You will want to take the thin clear plastic cover off of the blue foam. You don't want that. The clear plastic itself doesn't adhere very well, so anything you glue to it is likely to come off, taking the plastic with it.
3/8 ply with 1/2 inch blue foam should be fine for stiffness. Since you're suspending it, though, I'm gathering that you plan to raise this on pullies and store it overhead when it's not in use. If so, you might want to re-think the plywood. If you were to replace the plywood and 1/2-inch foam with just 2-inch foam, you would have a tabletop that's just as stiff, and maybe stiffer, and a whole light lighter.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Do you have any other method for storing the layout? You might find that devising and constructing a consistently workable method of raising the layout from the floor to the ceiling may be the most difficult part of building your layout. Have you considered suspending the layout long side between two stands so that you can swing it up to a vertical position when not in use. It's still on the floor but when not in use it is only as wide as the width of the leg base. Saves a lot of room, but you do have to glue everything down (buildings, trees, etc.) or remove them when the layout is not in use.
I will second Ray Idea. Say 15 years ago I had a big HO Slot car track that I hung in my Garage. It was 13 foot and 5 foot wide. When it was down it was a blast, then one day I need the extra room. Took 2 strong men (I was strong then) to rasie it up. It was such a pain it did not come down till I moved. If you use a electric wench like I should have then go for it.
Might look at a fold against the wall idea as well. Will not have tall hills on it but will work much better than the over head thing.
Cuda Ken
I hate Rust
It sounds like you built the bench just fine and the stiffness that you need is to keep the layout from twisting. This is a simple problem to fix and I would do it with an "X" brace on the bottom side of the benchwork it needs to go from corner to corner and can be made out of steel flat stock ( 1"x 1/8" would be fine) or out of more of the 1x4s you used to frame the bench out of. The brace to be its strongest would need to be uncut and also joined in the middle where the 2 beams cross. If using the 1x4s tho you will need to either recess the lower brace or make standoffs for the upper brace.
A Veteran, whether active duty, retired, national guard, or reserve, is someone who, at one point in his or her life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America" for an amount of "up to and including my life."
3shorts wrote:Built me a 4x8 table, 1x4's on 16" centers, topped with 3/8 ply. I don't think it's stiff enough. Yep, I used screws. Any ideas? Am going to suspend it from garage joists. Still working that idea out! Have 1/2" blue foam poly for the top. Will the cover on that stuff prevent stuff adhering to it? plaster, etc. I thought of that after I got it home.................
If you feel that the 3/8 ply is too weak for your liking, the foam once bonded well will stiften the whole frame. !" or thicker would be a better choice but you should be OK with the 1/2"
Modeling B&O- Chessie Bob K. www.ssmrc.org
Thanks for the advice, all. I removed the 3/8" ply, screws are lovely fasteners! and am using 2" foam that is actually roof board. Has heavy paper on both sides. Very stiff. Had it here all the time and never gave it a thought until you prompted me. Should make it a lot lighter too. Now on to the means of raising it. A wall mount is not feasible in my situation. Gotta go up! I have a bunch of single and double pulleys to make 4 chainfall type lifts. And a boat winch to wind them all at the same time. Will try and keep you posted if it works good.
The idea of an "X" brace on the underside is a very good one, I second that. Place your hoist ropes on the reinforced corners and ensure that when you raise and lower that the tension is kept even. You've used good construction materials, but how is the quality of the work? Are all the joints square and tight, cut with a mitre? As my friend in the home repair business says, "tight trim is the right trim". Using a bit of construction adhesive in the joints along with the screws will be a good thing as well.
I would have gone without any wood in that design and constructed the entire framework from 2" foam, using a geodesic pattern of bracing under a 2-3" foam platform, sticking the whole thing together with foam cement. Foam scenery almost goes without saying. Stay away from plaster based techniques, any flexing at all will quickly put and end to your handiwork. Using foam only would save 50lbs or more of benchwork weight, 100lbs or so on scenery; reducing stress on your suspension ropes or chains and reducing the fatigue on the garage joists.
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
Figured it all out. made table out of 2 1/2" roof plank, a fairly dense foam board with card type cover on both sides. Used for commercial flat roof work......Had it all the time. Put it on the wooden form I had built. Hung same with 4 chains from garage joists. Carefully leveled all and now with rope-fall can pull it forward and because it is a parallelogram it swings up and stays level; trains remain steady and the car can use garage too! Chains are 3 feet long and must be hung quite accurately, same distance apart, same length, directly opposite side to side. Anyway, it's working!
To keep Hercules out of your employee requirements, just rig counterweights that will descend when you raise the table. Add weight as you build more into the layout, so that it only takes a few pounds of pull to raise the table to the stowed position.
Elisha Otis figured that out about the time he patented the safety elevator.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Marlon
See pictures of the Clinton-Golden Valley RR
Medina1128 wrote:Otis invented the elevator? When did he find time between visits to the Mayberry jail?
Now, that thar is funny!