OK. i will make it short. I have a spare peice of flextrack, well it was being used, but not on the mainline. Now, i have found out that at least the lifelike snap switches aren’t 18in radius. they look like 20" radius. That is enough to throw the whole system out. So i take the small section, cut it with my mother’s hacksaw, and file it off, with my mother’s nail file. i can’t get it to fit though. one rail fits bit the other doesn’t. what i neec is a clear and step by steb guide to cutting flextrack, as i have all but wreckd a peice of flextrack. i am in real trouble and need help. it also needs to be cheap, and the only tools i have available are : hacksaw, pliers, hammer, nail file and knife; just one out of the kitchen
as you can see, i have a very restricted tool list. how can i do this. i accepr i will be up for a pack of railjoiners and flextrack, but the way that the budget is, i’ll be lucky to get that
please help
alexander.
first off I would try to make room in your budget for a set of rail snippers. This tool is not that expensive (about $12) and will cut a flush ready to join end to your rails.
Ok now to the flex track. When you cut flex track you MUST figure your end to both rails not just one. If you locate and cut the inside rail then use that as a reference to cut the outside rail then you will have the outside rail too short. (this sounds like what you did). Line the flex up to where you need to join it and mark both rails and leave a little extra since you are using a hacksaw (that is so you dont make the rails too short cleaning up the edges). cut each rail by itsself and keep the ties around the longest rail (the short side will use those ties too). once everything is cut test fit it all and see if you need to make a little adjustment here or there, if not glue down and join the track.
I dont know what the LL snap switches are for radii. The atlas Snap switches are 18" and the frog number is about a 3.5 Hope this all helps you with your layout!! and dont throw that flex track out yet, it can prolly be used for smaller areas later.
As an alternative, join one end of the flex section to the turnout, as long as you know that you will use THAT turnout and that it is where it will stay. Then, being careful to consider your degree of curvature to the other end that you must meet (you may have to remove one piece from the other side of the gap and bridge that larger gap with an even larger piece of flextrack in order to keep your curvature suitable for your trains), use pins to bend and align the piece to be cut so that its rails pass directly OVER the rails to be joined. When you are happy with the fit, mark the meeting directly above the ends to be joined, and then remove that section to be cut. As recommended, get a Xuron track cutter…a fine, and inexpensive, tool. Cut the rails where you marked them, but with the flat sides of the Xuron blades facing down the length of flextrack…that is the side of the tool that will make the straight, and clean, cut.
If you intend to solder the flextrack at one end (recommended) do it at the place where it meets the main track, and leave joiners to align with the turnout. Chances are that you will want to remove that turnout over time, and sliding back rail joiners would make that easy…unless you glued the turnout in place…which you won’t.
-Crandell