Model Train Journal

All:

I am conducting an unscientific poll and want to hear from scratch-builders about their experiences. Here is the question:

When you order from companies like Plastruct, Evergreen, K&S, Model Builders Supply, The N Scale Architect, etc. do their structural components meet their stated specifications? In other words, if a component is advertised to be 1/4" x 1/2" x 30", is it?

Thanks,

George

Watch out George, you are going to make MItch angry. When I reported that a bag of "Famous Reading Anthracite Coal - 28.5 cu in" measured 24 cu in when dumped into a kitchen measuring cup ($4.99 at Target) he responded with this:

Mitch wrote:Ya wonder why there's little participation about trains on this forum? All this (is this really a word?) ANAL ity about the volume of a bag of coal with expensive testing equipment also brought in, just to prove Dennis a liar in his product information? Rock on with OCD.

Edit 1: Removed unnecessary repetition of the question.

K&S Engineering metal is pretty close to advertised dimensions. Also, they've switched over to carding some of their smaller stuff; stuff that used to get bent before you'd pull it out of the merchandiser.

I've only worked with Plastruct I beams, channels, and angles. They were accurate (within a few 1000th's) in cross section as far as width and depth go. Thicknesses of the webs, flanges and what not could be considered far out of scale (to be expected). Never paid attention to length. Nor have I weighed them to see if they conform to AISC standards for structural steel.

G3750 wrote:Plastruct, Evergreen, K&S,

Pretty accurate within my use of a micrometer.

Thank you, gentlemen.

I asked this same question on another forum. All I can say is that I appreciate the much higher signal to noise ratio that I get here.

George

Yes, the responses on that other forum were interesting.

Tom Dempsey wrote:Yes, the responses on that other forum were interesting.

At this point, I should truly know better than to ask a serious question there.

Yep

G3750 wrote:

Tom Dempsey wrote:Yes, the responses on that other forum were interesting.

At this point, I should truly know better than to ask a serious question there.

Keep in mind there is a mentality over there that thinks steel mills were built with construction lumber.