Making Splines

Hi Everybody,

I started on Saturday afternoon making the beginning of the trackage by locating the first piece of the spline sub-roadbed. Only when I put the first strip on the tops of the risers none of the riser tops where in the same plane with each other. So I spent the afternoon by correcting all the risers. When I finished in the late afternoon all the risers were level with each other. So today I got started with the spline work.

I thought that would be a good place for the lamp but it wasn't so I moved it to the front of the benchwork. After getting this spline located I started with the riser futurist to the left. I used a 1/16" drill bit for the pilot hole and knocked in the first nail. I continued nailing the spline at each riser. I then began locating the outside spline on the outside spur the same way as the first.

The metal c-clamp in the fore ground above is the coming together of the two center splines. See how smooth the line of the branching spur is. Now the two splines are glued together from this spot to the end of the wood.

 The wood clamps are used to hold the two center strips together while the glue starts to set up. The clamp are easy to make. The two outside legs are the same wood as the spline with two more pieces sandwiched between them. A strip of masking tape holds it all together. The bolt and wing nut are used to tighten it all. As I begin to add on the outer pieces, I will add more wood to make a wider clamp. I made up some more clamps and added the other two pieces on the two spurs.

As my friend Trevor says "You never have enough clamps." I now will let the glue completely dry before I start adding the intermediate splines. This spline will run under the rail. It will be glued on using 3/4 x 3/4 x 3/4 blocks. I feel good with the start. Found two major mistakes, luckily before having more roadbed and scenery in place and corrected them. Both mistakes were because of wanting to get it done quickly.