Exactoscale jig and anchor system

Discuss the prototype and how to model it.
marland
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:02 pm

Exactoscale jig and anchor system

Postby marland » Wed Oct 28, 2020 9:00 pm

Something I have had for nearly 20 years now are a set of jigs for setting the positions of components that make up switches and crossings made by Exactoscale in the days when it based in Esher.
I got them out about 3 years ago when I finally decided that I now had a space and time to try a small P4 layout and confess they looked so baffling that I put them away again. This week I found an Exactoscale catalogue No 29 from 2002 which at least identifies some of the etchings though some don’t appear to be listed.
Also with the Catalogue were three sections of the track construction manual from that era which does at least give an indication of how some parts were intended to work and that the system was designed around some anchoring components which I have no recollection of ever having, were they ever produced ?
The whole set up using the jigs and some smaller pieces that hold things in position by using magnets and steel plates and then soldering rail to the anchors after you have shaped them from etches looks quite time consuming though the results were possibly fairly accurate.
Any one on here ever use the system or know if it worked well. So far I have made fiddle yard turnouts with copperclad and ones visible with plastic chairs on ply which seem fine so don’t now have any desire to use another method. OTOH it seems a shame that these apparently well made stainless steel jigs and templates cannot be used for something though some are bit of a puzzle as to how they go together so I wonder if anyone has found they can be used but not quite as intended by the Exactoscale of that era.

Ta.

Philip Hall
Posts: 1947
Joined: Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:49 pm

Re: Exactoscale jig and anchor system

Postby Philip Hall » Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:23 am

I think you are best off sticking with the approaches you have used with success up until now. You know it works for you, and it’s pretty easy to get a good result. Struggling to understand a complicated system which might just make things better but then again might not isn't probably a good use of time. Hopefully someone will be able to come up with the instructions so you can at least evaluate whether it’s worth it.

Dear old Bernard had many wonderful ideas and there are so many things he produced and instigated that have made things better for us all, but he did have the occasional penchant for solutions to non-existent problems and this might have been one of them!

Philip

marland
Posts: 9
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2014 10:02 pm

Re: Exactoscale jig and anchor system

Postby marland » Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:45 pm

That is roughly the conclusion that I have come to but will put the items away in case I find a use for them one day,
it is possible that I did have some more components at one time that have gone astray over the years but it does seem a little used system.
By the use of Google images I did come across an example where they were being used in a description of a layout being constructed. The owner does appear to a member who is still active but was relying on stocks of rail anchors they already had.

I may email them and see if they could take some pictures of their assembled jigs so I could work out what I have got here or have found a way to use them with different components or just as guides for a pen to make marks.

Thanks for the reply.


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