Cutting Fastrack - Done!!!

[HopperSJ]

Hey folks,

Made my first order of fastrack the other week and everything came..........except all my 1 3/4 inch pieces. That left me hurting to get the proper dimentions on my layout. [:(] TIME TO BE CREATIVE!

I figured I had nothing to lose so I thoguht I would pull out a 10 inch straight and start hacking away. I was so excited that I didn't take pictures along the way (which I intended to do) but I took plenty of shots afterward. Here's how I did it. I was inspired by articles I read here along with an article I have in an HO scale modeling book. For a first try I think I did alright:

Here's the finished product. I took 2 1/4 inches out of the middle. I wanted to keep the ends intact (for obvious fastrack reasons) so I hacked out the middle section between two sets of tabs that hold the track down. I didn't want the newly cut ends starting to poke up.



I first tried a hacksaw and just knew I wasn't going to get a good cut. I then took the track to my table saw and set the blade hieght to cut through the plastic railbed, but not the metal ties. (I succeeded for the most part![:0]) I then pulled out my dremel and cut the ties. Worked like a charm.



If you are going to mount the track on a table you could add jumpers to the rails and call it done, but I am not sure how much I am going to screw my track down, so I wanted something a little more structurally solid. So I devised a way to place a wood block underneath the railbed to give it strength and hold the sections together. I drilled two countersink holes in the railbed (on each piece) and then cut a piece of 1/4 inch plywood to fit under the molded plastic. After drilling pilot holes I scewed in the wood the track to the splint.







As you can see, I used a few different random screws I could find in the house. They needed to be 3/8 inch long. Not easy to find in my posession! Therefore, you can also see that I needed to trim a few of the screws so they didn't protrude below the trackbed and raise the track off the table.



The next thing I did was fill in the gaps on the rails. This is the idea I found from my HO modeling book. It serves to insulate the track sections (if you are creating electrical blocks and also can make the gaps less noticible and more smooth for the train (less derailing). I cut up a silver cream cheese container top and glued larger pieces of it into the gaps. When the glue dried I trimmed it with an exacto knife and filed it down. Take a look:



You can also see it in some of the other shots.

I was going to use this as a block section so I didn't solder any jumpers. However, a few days later I changed my layout slightly (again because I was missing my 1 3/4 pieces) and moved it to a section where it is not going to serve as a block. I took it out and soldered it up. Now, the wood was in the way of the short simple connections so I needed to solder it across the whole piece to find terminals I could reach. It was also my first soldering job since I was 15 or so. Hey, I didn't set the house on fire or even burn my pinky (it was my index finger!)





Hey, I hope this helps someone. I found it fun and a good learning experience. Chances are I'll need to do it again before my layout is complete.[:D]

[nblum]

Nice work, and you didn't lose any fingers either :).

[lionelsoni]

Heres a pointer for cutting track of any kind: If you seem to need a section that is too short to be practical, cut two pieces instead. For example, you are using 10-inch track sections and need an extra 1-inch piece. Instead of trying to cut one 10-inch section down to 1 inch, make two 5.5-inch sections to fill 11 inches.

[HopperSJ]

lionelsoni - that's kinda what I did here. It was supposed to be a 4.5 inch piece and two 1.75 inchers, but instead I cut down a ten. But reading your post gave me a thought: If you need to fill something like 18.5 inches you could cut down two tens and save a few bucks off of piceing together a ten, a 5, and two 1.75's. I might consider doing that and having longer straights instead of lots of little ones stuck together. Then again, it's faster just to buy the little ones if you have the cash and they're availible...

[overall]

A couple of questions; You said you had a table saw, I assume you mean one with a flat metal table and the blade sticking up through a slot in the table. I have a miter saw. Do you think I could do an operation like the one you describe with a fine tooth blade?
What number blade would you reccomend?

George

[FJ and G]

Cool!

You can dunk your fasttrack in boiling water and actually bend it to different radiii. Just wear some gloves!

[HopperSJ]

George - I think a miter saw would be a bit more challenging. I don't have one, but doesn't the blade need to come all the way down in order for it to cut? In that case you would need to cut both the metal rails and the plastic bed in one swipe. That would be brutal on any blade. A metal blade would hate the plastic and a wood blade would chew up the metal and not cut it smoothly. (I think!) I had an old pretty dull blade on my table saw (and yes it tis a large flat table with a big rotating blade coming up from underneath) so I wasn't too concerned when it brushed the metal. If I had had it any higher, I might have mangled the track and not cut it smoothly.

David - You've really boiled your fastrack and changed it's radii? that sounds amazingly challenging to do correctly. I can only see warping the rails and losing the smoothness of the curve. Then again, with some of the other things you've talked about on here, I bet you could pull it off!!! I gues it would void the warranty though, huh?[;)]

[lionelsoni]

Mmm...boiled fastrack.

[pgatonna]

Great post, HopperSJ. I have cut many pieces in a similar fashion except I cut all the way through with my table saw. But, then I have a Carbide blade on it, so it cuts the tin very well. In that way the rails butt right up together, although if there is some flash, I do dress them up with a file.

Rather than using plywood to join the sections, I just glue the plastic bases with liquid plastic cement (letting them set up overnight). The bonds are strong and I have had no problems with them. Finally, I solder wire connections the same way you do.

This is a great way to make any length piece you would like.

[HopperSJ]

pgatonna - the carbide blade doesn't dull quickly? I'll have to give it a shot. You also have been happy with gluing the railbed and leaving it at that? what brand "liquid plastic cement"? Is that just like "Testors model glue" or more fancy than that?