Scattergun On My Wife's Work Bench!

No that's not a typo. Everything of mine literally goes on her work bench and much to her annoyance or in this case, nearly off it as this particular project nears completion. I don't have a shed, unless one in 1/29 counts so I just use the next best thing!

Fed up with the rising costs of LGB turnouts (quite down at the back) and a couple of burnt buys. One brand new and suffering quality control issues just after they were taken over and a secondhand one from a well known retailer, that I can only say was under described! I jumped in at the deep end and have had ago at building my own.

P9290267 2.jpg
A rather badly light, dust, smoothy maker and kitchen sink filled picture!

The catalyst for this was discovering Paul Abram's (Iden) turnout build's in G1 and the photo and descriptive process on his website. "So how has it gone?" I hear you ask. "ThatDiddntGoToWell" is not a name I have chosen lightly. My father used to call me The Master of Disaster and if I said I don't know why, I would be lying.

Ok, due to the intended placing of this turnout it had to match what was already established at the other end, an R/H LGB R3 (1500mm or 22.5%) and thus came the 1st headache. I needed a L/H and I didn't have any of those to work from so a couple of sheets of A4 were stuck together, a crayon rubbing of the rails taken, the paper was then flipped over and that gave me a barely visible plan to work from. The 2nd headache came when I needed parts and gauges. The rail I used is Tenmille G, the main chairs and slide chairs also came from them but they don't make bridge chairs, so I had to improvise a solution for that. As far as I'm aware, no one makes gauges for the varying G profile's so I bought 2 G1 gauges from Cliff Barker and filled them to what I needed. These did the job but the downside is they fall over every couple of seconds so if anyone knows where I can get some proper ones, I would be grateful.

Headache number 3. I made the blades almost 15mm too long (barely visible plan) and it was only after rebating the stock rails and fine tuning the blades that I discovered the error, which resulted in the straight blade ripping through during shaping. I made another blade but the same thing happened again. At this point crunch time had come, it was either bin the stock rails and blades or find a solution. To replace these parts would have defeated the exercise of cost cutting so a plan of make do and mend was instigated. BODGER ALERT i.e a big wad of solder was applied to the offending area.

Next up, how to make it throw. At present everything is manual and I had a couple of early days LGB R1's (tighter than tight radius) laying about with manual switches. I took 2 Tenmille sleepers, cut the ends off and fitted one switch via these, a piece of PCB and brass dress pins.

So, does it work? Whilst I wont win any awards for accuracy and finish, yes it does.:) Am I truly happy with it? Yes & no. Yes that it works, was cost saving by almost £60 and no due to the big wad of solder, and owing to the nature of elasticated LGB products (remembering I needed to make a match), there is some erratic sleeper spacing that to me stands out a mile.

I have learned a lot from this first attempt. Like the Wife gets very angry if she cant use her smoothy maker due to a hobby she hates with a passion, taking up her precious work bench space. Brass is not pure brass if it sticks to a magnet. A standard G Scale Aristocraft Class 66 has the deepest flanges I have ever come across and causes major problems in the frog filling department. Measure, measure, measure. But most of all, I can do it and be grateful that any further build will be to a minimum of 2500mm.
Dean
 

28ten

Guv'nor
I like that. I need to make some track for the boys Thomas and LGB track is so expensive. What do you intend for plain track?
 

iploffy

OC Blue Brigade
Love the Name of the thread dear boy, I have the same problem. My other half made me give up my WB as it was an eyesore and the room was needed for her father who was coming to live with us:shit:. Anywho he's gone but I am sticking out for a place where I can make a mess all of my own:)), so the wife's domain is the place to be psychological warfare at it's finest, I am going to get my way in the end after all of the "clean your mess up, don't leave that there, you've put glue on my work surface.....etc" lol
 
iploffy: Does your wife know mine by any chance!:thumbs:

Cant really help with the plain track, I just use the Tenmille 1.5m stuff as it works out best for £ v ft at the moment and is ideal for my situation. I have not looked at pricing for a while but I think Piko G track is the cheapest, dont quote me on it! When I first started, I was lucky to be driving a truck to Koln every 2 days so I used to pick the LGB track up at Deutschmark prices, which was half what it cost here but alas the Euro soon changed that.

As I now know I can do it and it saves a bundle, it's only the turnouts that I intend to make from here on in.

Yes those flanges are very N style but the amazing thing is that there are depth measurement discrepancies on all of the wheels on that 66. Mind you, I think it was a Friday build anyway as there are some quite dodgy areas on it.

Stirring paint in the Wife's smoothy maker, now there's a thought;)
Regards Dean
 

iploffy

OC Blue Brigade
Are you forgetting my infamous wooden track gauges..? Maybe instead of me being further forward, 'the rest of you' are further back than you realised...:D Budge up, Marsa, we need a bigger Fire Escape platform...;)

My shed and workbench are currently full of kitchen units, new hob etc...:( I can't even reach the Cupboard of Doom to get my Class 14 out:confused: ... it's scuppered my plans to make anything for the next Trent Valley Dark Side Bash :headbang: Why the heck couldn't she be happy with the kitchen we'd got...??!! :rant:

We can tell who wears the trousers in your house, We are making a mess in her kitchen with a work surface come WB, ON your WB it's her kitchen come her Work surface :))
 

28ten

Guv'nor
Are you forgetting my infamous wooden track gauges..? Maybe instead of me being further forward, 'the rest of you' are further back than you realised...:D Budge up, Marsa, we need a bigger Fire Escape platform...;)

My shed and workbench are currently full of kitchen units, new hob etc...:( I can't even reach the Cupboard of Doom to get my Class 14 out:confused: ... it's scuppered my plans to make anything for the next Trent Valley Dark Side Bash :headbang: Why the heck couldn't she be happy with the kitchen we'd got...??!! :rant:
C'mon Jordan, assert yourself :))
 
Not sure where we are headed with this thread now! Thumbs and trousers, sounds like I'm back at school;)

Well the Wife is happy in the knowledge that her workbench shall now be returned to it's original design purpose and I am quite happy to see her smiling again. Winter is moving in though, which means outdoors is out and indoors is in. So it will be back to building the baseboards for South for Moonshine revisited, with a twist.

She has got her workbench back so I cant see a problem with me installing my Workmate, Circular saw, Jigsaw, plywood, softwood, varying screws, bolts and other tools around the kitchen floor space to complete the job.:thumbs: Ok I can but I'm a toughy, I eat my Yorkie bars with the wrappers on and if she protests. She may find her workbench also under attack from a Class 121 in 1/32 (thanks Simon for the push) but only if I can find a copy of Brian Golding's magical DMU Book for the drawing! Anyway, the Wife say's I must go to bed now. Night all:drool:
 

Len Cattley

Western Thunderer
I liked your tale Jordan 'Today Iv'e been a very Naughty Boy thread, my wife and I were laughing so much tears were trickling down our legs :D. Sorry for interupting your thread 'WellThatDidntGoToWell
Regards

Len
 
Top