Articles from 2017
First Turnouts Using Dremel Tool Jig
Mar 2017 - This post are some pictures of the first set of points made with the new jig.
Here is a picture of the first set of points made with the turnout jig and proper materials. This took about 3 hours to make. I think it turned out pretty well.
Dremel Tool Turnout Jig
Jan 2017 - A jig to speed up the making turnouts - updated from my old blog
As mentioned in my last post, I have discovered that a Dremel type moto-tool makes an excellent point shaping tool for constructing model railroad turnouts. Combined with the simple jig below I found the process to be much easier and faster than the traditional filing method.
Here is a picture of the completed unit:
Turnouts 4 and 5
Jan 2017 - Fifth post in a series on how to build handmade n scale turnouts, including constructing some jigs to speed up the process - updated from my old blog
A few days after that router episode I hit on the idea of using my Dremel Tool to grind the turnout points. I probably would have thought of it earlier but I only just got the Dremel for Christmas and wasn’t really familiar with it. I quickly grabbed a short piece of rail, put it in a vice and stuck a No. 409 grinding disk into the Dremel. Success! Time to make another jig!
A Turnout Jig
Jan 2017 - Fourth post in a series on how to build handmade n scale turnouts, including constructing some jigs to speed up the process - updated from my old blog
After building 3 turnouts I have been thinking a bit on how to speed up their construction. By far the slowest - and hardest - part is filing the 2 switch rail points and a corresponding notch on the stock rails. It’s also quite stressful and easy to mess up.
My first idea was to create some sort of jig and use a wood router to grind the rail to a point. This might seem strange but I have accidentally routed straight through a nail while cutting slots in wood on several occasions without much ill effect to the router bit, so it seemed quite a reasonable idea at the time :-)
My First Hand Built Turnout
Jan 2017 - Second post in a series on how to build handmade n scale turnouts, including constructing some jigs to speed up the process - updated from my old blog
Well it took a while - at least 6 hours spread over a few days - but here it is. I think it isn’t too bad for a first effort.
Some Posts From My Old Blog
Jan 2017 -
As I mentioned in my first post, I had an earlier blog with a number of entries about building handmade turnouts. Unfortunately the blogs’ Wordpress database got borked so I had to start again, but I did manage to retrieve many of the posts.
So without further ado I’ll put them back up.
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