The Big Pink L

[toc36]

"Probably a lot cheaper than poplar and it’s super sturdy stuff with a lot less warping with drying out an less splitting, but tougher stuff than poplar."  Damn it!!  This just complicated my life.  The cost of the wood is not an issue.  Stability for the shelf-top bench work would be a huge benefit, especially if it can be designed to be re-useable.   Let me get my ideas together and will post them here or send you an email.  As I am thinking this through, I'm seeing that the under-layout wiring (especially for the 30" top) would be vastly easier.  

 

"Other option if you don’t like the foam sound you could just use 5mm luan ply."  I've never worked with this material before.  I'm running errands, so I'll include Home Depot.

 

"Generally there is no other tweaking needed for the newer ones as the design was modified slightly."  I will play with the switches I have.  I bought all mine about three years ago.  I'm thinking that most of them are from the old batch.  If worst comes to worst, I thought that I build the two yards using Tomix rails and switches. Any opinions or thoughts here will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks!!

[cteno4]

Yeah, it would be fun! 

 

it’s tempting but doing it for money kind of takes the fun out of it. Really helps to have the shop and skills to do the woodwork as it’s not all that hard for folks with access to tools and some help.

 

i love doing the woodworking and helping folks do something that would be tough to attempt w.o tools and training. It helps me learn as well and keep evolving techniques like using the 1/2” Baltic 7 ply birch as it’s a great combo of strength, cost, workability and look. Slowly honing in on just how beefie things need to be to save on wood, work, money and aesthetics. Experiences and issues that folks find with stuff we have done feeds back into the new constructions.

 

I also just need more practice as my woodworking the last decade has been spotty, one of those skills you need to know the basic techniques but then it’s a lit practice to get the fine scale stuff to where you just do it easily and cleanly. Upgrading the shop slowly here has helped. After seeing how much better I could work with the new table saw (should have done that 15 years ago!) I’ve realized its time to upgrade the other pieces of main tools to the next level. All the stuff I have is just good enough, but can be hard to do really good work on and that can dull your enthusiasm. Planer, joiner, miter Saw and drill press are all getting upgraded this year and new bench and cabinet system designed for them instead of just making due with the bits I have had laying around and adapted quickly. All ended up funky and functional but not always very efficient on space and versatility.

 

so it’s a win win all around.

 

jeff

[gavino200]

On 2/28/2018 at 5:04 PM, gavino200 said:

 

 

3. Even with the WR 414/381 track, you need to have a re-railer between the curve and the subsequent straight track if you want to reliably run Shinkansens. This is from the 500 Series package insert. It's a bit out of focus, I apologize. https://imgur.com/GBkfcwX

 

 

 

 

I was completely wrong about this. The problem I was having with my 500 series had nothing to do with the track. When I installed the light decoder in the front cab, one of my wires touched against one of the copper pickup strips. This gave the front truck more downward resistance on one side.  

 

As is often the case, when I blame Kato for a problem, I end up finding that the problem was something I did.