No filters in the basement. I have hot water heat. Much nicer than hot air. AC filter is in the upstairs hallway.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
York1Be sure to change your funace filter after everything settles.
Yup!! I couldn't figure out why my air conditioning had quit when our kitchen renovation was in the drywall stage. Duh!! I'm guessing the furnace filter weighed about two lbs.! It was packed solid.
You might want to get the ducts cleaned too 'when all the dust has settled'. Sorry, couldn't resist. That is so cliche'.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Be sure to change your funace filter after everything settles.
I found out the hard way after some sheetrock work.
York1 John
rrinker The messiest part of the job started today - sanding out the drywall mud. Looked like a massive scale snowstorm, until they cleaned up at the end of the day. Might be paint ready this weekend. --Randy
The messiest part of the job started today - sanding out the drywall mud. Looked like a massive scale snowstorm, until they cleaned up at the end of the day. Might be paint ready this weekend.
Yes, that is how that works..........
it may be extra weight on the far end, but the outside edge is where -most- of the extra weight will be placed later on, when you are working on it ...\
i made mine about the same as dimensional 1 x 4, roughly 3 1/2 inches top to bottom .. all was cut to that size, everything..braces every 16 inches or so, and legs to line up with the studs inside the walls, roughly every 32 inches ...
for the fascia i used 1/8 MDF about 3/8 inch higher than the table top, staples to hold it on, and a neutral color paint
Depending on what day you go to Lowes, the irch they have MIGHT be 13 ply - it was last Sunday, but I bet today it's 7 ply like the oak. This stuff I looked at at the plywood specialty store, it was true 13 ply with the outer veneer actually being thicker than a human hair. I've seen to many articles recommending the use of baltic birch plywood over the years, but was aloways disappointed by what Lowes called birch - it's just cheap softwood core plies with a super thin veneer on each face. The real stuff is birch through and through.
Only downside is the plywood place is only open weekdays, and closes before I am done at work. But the nice thing is, 5x5 sheets of it are easy to handle, compared to 4x8.
That 13 ply must be nice stuff!
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
That's pretty much my plan, although the metla angles, 65 cents a piece at Lowes, or 40 cents a piece on Amazon, are what I am using instead of chopping up 2x2's. The metal is at 90, if it's not they can be bent. Plus I am goign to cantilever my benchwork off the walls and hopefuly have no legs, though I MIGHT need a coupel of legs around the yard area to supprot the weight of a solid sheet of 3/4 plywood (no sense in cookie cutter an dindividual risers for a yard area). The upper deck and the top valance will definitely just cantilever out.
I'm also thinking there is little point to a solid piece running along the front edge. The riser snd roadbed will keep the horizontal pieces in order, plus the fascia attached along the front. Don't know why I would need to add extra weight out at the far end.
The plywood place I found has 13 ply all-birch plywood for less per square foot than Lowes for their 5 or 7 core birch or oak plywood. Only downside is it only comes in 5x5 sheets - but I don't need pieces longer than 4', the longest horizontal pieces will only be 2' out from the wall. Once I get to the helix and staging, I'll have to look at something else.
Regarding benchwork and dimensional lumber -
Generally dimensional lumber has become rather expensive even for the pretzelwood stuff Home Despot and Lowes sells. I still use dimensional lumber for L-girders, leg cross-braces, 2X2 sticks for corner attachments and cheap 2X4 wall studs for legs, that's it. For all joists and grids, I use 3/4" white oak plywood. It's cheaper.
Yeah, that's right. Cabinet grade plywood is cheaper than comparable sized garbage grade dimensional lumber. I have the store use their panel saw to cut the ~$55 sheet of 4X8 plywood into 3" wide strips. I get 15 8' strips, plus one narrower 8' strip from one sheet. That's 120' of 3/4" X 3" for about $55, or about 46 cents per foot. 1X3 mostly-clear (few knots) pine dimensional lumber (actually 3/4" X 2 1/2") costs more.
