| Milling Notches |
 I posted to Railroad-Line.com that – “Ok. I will be the first to admit that this is probably (most) not necessary. I simply needed to cut some notches in the 1/4″ dowels and I could have done so with a ruler and hobby knife. That being said .. it was fun making a jig so they are all the same. Milling the notch for the 1/8″ strip-wood (scale 6″) Fender Timber.“
After I finish notching the pilings I have to flip them 180° to mill the second notch. I still need to make a matching notch in the end of the jig for that .. which will wait on finishing the first set of notches first. |
| Piling Holes |
 I pulled up a copy of my pier that I had drawn up in Sketuchp and deleted everything except the pilings. I then switched from Perspective to Parallel Projection and then Standard View to Bottom. This gave me a view of just the bottoms of the piers – a series of circles. I added a small cross to the center – made easier that the two piles .. support and fender were both Components .. meaning when you change or add one thing to a Component it is reflected in all the copies instantly. I could then print this off at a 1:1 scale .. which took six pages. I drew a couple of bounding boxes around the ‘circles’ .. to help align the printouts. Here, I have taped one edge down to set the pier where I want it. I cut away part of the ‘rock’ .. will go back later and make it ‘purty’.
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 I used an automatic center punch to make a deep punch-mark at the center of each circle. This is where I will drill the holes for the piling.
I had originally intended to have the vehicular access from the near end but I am thinking it would be better to run out that far end and across those two tracks. |
 I’m using a 1/4″ Forstner Bit to maker the holes. It has that little sharp guide that fits perfectly in the holes made by the center punch.
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| Test Fitting Pilings |
 This is a test fit .. and it came out pretty well. The holes are drilled approximately 1/4″ into the plywood. The pilings are abut 3/8″ long .. so there should be plenty of ‘maneuver room’ when I go to level the pier.
In the photo everything is just loosely put together .. the caps are just sitting on top of the pilings. I’m quite happy with this .. and yes .. I know the front left long piling is upside down! That will be fixed. |
