I will mount my tortoise around 30 mm under my ME turnout. How thick piano wire do I need?
I think the wire that comes with the Tortoise is a little too flimsy. K&S Engineerig makes a variety of wire (they call it music wire) and your best bet might be just to go to your local hardware store (Ace, TrueValue, etc) and check out whats available and pick the one you need. Be careful not to go too big as the wire gets pretty hard to cut the thicker it gets. The big box stores (Lowes, HD) don’t carry it.
electrolove,
I use a relatively thick plywood base (3/4") with cork roadbed on top of that. This amounts to about an inch thick (2.5 cm). I don’t recall the exact measurement of the bigger piano wire I use, but it may be something like .040 inch.
Again, working from memory, I think the wire does go through the hole in the sliding fulcrum piece without needing to make it larger, although it can be opened up some without any problem with an appropriate size drill bit.
Hi electrolove: The wire that comes with a Tortoise is .025". I use a .035" wire. You will have to drill the actuating arm for whatever size wire you use.
0.039 works very well thtough 1" or 2" foam.
I find it incomprehensible that the Tortoise machine has included for decades to provide a wire which will never work reliably if at all. Isn’t it about time the manufacturer provided one or two more substantial ones? Pleeeeeeease!
Mark
Hi Mark: I totally agree with you. I understand mfgs trying to save a penney, but gee, it can’t cost that much to include a wire for the long haul. Esp. since they increased the price!
I use 0.040" piano wire from K&S Engineering. I keep a supply on hand. I have 54 Tortoises on my layout, and I automatically use the 0.040" wire in place of the thinner wire that comes with the Tortoise. I use a pin vise to increase the size of the hole where the wire is inserted. I have never had a failure. I agree with the others that Circuitron ought to supply thicker wire.
I don’t recall ever being able to use the wire provided with the Tortoise. I keep a tube of K&S 0.032 music wire on hand because I use hollow core doors topped with two layers of 1/2-inch thick sound board on top, plus cork or foam roadbed. The hole in the actuating arm has to be enlarged to accept a heavier wire, but this can easily be done with a Dremel or pin vice.
I use .032 wire also. Be careful going too thick because you can exert too much pressure on the points.
Well Mark, it is probably designed to work fine (and it actually does) through half an inch of plywood plus some roadbed. They never advanced with the times to foam or spline. The stock wires are also too short in many applications.
I agree with you Few of us use plain plywood any more. Lets include thicker and longer wires.
Karl
My standard roadbed construction method is half-inch plywood topped by quarter-inch homasote. The provided wire almost always didn’t work so my standard procedure is to use a thicker wire without even considering using the Tortoise wire.
Mark