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Wood board on aluminium frame?

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  • Member since
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  • From: QLD, Australia
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Wood board on aluminium frame?
Posted by tbdanny on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 7:41 PM

Hi all,

The current framework/benchwork for my layout is 3" by 5" pine stud.  For my backdrop, I'm considering 3mm plywood on an aluminum frame, mounted on top of the pine frame.  I was wondering if expansion/contraction of the wood vs. the aluminum might cause any damage/warping to the backdrop itself?

Cheers,

tbdanny

The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon
The Year: 1948
The Scale: On30
The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com

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Posted by gjvjr50 on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 8:31 PM

I know wood is changing like the 3mm ply?  ,but i do question 3" x 5" studs is that correct?

  • Member since
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  • From: QLD, Australia
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Posted by tbdanny on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 8:38 PM

Whoops,

That should have been 3cm x 5cm, not 3" x 5".  This is what I get for mixing measurement systems Embarrassed

The Location: Forests of the Pacific Northwest, Oregon
The Year: 1948
The Scale: On30
The Blog: http://bvlcorr.tumblr.com

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Posted by Johnnny_reb on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 10:32 PM

Hi Danny nice videos.

I think the 3mm plywood will do just fine. The product most of us use here in the states is called Masonite but as I live just a few miles from you I don't know what you have available to you.

Johnnny_reb Once a word is spoken it can not be unspoken!

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Posted by bogp40 on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 11:24 PM

Any expansion troubles w/ the backdrop would not have much to do with the material used for the verical uprights. If the plywood was to change and buckle it will happen regardless of wood or aluminum. You should glue and screw (countersink) the ply to upright, so if your question was to loosing a glued only bond, you could experience some trouble over  gluing to wood.

If you prime and paint both sides and edges of the ply, you can minimizes any moisure absorbtion which would cause this in the first place.

Modeling B&O- Chessie  Bob K.  www.ssmrc.org

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Posted by tomikawaTT on Wednesday, April 6, 2011 1:25 PM

Plywood will respond to changes in humidity.  This has nothing to do with the material used for upright supports or framing.

My own layout is built on a steel stud frame.  It doesn't have any impact on the plywood used for subgrade.  I don't expect that it will make any difference when I put up a vertical framwork for the (coming soon) backdrop across the garage door.

 

Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

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Posted by dknelson on Friday, April 8, 2011 8:24 AM

bogp40

You should glue and screw (countersink) the ply to upright, so if your question was to loosing a glued only bond, you could experience some trouble over  gluing to wood.

If you wanted to get really fancy, I could imagine the screw through the backdrop going into a short dowel that would in turn go into a slot or oversized hole in the upright (so a bit of movement would be permitted) and something like a cotter pin actually holding the dowel to the back of the upright support.  But now we are getting into rather elaborate engineering that could be addressing a problem that would never actually occur.

Dave Nelson

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