Manner of fixing buildings to bases.

Although I have several buildings on my N layout, none of them are secured ... ie, if I tilt the layout to do some wiring I have to remove them otherwise they fall around.

Most of my buildings are lit and to facilitate bulb replacement I would have to remove the building as the bulbs are wired directly to feeder pins through the baseboard. All bulbs are run at voltages less than their rated values but....... murphys law is sure to apply sooner or later so at least one will fail.

How do you fix your buildings? and, if glued or otherwise secured how do you cater for possible bulb replacement?

Also, this might be a good thread for ideas on methods of fitting lights in buildings and whether clear bulbs are to be preferred rather than 'pearl' bulbs. Also how fibre optics may be used for those tiny outside lamps.

I'm raising this question as later this year several N modules are likely to visit Toronto from far and near and I have no doubt most will have buildings on them.

Errol
 

Arlaghan

Member
Errol,

What I (plan to) do is make my buildings onto a base.. and glue it on there. Then, there is a base-shaped recess in the module that will accept the structure. This part isnt glued, but the recess should be snug so that a mere 45 degree tilt shouldn't cause any problems. The wiring for the lighting and such is fixed to the bottom of this base, and a hole in the recess is made to pass feeders up to the structure. Take a look at my Chevron thread and you'll see what I mean. :)
 

Vic

Active Member
HI Errol, Here's a little tip on the fiber optic stuff....If you take a single strand of it and hold the end of it very near a heat source such as the tip of a hot soldering iron it will "Mushroom" out into sort of a lens shape. I would think that if you were very careful and held the end of the fiber strand against something hard and rotated it while heating it, it might turn out to look like a light bulb.
 

60103

Pooh Bah
Errol:
I have two methods. I don't have any lighting yet, but I have left the roof removable on a couple of mine. Many of my cardboard buildings are glued down to foamcore with carpenter's glue -- came about by accident as I was assembling one on the base and it stuck.
I'm also using WS Accent Glue. It's a sort of rubber cement that they intend for figures and small details, but it holds on buildings. It is stronger than some of the paint-to-plastic bonds that I have. It is removable from plastic, but is supposed to be reusable.
 

ezdays

Out AZ way
I'm kinda new to this, and like you, my layout tilts too so I can get to the wiring underneath. What I did was to use velco to hold my buildings in place. I got a roll of it at Ace Hardware that didn't have any adhesive on it and used hot melt glue to stick it to my layout and structure. I did have to recess the inside of the bases to allow for the thickness of the velco. I haven't wired any of them for lights yet, but when I do, I will use an in-line plug so I can remove the lights with the structure.

Don
 

billk

Active Member
I read somewhere of mounting a sponge rubber block to the layout surface, sized so it can be press-fitted up into the structure. The structure itself doesn't have a base, or if that is a problem, I guess the base could be offset up into the structure.
 
F

Fred_M

It depends. I use two spots of hotmelt glue most of the time. It holds even upside down but the bldg can be removed by slowly prying it loose. The hotmelt can then be removed for reattachment. Lights. one method I use for general building lighting is to drill a hole through the base and insert a bulb mounted on a wire pole or tube and secure it from under the layout with a screw. If it burns out you pull the screw and drop the pole lamp assembly from below. DASH
 
Kettlestack: with reference to mounting your buildings, there is a few ways of doing this that I use successfully.
1- use a base such as foam core or homosoate, build your building on your base then cut out the same size on your layout and place inside, this way you can change your buildings by just removing the old one and place the new one in. This also gives you the chance to do your buildings on the workbench. You can fix the base down using screws, velcroe, or magnets.
2- I use small magnets to hold down some of my buildings. For buildings I set a magnet into what ever you are using for your base (homosoate etc) and fix a small magnet to the bottom of the building. I cut a hole the same size as the magnet in the base and glue the magnet in making it flush on the bottom. Small buildings I use one in the center and larger buildings I use them in the corners. I use the small magnets that you get from craft stores, they are not all too strong which makes it easy to bet the building back up and strong enough to keep the building in place.
3- I also use velco in the same way as magnets, make sure you just a small amount of velcro or it will be too strong of a bond and will damage the building in getting it back up causing damage.
As far as the lighting, I have done past in cut a hole in the bottom of the base and the workbench so the wires will pass through. I have used hot glue to glue the wires to the roof or side of the building or styrene tubing to put the wires through.
Ron...
 
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