Baseboard help

[Class158]

I am currently building a layout and have found a free piece of chipboard from a scrapyard. It is perfectly intact and meets all my requirements. However, I am worried about the thickness of it. It is roughly 2cm thick. Is this a regular size? And if not can I work with this?

[brossard]

I'd be more worried about it being chipboard.  Usual material is good quality ply.  I use 3/8" for tops.  1/2" for sides and ends, 4" wide.

 

See my layout thread below for boards being built by my club mates.

 

John

Edited September 29, 2021 by brossard

[DCB]

Chipboard is a truly awful material and I would avoid it for any but the most permanent of permanent layouts.  Drilling holes for dropper wires would be a nightmare. Chipboard is weak, heavy and the edges can be very sharp and do a lot of damage to flesh.  It disintegrates when wet.   I hate it. Both my shed roofs were made of the stuff and got wet and collapsed into a mass of soggy wood chips, so I replaced it with tongue and groove on the big shed and laminate flooring ( yes laminate flooring) on the other. It came free off Freecycle. 

Simply using a flat baseboard immediately compromises a layout scenically as the lowest level should be rivers lakes etc. and real railways are almost never level with the surrounding land.   I would look at L girder construction with ply track beds, and failing that well braced ply as a baseboard.   Wooden frame beds are good sources of baseboard framing, well seasoned it will have warped if its going to, and they are often to be found on freecycle and in skips. Remember any cash saved on wood is cash to spend on trains.

[zarniwhoop]

To answer the question, the chipboard is probably either ¾" or 18mm (or maybe they call it 19mm). I very much doubt that anyone ever sold some sort of non-standard thickness of chipboard- think about how it is produced.But yes, almost the last thing you want to use (mdf might be behind it because of the dust when cutting it).

 

It's also stupidly heavy (even the normal ½" or 12mm) but still needs framing.

 

But I can't agree that flat baseboards are always wrong.

[ikcdab]

sometimes you have to just go with what you have. Not everybody has the luxury of being able to buy brand new plywood for baseboards.

if you can afford it, then just leave the chipboard in the skip and use ply.

If not, and the chipboard is the only option, then go for it. All of my original boy-hood trainsets were built on chipboard in my bedroom and worked well, though this is the 1970s and i then had no aspirations for a "proper" model railway, i just wanted to see trains belt round triang track. If you must use it, then beware of the limitations and problems and work round them.

Good luck

[cliff park]

I don't understand the comment about drilling being a problem. When working chipboard always use sharp tools. I have been using chipboard in some projects in conjunction with a charity I run, and I was given 4 sheets, 12mm, 8' X3', (yes 3' for some reason).  So I do have some experience. Your main concern is keeping it dry, and , importantly, this includes the question of how you ballast the track. You do not want to be sloshing water on it. Sometimes if you are heavy handed with PVA when gluing you can see it start to soak in before it dries. I suppose one option would be to do all the sawing, drilling etc that you can then seal it with something like oil based paint, liberally brushed all over, both sides and particularly the edges. Check your local waste tip, they sometimes have odd tins of paint very cheap, and the colour is irrelevant, although green or brown might be good. I do think that newer chipboard is better than the stuff I remember from childhood, and my dad was a carpenter so I did see plenty, finer chips and better glue now.

[Harlequin]

Just a note: There's a good chance that what the OP has got is actually 18mm OSB ("Oriented Strand Board"), not chipboard.

 

Very similar, with similar issues, though.

 

[Monkersson]

2 hours ago, ikcdab said:

sometimes you have to just go with what you have. Not everybody has the luxury of being able to buy brand new plywood for baseboards.

if you can afford it, then just leave the chipboard in the skip and use ply.

If not, and the chipboard is the only option, then go for it. All of my original boy-hood trainsets were built on chipboard in my bedroom and worked well, though this is the 1970s and i then had no aspirations for a "proper" model railway, i just wanted to see trains belt round triang track. If you must use it, then beware of the limitations and problems and work round them.

Good luck

If the OP is building a layout that is to be long lasting and portable then avoid chipboard at all costs.  I learned the hard way by using chipboard on my first serious layout and paid the price for it.  Many wasted hours, materials and much frustration! 

 

[doilum]

My first layout used a very high grade 3/4" chipboard to create flat top baseboards that you could drive a truck over. An early convert to open top baseboards, I took the jigsaw and cut out the station throught points and all, and built a new layout round it. These were the days when most of the received wisdom involved 3x1 timber and 1/2" chipboard.  You won't go far wrong using 6mm ply for everything.

[brossard]

I recall that 1x2 pine for sides and ends was de riguer when I started.  The lumber available tended to be warped and the ply top wouldn't take this out so you had a warped board.  Not a good start.

 

Since that lesson was learned I have always used ripped ply for tops, sides and ends.  The lumber yard (here anyway) will rip the ply sheets to size for you and also rip the sheets into strips - for a price of course.  I like 4" width but 3 7/8" (to take account of the blade width) is probably better because it is more efficient and you don't wind up with a scrap thin strip.

 

John

 

 

 

[SamThomas]

Braced ply will always be a better material.

All woodworking tools need to be sharp.

If you have to use chipboard then, if possible (as already been suggested) try & do all the cutting first. Then seal it - both sides & edges. It does not really matter what with as long as it seals - old gloss paint/varnish, Unibond as long as it seals.

 

Celotex (a trade name) is becoming popular - very light & easy to shape (if you use it & remove the foil make sure that you remove it from both sides or the board will tend to "curl".

[Class158]

I think it may work with a bit of the good ol’ elbow grease and as little as possible cutting, and with luck, it will work.

[ianLMS]

I built my permanent layout out of several 18mm chipboard loft boards, an old flat door, sides of an old wardrobe and plywood all on a 2"×2" frame. The layout is 14'x8'. So far, 8 years later, its still standing, no warping issues, no issues with gluing ballast down. Yes, its a pain to cut and drill and if i do it all again, 9mm ply will be my weapon of choice.