Okay, I got all the stuff I need to start building the turnouts for my layout or so I thought. After watching the Fast Tracks video, it seems I need to get a good quality file (and use my old one to stir paint,) a coping saw, and a bench disk sander. I can probably get the file and saw, but the sander is a daunting price wise. It blows the cost of the turnouts out of the water.
So the question is, what are my options? How can I cut away the rails so the points sit flush and still have it look as good as I’d like?
Isn’t there a Dremel accessory table or some such that can set up a Dremel as a mini rotary sander? I thought there was. Also, try looking at small and/or hobby sized sanders as opposed to a full blown job. Lastly, can’t you file that too? I thought the Fast Tracks set up had a jig just for that operation.
Do it the way its always been done - with a file. Use the same file you use for the points and frog. It may take a little longer, but it will work. It has for me when building Fast Track turnouts.
The bench sander he uses runs about $100 at HD or Lowes. It is not a neccessity though.
This isn’t a mini-sander - full size but not overly expensive. I don’t know your budget but this Delta at Home Depot is $99.00. A quick search on Google shows that it the cheapest price for this model I could find in a short search.
I have a couple Delta tools and find them passible. IT just increases the cost of the turnout by $10 a piece. Granted I will build other turnouts later. Just now, I’d rather have the money for track.
You don’t want a coping saw, you want a jeweler’s saw. A much finer blade, and it is made to pop in and out easily so you can get it into a closed area. Fast Tracks sells them, I have also seen one in the hobby section of our Ace (it is pretty much run separately as a hobby shop, so I’m not sure if it would be at any Ace, more likely a hobby store).
I’ve used a dremel with a grinding disk or even a cutting disk to take the base off of the stock rail. It is n-scale, but I would think it would work in HO, just take a bit longer. It gets hot, and will kind of warp the rail if you let it get too hot, so you have to take your time. And of course, eye protection. Precision doesn’t seem to be critical for this operation, you just need to make sure you take off enough. A little extra doesn’t really hurt.
Chip, this is the one I use. If you have a Harbor Freight near you, it’s well worth it. It grinds off the required amount in literally an instant. The side also has a disk sander too. I’ve built about 20 switches and haven’t even gotten the belt dirty. At $32.99 it’s a bargain to boot!
You don’t want a disk sander primarily. The belt sander is what you want. A quick swipe keeps the heat down and pre marking what you want to remove with a Sharpie makes it very accurate.
I might have to get one of those. Grinding that base off is one of the most tedious parts of the process, but I wasn’t going to spend a lot to do it. I know Harbor Freight isn’t the best, but for this job it might be just fine. Thanks Neutrino!
If you absolutely, positively have to notch the stock rails of your hand-built turnouts, there is nothing that will match a nice BIG flat file for speed, ease of control and clean results.
My weapon of choice for turnout construction is a 10 inch (plus handle) file that actually came as part of a Home Depot Cheapo set. Using it, I can convert a piece of raw rail into a specially shaped switch point in less time than it took me to type this paragraph.
What special shape? My points are cut away at the base, so they ride up on the un-notched stock rails just like the prototype’s. They are also razor sharp - sliding fingers along the stock rails into the points is NOT recommended! All this was a result of looking at some prototype points a good many years ago. Locally, the Onion Phewcific does NOT notch stock rails. Neither do I.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with all hand built specialwork)
This is an interesting idea. How do you hold the point down, or actually up, so that it can nestle in there and still hold it in place? In the FastTracks method the point is soldered to the throwbar, so it needs to go all the way down, so something has to get out of the way, hence knocking the base off of the stock rail. I can think of a few possibilities, but I’d like to hear what you do.
Chip, if you don’t have one, find a neighbour with a bench grinder, the one with a small light and two round stones. It is all I ever used. Take a good grip on rail segment, previously marked with the bounds of the area to be ground away, and tilt the rail so that the foot to be ground is closest to the rotating wheel. Then, do a series of light, controlled, kisses to the wheel until you get the hang of what damage the wheel will do to the material…in a hurry.
Use the finest wheel you can find/have.
It works just fine.
If you don’t want problems later, take all the foot off the one side, and then add a visible bevel beyond that. Not huge, just visible. That way, when you go to solder your points to the PCB throwbar, you have much fewer problems of the solder wicking over to the stock rail and glomming onto it.
I also use a bench grinder (tried the dremel cut off wheel first). You will generally find that the course wheel results in cooler grinding and none of the ground areas show. The small belt sander will be easier to use and run cooler yet.
My points are pivoted by soldering the heels to flat-head wire nails that fit into drilled holes in the wood tie, subgrade and roadbed - soldering done while the point is held in closed position with spikes. That assures that the point will swing in the proper horizontal plane.
In the past, I installed throwbars with pins soldered to the points, which required a small notch in the stock rail. More recently, I have gone to bent wire in a distorted L shape, soldered to the base of the point below flange-contact level. Throwbars are cut from Radio Shack “experiment board;” in operation they float in both the horizontal and vertical plane. Throw mechanism is either a direct link (bent paper clip) to a surface-mounted throw mechanism (2-coil machine or toggle switch) or a home-brewed Anderson link connected to subterranean throw linkages which, in turn, connect to machines or manual throw devices mounted at the aisle edge of the layout (which keeps the elec
I used to use a good ol’ hand file when I was doing code 100 turnouts, but I quickly replaced this with a cutoff wheel in a Dremel. I was actually surprised that it worked when I first tried it - I figured I would shatter the wheel! But by running the Dremel at top speed and moving the rail slowly along the wheel, it turned out I had a lot of control, and was able to quickly cut the required notch. Now, though, I use a disc sander I obtained a while back. It’s every bit as good as the cutoff wheel.
By the way, did you all know you can use a code 83 fixture to make code 70 switches? I learned this the other day (from Fasttracks’ discussion forum). Saved me from buying a whole new fixture!
Save your thirty two Dollars and use a file. Get a new sharp file and keep it in some sort of case to keep it sharp. Take a peice of hardboard about two inches square and using a razor saw cut a slot across the hard board peice about 1/3 up from the bottom. Cut it just deep enough to hold the base of the rail while it is lieing on its side.cut another peice of hardboard the same size as the first to use as a clamp over the rail in the slot. Simple to hold cheap to use. This little fixture holds the point rail while you file the point. It holds the frog rails while you file the angles. It holds the stock rails while you file the relief for the point. Its cheap.easy, accurate, and by hand filing you improve your acccuracy.
If you have to have power tools,and we all do. Harbor freight is a good place to get cheap tools. I got a nice little drill press for forty bucks, like the man said that little grinder there was $32. The tools aare very cheaply made but for most hobby tasks they are good enough. Also they can be accurized with a little tinkering.
