My Japanese N Scale Diorama - NEW Dinning Table Layout

[cteno4]

Jr500,

 

You are most welcome. This stuff is not all that hard to do, just will take a little patience and practice and some test runs till you find what works best for the results you want!

 

Just buy a cheap pack of resistors and LEDs and wires and just practice at the soldering. It really is mostly a learned skill to do the basics,mbut it's not something most are good at in 15 minutes... Takes some getting use to and if you don't do it for a while best to just take 5-10 minutes and dos a few practice solders to get back on the horse.

 

Also using Rosin core solder is a good idea as the flux/rosin helps the solder flow. For the really small stuff it's best to use a tiny dab of paste flux on the joint as there many times there is not enough flux from the solder to get into a tiny joint fast. Only problem with some fluxes is they can be corrosive in the long run, so a woosh around in some water (or a quick ultrasonic bath) and then in 95% isopropanol (this forces out most all the water from things and aids in fast drying) will clean things up if concerned.

 

One trick in soldering the tiny joints is to tape a piece of masking tape (I use the blue painters tape) down to the bench sticky side up. You can then press an smd led or resistor on it and the piece of wire up next to it and the tape holds it all in place for you. Then tiny tab of flux with a tooth pick or needle (I shove the blunt end of a sewing needle Into a small piece of dowel for an applicator) to the joint then quick in and out with very thin solder and a fine tip. Again it's practice, don't expect your first few will come out perfect, but if you do it a few rounds you will start to see yourself getting better and getting the feel of the process.

 

Also look on YouTube there are scads of soldering videos and that can be really helpful to see things.

 

Also when soldering little things it's good to have some air movement around you as you tend to have your face right on top of your soldering and the smoke is not something to be directly inhaling. Not horrid, but good to just avoid and dilute it easily with just a fan on in the room or I have a little 5v computer fan ($1 item) that I have on the bench and it pushes the fumes away from me. If I do a lot I have a fancy rig in a swing arm with an activated charcoal filter to suck it all up,mbut only if I'm going at it for a longer period.

 

The more you solder the better you get and the better you get the more you get into doing things that require soldering! So just have to jump on the loop!

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Just to prove it's possible, here's a ca 2.5 x 1.2mm led I just soldered (1 yen coin for comparison).

 

 

Close-up it looks like the very brief application of heat has fused the solder and wire to the plastic casing, but it does incredibly still work. Also to the naked eye it looks a lot neater. Methinks I do need one of those fancy stands with a magnifying glass though.

 

(Stupidly I bought these leds on line without thinking about exactly how small they are...)

Edited May 25, 2016 by railsquid

[cteno4]

Hey good job squid,not so long ago you were moaning about not being good at soldering!

 

With soldering practice working comes first, then neat looking! But working is the really important part!

 

Yes those magnifiers are great, either a little stand one or a swing arm one. I really like the lighted ones. Mine are 7" dia (about the largest you can find) with a light all the way around the outside. Really love it, so so useful.

 

Squid, might look at using using wrapping wire for these tiny smd LEDs. It's 30g so pretty small but still manageable to work with and its pretinned so when you strip off the insulation the strands don't break off or splay out.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Colors-Hot-sell-New-0-25mm-Wire-Wrapping-Wire-30AWG-Cable-305m-/261443209434?var=&hash=item3cdf3ac8da:m:mI1DcUWLI7Gl-ev7nPILg2Q

 

Another trick on soldering tiny components is to pre tin (put a small blob of solder on each contact surface) both the wire and led contact and the put them next to each other and just touch the iron across the two solder bits and the flow together. It's a little more work but it's easier if you have not done a lot of soldering.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

When soldering wires to something, I generally always pre-tin both the wire, and whatever I want to solder the wire to. It just makes everything so much easier, and a lot less chance of melting things you really don't want to melt. Very much worth the minute extra you spend on the pre-tinning.

[cteno4]

Yep it's lots easier and more foolproof! Spot soldering all at once means you have to get the iron tip there heating both surfaces evenly and getting the solder in there just right as well! The smaller the bit to solder the more pretinning helps! Also helps reduce the amount of heat you put on a small part.

