Machining N scale frames

[mmagliaro]

How hard would it be (on the screwless frame halves you are talking about) to just clamp them together with light pressure,  drill and tap a few screw holes right through them both, and put screws in there as temporaries while you are milling?  Then take the screws out when you are done.  Unless the mechanism is going to be bothered by a few extra holes in there, I can't see what harm this could do.  In fact, you could fill up the holes with tungsten rod when you are done and gain a wee bit of extra weight.

[peteski]

How hard would it be (on the screwless frame halves you are talking about) to just clamp them together with light pressure,  drill and tap a few screw holes right through them both, and put screws in there as temporaries while you are milling?  Then take the screws out when you are done.  Unless the mechanism is going to be bothered by a few extra holes in there, I can't see what harm this could do.  In fact, you could fill up the holes with tungsten rod when you are done and gain a wee bit of extra weight.

Drilling, tapping, screwing, filling?
As I see it, yes it is doable, but a big hassle to be worth the trouble (just to mill out some material for a decoder).

[woodone]

Max, there are very few places where you could drill holes and clamp with screws without crushing the frame halves.
You have to take out a good amount of material to get the decoder and a speaker stuffed in the SD70 ACe.
You guys with high speed mills might get by with some very small screws and hold them together for milling.
I found that the low temp metal worked very well for me. Filling all the inside where the motor and drive tower holes are makes it a solid piece to clamp to.