i want to make it portable so if i ever have to take it down i can. It has foldings on up legs on two tables and the other two are bolted to them but my track goes right over the two tables what can i use to cut the track beside using a demerl tool sorry about the spellings
layout is 5x9
Easy. Get some Xuron rail-nippers (flat-cutting track cutters) form your local hobby store. Make the cuts an inch in on either side, then make some short connector tracks from flex track to close the gap when you put it back together! You’ll likely have some warpage of the rails during hot days so having some track at-hand to custom-fit it will work the best. Happy Holidays!
If you make the cuts on either side of the joint so that the gap is exactly the same as the length of a short piece of sectional track, when you put it back together, the gap can be bridged with the piece of sectional track. This is the method used by those who make NTrak modules. It is best done when the track is first laid. Then when you take the sections apart to move them, you just remove the pieces of sectional track and save them for when you put it back together again.
thank you i will give that a try
Hey! Hey! You got troubles! troubles! troubles;
Right here in River City;
With a capital “T” . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . your major problem is going to be less how to bridge a gap and more about aligning the two edges of your panels when you get ready to reassemble them. As anyone who has ever worked with NTrak can tell you if you don’t get your table edges in perfect alignment your joint is going to look like a dog’s hind leg.
Cut your track at the table joint using a jewelers or a coping saw. You can buy dowel alignment pins at a woodworkers supply store. You use these to set indentations in the edge of your panels and then you use a doweling jig to drill holes for dowels. Every time you take the layout apart you remove the dowels; when you put the layout back together you reinstall the dowels. PIECE OF CAKE!!!
Along those same lines if I recall in a couple of back issues of MR where the demonstrated the different variations of the Beer line modular layout they used small carpenters bar clamps such as you can buy in Lowes etc. to assure the two modules were held tight together. You may want to consider something like that or drill a couple of holes and insert carriage bolts and wing-nuts to make it easy to secure together and break down when you need to move it.
Also if I may chime in, dont consider anything heavier than you can lift, carry or fight through your doorways portable.
You can make up a nice set of 2x6 modules on 1x3 inch softwood and minimum framing with foam scenery. Light.
Track across sections or gaps between modules are bridged by the short section of straight track… call it 6 inches long that has a few end ties missing so that the joiners themselves can slide back far enough to mate with the module tracks between sections.
I have a bad habit of using clamps from either Lowes or Home Depot until I get something more sturdy up.
Another idea for portable is those walmart 30 dollar tables with folding legs and 2x4 in size. I have used 4 of these to form the foundation of my previous layout and got away with it… that time…
Shep.
If you want to see a very good way of joining sections together so that the tracks always stay lined up when you rejoin the sections, go to the “SEARCH COMMUNITY” box on the right hand side of this page, just above the advertisements. Type in, “Sweethome Alabama” and hit search.
Jon Grant has a GREAT 4 page tutorial on how he is building his new sectional layout that he will take to shows. On page #3, he shows how his sections come together. But read the whole thread for some great ideas.
Of further interest, type in “Sweethome Chicago” for some links to his other layout for great pics and video’s.
Good luck.
Blue Flamer.