 

Jeff

[railsquid]

Aha, that's what "tinning" means. OK, it's more or less what I've worked out as an effective method anyway. Though with the led shown here it was really a quick touch of the iron and job done, to my surprise. The additional fusing seems quite helpful in not having the wires break away from the led with the slightest handling.

 

Hey good job squid,not so long ago you were moaning about not being good at soldering!

 

Well, it's an incremental process. The Tomytec lighting kits may be suboptimal in terms of price, but certainly useful in showing the potential of lighting. The breakthrough is noticing that these tiny led thingies are more resilient than I thought, OK you wouldn't want to heat them with an iron for minutes at a time but so far the only one I've destroyed was when I touched the wire to the wrong side of the resistor.

[cteno4]

Yeah the smd LEDs are dirt cheap so if you fry a few, no problem! Usually they are like 1-3 cents each! Couple of feet of wrap wire leads is another couple of cents!

 

Hmm i guess you mean you put the led directly to the 12v power source w.o the resistor in the circuit. That would give you a bright flash and fry, if you reverse the led wires to the resistor it just won't light up but won't burn it out, only with the resistor not in the circuit will you burn the led out (no current limiting).

 

The pretinning is a good way to make sure each piece have a good solder bond on them then just fuse the solder. Just a little bit more work but I use the same tape method above to lay out a bunch of wire ends and components and then very quickly go down the line pretinning each connection spot. The pretinning and fusing steps should only have the iron tip in there for a few seconds each time. An adjustable temp iron helps get the iron just right. That's the next step in soldering once you have the basic technique and a basic one starts at $25-75 range.

 

Also hitting the smd LEDs with some clear nail polish on the solder joints can help beef them up and insulate them. I've also glued them to silver or white sequins (on the concave side) with a dab of acc glue. This really holds the wire if jerked from stressing the solder joint and makes a kind of little reflector so it's not like a naked bulb glowing. Easy then to just glue the little sequin on the back to the roof inside the building. You can also use a colored sequin to give a little color to your light. They also make square sequins as well.

 

Using the smaller smd LEDs lets you put a few lights in a structure turned down to give a more realistic lighting to the building rather than the single bright source. Using the little variable resistors instead of a fixed resistor lets you set the light just right!

 

You can buy pre soldered smd LEDs on ebay for like 50 cents or so each (cheaper in bulk too). Usually have 10-15cm leads of either fine wire or very fine magnet wire. So if that is just too much to do the smd led soldering then getting them pre soldered is an option.

 

Cheers

 

Jeff

Edited May 25, 2016 by cteno4

[JR 500系]

A little update to the layout that is long over-due because of a very lazy mayor...

 

Thanks to Densha san, the turnout to the yard is now Shinkansen friendly!  :)

 

 

Turn out to the yard behind the platform, and added a double cross-over

 

 

Much gentle curves and slightly longer parking space. Thanks Densha san!

Edited June 19, 2016 by JR 500系

[JR 500系]

And a little weekend fun running Odakyu while anticipating the MSE, and making a little amateur video:

 

 

Cheers!

[Densha]

A little update to the layout that is long over-due because of a very lazy mayor...

 

Thanks to Densha san, the turnout to the yard is now Shinkansen friendly!  :)

 

20160615_202839.jpg

 

Turn out to the yard behind the platform, and added a double cross-over

 

20160615_202847.jpg

 

Much gentle curves and slightly longer parking space. Thanks Densha san!

Looking great! You also have more space to move the side platform slightly towards the yard now so that you can replace the narrow curve of the main line siding with a wider curve one.

 

P.S. You really need some catenary poles! ;)

Edited June 19, 2016 by Densha

[JR 500系]

Looking great! You also have more space to move the side platform slightly towards the yard now so that you can replace the narrow curve of the main line siding with a wider curve one.

 

P.S. You really need some catenary poles! ;)

 

Thanks! But I think i'll stay with the current tracks. Trying to change the main tracks will mean I need to change the buried wires and tons of other stuff which I think I will pass... Besides I think R280 should be comfortable enough for most shinkansens...

 

Yap I have the catenary poles stocked up, but yet to install. The thing about the catenary poles are that while they look nice and adds realistic to the overall scene, it also obstructs easy cleaning of tracks using cotton soaked with isopropyl alcohol, which by far, I felt was the most effective cleaning method. The poles would pose some obstruction and make cleaning a little more difficult...