The only thing extra you have to do when using strip-cut plywood is attach joists to L-girders, or cross-pieces to stringers, using a 2X2 or larger corner block, like here:
The 2X2's are fairly cheap, but only two edges are really square to each other, so you have to check each block to make sure you use the right faces, or your attached pieces won't be perpendicular.
Part of the problem is, my mind keeps changing. I though I had it all settled after a combination of Jeff WIlson's benchwork book, all the old MR articls where Linn Westcott talked about L girder, and Tony Koester's book on building multi-deck railroads. Then I saw somethign that looked like a great way to build it all AND easy to attach to the wall with absolutely no legs, but I've become convinced as I try to lay out the pieces on a sheet of plywood (virtually, in 3rd PlanIt) that those who said it would be a big waste of plywood were right. Not that I would eb left with lots of unusable pieces of plywood, but that even with the best cramming I could do (allowing room for the saw kerf), the number of sheets of plywood to make it all would be crazy expensive.
So then I had another idea, somewhat based on seeing how Jason from Rapido did his - though it was already too late to change to having my basement walls covered in plywood instead of drywall. So the other week while at Lowes I looked at some different options. There are some interesting structural framing angles that would mean all fasteners go through the face of any material used, not into the edge. ANd cheap. Even cheaper, I can get them on Amazon. 40 cents a piece. So, we shall see.
Benchwork. Nothing draws more attention and criticism in here as the topic of benchwork. How to build it and what to use. Threads on DC vs DCC don't come close to the controversy that develops over benchwork.
The entire movie, Blazing Saddles, comes to my mind while enduring the benchwork threads.
Randy, just build what you had in mind, and keep it a secret.
Mike.
My You Tube
Why does this now feel like the scene in Blazing Saddles when Reverend Johnson holds up his Bible to implore the townfolk to settle down, until someone shoots it and he says "Son, you're own your own"?
rrinker Got any pictures of how you put together that benchwork? --Randy
Got any pictures of how you put together that benchwork?
nope, too long ago ..
glad to see that it's slowly coming together ... lots of small things to figure out ...
As far as benchwork is concerned, i made everything out of ripped 5/8 marine grade plywood, they had a good sale on at the time ... all joints are predrilled and end screwed , fronts were catavaliered to the backs , lots of storage room, single layer but elevation changes to plus nine inches or so on the mining / logging sidings especially
Slowly but surely - first coat of mud is over the tape joints and screw holes. Bathroom walls are done inside and out. Old toilet has finally been removed. THere are a few places that need some frywall bits yet, where the old closet as under the stairs.
I also got a new light for the stairs. The old one was a flush can, that I refitted with an LED, but it was over the old landing. As that's just a horizontal ceiling over the stairs, it only lights up the bottom of the stairs. From that point to the top, the ceiling above the stairs is sloped, and there is almost no clerance under that drywall before the whole stiarwell shape was roofed over with plywood. So I got a new LED light that needs no can, it just fits flush int he drywall - a couple of springs clamp it to the inner sirface of the drywall, and the transformer is a separate piece. So now the light is on the same slope as the siars - and the whole thing is brightly lit, top to bottom. MUCH better. And now I can see to remove the old carpet staples on the top two steps so I can finish the stairs and get them painted. Got some porch and deck paint that has some texture material in it
No wall painting this weekend - but probably next weekend it will be ready.
I started benchwork mid-December and have about 40 linear feet of it up, with Homasote for staging, but no track yet. Hopefully in the next couple weeks. Last two weekend I haven't had much time to work on it.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
riogrande5761 Aye! It won't be long now!
Aye! It won't be long now!
Hopefully end of February I'll be able to get soem benchwork started and some track down. I have the track. Just ordered a bunch of roadbed. Going to check out an independent supplier of plywood tomorrow - hopefully they have better quality stuff than the junk I keep finding at the box stores. I think I'd rather cut most of the dimensional lumber from plywood, but it may come down to just using higher quality stick lumber. I've been working out alternatives that require no end nailing or screwing - 65 cent right angle brackets for one thing. I want to experiment but with everything temporarily packed in the garage it's hard to get to some of my tools.
