the drill and simply peel off the baseboard and rail/ballast surfaces -- a pain in the neck. I have used a spray adhesive sold for floorcoverings with some success, but it leaves little time for adjustment. I'm not convinced of the soundproofing qualities of any combination of adhesive and underlay on a conventional baseboard. The only reasonably quiet system is, I think, the baseboard made of rigid foam; but I've only seen it at ...

... speed required. And the ever present issue of costs. Anyway they appear to be using it successfully in the photo. Regards, Matt M. posted: 17 Apr 2016 20:25 from: LSWRArt Hi Matt, Thanks for your reply and the link to concrete pots. However, engineered concrete pots (in WW2) are one thing and were designed so that tie-bars could be incorporated. Re-using old stone blocks which look fairly roughly hewn would seem rather more difficult. They would all have to be drilled to take new chair fixings and also drilled horizontally for the width of the block if you wanted to install tie-rods. There is certainly no sign of a flat plate on top of the stone blocks. The suggestion that tie-bars need only be used on every second or third chair would certainly reduce the work- if indeed they were installed at all. The objects further down the siding are quite large and appear to lie between the blocks, but I cannot make out any detail on the photo. There ...

... thanks for your comments, I'll post later in the day with regard to the capabilities of the milling machine. Best regards Charles. PS There was a very nice lady on the C&L stand at Warley. posted: 4 Dec 2007 22:29 from: Charles Orr Hi Martin I'm working in OO-SF The specification of the Proxxon ML70 is as follows: 5000-20000 rpm adjustable 100W motor@ 230V Milling Cutters up to 3.2mm (I have 1mm, 2mm and 3.2mm Cutters) Various collets available to hold drills/cutters up to 3.2mm Low backlash compound table (with adjustable gib plates) size 200 x 70 mm. Travel is 134 mm (x axis), 46 mm on the y axis, Z (height) 80 mm. Machine base 130 x 225 mm. Total height 340 mm. Weight approx. 3.5 kg. Three milled T-slots (MICROMOT-Norm 12 x 6 x 5 mm). Zero-adjustable hand wheels calibrated to provide 1.0 mm per revolution, one division= 0.05 mm I have ...

... on to my baseboards (plywood) top and I superglue sleepers to the templates, it'll soak through the paper too. edit: sorry reread your comment about foam, copydex would probably be my first choice on foam. Last edited on 25 Jun 2012 13:22 by davelong posted: 25 Jun 2012 16:51 from: Les G davelong wrote:...sorry reread your comment about foam, copydex would probably be my first choice on foam.... But do beware, make sure that all holes are pre drilled, or that the adhesive is kept away from where holes will be needed. Copydex is a latex which forms a sheet surface bond between materials being glued, but which will be grabbed and reeled-in by a drill and thus be pulled out from under your carefully built track. regards, Les G Last edited on 25 Jun 2012 16:53 by Les G posted: 16 Oct 2012 00:58 from: Ian Allen Update on this thread. We are going to use 3mm EPDM rubber sheet which can be ...

... a problem that the pre-punched sleepers have the hole centres a bit too far apart. They were originally designed for use with the larger 2.5mm dia EMGS rivets, and the idea was that you create a solder fillet on the outside to represent the chair jaws. For use with cosmetic plastic chairs the rivets need to be exactly under the rail centre, so you may find that you need to take the corners off the rivets with a Dremel disc to get the chairs to fit snug. But the best solution is to drill or punch your own holes in the right place. There is a trick you can use in Templot to help. If Templot is set to print the rail centre-lines instead of the rail edges, you get the rivet positions for riveted plywood construction, where the rail centres cross the timber centres, like this: rivet_centres.png This shows a crossover in EM. One turnout has the more usual style of rail detail for comparison. Click the generator> generator settings> rails> rail centre-lines only menu option, ...

... few holes in the template between each timber so that any excess adhesive can escape as you press the turnout flat. Once all that is set firm, wired up, tested and running, I don't think there is much risk of the paper cockling when you later come to ballast it. Even if it does cockle, it will be only between the timbers, not under them, and will set firm when dried out. Copydex can be diluted with water for ballasting in the same way as PVA. But take care when drilling through a dried latex film for dropper wires, etc. -- it will ball up on the drill bit. If you can't drill the holes in advance, cut away around the hole location with a craft knife before drilling it. regards, Martin. posted: 23 Jan 2016 14:54 from: PeterD Thanks for the swift reply Martin. All the things that were holding me back have now been cleared up. I have just placed the order for some more cork and I shall pick up the Copydex this ...

... to be possible the rails need to be lifted above the surface of the timber (strictly by a scale 1.75", the thickness of the base of a chair casting, or 0.58mm in 4mm/ft scale -- but anything is better than nothing). From an old topic on RMweb: 95_crossover02_1.jpg In another world a long time ago I once did something very similar using single-sided Vero pins. It was much quicker to do than the above looks to be. Use a softish workboard material under the template. Drill a 1mm hole with mini-drill, through the copper-clad and into the board, abrade off any copper burrs, and push in the pin. They have ribs under the head and are a firm push fit. There is no need to solder them separately -- you can do it all in one go when you are soldering the rail. Prise up the finished the turnout from the workboard and trim off flush the protruding pins from the underside. You could leave a few for invisible electrical connections. Make ...

... at the end(s) of the panel. Templot should reflect the resultant sleeper spacings on a curved template but I do not know if this is the case. Derek posted: 15 Mar 2010 20:00 from: Martin Wynne Dellboy wrote: Templot should reflect the resultant sleeper spacings on a curved template but I do not know if this is the case. Hi Derek, Unfortunately no, it doesn't. You are correct that the sleeper centres should be measured along the long rail on a curve. Specially made and drilled "short rails" (usually 3 inches shorter than the standard rail length) are introduced on the inside rail when the joint stagger has exceeded 1.1/2 inches. It has not (yet) been possible to introduce this feature in Templot, partly because of the complexity for S-curve transitions (where the short rail swaps sides), but mainly because of the effect of the much smaller than prototype model radii. For example, a 60ft scale outer rail on a 1200mm radius in EM requires every inner rail ...

... in such cases to have a permanent marker of some kind for the CTRL-9 overall length peg position. The check rail markers should definitely remain visible, and I will fix that. Always something to get on with -- this is what I'm doing at the moment for those who like to use pre-cut timbers, and order them from suppliers: 2_261108_270000000.png I'm also looking at a new feature to add dropper connection markers and isolation gaps in the rails, following a suggestion from Ian. It's useful to pre-drill the dropper holes in the baseboard before laying the track. But also holes in the rails -- my preferred way of fixing droppers being to drill a 20 thou hole through the rail web, and use bare 1/0.5 solid wire (ex-telephone cables) soldered in as the dropper. Fresh clean metal in the hole means it requires only a smear of solder cream for a neat, barely visible result. But those holes are 100 times easier to drill before assembly, so a reminder mark on the template ...