Posts by Alan:
Transit board modifications
To transport the module boards safely, I made some transit boards out of off-cuts of 12mm MDF. These were always going to be a Mark 1 version, consisting simply of a square with a line of holes drilled to match those on the interface plate on opposite faces and a hand hole in the middle.
First test run
Have I mentioned that it’s only two weeks until the first showing of our modular layout at the Seaboard Southern Annual Exhibition at Horsham? Having progressed to the point of electrical continuity, it was felt that a full test was long overdue.
Testing for continuity
Have made up all the jumper cables the other evening, the last remaining electrical job was to solder the dropper cables on the corner boards. These hadn’t been done because I wasn’t happy with the track alignment. However, with the first exhibition looming …
The router table insert
When I posted about how I’d started to build a router table insert for my old Bosch POF500A router using a cheap IKEA chopping board, I didn’t know then how I was going to cut the centre hole for the bit to come through.
Batch making legs
The modular boards didn’t come with sky hooks so I’m going to have to make five sets of legs, one more than the number of boards I have, so that I can set them up at home for working on it.
A router table insert
I’ve watched a lot of YouTube videos on how to use the router, among other tools, and the overwhelming impression I got was that more could be done quicker and safer by mounting the router in a table.
Making the Jumpers
After another long hiatus, and with the Seaboard Southern Show now only a few weeks away, I sat down this evening with a film on Amazon Prime, two rolls of cable, a bunch of banana plugs and sockets plus some chocolate blocks and proceeded to make up the jumper cables for connecting power to adjacent boards.
Slapping on paint
Due to the usual Paint & Finish Department being unavailable, it fell to the rank amateur to seal, prime, undercoat and gloss the four drawers. Done outside in the baking sun, they dried very quickly, but not before bugs had alighted and stuck in the wet paint!
Assembling the drawer kits
Using the first drawer as a pattern, the remaining three drawers went together very quickly, measurements being simple comparisons with the first and all methods having already been established. These were completed in an evening.
Designing a kit of parts
Having designed the drawers roughly, both on paper and in my head, and purchased the wood, the next stage was cutting it all out. As the four drawers are all to be the same, I decided to make the first drawer a kit of parts, and use jigs for assembly.