05-17-2010, 07:27 AM
I have looked at your description of the problem several times over the past week. I viewed the video on using their tools to fabricate a turnout this morning. Just now, while reading your post again and looking at the posted photo, i began to wonder ... :?:
If the rail is developing a "curl," it's possible that too much heat is being generated in the filing process. Try this ...
File only only one direction - pushing away from you - that's the only way the file cuts material anyway. Lift the file and bring it back and then push away against the rail again, but not at 60 mph ... 15 or 20 mph generates less heat. Hopefully that will help your "curling" problem (rail ... not stones on ice.)
Take your time ... this is not a race!
I've been hand laying track for a bunch of years ... i just file the rails and solder them as I get there, making sure I have a good fit between rails to be soldered. I hold the rail being filed in a jeweler's hand vise ... seems to work O.K. for me. On the other hand, I'd be at a loss if you were to ask, "What number is that frog!" I couldn't tell you. It is what it needs to be to get to where it is going in the smoothest, most gentle turn possible in that location. Could be #5.5 ... could be #8.2 ... I don't know.
Keep spikin' there, buddy! Hand laid track is enviable because many modelers think it's wildly difficult. 8-) Let 'em think that ... or not.
It's not that tough if you take your time aand pay attention to fit and gauge. (I use three gauges and slide them along as I go. Swap the middle one around to opposite of the outside two, especially on curves!
biL
If the rail is developing a "curl," it's possible that too much heat is being generated in the filing process. Try this ...
File only only one direction - pushing away from you - that's the only way the file cuts material anyway. Lift the file and bring it back and then push away against the rail again, but not at 60 mph ... 15 or 20 mph generates less heat. Hopefully that will help your "curling" problem (rail ... not stones on ice.)
Take your time ... this is not a race! I've been hand laying track for a bunch of years ... i just file the rails and solder them as I get there, making sure I have a good fit between rails to be soldered. I hold the rail being filed in a jeweler's hand vise ... seems to work O.K. for me. On the other hand, I'd be at a loss if you were to ask, "What number is that frog!" I couldn't tell you. It is what it needs to be to get to where it is going in the smoothest, most gentle turn possible in that location. Could be #5.5 ... could be #8.2 ... I don't know.
Keep spikin' there, buddy! Hand laid track is enviable because many modelers think it's wildly difficult. 8-) Let 'em think that ... or not.
It's not that tough if you take your time aand pay attention to fit and gauge. (I use three gauges and slide them along as I go. Swap the middle one around to opposite of the outside two, especially on curves!
biL
biL
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln
Lehigh Susquehanna & WesternÂ
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." ~~Abraham Lincoln