Legs For The Modules

How Long Are The Legs?
So far, we have a module that can only sit on the floor.  We need to fabricate some legs so that we can get the module raised up to operating level.  

The legs are made from 2"x 2" (which is really 1 1/2"x 1 1/2") spruce lumber that is available in any building supply/ lumber store.  Usually 2"x 2" spruce gets a bad rap because of the tendency of spruce to warp and twist.  However, it's all in how you finish the spruce that makes all the difference. 

I get the 2"x 2" cut to length at the saw service of my local lumber store.  I then take them home, fill in any cracks, imperfections, etc with wood putty or epoxy glue.  I then give them a good sanding.  You'll find that a 2"x 2" is good on three sides.  It's that fourth side that will require a lot of attention.  If you have access to a belt sander, the job is easy - a couple of passes along each side will do the trick.  However, if all you have is some sandpaper, it will take a bit longer to smooth things out.  The effort you put into sanding the legs will be well worthwhile.  I find that a good sanding, filling and then sanding the splits and cracks again can turn a rough piece of lumber into a smoothly finished leg.

If you have access to a "chop saw" (aka a "mitre saw") it's very easy to set up a "stop block" and cut a whole bunch of legs to the proper length.  An 8' length of 2"x 2" costs about $5=$6 so it's always a good idea to pick up a couple of extra pieces.  You're going to find that, as we fabricate the legs, a couple of the legs will try to twist and warp before we get them finished.  This way, if we have a couple of extra pieces, we can discard the twisted pieces. 

The question now is "How long do I cut the 2"x 2"s?".  A good question!  There are several things to consider.  The thickness of the track and roadbed, Styrofoam, and gussets are quite obvious.  What's not so obvious is the "thickness" of the leg leveller when screwed completely into the leg, and the amount of "travel" required to adjust the module to account for imperfections in the floor.  If you belong to a module railroad club, you have a club standard that's usually expressed as a "plus-or-minus-so-many-inches".  In my case, the plus-or-minus is 1 1/4".  That means the leg leveller has to be capable of being unscrewed out an extra 1 1/4" or screwed in 1 1/4".  Here's a table that I use to calculate the length of the 2"x 2"s, taking into account all the above into consideration.  I've left a couple of columns for you to do your calculations. 

Thickness of Components	Mine	Decimal	Yours	Decimal
Track	1/8"	0.125"	.	.
Roadbed	1/8"	0.125"	.	.
Styrofoam	1½"	1.50"	.	.
Cross Member	3/4"	0.75"	.	.
Leg Leveller When Screwed Into Leg	1/2"	0.50"	.	.
Leg Leveller Adjustment	11/4	1.25"	.	.
Sub-Total	3 3/4"	3.75"	.	.
Less Height From Rail to Floor	45"	45.00"	.	.
Equals Length of Wood for Legs	411/4"	41.25"	.	.

Bundling The Wood
Once I have the legs cut and sanded (or if for any reason, you can't work on the legs right away) I bundle them up and wrap them in duct tape - at each end and in the middle - and leave them in a cool dry place for about 2 weeks.  The 2"x 2" right from the store has usually been bundled up which prevents the individual 2"x 2" from twisting and warping.  The minute the bundle is broken, they'll start to twist in every direction.  That's because the wood hasn't completely dried out.  By bundling them in duct tape and leaving them for a couple of weeks, most of the legs will have the chance to dry out straight. 

Better yet, if I clamp the wood together on all four sides and then bundle them up with duct tape, I usually end up with a complete set of legs that are nice and straight.

Locating The Centres
After sanding each side and filling the splits and cracks, the next step is to locate the centre on each end of the leg.  Simply draw a diagonal from one side to the other with a ruler.  Here's what a set of 16 bundled legs look like after drawing the lines.  I've already done the same at the other end. 

Painting The Legs
At this point, I could start to drill holes and then paint the legs but I've found it's a lot easier and less messy if I paint the legs first.  Since I'm working on 16 legs, I can take steps to "mass produce" them.

After locating the centres of each end of the legs, I next hammer a 2" nail about 1/2" into the wood.  This nail serves as a "peg leg" when I paint the wood.  I can use the "peg leg" to flip the wood from side to side as I swab on the paint.

I next take a nail (in this case 16 nails) and twist a 10"-12" length of wire onto the end (this is how I use some of that surplus telephone wire).  I then hammer the nail about 1/2" into the centre of the opposite end of each leg.  The wire makes a handy-dandy hanger-upper as I finish painting each leg.  . 

Since I do my painting in my basement, I next nail sixteen 3" nails into the sides of the floor joists in the basement.  I can then twist the wire around the 3" nails in the floor joist.  This keeps each leg nicely out of the way of the others.  I paint all four sides of each leg in operation.  As I finish painting a leg, I hang it up by the wire on one of those 3" nails in the floor joists.  Here's what 24 painted legs look like hanging from the joists.  Quite a difference, eh!? 

