Turnout control: How do you do it?

[Zox]

How hard is it to drill a hole in music wire?

There aren't any holes drilled in music wire in that diagram; there are holes drilled in other things, that music wire fits into. Check the labels carefully.

[Chris333]

Oh yeah the music wire...

I use 1/8" OD tube. Inside that goes another tube that I drill the hole in. The spring that goes from the tube to the switch is also brass That solders into the hole. The only music wire I use is the throwbar, and a rough it up good and crank up the iron so it will solder.

I wish I had a pic of mine...

[Chris333]

Ahhh  I do have pics




Usually I use a RC car ball joint to mount the control rod to the switch.

I have made over 70 of these. Got a bag of 100 slide switches for $9.99. Time for more I guess.

[skytop35]

Dave,

Email me at wdenton101@aol.com

Bill Denton

[kalbert]

How hard is it to drill a hole in music wire?

Incredibly hard! I'd even go so far as to say you won't.  ;D

You must have meant "drill a hole in brass rod", which although somewhat tricky, at least can be done  ;D

[SebastianLee]

Anyone tried pen controlled turnouts?  I saw a blog post some time ago describing it, and thought it was an interesting idea.

[Dave Schneider]

Thanks everyone for the clarification. I just misread the caption. It makes way more sense now. My teenage son says that there are openings in the "my dad doesn't know anything" support group! Eye rolling is optional.  :

Best wishes, Dave

[justTRAINcRaZy]

The pens worked okay, and I still have a few. I am slowly replacing them with Tortoises and the mini dpdt switches fit into the same fascia holes. They kept me from having to go out and buy 110 Tortoises at once.

KB

[inkaneer]

I managed to get my hands on about 18 pneumatic switch motors with air toggles and the rest are electro mechanical jackscrew. 

[Dave Schneider]

The pens worked okay, and I still have a few. I am slowly replacing them with Tortoises and the mini dpdt switches fit into the same fascia holes. They kept me from having to go out and buy 110 Tortoises at once.

KB

Kevin,

The pen idea is a very creative. Nice job on the the blog and of course your modeling. I like the clean look of your fascia and lighting, which is very similar to what I want to achieve.

Best wishes, Dave

[justTRAINcRaZy]

Thank you sir, I appreciate the comments.

KB

[justTRAINcRaZy]

I suppose you could add some sort of lever to operate a micro slide switch to route the power. Going from the floral wire to a music wire might provide the necessary stiffness.
This is an elegant solution to a basic problem, only I wouldn't buy the pens... I'd just go to the bank for a few weeks and say "oh, can I have a pen?"

Posted to my Blog. Precisely the reason why I rarely post here. Practically every post I ever made here was followed up by this narcissist, who it seems cannot resist getting in a little jab. Are you incapable of accepting someone else's solution to a problem without adding your "I could have done it better, faster, cheaper" comments.

KB

[DKS]

Posted to my Blog. Precisely the reason why I rarely post here. Practically every post I ever made here was followed up by this narcissist, who it seems cannot resist getting in a little jab. Are you incapable of accepting someone else's solution to a problem without adding your "I could have done it better, faster, cheaper" comments.

I may be wrong, but I really don't think Lee's comments were meant to be mean-spirited or one-upmanship-like. I've found quite a bit of good modeling comes from an exchange of ideas and suggestions.

[wazzou]

That's the way I felt after looking at your blog also.  I think Lee models on a budget and was just being lighthearted about the acquisition of said pens.
One thing about The RW is that some people, myself included tend to have a drier sense of humor than some other Forums.

[wm3798]

Hmmph.  Or a sense of humor at all...  I'll try not to compliment people's imaginative engineering in the future.