Re: Warping; and security
Posted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 10:26 am
1. Don't use MDF again, unless it's braced everywhere on a frame. Buy good-quality wood/plywood, and let it acclimatise to the environment, and then build your new traverser in the garage.130344 wrote:My layout's built around three sides of a double garage, and I've devised an "ingenious" (for which read "Heath Robinson") method of closing the fourth side gap and allowing trains to go "off stage" in each direction – see diagram attached. (The diagram is much neater than the construction, believe me.)
E&O_gate by taghairm7, on Flickr
I have two questions that I'd like help with:
1. The traverser I've made (from MDF) has warped badly (vertically), to the point where it's unusable. I used MDF because I thought it might be more dimensionally stable in my very cold, unheated double garage. Would I fare better using another material, and if so, would I also be better off if I were to varnish it – would this be likely to prevent repeated warping? Or is there a better suggestion out there?
2. For security reasons (the garage is detached from the house) I have to install and remove the DCC system command station every time I want to use the layout. For the same reason, I also take any locomotives out to the garage before, and back inside after, a session (this also prevents them rusting to bits). Is there a good, practical and if possible lightweight and non-bulky way to effect this for the locos – eg would cassettes be a reasonable option, or some other method that I can't think of? I want to avoid handling the locos if possible, as I plan to weather them. And I have a flight of steps to negotiate between garage and house.
I'm grateful for any advice anyone might have the time to give.
Jock
2. Both Mike Ruby and I have made stock-carrying cases from toolboxes like the one here: http://www.charliesdirect.co.uk/product ... h-tool-box
It's easy to make up trays that can carry nine or ten items of stock in each layer, with strips of foam to protect the stock. Mine is double-decked and his is triple. Light enough to carry one box in each hand, and takes just a few minutes to pack and unpack. We use ours to bring locos and some stock to the club every month, without having to carry them in their original boxes.
