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| Baseboard alignment dowels 'on the cheap'....... - Baseboards. - Getting You Started. - Your Model Railway Club | ||||||||||
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Chubber Casseroled Badger 
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See http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=12881&forum_id=21&jump_to=227469#p227469 [Post 14] 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...]
____________________ 'You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil...' Aesop's Fables "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin In the land of the slap-dash and implausible, mediocrity is king |
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Robert Legacy Member 
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Index fodder, no doubt about it.
____________________ Barchester |
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owen69 Former Member
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a very good solution to a tricky problem,now who is not just a pretty face ?    |
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Sol Former Member
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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. |
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Gwent Rail Former Member
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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 | |||||||||
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Marty Enjoying the Journey 
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Nice one Doug
____________________ Marty N Gauge, GWR West Wales Newcastle Emlyn Layout. Newcastle Emlyn Station is "Under construction" |
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Chubber Casseroled Badger
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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  ____________________ 'You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil...' Aesop's Fables "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin In the land of the slap-dash and implausible, mediocrity is king |
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Gwent Rail Former Member
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What talent : exclamMark 2 is born and "the dog" has cracked it : exclam  Nice one Doug  |
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Sol Former Member
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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 |
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Chubber Casseroled Badger
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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. ____________________ 'You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil...' Aesop's Fables "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin In the land of the slap-dash and implausible, mediocrity is king |
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Robert Legacy Member
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I would certainly do that Doug. It's a good, simple idea, and would be easy to mass produce I would think.
____________________ Barchester |
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ddolfelin Straight man to the stars. 
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"I took her acup of tea in bed at 0725.......... Separated" Obviously she wanted coffee. ____________________ http://dddioramas.webs.com/ 11 + 2 = 12 + 1 |
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ElDavo Former Member
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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 |
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Chubber Casseroled Badger
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____________________ 'You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil...' Aesop's Fables "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy" - Benjamin Franklin In the land of the slap-dash and implausible, mediocrity is king |
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60019Bittern Full Member 
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Like the moth Doug. It's a beauty. Good idea on the locating dowels too.
____________________ I'm old, that's why I'm allowed to change my mind, when I can find it. My Website: http://www.dcminerals.co.uk |
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Marty Enjoying the Journey
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Thanks Doug.
____________________ Marty N Gauge, GWR West Wales Newcastle Emlyn Layout. Newcastle Emlyn Station is "Under construction" |
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| This is topic ID = 3124 Current time is 05:03 am |
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