Clamped in Places

Hold down and alignment clamps tested

The hold down clamps I purchased (KBC Tools p/n 1-990-40323) arrived on Tuesday and I managed to get the in place on the boxes. These work as I had hoped and lock the boxes down tight against the benchwork. I also have installed them to the underside of the top to hold the sections tight against each other.

The aluminum alignment climps also work very well, keeping the top surface of the layout dead flat, which will be critical as I do not want to have any trackwork misalignment, its already complex enough!

No alignment between the benchwork and the boxes is necessary, the boxes simply line up with the edges of the benchwork and the latch clamps hold it in place. Once clamped in place the entire layout becomes a single unit that is very rigid.

It is critical that all the alignment clips are parallel with each other, and perpendicular to the edge of one of the boxes, this will allow the boxes to slide onto the tongue of the clips in a single motion. If they were not parallel to each other the tongue of the clip would not insert into the groove. Since it would have been very difficult to align these under the layout as all the benchwork would be in the way I positioned them on the top of the layout. This also allowed me to avoid putting them where switch machines will end up. Once in place I drove long screws from the top through them and through the top of the layout. This created holes that I can use to screw the clips in place from underneath.

In the picture above a couple are in place underneath, with the rest still in place on the top surface. I can’t find 1 1/8″ long wood screws so they stick up a bit, I will grind these off later. (right after I jab myself with one)

I will place an alignment clip on each side of any location where track crosses a joint. This will ensure perfect alignment at the surface.

The top surface is nice and flat and should not be able to warp.

These shots don’t really show anything, I just think they look neat.

Tonight I hope to complete the installation of all the alignment clips and hold down clamps. There is still a bit of edging to install on one of the boxes. I thought up a cool way to present the layout, a bit of a finishing touch to the structure. Last night I ran out to Home Depot and picked up the items needed for this, if it turns out well you’ll see some shots of it in a couple days.

All that hard work wore this guy right out.

On to Next Section

-T

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 03-27-2008 | 10:03 AM
Posted in: Benchwork Construction | Latest Posts | Comments (1)

On all fours.

starting to look like something.

Managed to get all the boxes completed this weekend and get the layout standing. Still more to do before I can move on, but at least it is finally up! Preparing accurate CAD drawings in advance really paid off, all the pieces fit together very well without a lot of effort, I simply cut all the parts carefully to the drawings and assembled it all. It was quite surprising how well it went, typically I would design and build at the same time, and always end up with difficulties along they way. Doing all the design carefully before cutting any wood made the process of construction much easier, leaving me time to focus on the quality of the work.

The sections fit together well although I definitely need the alignment clamps to keep the surface flat.

The surface of the water is 2″ below ground level, about 14 1/2′. This is a complete guess based on some prototype images. If it is too low, then its low tide, too high, then its high tide. That should solve that issue.

When I had the sections cut for the plywood top cut I also had the track plan drawn onto the sections to help with lining up all the trackwork. The lines on this section are a bit faint, but still work well to get the track in the right location relative to the rest of the terminal.

Our dog Bryn giving the benchwork a test. He barked, which I am going to interpret as good review.

On to Next Section

-Tim

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 03-23-2008 | 10:03 PM
Posted in: Benchwork Construction | Latest Posts | Comments (5)

Clamps

Test pieces

To keep the top of the layout reliably aligned I felt it needed something bullet proof. I made a set of alignment clips tonight from some 1/4″ aluminum and fastened them to two separate pieces of wood to see how well it will hold. The clips are 2″ long and 1″ wide each. A joiner slides into the clips to keep everything aligned, shown above.

They seem to work well, with the pieces perfectly aligned and very rigid. They are small enough to fit under the layout so I can use several of them where needed.

I have decided to upgrade the clamps I will use to join the boxes to the benchwork. Initially I was going to use a “suitcase” type of clamp, but the ones I purchased seem a little weak for the job. I found the type above and ordered a dozen of them. These are much more robust and don’t have any parts that would protrude past the bottom of the box and could possibly get damaged as the brass version I had initially purchased.

The rendering above shows the clamps in place to demonstrate how they are to be used to hold the boxes tight to the benchwork. They won’t be on the outside of the boxes on the actual layout, I will mount them inside to keep them from getting bumped when being moved.

On to Next Section

-T

About the Author:

I'm your host, Tim Warris, a product developer in Port Dover, Ontario. Since March of 2007 I have been documenting the construction of the former CNJ Bronx Terminal in HO scale. For my day job, I design track building tools for Fast Tracks, a small company I own and operate. Fast Tracks makes it fast and easy to hand lay your own trackwork. Stop by our website to learn more!

Posted by: Tim | 03-20-2008 | 09:03 PM
Posted in: Benchwork Construction | Latest Posts | Comments (2)