Point motors in Lack shelves?

[simon b]

Hi all. A question for those of you that use IKEA's finest to build your layouts, how best to mount point motors? 

 

Ideally I'd like them recessed inside the shelf, but the top surface doesn't look thick enough to screw into. 

[CloggyDog]

A friend cut away some of the underside of his Lack baseboard and removed the card infil, then mounted 9mm ply, glued to the underside of the top surface, onto which the point motors were then mounted. 

 

You need to avoid the crossmembers where the mounting bracket goes through, but I was surprised at how much of the bottom face he'd cut away - 3 sections about 20cm across the width by some 30+cm along the length - without affecting the rigidity of the board. 

 

I'm sure I took some photos (he's since sold the layout on), will post them if/when I find them. 

Edited June 11 by CloggyDog

[PeterStiles]

You can probably remove 50% of one so definitely if the shelf without losing it's 'monocoque' strength.

[simon b]

1 hour ago, CloggyDog said:

A friend cut away some of the underside of his Lack baseboard and removed the card infil, then mounted 9mm ply, glued to the underside of the top surface, onto which the point motors were then mounted. 

 

You need to avoid the crossmembers where the mounting bracket goes through, but I was surprised at how much of the bottom face he'd cut away - 3 sections about 20cm across the width by some 30+cm along the length - without affecting the rigidity of the board. 

 

I'm sure I took some photos (he's since sold the layout on), will post them if/when I find them. 

 

Thanks for that, I did wonder about using a hole saw to cut all the way through the shelf and just gluing a ply sheet across the entire board.   I spent some time chatting to yourself and the operators of Greenford Broadway at last years Knowl hill show about the benifits of the lack shelf, thought it about time I had a go myself!

[simon b]

So I've decided to go with a sheet of 5mm ply on top of the entire shelve, then use a hole saw where the motors will sit. The reason I went this way is to raise the track slightly so I can use a cassette based fiddle yard.