On My Workbench

[marknewton]

Instead of starting multiple threads each time we start a new project I thought we could have a workbench thread to keep everything in one place. I discussed this with Jeff, and he agreed. So here we are. 
 

I'll start the thread off with a progress report on my cameo layout based on Bakuromachi station on the Sakai line. I made the base a while back out of 9mm ply, and got as far as sanding it and then sealing it with primer. Now that the weather here has returned to something like normal I've been able to do some more work on it.

 

I'm using a closed-cell foam roadbed strip made locally by a company called Trackrite. Its a high quality product that I've used before with good results. I've secured the roadbed using a latex carpet adhesive. Once cured it remains a bit rubbery, so it should minimise the transmission of sound from the trains to the base. On the outside of the curves is a length of Evergreen styrene strip that gives the track some superelevation. The outside track has 1.5mm strip, and the inside track has 1mm. It's not much but it's surprising how noticeable it is, and how it improves the look of both the track and the trains on it.

 

The track itself is Peco code 75 flex track. I removed 1 in every 12 sleepers and spaced the remainder out evenly to give it that narrow gauge "look". The joiners are soldered as are the dropper wires, all that's left do do is lightly spray it with primer as a basis for painting and weathering it. I prefer to do the painting and weathering before the track has been stuck down and ballasted. I do that to allow some differentiation between the colour of the track and the ballast, avoiding that muted muddy look you get when you try to paint and weather them together.

 

Once the track is secured I can measure and cut the base for the platform.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by marknewton

[Kiha66]

A commission from a friend, I'm making a 3d file of a Pacific Electric boxcab.  This will be 3d printed in N scale and go on a kato 11-103 chassis.  I've been trying out tinkercad rather than the usual fusion 360.  I've found it to be very easy and quick for simple shapes, but much harder to do anything complex.  Its an excellent beginners program, or for someone who wants to make a simple project quickly.

 

 

[marknewton]

That's the ex-Red River Lumber boxcab? Nice choice. One of the first interurban locos that I attempted to kitbash when I was a teenager. I think yours will look much, much neater than mine! 
 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[Kiha66]

32 minutes ago, marknewton said:

That's the ex-Red River Lumber boxcab? Nice choice. One of the first interurban locos that I attempted to kitbash when I was a teenager. I think yours will look much, much neater than mine! 
 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

Wow, good eye!  This is indeed pe 1593, former cct 23, and red river before that!  Let me know if you want your own once this is done, and I can share the file.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Kiha66

[marknewton]

On 1/31/2020 at 3:55 PM, Kiha66 said:

Let me know if you want your own once this is done, and I can share the file.

That'd be great, thanks.

 

Once again the weather is not suitable for working outside on the cameo layout, so I've been doing some indoor stuff. I have a bad habit of starting to build things and not finishing them. So I've got a fair number of almost complete freight cars I need to finish. One simple project is this Adachi TaKi9600. It was completed and roughly painted when I bought it.

 

 

I've given it a quick blast with the air eraser to tidy up the paint, replaced the rather coarse kit trucks with much finer Tomix TR41s with spoked wheels, and fitted some scale-head Kadee knuckle couplers. When the rain stops I'll give it a light coat of semi-gloss black, apply the lettering and a finish coat of satin varnish.

 

 

I've also got a pair of WaFu brakevans that are close to completion. One is by HobbyModel, and the other by Endo-Prus. Once I've added a few handrails made of brass wire they can be painted and lettered.

 

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

56 minutes ago, marknewton said:

I have a bad habit of starting to build things and not finishing them.

 

Doesn't sound familiar at all 😉

 

The new trucks and spoked wheels definitely make the car look a lot better.

[marknewton]

Thanks Martijn.

 

Made and fitted handrails to the Endo-Prus WaFu29500 this evening. 
 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

[Martijn Meerts]

Nice! I actually have a World Kougei WaFu 22000 waiting to be built, they're really interesting cars, partially because they're not symmetrical.

[marknewton]

This evening's project - fit handrails and uncoupling levers to the HobbyModel WaFu22000. The couplers for both vans are assembled and ready for attachment, so if the weather is cooperative tomorrow I can paint them and then finish them.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

[cteno4]

Renato started talking about doing a out of the usual box Ttrak set of modules to do a certain scene so with lots of talking about it I finally thought it might be good to mock it up so he can play wirh some of the details of depth, height, etc on it and plop some buildings done to get an idea of it’s going to do what he wants. Fun hour whacking away on corrugated cardboard to miles Davis.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

 

[marknewton]

That looks very neat and elegant Jeff. Would it be strong enough to use for a module as is?

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

I managed to do a bit more on the cameo layout yesterday afternoon. I mentioned previously that I wanted the curved track to have some superelevation, as it's something I've rarely seen modelled. As I've had a bit of experience laying full-sized track in my career it really niggles me seeing flat curves on running lines...I blame my OCD. 🤪

As I mentioned earlier I played around with some loose strips of Evergreen styrene to see whether my ideas would work, and I think it will. I glued a length of 60thou styrene strip under the outside rail in the centre of the curve. On either end of that is another length of 40thou, then another length of 20thou on the end of those.  Once the glue had cured I gently sanded a taper on the top with a sanding stick. The outer ends of the track are straight, so there's a slight transition back to level track. The strips are barely visible, and they should disappear completely once the track is ballasted. The effect is subtle, but it's noticeable and so I think it's worth the effort. This is what it looks like so far, although the effect is somewhat exaggerated by the camera:

 

 

(Of course if I was using Kato Unitrack I'd just buy some of their superelevated curved sections...)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

 

 

 

Edited February 18, 2020 by marknewton

[Sheffie]

I think Kato’s super-elevated curves might be limited to concrete sleepers or viaducts. This looks great, though. 

