![\"IMG_1435\"](\"https:\/\/vanderheide.ca\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2099\/08\/IMG_1435.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nNote that the inner-most vertical members on the prototype are Z angle, not square tube or bar stock like the rest of the frame. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any commercially available Z strip in the .040″ thickness I needed to match the rest of the framing; Plastruct makes some down to 1\/16″ but that’s still far too large by at least 50%.<\/p>\n
What to do when you can’t get the angle stock you need? Well, simply fabricate your own out of plain strip. To make the fabricating process easier, cleaner\u00a0and more precise, I built a jig using a couple sizes of styrene strip sandwiched between a bit of scrap styrene for a top & bottom plate, with a space in the middle to feed through a pair of .010x.030″ strips\u00a0(top and bottom flange) and a .010x.020″ (middle web) strip through the jig.<\/p>\n
Once the cement on the jig set, I could fabricate the Z stock by inserting the strips into one end of the jig and slowly pushing them through out the other side, about a quarter to a half inch at a time and cementing them together with liquid cement applied with a very fine brush into the joint between the strips.<\/p>\n The result is a nice, solid structural shape that looks about as good as any solidly extruded commercial offering, and would have been extremely difficult or impossible to do free hand at such a small size.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This week I managed to take the next step forward on the ends for my (current) quartet of 40′ end-rack pulpwood flatcars, finishing up the major framing on the end of the rack. Note that the inner-most vertical members on … Continue reading <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n