Clamps

The cheap plastic ones are fine.  With the really small ones, the biggest limitation is that the spline can get too wide for them to fit.  Otherwise you're good.  One of our work group guys bought a pile of the clamps like the one in the center of your photo and they work great on spline.

Clamps

I use cheap spring clamps like the one in the middle that I got at Home Depot several, well a lotta, years ago.  The ones I got open to about 2.25 inches which is wide enough to span the full roadbed width.  A couple of us got together to get a couple of dozen to share.  It worked well as we seemed to never be building roadbed at the same time.

Terry

Clamps

Clamps are a tool to hold constant presure untill the glue dries. its not about crushing the wood. so the cheap ones are fine. I like to use the  ones that "Home Cheapo"  has for $.99 each they come with rubber tips green or orange. However it does have to fit over you work!

For those that don't have enough Clamps

First clamp one end with 2 or 3 clamps and then use twine and wrap it around a length 2 foot long and add another clamp then add twine again. Just wrap it tight and the twine will hold the splines together while the glue dries. It takes a little more work then just clamping but it works I've tried it out of curiosity with great results.

Dan

Thanks

Thank you, All, for the responses.  It looks like I'm good to go up to about 1-1/4 inch width with the medium and little clamps.  Then I can likely glue the remainder of the splines out to full width, en-mass, using Dan's twine wrap method.  I do, so, love cheap cost-effective methods.

Tentative weather forecast for Saturday is rain, therefore, I may get to do this, then. 

Thanks, again.

Clamp cost

I don't know what they cost now, but I found my plastic spring clamps at Home Depot for 99 cents each. I bought about 50 of them (I use clamps every 6" or so).

The max width of the clamps may be an issue. 1 1/4" may be a problem.

Do you know of others in the area building splines?  Perhaps $$ could be pooled to buy a large supply of clamps which are shared (taken to job sites) as need arises.

If you really don't like a plethora of clamps, you might try using hot glue to hold the spines together. You WILL need something more potent that an arts and crafts glue gun for this.  With an industrial strength glue gun (and appropriate glue two guys can install an awful lot of spline in a hurry. One guy glues and sets splines in aproximate position. The other guy acts as a 'human clamp'. Both guys need GOOD gloves to avoid a bunch of 3rd degree burns. Lee Nicholas uses this method on his Utah Colorado Western  (see  http://www.ucwrr.com for more info on hot gluing splines).

One more thing, did I see that (alignment) nail protruding through the center of the splines? If find it best to get three layers of splines on one side of the alignment nails (enough for the splines to hold their shape). Then I pull the nails and do splines on the other side.

And another tip...  To get straight straights you'll probably need to clamp the splines against a straight edge of some sort (a piece of poplar 1x1 works, so does a 4' level, etc). Without this, it's nearly inevitable that the splines will 'wobble'.  And if you want roadbed with precise curvature, you'll probably need to make a plywood curve template to clamp the splines in place.

Cheers,

Charlie

Try wrapping surgical tubing

Try wrapping surgical tubing around the glue-up. It works well.

I've been using spring type

I've been using spring type clothes pins to hold up to 3 layers of spline together.  After that the black plastic clamps work the best up to about 1-1/4".  They have a tendency to break if you go any wider.  I found some yellow and black ones for about a buck that are much better.  So far none of them have broken even up to 1 1/2" widths, and they have more holding power.

Bob Hayes

Thanks some more

Thanks for the additional tips, guys.

-Why did I not think of clothes pins?

-Charlie, for straight sections, when I had the saw set up in the driveway to cut the masonite and make lots of sawdust (a 7 inch high pile when swept up), I also ripped some 1/4" plywood to stick in the straight sections.  I was also thinking that I may insert 1x2's flat, surrounded by spline, where I'm installing switches, to give a better mounting surface for actuator mechanisms underneath.  This all is a rather grand experiment!

I really like the looks of a sweeping S curve done this way.  I can hardly wait to replace the clamped mockup with a glued version.

PS:  yes, I'll take some photos, now that I found instructions for the camera, and am learning how to take better-than-clunker photos.

Clothes pins as spline clamps

I have some of the regular strong spring clamps, but for the bulk of my splines I bought a huge pile (120pcs) of large plastic clothes pins. This particular type can hold about 1.5", maybe a little more, and they come 10/$1 at the local dollar store. They're not a strong as the bigger clamps, but I can deploy as many as I need in any particular section, up to having them side-by-side (which means about 25 clamps per foot of roadbed). Overall that gives more clamping power, and certainly more evenly-distributed clamping, than one stronger clamp every 6" or so. And cheaper too

One other thing to consider

I'm working on a section of spline right now and have a mix of plastic and metal spring clamps (all 2").  This area is almost 5 feet above the floor:

If you drop one of the plastic ones from this height...here's what can happen when they hit the floor at the right (or wrong) angle:

Oops.  It's metal from now on for me.  Metal are about .75 more than the plastic.  I think I've got about $30-$40 invested in clamps (around $2/metal 2") but you can sometimes find them on sale or get a deal at Harbor Freight.