After the first coat of paint has dried, I lightly sand the legs to get rid of the fuzzies.  I then apply another coat of paint and hang each leg up to dry. I like to give each leg three coats of paint.  Since I'm doing 16 legs in one shot, I painted the legs using a small roller and a paint tray.  In three evenings of work, letting each coat of paint dry overnight with a light sanding between coats, I soon had my legs finished. 

If for any reason, you aren't going to be doing the next steps right away, after 10-12 days of drying, bundle up the legs and wrap some duct tape around the bundle at each end and in the middle.  This will prevent the legs from twisting and warping.   Even better, bundle up the legs, clamp all four sides together tightly, and then wrap some duct tape around the bundle at each end and in the middle.  

Drilling The Holes

After painting, I drill a 3/8" hole that's 1 1/4" deep in one end of the leg and a 9/32" hole (ie 1/32" smaller than 5/16") that is 1 1/4" deep in the other end.

We're going to epoxy a 5/16" T-nut into the 3/8" end.  Next, we'll thread an adjustable leg leveller into the T-nut.  Floors in basements and halls are never level and the leg leveller will help us to get rid of the "ski jumps" between modules.

At the 9/32" hole, we're going to screw in a modified 5/16" carriage bolt which will be epoxied in place.  The leg-ends with the modified carriage bolt will be screwed into the T-nuts in each corner of our module frame. in a T-nut so that our module can stand up on its own legs. 

Drilling holes in the ends of wood that's 1 1/2"x 1 1/2" is not easy.  This is where a drill press with a moveable table comes into play.  Or perhaps a jig for my cordless drill which I haven't yet figured out how to make.  Perhaps it's only with a steady hand and a good eye that you might be able to get those holes drilled.  If anyone has any ideas for a jig for a drill, I'd be most interested in hearing from you.

Installing The Leg Levellers
After all the holes have been drilled, I coat the barrel of the T-nut with epoxy, insert it into the hole and tap it into place with my hammer and let the epoxy set for 24 hours. 

Modifying Carriage Bolts
I next modify some 2 1/2" carriage bolts.  I cut the head off so that I have a "threaded rod" that is 2" long.  I then round the cut end using a bench grinder and/or a file so that I get rid of the sharp edges from my cut.

Carriage bolts have a thread that go from one end to the other whereas threads on regular bolts are only 1" long.  I need a threaded bolt that I can insert into the 1 1/4" hole with 3/4" sticking out.  The carriage bolt epoxied into the hole will do the trick.

You may be tempted to get a long threaded rod and chop it up into 2" pieces.  DON'T!  When you cut the threads, you'll have a jagged cut at both ends which, in spite of any filing you might do, will remain jagged on the thread which will eventually tear the thread in the T-nut.

For the next steps, you need to identify which end is the "cut-end", and which end is the "finished end" of the cut carriage bolt.  The photo above will help you to identify which is the "cut-end" and which is the "finished end".

Installing Modified Carriage Bolts
To install the cut carriage bolt, I first tighten two 5/16" nuts against each other at the "finished end" using two 1/2" wrenches.  I then load the drilled hole with epoxy, insert the threaded end into the hole, and crank it home with one wrench until only 3/4" of the thread is sticking out of the hole.  Again using the two wrenches, I undo the two nuts and repeat the installation process for the other legs. 

 Still with us?

We now have a set of legs with a leg leveller in one end (the bottom) and a threaded piece of rod in the other end (the top end).  With the module on its side, insert the threaded rod into the T-nut on the underside of the module and tighten it in.  With some help from a friend, lift the module up and set it on its legs.

Voila, the module now has legs!

Installing RJ12 Telco Jacks - Part 1 - Getting Ready

Wow, hard to believe we've been away from this blog for almost 12 months.  For those of you who were following our posts last year and wondering where we had disappeared to, my apologies.  Things have been quite busy as you might see from our Railway Rambling blog, our Railway Restoration blog, our Foundry & Casting blog and contributing to some other blogs, to say nothing about things that I haven't blogged on.  Anyhow, time to get back at it. 

In a previous installment, we had cut holes in the side of our module frame so that we could install either Digitrax UP5 panels or RJ12 telco jacks.  We also demonstrated how we had modified RJ12 telco jacks so that we had a nice slim package.  Now that we've got the module all finished with the track power buss (with pigtails installed), it's time to install our last major component before we lay track - the RJ12 telco jacks. 

When I first started installing telco jacks, I simply stuck the wires from the cables underneath the screws and spade terminals.  This resulted in a veritable mess of spaghetti, particularly when trying to keep 24 wires in the right order.  These types of connections really weren't reliable, to say nothing of the strands of wire that got ripped out as I tried to tighten the screws on two spade terminals and two wires for each connection.

So now I my first step is to discard the screws, cut off the spade terminals, solder and shrink-tube everything.  I end up with a much neater and more reliable package.

