Woodflex Bender Board

[cacole]

Home Depot is stocking a product called Woodflex Bender Board. It is a dark brown plastic product that measures 1 x 4 inches, and comes in 20 foot long sections.

It seems to be relatively flexible, since it is intended to be used as edging, but I'm wondering how strong this material is in the vertical direction.. I would like to rip it lengthwise into 1 x 2 pieces and use as roadbed for elevated trackwork. How closely spaced would the supports need to be to prevent sagging if 4 strips of this were to be laminated together with small blocks of it as separators every 2 or 3 feet?

Has anyone here used this material?

Thanks

[ttrigg]

Cacole;

The vertical strength of that stuff is pretty good, as long as you are trying to bend against the 4" dimension. It will flex some (which allows for rise and fall in ground levels.) Cutting and laminating will only give you the 2" thickness, which I will not give the same strength. Remember plastics will flex in their thinnest dimension no mater what you do. However if you laminate the 1"x2" so that your piece is 2" thick the structure will be probably about two and a half times as strong as the 1" thick piece you started with. Since there is no grain as there is in wood (which gives the strength through lamination) rather than spend the time cutting and laminating 1"x4"s into a 2"x4" take two uncut pieces and make them into the 2"x4".

[cacole]

Please allow me to clarify a little. What I envision is a roadbed 7 inches wide and 2 inches vertically by ripping the 1 x 4 material into 1 x 2s, and using spacers cut from the same material between the four 1" x 2" strips.

I know 7 inches is much wider than the actual track, but I want to leave plenty of clearance for 1:20.3 scale locomotives after I add trusses to the sides of the roadbed to make it look like a long bridge. The trusses will also hopefully keep things from falling to the ground if I have a derailment.

My primary question is, would there be any problem with this material sagging if it is only 2 inches vertically, and how close should the supports be to prevent sagging.

[ttrigg]

Preventing sagging is going to be a function of just how strong the material is the length of the span and ambient air temp (and of course the moving load carried across the top.). I do not have that kind of experience you need for that answer.

You might consider doing as I did, since I plan on several long bridges i went down to the nearby junk yard. I purchased 2 wrought iron gates for a total of $12. When i start cutting the gates appart, I'll have 36 half inch square steel bars 48 inches long. and 8 one inch square steel bars 48 inches long. My spans will be limited to that key 48 inch dimension, which is enough to meet my needs.

[cacole]

Well, sports fans, due to a lack of cooperation or initiative by Home Depot employees, I'm back to searching for a different, suitable material.

The local Home Depot never did have a SKU number or price on the Woodlfex, so I finally asked the cashier about it. The Garden Center manager said they were just waiting for a truck to come and take it away because it was not in their local store's computer, so that meant that they should not have received it in the first place. I tried to get this dolt to telephone the store in Tucson, 70 miles away, where I had seen the identical item, and learn what the SKU number and price is so I could purchase some, but was told in no uncertain terms that he would do no such thing! He didn't want to be confused with any facts because his mind was obviously already made up.

So I drove the 70 miles to the Home Depot in Tucson, but that turned out to be a wasted day. Yes, they had plenty of Woodflex, but they didn't know for sure if the price listed on the tag ($19.95) was for one piece or a bundle of 5, since all of it was banded into bundles of 5, and they couldn't tell from the SKU number entry in their computer if "each" meant a single piece or a bundle. On top of that, they refused to cut it for me. They were willing to rent me a truck for $75 per day (plus gas) in which to transport the product, since a 20-foot length wouldn't fit into my pickup, or they would sell me a saw so I could cut it myself, but they would offer no help in the cutting or loading of said product, and it was on the very upper reaches of an outdoor rack in 100+ degree heat. They would not even help me get it down to a level where it could be cut. The Garden Shop manager just stared up at it and wondered out loud how they ever got it up there. She even asked me, "How do you think anyone could ever get that down from there?"

Unfortunately, the Lowe's store in Tucson doesn't have a similar product, so I'm back to square one.

[Anonymous]

Cacole, sounds as though your wanting to build a latter roadbed? If so do a search here for Trex author ought to be Old Dad. He swears by the stuff.

On the home depot note e-mail corporate headquarters of their web site your frusturating story, customer service should never ever be that bad!

[cacole]

Carpenter Matt -- I've been to the Home Depot corporate headquarters web site to file a grievance with them, but would you believe they have no e-mail feedback form? Only a 1-800- number to phone and talk with a person who probably would just shrug it off and forget about it. An easy out for them -- no written record of your complaint, and the person who answers the phone is probably in India.

I've read messages about Trex, but no one out here carries it, either. The nearest thing I can find is Composite Decking, which seems to be too stiff to bend.

[Anonymous]

I'd rather chew out a real person[}:)][:D], automated systems drive me nuts too.

[Anonymous]

Just an updte on WOODFLEX PLUS Bender Board. Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS) acquired the WOODFLEX PLUS Bender Board product line from Plastic Services & Products this past September.

I am the sales representative for VPC Sales and I represent WOODFLEX PLUS for ADS in the Pacific Northwest. You can email me at [e-mail] with any questions.