Just my .02
Bill

Spline update

It's been about two weeks since I posted the clamp question.  And I want to thank all of you for your answers, insights, and suggestions.  I went to the big orange box store and got some more 99 cent 2" metal clamps.  They really helped. 

I used 1/8" masonite to build a section with 24" radius S curves.   All the clamp sizes worked well up to their maximum jaw reach.  So, after I did 3/4" (6 splines), with all the clamp sizes, I pulled the alignment nails and built the spline out to 1-3/4" with the larger clamps, only.  The medium black plastic ones were good only to 1-1/4".  I can see that if you are going to do a lot of spline construction, the 2" clamps are the way to go.  For me, I just did smaller lengths; clamps at about 6 inches on center x the number of clamps.

Observations regarding spline:  (1) It makes beautiful flowing curves and transitions.  (2) Cover everything you don't want glue on, including a distance of 24 inches out from the work area.  Murphy's laws and corollaries are in full operation when the glue bottle is open.  (3) When doing curves by yourself and applying glue to the splines, accidentally flicking the loose end throws glue across the room, so have a rag and a bowl of water available for immediate cleanup.  ("AMHIK")

Here's a bit of the result:

Glue Flicking

Flicking glue across the room LOL. I can so very easily see myself doing that. Thanks for the heads up so I didn't have to learn that lesson the hard way.

You're welcome

You are welcome, Alan.

I didn't notice where all the glue went, right away,   so I have a couple of permanent lumps in my carpet.  It did dry relatively clear, and I'm not going to tell anyone about it.  SO, no one will know!!

Glue - another source!

The "Orange Store" reference reminded me... Look for the ACMoore / Michaels  fliers... the weekly 40% discount makes Glue rather cheap comapred to builders' supply stores.

(Had to mention, since splines use lots of glue)

Craft Warehouse

I'm working my way through a gallon of Elmers "Black Label" white glue that I bought with a 40% off coupon at Craft Warehouse. I think it knocked the price down into the $15 range.

I get weekly coupons via email...

From Joann ETC, Micheals and A.C. Moore.  Usually 40% off, sometimes 50% and once-or-twice a year even 60% off coupons.  And Glue is not the only useful item they sell.  I have purchased MANY supplies and tools at all three stores using those coupons and have saved a TON of money. 

If you go to their website you can sign up using your email address to receive their weekly flyer/coupons.  If you're concerned about SPAM E-Mail, do what I do and create a "dummy" email account using Yahoo Mail that you receive those kind of emails to keep your home email seperate. 

Ken L.

Do watch for coupons

I sort of feel like you guys are rubbing it in, in that:   I have a 1 quart bottle of "Wilhold" carpenters glue that I've had for many years, that I emptied as I started this spline construction.  I couldn't wait to continue getting glue all over myself and the layout, so I went to the local hw store (a mile away) and bought the gallon bottle you see in the bottom photo.  But I paid $18.00.  whew!

I'm just looking on the better side of the issue:  I'm supporting my local hw store, which is so valuable as a source for all the stuff the bigbox stores don't have.

I've never paid much attention to the Michael's sale ads; I've always just handed them off to my wife.  Now I know better.  I now know to go with her to those sales:  who knows what I'll find.

Don't mean to take this tangent a bit further but...

.... I would bring to everyone's attention (for those who don't know) Micheal's has great sales on acrylic paints which I use for scenery and painting certain structures such as this bridge:

 

They have their bottles of inexpensive acrylics go on sale once every 3-4 months for 5 for $1 or even cheaper!  They have balsa and bass wood of many sizes.  As well as several hobby tools which the coupons would be good towards! If one thinks "out of the box" one can find many great deals.  Jo Ann's has the best Coupon Policy of the three (AC Moore, Micheals, Jo Ann ETC).  The other two all accept competitor's coupons on items that all 3 sell but restrict to one coupon per person per day.  Jo Ann ETC allows multiple "unique" coupons.  that is you can have for instance one can use a 40% Jo Ann, 50% Jo Ann (sometimes they have different percentages off the same week), a 40% Micheals and 50% AC Moore all in the same visit.  As long as it's "different" you can use them in the same order (at leastin the WNY Stores).  Oh, and for those that still like to use cork for roadbed, Jo Ann ETC have 1/8" thick sheet cork (good for yards for instance) in rolls for a good deal.  I could go on about this, but i'm afraid I have already gone too far on a tangent.  Hmmm, perhaps I should do a short article about all the things one can find at Craft/Art stores like those.  Because I haven't even started in on Air Brushing tools! :-D

Ken L