Ian,
Great to hear from you, been awhile! Sorry to hear about the health issues, hope you get over this fast here. Yes the woodshop is not a good place to be when brain is not at 100%. 50 years on a table saw now and still have all parts of all 10 digits, but just takes a split second oops. I finally spent the money when I upgraded the table saw about 10 years back (and I procrastinated 10 years doing that) and go a saws stop as best not to push my luck!
Here in the states we have the art boards in 24” X 6”, 9”, and 12” that are 1.5” tall. I noticed on amazon.au they didn’t carry anywhere near the variety of wooden canvases that amazon us does. Might look at the bigger art supply places down there for them. Only issue is you will have a bit larger gap with the 24”.?
You could just bolt 2 12x12 together with a strip of 1/4” ply or moulding in between then and then you could just iron on a strip of wood veneer if you want the front nice and clean and hide the joint and filler/extender. I use iron on cherry veneer on all my module faces as it hides all seams and Brad holes as well as gives a very nice finished edge for the module with some tung oil and bees wax. Looks so nice the eye loves it for the frame of a module compared to painting the edges.?
I don’t want to count how many modules in how many different shapes and formats I’ve made for myself and the club over the years. I’m sort of to the point if these look decent and the gap works ok to maybe separate scenes a tad more I may move to using these myself!?
I just ordered 4x of 12x9 ones that were $15 to experiment with here. If they work out I’ll order some 12x12 or see if any of the local art stores have them (sadly we are left only with one very high end art supply chain in the area, the old discount one went to online only…).?
Hope this can be an option to those w.o access to a woodshop, tight on funds, and/of just don’t want to futz with the module building.
Another option down this like is they also sell just 12x12 panels of mdf or birch ply 5mm or so, which gets over the biggest woodcutting hurtle. Frame could be then made from 1.5” X 0.25” moulding that can easily be cut by hand with a simple $20 miter box and saw and glued up.?
Cheers,
Jeff
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On Aug 16, 2022, at 2:23 PM, Ian <ilox11@...> wrote:
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Hello old mate, Looks like a nice alternative for a Single but I need a Double and they don't seem to have anything suitable for me. The Standards tell me that in Old Measurements a Double should be:
? Double Straight Module
618mm W x 210-330mm D x 70mm H
(24-5/16” W x 8? -13” D x 2?” H)??
Such is my luck. But I do like your idea of a cheap and just about ready-made module. Maybe I could screw two of these 12" together and come up with a Double (or close to it) that way? Maybe put them together with a 5/16th shim between the inside edges??
I have the extruded Foam and Styrene foam to do all the construction that I need. Just don't feel up to the woodworking (had a minor?Stroke Friday AM and am not too trusting of me around circular saws and woodworking tools at the moment.)
Cheers, Ian
On Tue, 16 Aug 2022 at 12:13, Jeffrey Reynolds <
Cteno4@...> wrote:
Hello,
I just thought I would throw out this idea since commercial sources for modules are slim these days, availability is spotty, and they are not cheap due to rising ply prices and shipping costs. Out club (Japan Rail Modelers of Washington DC) has been doing Ttrak for a long time and in the past I’ve whacked out modules for members in my shop or they have purchased the various lasercut kits. But at shows we talk up Ttrak a lot to the public as a way to get started and one drawback has always been just the price of a single module from $25-50 (depending on brand). Add track some building and scenery materials and it starts adding up to get someone to jump in.
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So I’ve been looking around for something that is less expensive and more readily available and potentially locally. This lead me to wooden canvas panels, these are basically a Ttrak module design used to paint onto. They make 12”x12” and 12”x9” versions that are 1.5” tall which are just about perfect for a single module. It’s 1/8” shy on the width, but really that only adds a small amount to the module gaps (they would work out to about 5mm (3/16”) gaps between these types of modules), but that can be compensated with some gap filling scenery strips or just having a gap which isn’t horrible to separate different scenes on adjoining modules. The 1.5” height is fine, just need the appropriate length bolts to bring it up to standard running heights. 1” extruded foam board could be glued on top to create depression scenery and bring the module height to close to the usual 2.75” if desired.
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Nice thing is these are prebuilt, sturdy, and very standardized. Cost is around $6-14 each.
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Only thing that needs to be added are inserts for leveling. This could be done as simple as made from foamcore squares layered up with glue to make more the old style corner blocks and then drill a hole on it and epoxy a T nut into it. Or small square of ply to put the insert into and just glue in front two corners and back center off the back side (we’ve found the 3 legs to be way easier to level modules).
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We have been doing lots of more general public events with Ttrak and lots of folks get interested in this a an interesting way into the hobby. Many love the crafting/diorama aspect of Ttrak. Also younger folks usually have a lot less room to work with so the idea of small modules that don’t that don’t take up a lot of storage space and they can work on it on the kitchen table. The meetup aspect also interest many as a simple group event.
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Just curious what folks think and if they have any ideas to make this more workable on the leveling inserts or other ideas for simple modules for newbies that is easy and cheap.
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Cheers,
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Jeff
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-- Ian
