I really like masonite spline roadbed. I saw this in Joe Fugate’s dvd volume 2 and I’m very impressed. But I have a question. How do you cut your masonite roadbed splines? Is there a easy way to cut the splines with great accuracy? And can other materials then masonite be used for this?
http://s145079212.onlinehome.us/rr/howto/splines/index.shtml
I had the masonite cut at the local lumber where I purchased it. It is worth the extra cost as it will dull a tablesaw blade very quickly.
I have also used clear pine lumber. I bought 1x4 in 10 foot lengths and cut them at home. Pine is much easier to sand to a smooth finish.
Hope this helps…Ken
Cutting: 10" 80T carbide blade in a table saw, and same blade in a power miter box for trimming to length.
Spline materials: pine 1 x X, thin plywood, Homasote®, ABS, PVC, extruded foam, foam core, cardboard, etc.
splined roadbed is pretty strong but is sooooo time consuming to cut and build…i prefer 3/4" plywood…I just draw out the radius…measure out 1 1/4" on each side of the centerline and draw an arc then cut it out with a jig saw and sand it smooth before attaching the cork roadbed…chuck
Not time consuming at all to cut. I just bought my masonite sheets already cut from a cabinet maker for an extra $17 per sheet. He cut them in a gang saw and I brought the sheets home as bundles of spline, all ready to go.
If you can find someone who will cut the spline for you like this with a gang saw, then it’s well worth it.
When I cut the spline myself, I cut the 4x8 sheet down into four 2x4 foot sheets, then stack the sheets 5 high and tack them together with 4 finishing nails nailed most of the way through the 5 sheets.
I then set the fence on my table saw and ripped them 5 strips at a time. Works great because I got 5 uniform strips easily enough, although they were only 4 feet long instead of 8 feet long. A few more joints, but this works if you want to cut them yourself because it makes handling the masonite easy enough you can even do it as a one-person job.
However the gang saw cutting is your best bet, and generally will be quite affordable. As I mentioned, I bought the sheets from the cabinet maker and he just tacked another $17 per sheet onto the price for the gang saw cut.
It took 5 sheets of 1/4" masonite to do the entire 360 feet of mainline roadbed for my Siskiyou Line layout. The spline forms natural easements on curves and the solid masonite roadbed is so dense it’s excellent quiet roadbed.
Try doing 360 feet of mainline with only 5 sheets of plywood using the cookie cutter method (with automatic easements and really quiet roadbed to boot) … ain’t gonna happen. [swg]
I had the sheets ripped in half (to 2x8 feet) and took them over to a friend’s who had a table saw. The two of us ripped them individually into the 3/4 inch strips with a carbide tipped saw blade. Of course, now I see Joe’s post about nailing them together…that would have been much faster. Prior to that I had called a local woodworker who said he would rip two sheets of masonite into the 3/4 in strips, along with two sheets of OSB (which I used for my benchwork) into 3" and 1" strips. He was going to charge $75, although I’m not sure if he really understood how much cutting I needed. The lumber yard I called said they would make the cuts at $0.15/foot. The building aspect is very, very fast. I’m taking my time to get my geometry correct, but it really allows you to see what you’re working with and you can make your adjustments before you glue. I’m also planning on using some of my scrap to make curve templates. So I say: find yourself a table saw (and a friend who knows how to use it) and do it yourself! Randy
I bought a single sheet of 1/4" MDF, and had the store rip it into around fifty 22 mm. strips for a flat fee of $10. Two guys handled it on a table saw using a gate adjusted to the width I wanted. That one sheet has allowed me to build over 60’ of 6-ply spline roadbed.
Pay someone, EL. They do the work and clean the mess, you get your splines to take home. If you have your own saw, it will take you doing as Joe describes about 45 minutes to do it all, including clean-up.
Selector - what store did you go to? Home Depot won’t cut anything less than 1 foot wide for safety reasons and they charge $0.50 for each cut over 2. I’d happily pay an extra $10 to have them rip the next sheet. On the other hand, it was kind of fun to do it, and I got to see a friend I haven’t seen in a while. Randy
It was a local builders’ supply store. They said they normally charge $0.40/cut, but did nearly 50 for just the $10. Maybe when they heard what I was doing they became sympathetic, or maybe their math is weak.