rrinker I find the sticky tabs available in the big box stores don't stick very well, at least to benchwork materials. I end up putting a screw in each of mine. The sticky side holds about long enough to get the screw in place and run it in. I have these all over the bottom of the layout to organize the bus wires. --Randy
I find the sticky tabs available in the big box stores don't stick very well, at least to benchwork materials. I end up putting a screw in each of mine. The sticky side holds about long enough to get the screw in place and run it in. I have these all over the bottom of the layout to organize the bus wires.
--Randy
I use those sticky zip tie mounts a lot. What I have found is that they don't stick well to bare wood, but stick better to painted wood especially if it's a gloss finish. I paint the underside of my sections white to make it easier to see things and to write on, so that's not a problem for me. I don't think the adhesive on the ones nowadays is as good as it used to be years ago. Back in the '70s we fastened a RG8 (large diameter) antenna cable to a painted concrete block wall with them and they held for years. As a joke (a bad joke) we fastened one to one of those big old grey metal office desks and put a zip tie through it and lifted the desk right off the floor. We never did get all the adhesive residue off the desk and the desk's owner was pretty ticked off at us. I don't think the new ones would hold like those ones did. Oh, an alternative to sticky pads is small screw eyes. I use them a lot too, and pass a zip tie through the eye to hold the wires.
..... Bob
Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life down here. (Captain Kirk)
I reject your reality and substitute my own. (Adam Savage)
Resistance is not futile--it is voltage divided by current.
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
No offense taken. Yes, they are a little tight. I mounted them before I wired them and learned that lesson when putting the wires in. Barring unforeseen circumstances there won't be any more wires added.
I don't use the sticky tabs, I put in a staple with a stand off stapler only I don't put it over the wires, I put it parallel to the wires and then run the cable strap under it. I, too, have a long time ago experience in building electronic stuff. I was a CT-M (ET with a higher security clearance) in the Navy in the 60s. Sadly I know more about vacuum tubes than about solid state.
The boards are hinged at the top and swing up under the layout except when working on them.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Dave, without sounding like I'm picking on you, and as my own opinion, if I were to build a panel such as that I'd like to offer two pieces of advice.
Space out the terminal strips. They are pretty tight on there. Adding more wires in there will crowd it up.
Zip Tie sticky tabs. I love them, they help keep everything nice, neat, in a straight line, bundled well, and organized for later removal or adding of new wires.
Other than that, what you got going on there, is well thought out and spectacular. Much better than the spaghetti nest of wires I've seen under some peoples layouts.
Just a few thoughts from an electrical engineer who built a load of panels for control systems in my Tech days.
I use terminal strips.
In the image you can see the jumper strips that others have mentioned. I intend to add detection in the future, so I have configured it so that I can just remove the bottom jumper and place the detection board right below the terminal strip. The change can be made right on that swing down board.
I have a swing down board like that at the front of each of my 8 foot sections of the layout.
betamax You can get metal tabs that allow you to bridge several terminals, effectively jumpering them. Any well stocked electronics dealer should have terminal strips and all the accessories. Another thing to consider is using crimp on terminations on the wires, as it makes it easier to connect to the terminal strip. You can easily stack two spades under the screw. Get a good crimper, like a ChanneLock. Do it right and it is just as good as soldering. (Those cheap crimpers that come with a kit are just not worth the trouble.) The easiest method would be to use a two postion terminal strip, one bus wire on each side, and then connect the feeder wires to them at that point. If you use spade lugs, you can stack them under the screw.
You can get metal tabs that allow you to bridge several terminals, effectively jumpering them.
Any well stocked electronics dealer should have terminal strips and all the accessories.
Another thing to consider is using crimp on terminations on the wires, as it makes it easier to connect to the terminal strip. You can easily stack two spades under the screw.
Get a good crimper, like a ChanneLock. Do it right and it is just as good as soldering. (Those cheap crimpers that come with a kit are just not worth the trouble.)
The easiest method would be to use a two postion terminal strip, one bus wire on each side, and then connect the feeder wires to them at that point. If you use spade lugs, you can stack them under the screw.
Yes, definitely use terminal strips. Much neater and more secure than wrapping wire around the screw. I use an industrial grade crimper left over from my days in the business. No loose crimps with it. A hint for stacking terminals under one screw. Put the first one on upside down. Terminals have one side that's relatively flat. With the two flat sides together they fit better. I number the terminals with a piece of tape and a felt pen and I number the lugs with a felt pen on the insulation so that I can match them up if I have to take them off later on. My layout is sectional so some day it's going to be taken apart.
I got it now, thanks guys! Never did understand the terminal strips before.
Corey
Railroading In Council Bluffs
http://www.rrincb.com/
Visit my caricature carving website:
http://iowacarver.tripod.com/
I use Miniatronics terminal blocks for power distribution.
http://www.miniatronics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=PDB-1&Category_Code=B_3&Product_Count=0
Makes it simple.
Radioshack sells the metal jumpers for the the terminal blocks they sell. to power one side of it with a single wire. Instead of having to make jumpers fpr each leg of the terminal strip. I use them for lighting around the layout. Not feeders.
My feeders drop down from the rails right to the buss wires under the layout. The buss wires follow the track under the layout. I beleive most MR's with larger layouts do it this way. I could be wrong.
Truck.
So i am getting to begin wiring of my layout. Again, I am going to be hooking up a NCE Power Cab. My previous layouts were all pretty much 4 x 8 layouts where i daisy chained the positive and common rails and hooked to a feeder to the power pack. It worked. On my new layout i know that won't work.
I understand feeder wires and the whole power bus but what i really have never understood is a terminal strip and how to use it. Most of what i see are called a terminal barrier block or strip. Lets just keep it simple and call positive track wires red wires and the common black wires. So I figured that the purpose of the terminal strip was to run all red track feeders in an area to one side of a strip and black feeders to the other side and then run a black and red feeder to hook on to the power bus. But they don't work that way do they?
On the barrier strips do you use jumper wires to make one side live and hook red feeders to it and the last one run a red feeder to the red power bus going to the Power Cab? you then need another strip to handle the black feeders and use the jumpers etc. and then have a black feeder to the black bus going to the Power Cab?
Hope I am making sense.. like I said, i don't totally get this part of it and want to be sure i do it right as i don't want to be blowing decoders and having locos acting weird etc. because the wiring is wrong. Per my other post.. i will be using 18 or 20 gauge feeders and 14 gauge power bus.
Thanks for your help,