I once again have bought something without readig first... one of these days i will have to learn to stop doing that. Anyways, My original plan was to just throw a 4x8 sheet onto some framing, cover the whole thing in foam and carve out the scenery from there. I went to the store, picked up some 2x2, some 1x2, and a 1/2"x4'x8' sheet of MDF. I figured the MDF would make a good base because it is sturdy, not to heavy, and a lot smother than the cheaper plywood that home depot has. I really didn't want to pay like $40 a sheet for the hardwood stuff either.
Here I ran into a problem. The home depot here only caries the white styrofoam sheets. (The kind that break into tiny staticly charged beads and go everywhere) I asked them if they carried the pink or blue extruded foam and they looked at me like I was crazy. Same thing at lowes. I wasn't just asking the floor monkies either, I went over to contractor services and asked there. The local lumber yards yeilded either the wrong foam again or no insulation whatsoever.
Fast forward to today where I have read through like 20 pages of the construction fourum, and 2 books including the "how to build benchwork" book in the model railroader series. It has become very clear to me that an L girder setup using the cookie cutter method is going to serve me best. I am wondering now though if the MDF which I purchaced will still work, or if I'm compleatly hosed. It does bend a bit, and might work, but i'm not sure if i'll be able to use it. I had considered leaving chunks of it for the yard and town areas, and then cutting the sub-roadbed from normal plywood, but this almost seems like more work than it's worth.
At this point, if I can't use the MDF then i'll probably just scrap it and get a sheet of 1/2" ply to do the whole thing. I know that MDF hates water, so plaster wouldn't be kind to it, but I may be able to paint it to seal it first? It's not that big of a deal if i can't use it. It was only like $15 anyways.
Thanks,
Justin
Hello Justin,
I have used what I call "chip board" (can't think of the real name -CDX?) 5/8" thick in 4x8 sheets for parts of my layout and also 1/2" & 5/8" plywood (smooth on both sides, one side better) for the "cookie cutter" parts of the layout. They both worked well for me. Then I used cork roadbed and sheet cork for the track. I used all ''L-girder" construction for the base using 1x2's, 1x3's, 1x4's and 2x4's. You could drive a Mack truck on it.
Good luck!
Paul
I think I may have been wrong about the MDF desegantion I gave the wood earlier. As I recall MDF is very smooth on both sides, and kinda paper-like inside.
I suspect that the chip board that you used may be the same stuff as i'm thinking of using, but maybe not. The board I have looks like what would happen if you mixed sawdust and glue into a paste and then extruded it into a 4x8 sheet and let it dry. The only other boart that I might call chip board is the cheap stuff that they use for sub-floors that is large chunks of wood glewd haphazardly together and plained flat. I hate that stuff and won't touch it!
Ok, Yeah I was wrong. I have a sheet of "particle board" or "Chipboard".
Photo from wikipedia
Mine looks like the one on top.
A comparison shot of the two:
The evil board I mentioned in the last post is OSB (Orient strand board)
kg6zjm wrote: The home depot here only caries the white styrofoam sheets.
The home depot here only caries the white styrofoam sheets.
My Home Depot and Lowes both carry it.. but I live in New Hampshire. Maybe they are not because you live in a warm area I am guessing? Perhaps they can order it.
Chris
3/4" Plywood with cork, homasote or soundboard on top of that.
my comments on my blog
http://wwwjoe-daddy.blogspot.com/2007/01/roadbed.html
my 2 cents.
Joe Daddy
Try calling an insulation contractor in your area an d ask about foam board, even in warmer clims it would be used because of air conditioning.
Hope you find it as it is a great material to work with.
Lee
You might want to talk to a siding contractor who installs sheet siding (steel, aluminum or vinyl) about fan-fold underlayment. It's thin foam, 4' x 50' folded up into a 2' x 4' bundle. I'm using mine for roadbed, since cork doesn't like single-digit humidity.
My track, from the bottom up:
I've been using this system for three years now, and am completely satisfied with it.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a Mojave Desert garage)