Not sure I understand what you're trying to do. Do you want to run each strip of masonite through the planer before you laminate them together? Masonite is a pretty uniform thickness, so I assume this means you want all the strips to be the same width. If this is the case, a table saw is probably a more appropriate tool. Planers are used to "flatten out" the faces of wide boards by making the boards an even thickness.
I don't think you could really use a Dremel as a planer. You might be able to jury-rig it up to use as a jointer, which is the counterpart to the planer that straightenes the long edges of boards.
At any rate, you're going to end up with a huge mess of masonite dust.
I would think you'd just cut the strips, laminate them together while trying to keep the top edges aligned as closely as possible, then knock out any uneven spots with a rasp or sander. Having a perfectly straight and even bottom edge is not as critical, except where the supports are located.
Again, it would help if we knew exactly what you're trying to accomplish.
Dan Stokes
My other car is a tunnel motor
Benny,
If you are talking about how tall the splines are individually, and not the width of them after being glued together, I'm afraid you won't be able to use a planer as you are thinking. The strips of Masonite would be much too thin to safely run them through the planer on edge. Unless you are able to clamp a group of them together and run the bundle through at one time, I wouldn't try it.
If the strips are being cut on a table saw, I don't understand why they're not a uniform width. A table saw with a rip fence properly dialed in should result in strips cut exactly to the width you desire. Of course, gluing them together and having a flush surface across the tops of the strips is another story, due to the strips moving against each other while gluing and clamping them together.
Don Z.
Research; it's not just for geeks.
EL, if your splines are meant to be planar, truly planar, and will have no torsion in them for the purposes of superelevation, then by all means use this device. But once you factor in changes in grade and curves with superelevation, I think you may undo a lot of good custom forming. There is no doubt the surface will be nice and smooth, but will it be useful at each location?
What you must do is make your splines in place, which makes them unique. Once they are shaped and formed, you will have to smooth them by hand...if you ask me. We often use what is called a surform file. You can google the term and should find that it is a surprisingly small item not unlike a computer mouse that has a sharp perforated surface that is replaceable. It is much like a food grater, where you grate carrots and potatoes.
When I was cutting spline strips myself, I would cut the masonite 4x8 sheet into 4 sheets 2x4 feet. I do 5 splines wide on my HO spline roadbed, so I'd make 5 of these 2x4 foot mini sheets, then tack them all together on one side with four finishing nails nailed almost all the way through the sheets.
By strategically placing the nails all within 6 inches of one side of the stack of sheets, I could run the entire stack of 5 sheets through the rip fence and get 5 uniform strips 4 feet long very easily. I'd try to keep the strips together until I used them.
This creates more joints in the spline, but 4 foot strips are very easy to handle, and if you stagger the joints in each spline, the roadbed comes out just as good as with the 8 foot strips.
Joe Fugate Modeling the 1980s SP Siskiyou Line in southern Oregon
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Why not just use screws to attach the indivdual spline pieces together?
Sink two screws in on each side at every 12 or 16 inches. Anyone tried this?
kcole4001 wrote: Why not just use screws to attach the indivdual spline pieces together?Sink two screws in on each side at every 12 or 16 inches. Anyone tried this?
Kevin,
I personally have not tried this, but I'm not sure that this would work very well, especially in a curve. The splines would want to naturally straighten out, so there would be a lot of shear stress concentrated on the single points of attachment every 12 inches or so. This would quickly wear out the masonite material in the immediate area of the screws. It would also open up gaps between the splines in between attachment points, as the individual pieces try to straighten out. Overall, the effect would not be as stable as if you used glue all along the length of the spline. The glue essentially creates an infinite number of attachment points and reduces the overall shear stress of holding the curve in place to a manageable level.
I cut my own strips on my table saw. Then I added all five splines at once. Making sure they where as even as possible. Then I took as wood rasp and even out any glue bumps or uneven spots. Then I belt sand it roughly. Then I used spackle and smoothed it out at the last small problems spots. Then I ran the belt sander across it until it got perfectly smooth. It's almost a mirror smoothness and it doesn't take long at all, the belt sander makes fast work of everything. I have had no problems with uneven splines.
Magnus