scaling down lumber

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have an easy formula or ever seen a chart to scale down lumber sizes? I've searched here and done a few conversions on my own but was wondering if there was a chart floating around out there someplace. Thanks Jim

[tatans]

I tried scaling down lumber for shipping in boxcars and flatcars, good luck ! actual scaled down 2x6, 2x8, 2x10 are so small you may inhale them, far too small to be practical and very hard to make. Now I just slice up small boards(quite small) and glue them together to make loads of lumber (it's up to you to guess the type of board they are) If you are actually needing true scaled lumber for construction, try a kit or have a lot of patience

[jeffers_mz]

HO is 1/87th scale. A 2x4 in reality measures 1.5 by 3.5 inches. 1.5 divided by 87 is 0.0172 inches. There are 64 sixty fourths in an inch and 64 times 0.0172 equals 1.1, so any HO two by stock would be 1.1 sixty fourths of an inch thick. You can cut wood this thin on a table saw, but it starts to get pretty flimsy when it's cut that thin.

3.5 inches, divided by 87 equals 0.0402 inches, times 64 equals 2.57 sixty fourths of an inch, or about 1.5 thirty seconds of an inch thick. Because of cell size in woods, the strength to size ratio does not form a linear relationship, smaller wood will not support a proportionally smaller wieght, it supports less than you'd expect when scaling down.

A real purist could get around this by fudging a little on sizes, and by very careful handling of the material, but for most people, different construction methods are necessary.

Most buildings are only visible from the outside, so wall thickness and stud thickness are not an issue. I generally model using wood ripped to between 1/16th and 1/8th inch or about 3/32nds thick. I rip one by fours down to one by three, and glue about four of them together with clamps to form a block about three inches wide by three inches (if four one bys are glued face to face) thick by about two or three feet long.

This roughly square in cross section block is easy to control on a 10" table saw. I stand the glue joints upright and set the fence about where it eyeballs good and rip a test piece. I use a micrometer to gauge thickness, but a tape measure or even your eye will work just as well. Then I adjust as needed, and rip as many as I can before my fingers start getting too close to the blade or until a pusher block doesn't have enough left to work with.

Now I'll have maybe eight pieces of 3/32nds inch thick by three inch wide by two foot long "slabs" of wood as raw stock.

8 feet, divided by 87 equals 0.0919 feet, times 12 equals 1.103 inches. 1.103 inches, minus one inch leaves 0.103 as a fraction of an inch, times 64 equals 6.62 sixty fourths, which reduces to about 3/32 inch. I take my 3/32 inch thick slabs and rip them to 1 and 3/32 inch wide, and now have several feet of building material for eight foot high walls. If a corner of a building requires reinforcement, I'll glue up two pieces of the eight foot wall material at a right angle, and handle it gently while adding a roughly square corner post ripped from the 3/32" slabs.

Different wall heigths can be calculated using similar math, and scales other than HO simply rewquire you divide by a number other than 87 to begin with. The above method, slabs 1 and 3/8" by 3/32" scales out to 8 inches thick, by 7.9 feet tall.

The calculator built into windows under accessories makes short work of the necessary math.

[nedthomas]

Try this link from Evergreen scale models. http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/conversions.htm#Scale%20Conversion%20Charts

[MisterBeasley]

I use wooden coffee stirrers from work. They've recently switched to red plastic, oval in cross section. So far, I haven't figured out what to model with those, but just give me some time.

The wooden ones, though, will do fine for wood fences and a wood deck floor for my roundhouse. They're probably a lot wider than any reasonable stock lumber, but they look OK when weathered and jagged-cut.

[on30francisco]

Mt. Albert, Kappler, and Northeastern all sell scale lumber in HO, S, O, and G scales. The smallest pieces available in all scales are a scale 1"x2". All this lumber is very accurate and of excellent quality.

[tommyr]

Just go to a LHS & buy an HO scale rule.
Tom

[MichaelWD]

I went thru and put together a spreadsheet of HO scale sizes. They go from 1" to 18 '. I f you want a copy let me know and I will foward one to you.
Mike Dickinson squeaky at netsync.net

[tstage]

Jim,

You can actually purchase scale lumber from your LHS. Evergreen makes the styrene version. Another company (name???) makes it in wood. (Hmm. Does Evergreen also make wood?) Anyway, it's already been done for you.

In order to do it on your own, just convert the dimensional lumber to actual size. For instance:

A 2 x 4 is really a 1-1/2 x 3-1/2". Divide that by the scale ratio (e.g. 87.1 for HO) and you get 0.017 x 0.04 in HO scale.

Tom