I use the Kreig K2 Jig in my shop…of course, right after I bought it and used it for a month, they came out with the newer jigs that work with 2X lumber…since most of my woodworking projects are built with 1X wood, I haven’t had a need to replace it with the newer versions. Thanks for the kudos…now, if only I can learn to lay track as good as I can build benchwork…[;)]
Oh, the lumber is 1X4 poplar…and I ended up buying it at Home Depot because they were willing to do their price beater thing against the lumber store I usually go to across town. The lumber store had their 1X4 poplar at $.97 per foot. I checked out of Home Depot at $.79 per foot for the poplar.
I had a look at your album on Photobucket and I have to admit I’m a little jealous. I can’t wait to see your progress with the layout. Keep up the awesome work.
Thanks for the link![:)] I thought I had seen something like the jig in a woodworking magazine at the library and I appreciate your clarification. Makes sense structurally and for the look also. Nice work. HAve fun.[:D]
Man what great work. I’m really impressed. I’m hoping to start construction in the next few months and I will be following your progress with much interest. If I may ask, what are your room demensions and how are you connecting to the walls and will you be using angle or floor brases to keep is solid? I’m still struggling with what size I want mine to be. Keep up the great work and I wish you all the best. I will be watching for updates.
Thanks for the compliments! The train room is roughly 15 foot square…forcing me to restrict the left side of the layout to 12 foot in length so I have an access aisleway into the actual layout. The lower left corner of the layout in the drawing is the entrance to the room, so it’s an easy walk along the bottom of the layout to the aisle between the yard and the helix.
Most of the layout support is angled leg braces attached to the wall. The framework is attached to studs in the wall using 1/4" by 3" long lag bolts. The sections of framework are bolted together using 1/4" hex head bolts using nylon stop nuts so I won’t have to worry about hardware loosening over time.
I finally made some progress in getting some foam glued down and I’m about to start drawing track centerlines and glue down some cork today.
Thanks again, I’ll post more pictures as progress continues.
Wow this is nice. I thought I was doing good with my benchwork but yours makes mine look like a scrap pile. Is there a special tool to cut the holes for the joints? I like the look of that much better and I like the idea of stronger joints I pulled mine out 2x when I was building my legs and bench. Keep up the great work and hope to see more soon!
Thanks for the compliments on my benchwork. I had a look at your website and I didn’t see anything wrong with your benchwork…looked like it was good and solid. I do use a special jig to make the holes you see in my benchwork. Here’s a link to their website: http://www.kregtool.com/education_center/index.php I use the Kreg K2 jig. I guess there’s an advantage to being a severely addicted hobbyist woodworker…having to have every tool possible!
This is my first layout and I’m hoping that when it comes to laying track and doing scenery, I’ll be able to learn how to do both and produce decent looking results.
Your benchwork is great. It made me try your technique. I put together one section of benchwork in less than 1/2 hour with a Kreg Roket jig kit. That includes the time spent looking for the jig [:D]. Then I ran out of screws -argh! Had to order them from Rockler as the local Home Depot doesn’t carry them - at least as far as I could see.
The benchwork you see on my website is my first layout. Unfortunatly that was torn down last week to make room for my new baby boy. (born Feb 19th 2006) Now I have a 4x8 layout started. I think that the benchwork for it is strong but the screw heads show and that is the one that had the 2 pullouts [:(] Soon my website will have the updated pics on my new layout. I also could not afford to use the really nice straight HQ lumber I had to go with the economy stuff and weed out the warped ones. As much as I weeded I still had to settle for a few not-so-straight pieces. This layout for me is going to be portable and was built so. I think I may eventually build some new legs and supports using the jig that you are using.