 
However, before we get down to brass tacks, we're going to make a couple of jigs - those handy-dandy gadgets that make the work easier and stops us from getting the air blue with our cursing when things don't go right. 
Telco Jack Jig
The first jig we're going to make is a "jack holder".  It's simply a piece of 1/4" or 3/8" plywood cut a bit larger than the jack faceplate with a hole cut in the middle so that the telco jacks sits flush in the plywood.  As we wire up the telco jack, we're going to have the jack, two telephone cables and 24 wires hanging out all over the place.  Trying to hang onto the jack, the cables and the wires while we try to strip, solder, and shrink-tube the 24 wires would turn the job into a nightmare.  Our jack-holder jig makes life a lot easier for us. 

To make the jig, I took a scrap piece of 3/8" plywood left over from fabricating our carry-plates and cut it so that it was a bit larger than the faceplate of our telco jack. 

I then turned the jack over on its back so that the plugs were staring at me and marked off the outer edges of the lugs that hold the plugs in place. 

Next, I drew a rectangle around the pencil marks and clearly marked the four corners (when you're running your work through a band saw, a jig-saw, or a hacksaw, the corners can be difficult to see with all of the vibration, commotion, and  concentration. 

Using my band saw, I then cut out the centre piece that I had just marked.  The tools you use to do this will depend on what you have in your workshop.  A jig-saw, fret-saw, hack-saw works just as well.  Remember, it's a jig so accuracy and fanciness aren't important factors. 

I next test-fitted the jig to make sure that it sat flush against the backside of the face-plate.  You might have to do a bit of filing around the inside edges.  We're now ready to get down to the task of wiring our telco jack. 

 

The Tool & The Routes

As with any job, it's best to gather up the necessary tools before we start.  Here's the tools we're going to need to wire some RJ12 6-wire cable to our RJ12 telco jacks.  

Our wiring is going to take place in two or three steps, depending on whether we install one telco jack or two telco jacks on our module.  In both cases, we'll first run our telephone cable from one end of the module to the closest telco jack.  If we only install one jack, we'll run a cable from the jack we just soldered, through the notch in our middle cross member and down to the other end of our module.  

If we install two, we'll run the cable from the jack we just soldered through the notch in our middle cross member and over to the second jack, in which case, we have a third step to run another cable from the second jack to the other end of the module.  We'll be soldering and installing these cables and jacks as we work from one end of our module to the other.  

If you install one telco jack on one side of the module, this is the path our cables will take.  

If you install two telco jacks - one on each side of the module, this is the path that our cables will take. 

So we're going to do the more difficult and install two telco jacks.  The cables and wires for Step 1 and Step 2 will be soldered at the workbench and then installed in our module.  The wires for Step 3 will be soldered on the module.  So let's get started. 

Wiring The Cables For Step 1 and Step 2

Our first step is to measure and cut the two pieces of cable for Step 1 and Step 2.  Cut these two cables at least 24" longer than necessary.  We may make some mistakes and this extra bit of cable might save us some headaches.    

As you can see from the photo below, our 6-wire cable is coiled up and needs to be straightened out.  To do this we run the cable across the edge of our workbench or some other sharp corner and alternately stretch the plastic sheathing so that the cable lies reasonably flat.  

Now that we have our two pieces of cable reasonably flat, we need to remove about 3" of the plastic sheathing from the end of each cable so that we expose the 6 wires.  We first turn the cable on edge and slice through the top 1/2" of the sheathing.  Turn the cable over to the other edge and slice 1/2" of the sheathing.  We now have two "tabs" that we can pull back on to expose 3" of the six coloured wires. Patience is a must in this operation.

We next insert our telco jack into our jig and tape it in place.  Recall that in one of our previous posts, we had removed and discarded the terminal screws and cut off the spade terminals.  The short wires coming out of the back of the telco jacks are usually twisted all over each other.  Straighten the short wires so that we have the wires in order - white, black, red, green, yellow, blue.   

We next take one of our cables and, holding it in place so that the end of the coloured wires touch the edge of the jack, we tape the cable to the jig.  We then repeat the process for the other cable.  

Make sure the white wires are all aligned on one side of the jig!!  It makes our soldering work that much easier.  (Do you see our error in the above photo!?)  

We want to reduce the number of wires in our work area (we'll have a total of 24!!).  Tape the wires from the cables back onto themselves as shown in the photo below with a piece of masking tape.  Next, pull out the white wires from each of the two cables (we'll pull out each wire in turn as we need them).  Straighten out the two short white wires coming from the telco jacks and push the other wires to the side.  We want a clear and open workspace for what comes next.   

This is what our "package" of cables, telco jacks, and wires should look like. 

 Next, we get down to work and start soldering the wires together - white-to-white, black-to-black, red-to-red, green-to-green, yellow-to-yellow, blue-to-blue.  All nice and neatly packaged.