A bit of progress….
Getting tired of working on the floor I decided to build a quick bench to work on. I had a few of those metal brackets used for shelving around so I made a bench to work on. I built it the same height as the saw so I could use it for an outfeed table. Cutting sheets of plywood can be a real pain without something to support the material being cut. This takes all the work out of it!
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Prepping layout room and work bench
This week I returned to the Bronx project after several months away from it. I did most of the work on the trackwork in the spring but got distracted with relocating the business to the new building we had built this summer. Now that most of that project is behind us I am really looking forward to spending the winter working on the Bronx Terminal layout!
I’m not quite ready to start layout building just yet, but pretty close. The first step is to build a work shop to work in. The layout room I am using is on the side of the house, just off the kitchen on the main floor. This will be a nice change as all the layouts I have built so far were down in a basement, this one will keep me in touch with the terrestrial people of the world….
I seem to have spent most of the summer building benches of one type or another and I am pretty tired of it. One more to go and I can finally get back to work on the fun stuff!
This bench will have lots of surface. A U shaped bench with 7′ long sides and a 3′ centre. Over the years I have built various modeling benches, some large and some small. I noticed that I only work on about 2 square feet of space, everything else is a place to put projects that I am not working on at the moment. My last bench was a bit small and ended up quite cluttered, so this one will be much larger and will be able to support much more clutter!
I only have the frame of the bench completed, this week I hope to complete the entire project and unpack all my tools. So far I only have the spray booth is in place as I needed to determine the best location for it. The hole in the floor (hidden behind the chair) is where the laser cutter vented outside and will provide exactly what is needed to vent the spray booth, so I had to locate it on the bench relative to the hole. This room previously housed some of the production equipment for Fast Tracks
I will be building a few drawers to hold smaller hand tools and my large collection of paints, this will be located at the end of the bench to my right. Typically I like tools to my left, as I am left handed and prefer the tools close to the hand that will need them, but since the shape of the bench would put the drawer where I would have to move the chair to open the drawer I think it would be nuisance, so I compromised and will put it at my right.
More to come as I am on holidays this week (the first time in many years!).
-Tim
On30 Track
One of the fine layouts open for the H.O.M.E.S Club layout tour last weekend in Hamilton. Naturally, I was looking at all the trackwork. This one was very well done, all Fast Tracks built turnouts in On30 with a nice collection of motive power. A very well built and flawlessly operating layout.
-Tim
