Summer Shunting Shelf Project

[wm3798]

Child Labor... Where would we be without it!
Lee

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Child Labor... Where would we be without it!
Lee

If they work for you, it's "family bonding".
If they work for someone else, it's "Child Labor".



I thought of submitting the photo of my daughter, working the Chopper II cutting replacement ties, for a Railwire header: "Young Modelers, not Child Laborers."

She had a BLAST today: we went across the street by the BART tracks, gathered gravel, and then she got to "learn" to sift it three different times for finer grades of ground cover.
"The barrel's almost full!  Good job, dude!"

[Chris333]

I break a bunch of those blades as well. Not by cutting, but by bumping it while the dremel is hanging there... Funny though they can be broke right in half and I'll still cut a bunch more rail with it like that.

Hey, also I see you are using wider ties for the throw bars. I use HO ties that are thinned down.

[DKS]

I break a bunch of those blades as well. Not by cutting, but by bumping it while the dremel is hanging there...

Same here. I break more of them not using them than I do using them. One reason I bought them in a pack of 100. I've yet to try the .005 super-ultra thins. I can imagine them breaking just by looking at them funny.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

If I'd know they'd break at a sneeze, I'd have gone for the 100 pack, too (especially with the heafty shipping charges: I thought they were coming from Europe!).

I still have 12-15 left, I think, which should get me through the turnout rebuild & frog power on my other layout.

For this one I have only to cut the extended rails off the carfloat we're building.
Soldered the pcboard ties to the ends of the trails to maintain spacing, then gorillaglued to the carfloat deck.

So far working ok.


Turnout throwbars: yes, I use the Fast Tracks "HO" 1/32" pc board ties.  More stable, & easier to poke holes in for the handthrow and in the middle for the rounded top of the slide switch to pop up through when I power the frogs (not happening on this layout).

[Dave Schneider]

So what are the advantages of the cut off discs over a razor saw, given their fragility? Just for places too tight for a saw?

Best wishes, Dave

[DKS]

So what are the advantages of the cut off discs over a razor saw, given their fragility? Just for places too tight for a saw?

They make cuts far thinner than a razor saw. And they can get into spots a razor saw can't--such as between rails. The fragility is the price to pay for being able to do some remarkable things.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

They make cuts far thinner than a razor saw. And they can get into spots a razor saw can't--such as between rails. The fragility is the price to pay for being able to do some remarkable things.

Ditto.

I like to install the layout and have it set, then cut the iso gaps with the disc.
This pretty much insures that everything lines up nice & neat.

It's also, I'm just realizing, why I have such a hard time cutting from under the turnouts

I'd post picts showing the difference between a regular "thin" dremel disc & the Dedeco ultra thin, but the forum software doesn't seem to be happy allowing me to post photos recently, so until the posting gods smile again...

The Dedeco cutting discs are pretty amazing.

[DKS]

The Dedeco cutting discs are pretty amazing.

Indeed. A while back I had begun scratchbuilding a Zn3 Shay. I started with the crankshaft. I was making it with individual parts, and in order to get the crankshaft true, I began with a solid steel wire the length of the crankshaft. Then I opened up the spaces between the cranks. The only tool that was able to do this was the .009 cutoff disc. The "normal" discs were way too fat--more than three times as thick, which would have obliterated the cranks, and there was no saw capable of cutting through steel music wire.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Indeed. A while back I had begun scratchbuilding a Zn3 Shay....

When I read that, I thought you were havin' fun hammin' up the flim-flam.
But, no, you really did build a Zn3 Shay.

@%#_@*$#@!!!

And my wife thinks I'm the model train geek.
(as if that were an insult!)

You can't leave me hanging with just a crankshaft.
Let's see the tiny titan!

Awesome!

[Chris333]

Also when cutting metal with the thinner blades the metal won't heat up as much.

I use them on turnouts because they are much fast than threading a Zona saw blade through the turnout twice. Just zip - zip and done. I also gap the ties with it.

[DKS]

You can't leave me hanging with just a crankshaft.
Let's see the tiny titan!

Notice I said that I'd started building a Zn3 Shay... the crankshaft (and part of the crankcase) is as far as I got! Sorry to disappoint.

Maybe someday I'll get back to work on it. But I spent weeks making about a dozen crankshafts until I got one that was right.

Meanwhile, I've started work on a Z Scale 44 tonner. Now, that is much further along.

But now I've hijacked your awesome thread... My bad! Back to the switching layout.

I wonder about the stability of the MDF when you start doing things like ballasting... Chris has had some bad experiences in this department...

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Also when cutting metal with the thinner blades the metal won't heat up as much.

I use them on turnouts because they are much fast than threading a Zona saw blade through the turnout twice. Just zip - zip and done. I also gap the ties with it.

Now that I can post photos again, here's a side-by-side:



The iso gaps cut with the Dedeco ultra thin is on the bottom, while the regular Dremel disc is on the top.

[M.C. Fujiwara]

Started building the carfloat for the Summer Shunting Shelf project:



It will be fixed in the water.  Cleats & bollard on the way in the mail.

Also started mocking up buildings:



This will be the "Bella Fonte Cannery", a play off of the huge Del Monte structure in Alameda.  Will probably have backdrop photos of buildings peeking over from behind the flats.  Still figuring that part out.  Will use DPM brick sections to create the freight warehouse on the left.

[davefoxx]

M.C.,

Why such a sharp curve in the siding at bottom left in the picture above?  Won't that make coupling difficult, if a freight car is staged in or beyond the "kink"?

DFF