[mbloes]

It's funny (fantastic, really) seeing the buildings that I made, knowing that they are now in Singapore.

[JR 500系]

It's funny (fantastic, really) seeing the buildings that I made, knowing that they are now in Singapore.

 

Thanks Mike! The buildings you made are really beautiful and well made, and they certainly add more detail to my layout!  :)

 

Any more properties for sale?  :P

[JR 500系]

Sorry for a long hiatus period of non-updating of Takahashi town...  

 

With the upmost regret, I have to demolish Takahashi town... Not so soon, but pretty soon.... Reason being I need to move house pretty soon and will not have such a large space for a layout in my new home...

 

Henceforth, it would seem futile to proceed building the layout further...

 

However, on the lighter end, I will be able to build a newer layout, but a much smaller one, something like 2m length x 1m width and also restricted to a height of 0.25m, as it will be a dinning table top layout ~  The Mrs. have agreed to this so we can view trains running and have meals at the same time. It should be a customised one, so dimensions can still be adjusted. 

 

I will now look for a dogbone layout within those dimensions, and yes it will no longer be shinkansen friendly...

 

I was thinking of selling my shinkansen fleet, but I guess I will most probably regret later... So instead, they will move into another custom made acrylic case that will be displayed on the wall of my living room...

[Eurostar25]

Very sorry to hear that JR500

[serotta1972]

Hey JR500,

 

I hate that when real life gets in the way of our model railroading, that sucks.  But it's good to hear that you're already moving forward and adapting to your new housing situation.  And I bet having the trains and of course an understanding Mrs. is making things just a little bit easier.  Save the Shinkansens for running on temporary setups.  :)

 

-Junior

[NXCALE]

Things will work out JR500.

It is very nice that your partner is really understanding.

I can tell from your topic and other post that you really have passion for the hobby.

All the best and carry on.

 

Power Up!

 

Nxcale

[railsquid]

Sorry to hear that, but it sounds like you'll still have at least some space. With the dimensions you mention, a "folded dogbone" loop might be quite interesting, which gives a nice long run even in a comparatively small space.

[Eurostar25]

Here are some on Rakuten that look really good and come under the size limit you have, it's 1.8m long:

 

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/auc-sazan/10009891/

 

This one is 2.1m long but might be able to be trimmed. I'm pretty sure this one came up in discussions awhile ago

 

http://item.rakuten.co.jp/auc-sazan/10011019/

 

 

[railsquid]

Keisei Skyliner vs Narita Express deathmatch ;)

[railsquid]

Going in the other, more rural direction, this is the 180cm x 90cm layout I saw at the Kato store which does quite a lot with a small space.

 

kato-layout-small by Rail Squid, on Flickr

[katoftw]

Bummer!  :crybaby2:

[velotrain]

> Going in the other, more rural direction, this is the 180cm x 90cm layout I saw at the Kato store which does quite a lot with a small space.

 

That is interesting, but I might expand the mountain area so it doesn't look like one of those cast tunnels that gets plopped down in a corner of a flat plywood layout ;-)

[JR 500系]

Thank you guys for the kind remarks and encouragement!

 

The plan is nice, but there is a height restriction to the layout... about 250mm height. This is because it is a dinning table layout hence it cannot be too high, something like this: 

 

 

But a much higher table. The legs should be able to fit in comfortably for regular dinning, and also hope to have drawer for the controllers... It might be too high even at 250mm, but I try to make it 250 so that it can at least have an elevated track above the ground track and that requires approximately 250mm.

 

 

Off Topic - I have several first-time visitors to my place for viewing recently due to the selling of our current house, and man, the expressions and remarks when they first saw my layout is truly... encouraging! Everyone was very fascinated by the trains running in the layout inside the acrylic cover, along with the LED lights on the layout and the trains... It sort of encouraged me further to build a new layout for my new house.... It truly is amazing watching the first timer's expressions and remarks, so much so until there were even remarks like: "Hey we are here to view the house, not the trains!'   :)

[Densha]

Hey Sammy,

 

It's always a pity having to rebuilt a layout when moving houses, but I think a size of 2 x 1 meters is not that bad. You can still fit in quite a lot in there! You can also decide to build your new layout (semi-)modular if you want to take into account any possible future moving, but that's up for you to decide.