Or..'.save money for Scottish Laughing Water!'

See

 http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=12881&forum_id=21&jump_to=227469#p227469

Post #0

I HAD HOPED TO MAKE A REPLY TO A MARTYS QUESTION IN 'NEW END Post 14' BUT ENDED UP BUMPING THIS WHOLE TOPIC .

Like several other members, I have decided to make my base boards in sections, in my case 4 off, 4ftx1ft-8". I've used a 4mm 'I' beam frame overlaid by ply, but for ages, I've been pondering a low cost, low tech equivalent to those expensive dowels used by some here………..as SWMBO works on the principle that '£X spent on modelling= 2 x £X spent on clothes, shoes, and luxuries like food' etc…

I only want reliable alignment for the occasional disassembly/reassembly, not a hard wearing device suitable for the exhibition circuit, so, after 2 years, a brain-wave.

Copper pipe here in France is supplied in 10, 12, 14, 16mm sizes, which all fit precisely inside each other, indeed, to make a 14 to 12 reduction, there is no need to buy a purpose made adaptor, it is sufficient to insert one into the other…still with me?

In UK, or elsewhere, probably, the same relationship would exist between, say, a piece of 15mm pipe, and a plain connector.

I took a short piece of 16mm pipe long enough to bridge two adjacent boards, cut it in half, and soldered one piece to a length of 14mm [see photo 1]





Then I slid the loose piece over the 14mm pipe to lie alongside the soldered piece, cut the whole free from the 14 mm pipe and tapped it into a tight fitting hole drilled squarely through both halves of the boards which were tightly clamped in alignment.

Before doing so, I smeared the inside of the hole with PVA, and roughened the outside of the 16mm pipe with a hacksaw blade. [See photo 2}





After several hours, I was able to separate the boards, leaving the soldered 16/14mm piece in one board, and the second piece of 16mm in the other board. [See picture 3]



You may have noticed [Picture 1] that to hold adjacent boards together, I have used some of the screw fittings used to secure head boards to beds, having scrounged a few from a furniture store in UK.  In case you are not as brass-necked as me, I have included a picture of an alternative home-made thumbscrew, soft soldered from a penny washer and a bolt after cutting a groove in the head with a hacksaw. They other ends screw into a suitable nut, soft soldered to a washer, drilled for mounting screws.



I hope this helps someone, and avoids the need to buy so many compensatory Marks and Spencers vouchers for SWMBO [or HWMBO…]

Index fodder, no doubt about it.

a very good solution to a tricky problem,now who is not just a pretty face ?

:doublethumb;-):cool:

That is neat, both the aligning method & anchoring together bolt.

The only downside I see is if moving them around as separate modules, you would have to be careful that  the copper projection was not hit & bend slightly because it would be a devil of a job to get it back in alignment properly again without a lot of effort.

I can see this as an ideal method for saving cost on a semi-permanent home layout, which you would not expect to part on a regular basis. Nice idea Doug :exclam

Nice one Doug

Well, I read Sol's reply [and thank you all for replying] and I agree with him, if I bash one of those spigots it would cause a great deal of aggravation, so 7am today saw me in the workshop making 'The Earwig'…….two shorter pieces of 16mm cut flush with the wood, linked by a piece of 14mm, which is in turn retained positively in the  16mm by a springy wire 'earwig'.

The ends are turned over so that you don't spike yourself when fumbling under the board [I've been known to fumble a lot….]

I shall shorten the long spigots on the original model to about 1/4", adequate for alignment, yet not too long so as to be vulnerable.

PSI'm in SWMBO's good books because I took her acup of tea in bed at 0725……….

Separated




Assembled, but not inserted in place

What talent :exclam:exclam

Mark 2 is born and "the dog" has cracked it :exclam:exclam 

Nice one Doug thumbs:thumbs

Doug, not as quick to assemble the modules in having to "fumble", but does prevent any possible crunching of protrusions. Neat improvement.

Do I get  some royalty payments for saying that I see a problem:question

I wondered about sending the idea to Peco or someone like them, a commercially produced version would be an absolute cinch to fit, provided it was produced at a size catered for by common drill sizes.

I would certainly do that Doug. It's a good, simple idea, and would be easy to mass produce I would think.

"I took her acup of tea in bed at 0725……….

Separated"

Obviously she wanted coffee.

Neat idea.  Another possibility to strengthen your protrusions(!) might be to glue a length of wooden dowel inside the smaller diameter copper tube. Should make it strong enough to cope with most things as longs as it doesn't project more than 1/4 to 1/2 inch.

Cheers
Dave

Like the moth Doug. It's a beauty. Good idea on the locating dowels too.

Thanks Doug.