Fast Tracks

Heres a tip for you handlayers. I needed a jig to solder up my throwbars, After taking the sides off the quicksticks on one of the laser cut ties, I had two sides of the turnout blank. I mounted this on a piece of plywood, (very flat plywood tested with a straight edge) and glued each side down. The turnout with the ties now fits in the blank like it did when the blanks were attached.

I then carved out a hole between the headties so the wire I solder to the points has a place to sit while I solder up the point rails. I also shortened the tooth profile of the blanks so they don't reach under the rail but have enough left over to guide the ties and maintain spacing. (I hope you guys are following this!)

My procedure for soldering up the points goes like this.
I lay the points down on the turnout and place the point side wires in the slot. use a guage to solder up the heal of the points. Then place the throwbar along side the points, match and line up where I need to drill holes. Drill the holes in the throwbar, pick the turnout up, run the wire into the throwbar, bend the wire over to secure it.

Another use for the blank mounted on the plywood is to use it as a jig to glue the laser cut ties on future turnouts. I have a tendency to use a little too much glue on the railbase and had little pieces of wood from the blank sections of the laser cut ties stick to the rail. Using the jig, and after shortening the tooth profile so they don't go under the rail. I take a new fastrack jig, remove the ties, place the ties in the jig, place the turnout (after applying glue to the bottom) then place a weight on the whole turnout and allow the glue to dry.

Now when I remove the turnout from the jig, no glue has managed to stick to the discarded section of the laser cut tie blanks.

You can make up a few of these, I will and will make one where I will file some clearance in the blank tooth profile so I can use individual ties and vary the spacing a few inches one way or the other, or the angle.
These will be used for yard turnouts that do not have perfectly aligned ties. also one could be used to as a sanding jig for other brands where the ties are too thick, the blank can be used as a guage to determine the correct thickness.

Now this sounds like a lot of work, but you gotta consider I am doing this for a large number of turnouts. I make them for sale, so the quality has to be very high. the spacing consistent, and I need the jig anyway for the high strength point connection.

Rob