Wiring a foam top layout?

[Anonymous]

Hi everyone,

What is a good way to run and secure wires on a foam top layout?
I'd like to place terminal strips where the feeder wires come out, but
how do you attach them? Glueing a piece of plywood to the foam to make a base
for the strips is about the only way I can see. Is there any other way?

[selector]

Can't see the picture. Your webhost wants to swap spit with my computer, and my computer doesn't want any part of it.

Sorry.

[JCasey]

Hi Kyle,
Double sided foam tape should be able to hold the terminal strips shouldn't it? And I have seen self adhesive cable clamps that should work for routing wires. Just a thought.
John

[rolleiman]

QUOTE: Originally posted by selector

Can't see the picture. Your webhost wants to swap spit with my computer, and my computer doesn't want any part of it.

Sorry.

[#ditto][#ditto][#ditto]

[JCasey]

That's strange, I could see his picture just fine!
John

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JCasey

That's strange, I could see his picture just fine!
John

Strange indeed..
I moved the image to a different server. Maybe that one works better.

[eng22]

Velcro??? There was an article on-line the other day about using heavy duty velcro to secure switch motors to foam board. Just a thought.

[jwr_1986]

for foam liquid nails for projects works great. It's cheap and tacky enough that you don't have to stand there holding the piece until it's dry. Just stick it and forget it. Also the MR projects illustrated section this month has a nice bit on using straws as conduit through the foam, it might be of interest to you if you haven't allready seen it.

Jesse

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by JCasey

Hi Kyle,
Double sided foam tape should be able to hold the terminal strips shouldn't it? And I have seen self adhesive cable clamps that should work for routing wires. Just a thought.
John

Thanks for the tip with the cable clamps, John. Good idea.

Last night I cut a couple of 2"x1" pieces out of 1/8" plywood and glued them
with a glue gun to the underside of my layout to build a base for screwing the
terminal strips on. Works great! They're attached rock solid in just a few seconds.

I'll look into using the adhesive cable clamps to route the wires.

[NZRMac]

Nice job Kyle!!

Ken.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by NZRMac

Nice job Kyle!!

Ken.

Thanks, Ken.
I'm definitely planning on keeping the wiring cleaner this time than the mess I ended up with on my first layout.. [:0]

[Anonymous]

Hey Kyle,
I have a 1/4" of veneer under my foam so I don't have any problem gluing to the foam but a friend of mine just glued to the foam! He used a thin piece of veneer and put a 12" x 12" square of it under the table to mount all kinds of relays, DCC stuff to. Works well!

JP

[MisterBeasley]

Do you have rafters under the foam? I put in rafters at 16-inch spacing, and I'm using trestles to support the foam at higher elevations than the base level. That gives me lots of places to tack on the wires, attach terminal strips, etc. For my bus wires (both track and control) I drilled holes and threaded the wires.

[sansouci]

I see wooden framing that you can just shoot a small screw into with your binding strip.

[chateauricher]

Why not just put your terminal strips on the nearest wood support ?

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by MisterBeasley

Do you have rafters under the foam? I put in rafters at 16-inch spacing, and I'm using trestles to support the foam at higher elevations than the base level. That gives me lots of places to tack on the wires, attach terminal strips, etc. For my bus wires (both track and control) I drilled holes and threaded the wires.

Because of the 1.5" layer of foam, I build my benchwork very light. This allows me
to pull the layout away from the wall to easily work on it (the legs have rollers).
The downside to that construction of course is a lack of rafters to screw things on to.
But gluing 1/8" plywood pieces to the underside of the foam seems to work fine.