Wood Buildings

[usher42]

I want to make my building from craft wood or scrap wood with a thickness of 1/8 or 3/4 thinckness .what would you suggest for HO scale.

[pdlethbridge]

I would suggest basswood and it can be 1/32" or 1/16" thick. Get Windows and doors from Tichy, they have a good selection and you can get them from their website at a good price. Most well equipped hobby shops carry basswood. If you want, they even have scribed siding. Both Midwest and Northeastern sell wood on line. Stay away from balsa, if you can, it's not as long lasting without warping to some degree.

[brad]

I agree. Your best bet is to go to your LHS and see what they have for scale lumber or go online to one of the mentioned sites. Grandt line also make excellent doors windows and just about anything else you can think of for model building.

Also get yourself a scale ruler. I forget who made mine, but it is without a doubt the best tool to have for scratch buiilding. It will also give you an idea of the sizes of wood you'll need.  Other tools I could recommend are single edge razor blades (buy bulk packs as you'll go through them quickly), a small machinists square, NWSL Chopper, they have 3 models. mini-clamps (small plastic ones work good) Quick-Clamps (small bar clamps), a steel plate and magnets to hold things in place while glue dries. Razor saws fine and coarse tooth and a GOOD mitre box.

Have FUN

brad

[usher42]

Who makes scale rulers and where to find them

[ebtbob]

Usher,

      I believe a company called Mascot makes scale rulers.   Look for them in the Walthers' catalog.

Bob

[Jim Banner]

If you have a good table saw and know how to use it, you can cut your own wood.  You can rip as fine as 1/16" the traditional way (between the blade and the fence) if you keep the wood from disappearing down the throat with a  tight fitting throat plate or a false plate made by clamping a piece of plywood to the table top and raising the blade through it.  Cutting 1/32" and even 1/64" strips is possible by cutting them off on the outside of the blade and moving the fence the width of the blade + 1/32" or + 1/64 inch between cuts.  ** see note below

For safety reasons, it is unwise to rip pieces of wood less than about two feet long.  It is easier to rip scale size boards to width first and then to thickness.  That way, you are always ripping from a substantial piece.  And expect lots of waster, even with a thin kerf blade.

I like to build with cedar for large scale outdoor applications.  For H0, cedar is too soft.  Spruce, pine and fir seem to find their way to my door step, so I use quite a bit of them.  I have also been known to rip the surface layer off plywood as a source of poplar, birch, walnut, and occasionally other exotic hardwood plywoods.  If I have to buy wood (which is very rare, I normally use scraps) then I buy birch.  Bass is available here but is much more expensive that birch and very little different in working.  I do not normally use oak where it will be seen as its pores are huge in H0.  But I do occasionally use mahogany, the Philippine kind, where I want to model old, abused wood.  I have also used bamboo, particularly kabob skewers for posts and pilings.

For glue, my favourite is Weldbond applied full strength.  To get the tiny little dots of glue required in H0, I fill a 10 cc syringe with the Weldbond, add a blunted 16 gauge needle, and use that.  To keep the needle from drying out and clogging, I keep it in a glass of water.  When making lots of joints, I keep a piece of paper towel next to the glass to quickly wipe the needle every time I use it.

Has anyone else tried tea, iron wool and vinegar to age their wood projects?  This is the next thing that I am experimenting with.

** Note:  table saws are a great way of separating fingers from their owners.  Unless you are thoroughly familiar with the safe and proper use of table saws, do not attempt fine ripping.  In spite of its small size, or maybe because of it, ripping fine material is harder than ripping fence boards and other large material.  Ripping fine material is NOT the way to learn to use a table saw.

[r.cprmier]

Good scale rules are marketed both by General, and Walthers.

Other sources are: mascot, Micromark, and Excel.

For my money,  Iwould add to that list, a dial caliper, depth gauge, and micrometer; all in thousandths of an inch graduations.  Also, get a drill index that you will use, as well as a chart that will help you figure dimension transpositions for drilling, etc.

Learn how to transpose inch/metric to scale sizes-there are math formulae for that.  Also, make sure that what you buy for a rule is metal, and not plastic or wood.  Not only will wood "work" with humidity, but you can manage to cut both with razor knives, thus compromising the edge.  Go with metal; best pick:  Stainless.
These, to me, are the first steps to becoming a good modelbuilder; obtaining and learning to effectively use tools.

Rich