Entry posted by MinerChris
665 views
On the first day of my last roster break, a trip to Wickes resulted in a car load of hardwood strip, a couple of packets of brass woodscrews and a generous smattering of enthusiasm. I didn’t buy the plywood from a DIY Shed, I thought it would be more prudent to use 1/8” hardwood ply from an online model boat shop in Cornwall. My logic was that using ply destined to be partially submerged, even occasionally, may have a better chance of resisting warping than normal birch ply. Admittedly I would have liked to have seen the sheets before buying, but in the end I reasoned that with the quantity that I wanted (5, 3’x 1’ sheets,) the local model shop would probably have had to order this in anyway. In the end, a couple of sheet’s had some minor twisting, I’ll use one of these to form the ends of the storage case and the other was a spare sheet bought to discard.
The plywood was cut up using a Stanley knife, (fingers clear!) run along a steel edge clamped both on the top and bottom of the cut. Somehow I still managed not to cut a single edge without a chamfer that needed sanding off.
Two weeks later, the start of two baseboards, and corresponding lighting rigs were fashioned. Lining this new baseboard up against the old layout, you can better appreciate about what an extra 6” will do for you.
The alignment between the two boards is held with Station Road baseboard dowels, which rather nicely match the brass woodscrews. They are held together using M4 bolts and wingnuts, bushed with a 5mm brass tube (which on their own, would probably be good enough for alignment.) The lighting rig bolts onto the backscene, which was strengthened with more hardwood stripwood, and then the baseboard, again with M4 bolts - got from a proper hardware shop in Rothbury in Northumberland. I was worried that this might not be enough strength to lever against any load placed at the front of the rig, but it is a lot sturdier than it looks.
The jobs ‘to do’ list has started to mount up already; trying to get the traintable fiddle yard made was on was on the list of things to have got done before I left back for work. While I’m away, I’m planning out the electrical layout, so that I know what connectors I’ll need and where they will need to go. I've also got to think of a clever way that I can attach a backscene that wraps around the sides neatly. I’ve shot myself in the foot on this one, trying to build a 900mm baseboard for a 600mm layout means that I’ve not got anywhere to attach a piece of curved sheet to! (does anyone have suggestions?)
Best Regards.
Chris.
-
4
3 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now