Gettin’ Jiggy With It

(Hmm, not sure what sort of google hits I'm going to see with this. Kiwibonds dives into a topic that we prefer to keep hidden)

Along with the Head Druff, I have for most of my life shared a similar aversion to hammers and saws, which is surprising given we both trained under a woodwork teacher called Mr Birch (“son, this job has your name all over it”). Where I dared to wield a saw, crooked cuts and mismatched angles forced the burden of layout structural integrity to be shouldered by thick cardboard and staples.
In recent years, I’ve taken a leaf from Tim The Tool Man Taylor and bolstered my natural woodworking wimpiness with hairy horsepower that whirrs and buzzes and makes lots of noise. Urrrrrgh.


My dirt cheap Ryobi combo cordless drill/saw set changed my life. The Jigsaw was another cheapie that is surprisingly useful for cutting roadbed. The chop saw is an unknown Chinese brand made of lead that will one day send a blade scooting across the room like a Ninja throwing star, but until then, cuts 90 degree angles all day without relying on my distorted view of reality to guide it.


Some tips for the carpentry-challenged:

Think lots before cutting
Measure and test fit pieces
Draw cuts on the wood using a T square
Cut as straight as you can (and you can always take more off, but it’s hard to stick it back on)
Screwing is much easier than hammering (insert rude comment)
Drill pilot holes for screws to prevent wood splitting
Triangles make things stronger as does glue
Baseboards and decking can provide a lot of rigidity

This is the first layout I’ve built ‘open’ with a raised roadbed rather than with a flat deck, so hopefully the scenery will be able to rise and fall more naturally. The jigsaw makes this fairly easy, but obviously you need to have a pretty good idea of where your track will go first. I’m recycling a lot of stuff from my previous layout so forgive the concrete sleepers. This is also the first time I’ve used proper cork after buying a few sections at 89c each yesterday to see what all the fuss is about.


And to close, sometimes you have to throw out the rules and use what you have. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the vari-height riser.


It’s not as if anyone will be standing on it…