[Kiha66]

Love the superelevation Mark!  It really makes the cars look so much more dynamic.  Attention to small details like this is really what makes superb modeling stand out!

[marknewton]

Thanks to you both. I've painted the track this morning before work, so I'm going to crack on with the ballasting over the next few days. I've given up on the conventional method of applying the ballast dry and then dribbling dilute glue onto it. I now use the Norman Solomon method - much quicker, neater and better looking.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[Martijn Meerts]

That method is where you apply glue, lay the track in the glue, and then immediately add the ballast?

 

I've tried that before, but I always found that the sleepers / ties would look very tall, so I'll be quite interested in seeing the pictures at some point 🙂

 

[Kamome]

Finally got around to putting together one of my Morita JOT ISO Tanks.

Its not been hugely fun, very soft pewter, slightly poor fitting plastic parts, lots of filling and sanding to get a smooth tank but hopefully will look the business when it’s finished. 

[Kamome]

Finished one of 2 containers. It was a little laborious but at least I’m halfway. The pewter parts seem to be moulded with very small tolerances and being so soft, warp quite easily. Certainly this kit could have had better choices of material for the frame but the photo-etched parts look nice. The worst part of the kit was the piping, made from very bendy wire, which also doesn’t hold paint well. Lots of touching up required after assembly. 

Kinda hope someone comes out with a plastic kit or ready to run tank container. 
Anyway, here it is next to smaller scale.

[cteno4]

My workbench is the basement floor as I’m assembling a new workbench! Hope to have time tonight after the woodworking show to assemble it. It’s height adjustable so will be nice to have that as im tall and many time surfaces are too low for various tasks that are “standard” heights.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[gavino200]

16 minutes ago, cteno4 said:

My workbench is the basement floor as I’m assembling a new workbench! Hope to have time tonight after the woodworking show to assemble it. It’s height adjustable so will be nice to have that as im tall and many time surfaces are too low for various tasks that are “standard” heights.

 

cheers

 

jeff

 

I'd love to see some pictures. I'm currently sans bench too. 

[cteno4]

I spent all day at the woodworking show with a buddy and then dinner and beers so got home too late to work on it. Tommorow is pretty booked up so it may be Monday... it’s this one

 

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Husky-52-in-Adjustable-Height-Workbench-Table-with-2-Drawers-in-White-HOLT5202BJ1/307723266
 

for me being tall it really helps to be able to move the bench up and down for various tasks and equipment.

 

I was drooling over this one yet again at the woodworking show! Really is a beast and really solid. They sell the demo one at the show pretty cheap as it’s cheaper than shipping it to the next destination! Next year I may succumb...

 

http://adjustabench.com/articles.asp

 

also drooling over the direct drive dc drill presses. They have back emf control (like dcc) that gets you constant torque and rpms. Also wild feature of electronic depth control you set digitally and when the depth is reached the drill stops and goes into a slow reverse so it stops cutting! 
 

cheers

 

jeff

[cteno4]

Ok the new workbench is put together! Quite solid! Is say what little wiggle there is is from the wheels that can jiggle even when locked down a little. If I wanted super solid I can always put the feet on instead of the wheels. I may look at replacing the equipment bench with one of these as well as it sNice to adjust the bench height depending on the tool I’m working with. I get tired of bending over as tables are made for folks 5-6” shorter than I am. drawers are nice but do make it a bit tough to sit at the bench in a chair and work on the top.

 

as I use it I may look at a bigger one for the shop. It’s probably sturdy enough for my needs in the shop and a fifth the price of the really lovely rock solid adjustable bench I was looking at there, it’s a lot of money!

 

so now a new workbench to post projects from!

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

My workbench is an old kitchen table 😄

 

[cteno4]

Yeah I have a total mishmash of work benches. The current equipment bench in the basement is a drawer set on folding legs that was under an old futon couch/bed I made in grad school. soldering and fiddling bench is a tiny roll around computer desk not being used for that anymore.
 

The woodshop has one workbench that’s an old rollaround cabinet and butcher block top I made for my tiny grad school studio apartment’s kitchen (it had a grand total of 2 square foot of counter top and only right next to the sink) and another long kitchen side table for prep I made for our hours in California, plus of course the obligatory hollow core door on a couple of folding saw horses! Drill press and belt sander are on a lifted up custom computer desk I also made for my grad school apartment.

 

so I am finally trying to make some better ones after decades of reusing all sorts of stuff that worked, but usually not quite perfect. Big thing now for me is the height adjustment!

 

jeff

[gavino200]

22 hours ago, cteno4 said:

 drawers are nice but do make it a bit tough to sit at the bench in a chair and work on the top.

 

It looks like a really nice work bench. Do they sell one without the drawers. I like to sit for almost all hobby work.