I will have the same, plus LED strip lights to light two decks worth in about the same space. That's a lot of 12 or 24V power supplies (depending on the strips and controllers I use - total will be way more power than needed for the DCC). I'm figuring 4 strips of LEDs per level - 2 white, 1 RGB, and 1 blue.
That's why I put half the outlets up high - instead of runnign wire up from the bottom, the power supplies for the upper deck can sit on top, on what is the valance for the upper deck.
Do I NEED 3x 20 amp circuits? Not even close. But I wanted a lot of outlets to avoid having to use extension cords and lots of power strips or adapters like the ones that convert 2 into 6 outlets. Extension cords especially would be a mess considerign the idea is to store stuff in plastic totes under the layout.
And some day, I won't be there any more, but there will be plenty of power for a future owner to install a bar with a fridge and icemaker, plus an AV room with a giant TV and high power amps. Or go major power tool workshop. Overall going perhaps overkill on the outlets was next to a neglible extra cost.
ATLANTIC CENTRALToday, even on a large layout with DCC and complex controls, power to run the trains is still not much of an issue.
A while back someone posed this question. I was curious about what my layout was pulling.
Layout_amps by Edmund, on Flickr
That's three Digitrax boosters, several power supplies for lighting and signals and Tortoise power on a 24 by 38 foot layout. (This was taken while four trains were running, too),
Thank you, Ed
Exciting times!
Alton Junction
Yea, for sure! looking good!
Looks really good. Plenty of space.
- Douglas
Most of the drywall is now up. They were here working Saturdsay and today.
North wall. Side of stairs is not done yet, upper left is where trains will duck through the wall into staging.
It's like a cave down here with just the temporary contractor lights. This is the section where the yard will be on the left, town on right, engine facility inside the curve in the distance.
The short hook in the wall, helix goes at the end (not capped off yet), branch goes along the wall in the middle. Extra spaces in the box not yet wired on the wall at the base of the stairs will have the illuminated switches to control the room outlets.3 circuits because yes, here there IS a limit to the number of outlets per circuit, even if they are 20 amp circuits.
Even part of the bathroom is now walled in.
They were thinking of having most of it taped and mudded by the end of the week so I can start painting this weekend. Not sure of they will make it, the contractor is a father-son team and the dad was down today with a kidney stone. If he's not able to help this week, it will probably be another week before things are ready.
Wasn't sure if they were even here today, but they did more wiring rough in, got all the outlet circuits run back to where the switches will be, and from there back to the panel. Aslo looks like they were testing the new lighting, there are temporary screw bases connected to the boxes where the new LED panels will go in the drop ceiling.
All the new stuff goes through holes. What they did, and what was allowed when the house was built back in 1973, I have no idea. And I'm not sure when the original owners did the really poor job of finishing the basement, all those light cans are old leftover junk that are being removed. It's all down on those cobbled together supports because there was a drop ceiling before, going to be one again.
Looks like a lot of progress. You'll be laying track soon.
One thing that is not allowed in my area is running wire under floor joists in the basement. In my area, the wires have to go through holes in the joists (at least that's what I was told -- I'm not an expert). I would think that some boards nailed across the bottoms of the joists running beside the Romex would make it legal.
Lots of progress today. Wiring, and a whole bunch of drywall went up.
North wall, exit to staging will be through the wall yet to go up to the left, which is where the stairs are.
South wall, left is where the yard will be.
Other side of the room where the yard will go. Town will go along this wall.
At the end of the short wall in the center is where the helix will go.
View in from the other side of the room, yard will be on the right, town on left. There will be a removeable section across in front of the furnace and water heater.
Not sure if anything will be taped and mudded for painting by this weekend or not. Might be another week until that stage.