What do I mean by that. Just look at the construction of my roadbed. It’s D&RGW and Big Ten Curve. Thanks Joe Fugate for showing me this excellent method.
Very impressive and inspiring. I plan to use that method to since it seems so superb, your bench work really looks great.
Magnus
Benny,
That looks great!!! I’ll bet you can’t wait for the day you get to lay some flex track around that curve and turn your train loose…
Don Z.
What are the expansion/ contraction properties of masonite like compared to wood?
I’m really looking into alternative materials form my layout and benchwork. Aluminum for benchwork. I’m also looking for a suitably impervious material for roadbed…
Beautiful work BTW!
Martin
Benny:
Thanks for the accolades about the spline roadbed … I’ve been using the stuff since the mid 1990s and I love it. My friend Charlie Comstock also uses masonite spline for his roadbed, and he’s got a lot of info on his web site about the method.
I originally got the method from Rod Loder and Lee Nicholas. Lee’s a real innovator in the hobby – he’s not only pioneered the masonite spline, but other things like “live staging” during an op session (aka, “the mole”).
The spline is great because it forms natural easements, making for very flowing trackwork. It also is stiff enough to prevent you from putting in vertical curves that are too abrubt. Finally, the stuff is dense, which makes it a good sound absorber.
However, because the stuff is so dense, you can’t easily spike to it, so that’s where the idea of using latex caulk to lay flex track on the masonite spline came from.
And yes, Benny, that’s some mighty fine looking benchwork there! [swg]
EL, I can see a distinct plan coming to realization there. Awesome!!! [^]
Awesome workmanship. To quote the old Swedish carpenter - “Measure three times und cut vunce” and you have surely done him and my Swedish grampa proud.
Measure three times, cut once, glue it together and cut on more time
very interesting idea. I looked at the link provided. the one thing i might do, where you run the screw through the roadbed to attach it to the risers, i would probably run a small macine screw with nut horizonally thru the masonite near or either side of that screw to further avoid the possiblity of it becoming umlaminated
Looks to me like there is a train of clamps already on that roadbed…
Sometimes there’s the “Cut it three times, and it’s still too short”
Very nice work, and those radian joists do make the risers follow nicely too.
very interesting idea. I looked at the link provided. the one thing i might do, where you run the screw through the roadbed to attach it to the risers, i would probably run a small macine screw with nut horizonally thru the masonite near or either side of that screw to further avoid the possiblity of it becoming umlaminated
dbduck, the only place I felt compelled to use 2.5" wood screws was where I joined/spliced (sort of) a diverging spline roadbed to another. I didn’t want to have a long stagger on several of the spline leafs, so I shortened them up such that no glue was likely to do the job. After pre-drilling with a suitable bit transversely through the side of the two sets of splines, the 2.5" wood screws did a really good job and I felt very secure about only one (1) doing the work at each intersection.
In that case, but definitely in every case where I used the 1.5" wood screw down through the top of the splines and into their risers, I predrilled with a thin bit that was also a countersink bit. I made sure the drilling was done mid-leaf so that no separation was encouraged. I don’t think you would need machine screws, washers, and nuts…they simply won’t be necessary. The wood glue is very strong and I would only worry if I had bent each of the leaves to their limits prior to cracking to get a really tight radius. If anything, I was going way wider purposefully for heavyweights.
-Crandell
Either I missed it or it wasn’t addressed, when installing in the first strip, how is the next strip spliced to the previous one at the end of the 8 feet? I also assume that when laminating, you try to stagger the splices as well?
Either I missed it or it wasn’t addressed, when installing in the first strip, how is the next strip spliced to the previous one at the end of the 8 feet? I also assume that when laminating, you try to stagger the splices as well?
Here’s Charlie Comstock’s exposition on Masonite spline roadbed. http://s145079212.onlinehome.us/rr/howto/splines/index.shtml
Andre
db, yes, I read that the splices from 8’ lengths to the next should be staggered from leaf to leaf, so I did that. You spread glue on the three first leafs and then lift them up onto the risers and arrange them so that two of the three are essentially lined up and the (middle one is the way I did it) was recessed back of the other two by about 3". When they are stuck together well, say, three hours later, I’d take off the clamps and glue up the last triplet and dovetail it all together with the last full spline section. So, if you start off at the very beginning with a staggered trailing edge, you will have to do some trimming to get the loop closed (if you have a loop to close) when you finally get around to that starting point. It is all very much common sense, and you will be very comfortable with all of it very quickly.
P.S. - to EL, I hope I’m not hogging your thread…[:O] My apologies if so.
-Crandell
Gee I did not know anyone still used masonite or homosote spline! Wow! Nice work!
Like everything it has benefits and drawbacks.
Benefit: It is strong, flexable, and a more “green” use of matierials than cookie-cutter plywood
drawback: it needs 8 million clamps while the glue is drying! [grin]
Beautiful work.
-Doug
Can anyone quickly 'splain how a spline is made: Is is glued off the set then attached by screws or glue ?or is it put on one layer at a time and glued? as the strength is now vertically how well does it bend up and down, as going up a grade? it would seem you must be very precise just where the track must go before construction, and just how gar can you bend a spline before breaking? how tight can you make a curve. how many layers form the roadbed? thanks. I’m going back to examine the photos again.
You have to lay all the “groundwork” first…by placing the tops of wood risers in such a way that they would support the spline roadbed in the attitude necessary for the correct orientation according to your track plan. So, you make your bench outer frame, then add joists. On those joists you screw 1X2 or 1X4 lengths, cut to an appropriate length, to the joists such that the tops are providing the right profile to support the glued splines at grade.
As for the splines, themselves, they are glued together atop these risers. They just sit on the risers, and will later be screwed and countersunk as described earlier, but as they are drying you just use the previously driven anchor screw (which comes out before you clamp the other three leafs to the first three) to force bending in altitude and azimuth. IOW, the first screws driven into the centrline are pivots. They come out when your first three leafs have dried in place because they are not needed. The first three are stiff enough to permit the next three glued to them to conform to their shape…nifty, eh?
So, once again, you drive an anchoring screw into the centre of the risers, each previously marked for where the centreline should be. You start by gluing together and then clamping against the screws, three leafs of the spline. So, if you have oriented the risers like dominos, some higher than others, and not arranged in a straight line, the splines clamped to the screws will necessarily have to bend and conform to the track plan you had in mind. You will need many clamps, the $2 kind. If you want a grade adjustment, or an easement into or out of a grade, you fashion this beforehand by making sure the riser tops will force that on the splines when you glue and clamp, and finally anchor the completed and dried 6-ply splines to their risers with the countersunk screw.
Does that help?
Edit- add - I forgot about your question of strength and be
I would like to see more detail on locating, splining, and installing a turnout and a tortoise to operate it. Also, using CVP track and turnouts one could use caulk for the tie strips, let it cure, then use the Barge cement for the rails, eh? jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
Electrolove, that is some very impressive benchwork. Seems like a shame to cover it up with scenery!