I have not had much luck with this. I tried several years ago and ruined several straight sections. Any tips?
Original Post
Replies sorted oldest to newest
There was a post on here a while back. Don't remember who posted but the guy took a short block of 2X4 ran it over the rails to mark the top of the wood. Then he ran the block through the table saw to cut the three grooves. He laid the block on the rails and worked it up and down the length of track gently bending it as he went. His results were perfect.
A template of the finished curve you want would help as a guide.
Good luck.
It depends upon how tight you're trying to bend it. For a slight offset, put a couple of track screws at one end and then gently move the far end of the track to your desired position. One or two track screws will hold the track in place. For a curve, I hold the track on each end and just bend it with my torso until I get the shape I want.
In either case, you'll want to cut the end(s) square when you're done. Bending will leave you with one rail sticking out more than the others. Since I have an 072 minimum, I do keep a sectional 072 curve handy to ensure that I have not overdone the bending.
Personally, I think the random appearance of hand formed track looks more realistic. I especially like the flexibility of being able to just go from "here" to "there" to make things fit.
GarGraves bends pretty easily, though it helps to have a curved surface to bend it against. How old were the sections you were having trouble with? Old track can be difficult to bend if the ties have dried out.
Depending on the curve size you want you can, if you do it very slow bend the track without kinking it. I still bend the track every now and then but for the last two layouts I have bought their preformed curved track. If you are going to do your own curves Gar Graves on their web site has a video of how to bend the track..................Paul
I drew a half circle of O-90 on a piece of 1/2” plywood and cut it out. I bought used track that was bent to a sharper radius so I am using the template to open up the track. I am using the process in the gargraves YouTube video mentioned above, it works well.
Mike
Dr.,
Since you are having so much trouble, why don't you buy the preformed curve track.
A friend of mine made a template with the major curves out of plywood and glued them together to form a track bender. It's accurate and at least get the bending started so you can have cleaner curves when the track screws down. It's almost like a flat football. Pretty slick. Reminds me that I need to get it back to him. It's in my storage unit .... oops! Sorry Dallas!
Do a search of old posts......tons of info by many here, myself included.
I find the GG flex with wood ties pretty easy to work with. The GG stainless steel track with plastic ties is almost effortless. Bends easy and smoothly without much effort.
