Last month I started a thread asking how to deal with warped walls in wood craftsman kits. The consensus was to use internal bracing and that has proven to be sound advice. I just opened my next kit and discovered a new problem. This kit has a floor which is badly warped. It is thicker than the walls and opposing corners have curled up significantly. Bracing isn’t an option because I want to detail the interior and I don’t want to raise the structure by putting bracing under the floor.
My idea is to see if I can flatten out the floor by steaming it until it has absorbed quite a bit of moisture and then pressing it flat with a stack of books while it dries out. Any opinions on whether that is a good or bad idea or other options I should consider?
That ought to work. Haven’t done that myself, but plenty of people have said it works.
Think about bracing that floor anyhow. If it warped in the box it will probably warp in the building. You can put the whole building on a “masonry” foundation (1/4 inch strip wood with brick or stonework paper glued on the outside). That will give some room underneath the floor for braces. You can download all sorts of “textures” (brick, cinder block, cut stone, whatever) and print them out on your inkjet.
If the part is as bad as the picture you painted; I don’t think it will stay true ‘if’ you got it flat. You said you dont care to use braceing, it most likly will return to the shape it wants.
Can’t you just get some new stock and fab a new part, start with a true /flat part there a better chance it will remain true, just thinking
If I had more confidence in my skills I might consider fabricating a new floor. The problem is this is a Laser Art kit and the various parts fit together with tabs and slots that are cut very precisely. It’s a good system and I’ve built several of the smaller structures. I just don’t think I could hand cut the floor board as precisely as it needs to be and without a good foundation the whole structure will probably be out of whack.
I mentioned in the OP that the floor is thicker than the walls. I should have said it is also much stiffer. I’m not even sure bracing in with 1/8" lumber would straighten it out. I think the bracing might end up bending.
I have never built one ofthose kits. I do however build a lot of scratch built and kitbashs
A floor is a flat piece cut to fit the buiding, most likely stright lines and square corners. you dont need the tabs and slots. There’s got to be more then a few ways to mount walls to a base/floor and then contuin on with the plan. Myself I would not let tabs and slots slow down construction.
Have you consider contacting the makers to request a new part?
Your idea will work fine. I have run into this problem assembling wood structure and rolling stock kits. The curling/waviness is because the wood has take up or has lost some amount of moisture needed to keep it flat. This water content depends on the relative humidity of the place the kit was stored.
After you flatten the floor, you must coat both sides with a sanding sealer (both spray and brush-on kinds are readily available from well-stocked hardware stores). I work with wood a lot and have shellac on hand, which also works great for sealing wood. The idea is to stop your floor from changing its water content once it is nice and flat by sealing all surfaces.
Also the floor will get added bracing once you glue the walls in place, so you should be fine after the walls are up.
Is it possible to go back to the kit manufacturer to ask for a replacement?
If not, I would suggest getting the floor as flat as possible using the methods already described, and then using something like Gorilla glue to glue the floor to a sheet of 5/16" or 3/8" plywood that has been trimmed to shape. As was suggested by another poster, the plywood can be diguised as a foundation.
As for the various suggestions to use some type of bracing beneath the floor and disquise it with a foundation, that isn’t feasible given that this is a store front and it would be unusual to have a step up to the first floor. It would also be out of character with the rest of the structures on the block. I want to keep the ground floor on the ground.
Not to push the floor reinforcing, but is there any possibility of recessing the floor bracing below the sidewalk level? I’m not sure what stage your layout is at so carving into the base could be easy or it could make a real mess.
The structure is going to be set on a plywood base. It’s possibile I could mortise it out to make room for bracing but that seems to be the least attractive option. I’m going to try steaming it and flattening it out and then sealing it as another poster has suggested. That seems to me to be the best option. The floor board is so thick and stiff I’m not sure bracing would do the job anyway. It think it is more likely it would bend the bracing.
Is it possible to totally flatten the part by pressing on it with your hand? If so, before trying any idea of steaming it or other “last resort” ideas, I would make a careful tracing of the part, capturing its tabs or slots, so that you at least have that. Indeed if you could totally flatten it on the bed of a scanner/copier, a couple of Xerox type copies of the part would be good to have in reserve in case you do have to make your own parts, or distort or destroy the original.
You can purchase the same micro-plywood that most of the laser kit manufacturers use, but I find it a bit of a challenge to work with using hand tools. If you do make a replacement part I’d just use good quality basswood or other wood with good stability but which is more easily worked. If you have a template of the original part (as suggested above) it should be possible to make a very usable replacement part where the tabs and slots all fit like they should.
Indeed since the part in question is a floor, even scribed styrene should not be disdained as a replacement part.