Anyone Can Make Their Own Railway Points! New super smooth switch for the 15" field railway. 

I think Gulliver will be his first loco ! - Half a horse power ?

I prefer corded - endless consistent power.

@@millomweb I've got a drawer full of battery powered drills and drivers that are "dead to the world". I've reverted back to corded drills and drivers. The drivers are very powerful and I love them. Will never buy another battery powered tool again. They're fake in my opinion. I'm unlikely to risk buying an electric car for the same reason. But might consider a reliable trolley bus 🤣🤣🤣

@@BrassLock A hybrid - trolley car ? Nuclear reactor car ? Involved with amdrams making sets and stuff. There were non-brand 4 battery screwdrivers and a Bosch corded. One use of the Bosch and I was hooked ! (It got nicked a few weeks later :( ) But for the big screws...pneumatic impact driver. 6" long and something like 3/8" O/D of the screw. Even my battery charger is mains powered ;)

@@BrassLock Mind me asking what brand the drills are? I've shelled out big money for a Makita 18V set 10 years ago. Everything still works, the batteries as well. And I don't treat them nicely on my farm. Dropping, overheating, leaving them out in the rain by accident. Everything still works. I'm not advocating for the Makita brand here, I've seen several other old battery tools my friends are using for years and years from other manufacturers. You only have to pay the high price once for quality tools. At least in my experience.

@@schwuzi Drill: Ryobi "CD 1882, 18 Volt" (13 mm chuck), Driver: AEG "SH 4.8 Volt 300", Driver: Black & Decker 6 Volt. And another Drill/Driver which was for light duty, which I disassembled and thought of recycling the gearbox, but that's in the too hard basket. I now have 3 corded Maktek Drills of varying capacity and a Pumpkin corded 300W 10mm Drill/Driver which simply works powerfully whenever I want it to. I have a 3 corded angle grinders: Makita GA 4030, Black & Decker KG 100, and a "PA6-GF30", which is at least 15 years old, but the name-tag has fallen off. All 3 work well.

Excellent - good luck with that. If only we had more trees around here..

I hope you are still reading these comments one year on. I have a suggestion for a closed frog design for tighter curves. I watched your construction of one of your other set of points with an open frog that requires check rails to prevent the flanges ‘picking’ (going the wrong way) when running through the points. I can’t find a video of this design so I’ll have to try and describe it. Here goes. You set up the two outer rails the same way as you have here. The curved one having what ever tighter radius is required for the location. Now for the tricky bit. You need two running rails about a foot longer the the point tip to frog dimension suits. We’ll deal with the straight rail first so it’s easier to visualise. Just as the point running rail in this video, this running rail comes off the main, runs up to the frog, and the extra length ‘wings’ off to lie against the CURVED side of the frog. The curved is layed up similarly but the geometry gets tricky. These two running rails a tied together with at least three spreader flat bars. One to hold the switch points so only one in against the running rail. As in normal two rail points. One plate that acts as the pivot point in front of the frog (distance by trial and error) and any other spreader bars in between to hold gauge and geometry. This whole section moves as one. Operation. With the points set for straight, the running rail is continuous point to frog with the curved (out of use rail) held away from (and giving flange clearance) the outer running rail. When kicked into the diverging position, the inner mechanism pivots to pull the straight running rail wing away from the frog and close the curved wing up to the frog. The now outer curved running rail is continuous point to frog. Whew. I could have drawn this in 30sec, as it is I’ve taken an hour of dyslexic rewrites to get this far. Hope it makes sense. Cheers.

they're great, aren't they?!

I would love to volunteer for that!

So it's not just our donkeys - good to hear. Happy Christmas to you and yours too, Morgan : - )

You can only see the improvements once you've made something that isn't as good as it could be : - )

Thanks, take as much as you like : - )

Thanks, Frederick - you too!

exactly

Thanks, Bill. You too!

I get what you mean - so both ends of the blade changes tracks ! Nice one !

You can make it even simpler Just weld a flatbar iron from the point of the V and skip the pivot axel. And put some screws in the sleeper down at the other end to act like a locking mekanism when the blade is switched.

I suspect it would be stronger this way with the two facing vees. I do like this idea though, it could be worth someone exploring.

@@44121ss1309 Wouldn't that give you a bent rail. I think a pivot is better.

@@millomweb in that length and whit 10 deegres angel it shud be whitin what the metal can flex whitout damage. Thats how a real switch works. It is fasten in the crossover and just flex when you switch track.

Thanks, Ryan!

Good idea!

Ha! That would be something, wouldn't it?!

Get a pipe section and some gold spray paint…

Thanks, Mark - you too!

Merry Christmas!

"That's mad, Ted!"

Thanks, Dave, - you too!

thanks, Chris - same to you!

Thanks, Jens : - )

MUCH better to get parts from an ELECTRIC forklift.

Thanks, Gargler - you too!

Thank you V.T. : - )

Thanks Doug, you too!

I'm going as fast as I can! : - )

Thanks, you too!

Thanks, Fireman Dave - same to you!

Good luck!

Thanks, Frank. Yes, I'm getting better : - )

Yes, electric loco. And its much simpler: The time saved can be invested in railway expansion and other fabulous projects!

I think the reason he uses angle iron instead of flat bar for the switch point is for the strength

Thanks!

I like it!

Even a donkey powered winch would do well