Hi, Im ready to buy my wood for my 4 by 12 table....Now, just looking into how I should build the table. Any suggestions on should i use 2 by 4's or 4 by 4's??? How would you build the table???
Thanx,
CS
I think 2x4's are too heavy to use for framing. Unless you are going to climb on the table, I would use 1x4's. I would frame it up so that the frame looks like a set of 2' x 2' boxes.
So that means one 1x4 down the center and one on each side. Then there are the cross braces. One on each end and 4 in the middle section. Now, for those in the middle section, I would notch them half way through where they cross the long one going down the center, and then notch it (the long center one) at every place where a cross piece crosses it. That way you have an interlocking framework.
Something like I have tried to show here, looking from the top down.
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You can use 2x2's for the legs and space them every four feet.
Elmer.
The above is my opinion, from an active and experienced Model Railroader in N scale and HO since 1961.
(Modeling Freelance, Eastern US, HO scale, in 1962, with NCE DCC for locomotive control and a stand alone LocoNet for block detection and signals.) http://waynes-trains.com/ at home, and N scale at the Club.
For my 'original' 5x12 table, which is now a peninsula, I went with classic L girder construction but used heavywall steel studs for the 'C acts like L' main girders. The L girders are 42 inches inside to inside, there are joists at irregular intervals and the cookie-cut plywood subgrade is supported on pieces of steel stud sculpted (with snips and tin-bending pliers) into risers. There will eventually be four level areas and a lot of grades on that peninsula, and L girder construction makes it possible to rearrange the supporting structure as necessary without disturbing the trackwork.
While it was freestanding, I could lift one end of the all-steel-stud basic frame (joists on 16 inch centers) with two (aged, arthritic) fingers - WAY lighter than any wood structure I've ever used.
Why steel? Here in the dessicated desert, heat and lack of humidity does strange things to wood. Steel studs don't warp, twist or sag.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
This link http://www.trains.com/mrr/objects/pdf/mr_ht_7-01_hotrackplanpdfs_01.pdf on the second page has a drawing of a 4x8 table. You could do the same for a 4x12 just use 12' sides instead of 8' sides and add legs at 6'. ALternatively, you could build in two sections of 8' and 4' and bolt them together. If you're not using a solid plywood top, you might want to put the cross pieces 12" apart instead of 16"
Enjoy
Paul