Wooden toy train tracks
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- This topic has 13 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 5 months ago by Larry Geib.
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I came across this article (while reading about hammers): https://www.popularwoodworking.com/woodworking-blogs/editors-blog/sawing-curves-with-a-straight-blade-saw
Toy trains don’t usually have flanged wheels sitting on rails, or channels in the track for wheels to sit into. They just have raised sides keeping the train in place. A flexible wooden beading strip fastened to each side of a flat track-bed would serve your purpose.
Or use a section of curved track as a sole. It will fit the arc of similar pieces, following the same curve.
Or attach a very wide wooden sole, fastened at one end with a screw for a pivot-point, so your router will trace curves with the same radius as your track. You can repeat the same pre-defined curves again and again. Moving your track nearer the pivot point for inside tracks, further out for outside tracks.
Or you could make a raised piece and stick it to the centre of the track-bed. Raising the centre, instead of lowering the sides.——————————
I really dislike seeing published photographs supposedly demonstrating these hand-routers following curves and making accurate straight channels in narrow boards. The 71’s won’t accurately follow curves using the tiny fence they provided. It was a sales gimmick. An attempt to sell ‘improved’ routers with “all bells & whistles”, to people who owned wooden ones. But none of these features work.
The fence is too short, and too shallow.
Grooves in the sole restrict smooth forward/backward motion.
The open throat isn’t visually ‘open’ at all. Reversing the iron gives us an open view.
Depth-gauge (not STOP) is prone to sticking, difficult to read from above, and inaccurately cast.
Depth markings on irons look technical, but aren’t accurate, and vary from iron to iron.
A channel guide (inverted depth-guide) and fence supposedly transform the router into a 044 plough plane.
The only real improvement was the projection on the screwed-post limiting travel of the clamping collar and keeping it square to the iron.30 October 2017 at 3:21 am #344417Lots of ways to do it:
If you go hand tool only, try cutting thin strips that you could laminate into whatever curve you want. The track grooves would be formed by thinner laminations.
Alternatively, you could laminate in the vertical dimension, with three pieces glued to a substrate, leaving the area of track grOoves unlaminated.
Or just hand chisel the grooves if there are only a few. Just knife the edges of the groove to prevent tear out. Lots of drawer bottoms were grooved by hand. Maybe a vee gouge or tight radius U gouge would get the waste out the quickest. Nothing says the grooves have to be square. Like all carving, mind your grain direction.
S.J. Addiss even made gouges that carved a square channel. There are some on the interwebs. You could carve any curve you wanted or squiggly lines.
A poor man’s solution to a grooving plane was a scratch stock, which can easily be made in a short session ( see attetchment) it’s just a piece of steel from a scraper or saw plate shaped for your groove. The picture shows a bead, but it’s easy to shape for a groove instead.
Paul has a tutorial on his beading tool made with a piece of band saw blade. Any shape can be filed and honed.
https://paulsellers.com/2013/04/minimalist-woodworking-another-poor-beading-tool/
An alternative tutorial:
http://thevalleywoodworker.blogspot.com/2017/02/scratch-stock.htmlIt’s a bit slow, but it works fine.
The following are if you are making many:
If you have a lathe, you could turn the track on a faceplate, then cut them loose, or possibly stick a board to a faceplate with double face tape or hide glue and a paper release layer.
Or you could Get a Barnes foot powered former/shaper ( google it)
It would Be quieter than the loud and evil electric kind. ๐
If somebody was making a lot of track, of course, one could make two curved plough planes, one for each grove radius. You could write that one up for one of the magazines. They are always looking for new material.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 6 months ago by Larry Geib.
Attachments:
You must be logged in to view attached files.30 October 2017 at 6:11 am #344484Here is a more traditional scratch stock. If you round or cut the “fence” into a vee shape, it will easily do inside cureves.
Or:
https://www.woodsmith.com/files/issues/194/make-your-own-scratch-stock.pdf
James wright has a nice video that includes how to file the sort of profile you’d need for your track. Pay attention to keeping the file square to the work. I found it best to square the stock and hone it square on your diamond stones before you file the profile. Then all you have to do to get a good cutting edge is to polish the faces of the plate on your stones.
And don’t forget the cutter will work in both directions. Don’t fight the grain.
I’ve toyed with the idea of making track before and wondered if a scratch stock would do it. I’d be concerned that a grooving plane or router with fence would bind in the groove since the iron is straight, but it might work since the curvature is small.
@franiel how do you plan to make the bits at the two ends? There is a round socket, which is easy to see as a drilled hole and two saw cuts, but there is also a corresponding, round male goober which could be a bit fiddly by hand. Any thoughts on that part?30 October 2017 at 5:09 pm #344758Using power routers is the standard method, of course. rockler makes special bit sets and woodcraft has a PDF that outlines how to make all the jigs and such with a table saw and router table.
http://www2.woodcraft.com/pdf/77b36.pdf
But this is a hand tool site, so I outlined methods compatible with hand crafting . A scratch stock would certainly not be fast, but it’s cheap and you could make the curved pieces with almost no investment. The straight sections would of course be faster with a plough plane.
The female connectors can be coped or drilled and sawn easily. The male connectors might be quickest by just using premade Wooden axle pieces normally used to attach the wheels on wooden toys. My local wood supply sells them, as do craft stores like Michaels in the US.
The can be had for 6-8ยข each in bulk.
http://www.caldowel.com/wooden-toy-parts.html
Miniature shaker pegs sold for doll houses available in several sizes might also work.
I’ve seen some Brio type track that used a wooden bead and a spacer crewed to the end of track.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Larry Geib.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Larry Geib.
30 October 2017 at 6:04 pm #344796Another way to make male connectors.
It might be easier to drill before you cut.
Table saw not needed, of course.
@ed For the male connectors, the best idea I can come up with is a coping saw. The dowel method posted seems quite promising as well.
For the grooves, in the link I posted, the user makes use of a flexible saw flexed against a curved template. Two cuts are made and the waste is chiseled out with a narrow chisel. Scratch stock might be the approach that requires the least amount of jigging though.
After I posted, I realized that you could simply use a single dovetail. With handtools, that is probably the easiest solution, it will be durable, and it will look good. The biggest issue is that you need the dovetails and sockets on various track pieces to be compatible: You don’t want track piece #1 to only fit into track piece #7. Two ways to address this are, first, to just cut them on the loose side. Second, use Paul’s dovetail jig approach with a stop to position the track. That way, all the tails are identical. It would also be fast.
31 October 2017 at 3:33 am #345080Keep in mind that the brio system is intentionally designed with slack in the system so that the possibility of connecting layouts with diagonal tracks is easier. You don’t need track with a modular length based on the square root of two. Half length tracks will work.
@lorenzojose are you saying you think a dovetail will not leave enough wiggle room, even if cut to be loose?
31 October 2017 at 7:41 pm #345394Not at all. Just reminding folks that a loose fit is part if Brio’s track system that allows all the varied layouts and permits some misalignment in both horizontal and vertical directions.
They call the feature the VARIO system.
A good site on this is here:
http://www.woodenrailway.info/track/trackmath.htmlIf you cut a tight fit, you may be able to pat yourself on the back over your craftsmanship, but it will be harder to construct varied layouts.
So if you use Paul’s dovetail jigs, allow for the loose fit.
- This reply was modified 6 years, 5 months ago by Larry Geib.
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