No one appears to have asked…why do you want wiggly board edges?
Is wiggly the same as round edges or curves? If that’s the meaning of the word I answer the following:
I think it’s good looking and I’m curious how to build it technically.
How should you have done the same thing?
Yes, wiggly is curved… usually one way then the other… or serpentine… as in a snake.
How to do it?
- Don’t! (unless you really want a lot of extra work)
- If you are using a non-table top structure (L girder or similar) build your girder stucture leaving the ends of the structure protruding from the centre out to where they would cross the imagined line of the edge of your structure… then add a non-structural valance around the outside held in place by the contact points with the solid girders. This would tend to produce a series of straight lines between the contact points OR a lot of potential stress on the girders at those points. To eliminate this make the valance of at least two layes of thin material (1/8") Attach the inside of the curve at the ends, set to shape and then clamp the outside to it. The clever bit is getting the glue you will need evenly distributed between the two layers. When this sets the valance will be 1/4" curved plywood. How strong it will be will depend on how good your glueing and clamping will be. Get it wrong and it will delaminate and straightenn out…at some time…maybe in a couple of years. (See answer 1
).
You could set the curve in clamps, then start from one end and release, glue and reclamp working through to the other end. → Good Luck! (you’re gonna need it!)
OR you make a profile for the curve, hold the inside laminate solid against it and glue the outside to it starting before the first end, working steadily round clamping frequently to beyond the far end. When you are happy that it is solid you trim the ends to length having first checked that it is long enough against the structure. There is value in leaving some or all of the former (the curve you clamped the inner laminate against) in place… which effectively makes this a partial or complet L girder… SO… if you are using an L girder construction you can make curved L girders in this way… BUT use more than just two laminates of ply…3
EL:
Sway is sideways movement, like when you bump the table and all the trains fall over.
In the benchwork picture you posted, the benchwork is attached to the wall, to counter act sway, they didn’t use any diagonal braces. If you won’t be against the wall, you will have to use braces instead.
A 2’ x 8’ module will get the job done, but is inefficient in material use. The largest area enclosed by any perimeter is when using a circle, the largest volume is enclosed by a sphere, in this case, area applies and you want to approximate a circle to get the most layout area for a given amount of lumber. The square is the most efficient shape to work with in lumber, since curves raise so many other issues.
The detail above indicates a network of one module with legs and bracing, with eight other modules hanging from it that have no legs. From the side, it would look like a mushroom with a narrow stalk and a wide head. In reality, you won’t approach this efficiency level without forcing the layout design to fit into the benchwork limitations, because you will need more legged modules than shown, around the edges and in the middle too. The idea is to use one legged module to float eight non-legged modules, but the edge modules will need legs and the overall dimensions of the layout might not be a perfect multiple of 9 modules.
But you’ll still get a lot of layout area for the least possible support structure and materials.
The module with legs requires three 8’ by 1 inch by whatever strips for the top, two 8 foot strips for the legs (assuming a 4’ bench height), and 2 eight footers for diagonal braces. It can carry 8 modules with no legs, well it can carry one side of eight modules without legs, the far edges will require other legged modules to attach to.
The unlegged module requires three 8 foot strips, and is simply screwed through the perimeter to legged modules. In theory, you could get nine modules, 12’ by 12’, 144 square feet
Method 4 (Something else you might think about…)
Build your railroad on square or rectangular boards (or on L girders) and add on the curved outer edges as hook or bolt on modules. This way you can build all the strength you want into a conventioanl frame and get the curved front.
This would have the advantage of the lack of weird stresses of a square or rectangle plus the shape you choose. (Bearing in mind that if you hang a lot of weight on the front that will add its own stresses).
The thing with all of this is to end up with a stress free frame.
Even with adding facias beware of using the fixed points to create tension or compression to hold the curve in the front… if you are doing this you have a constant stress in the frame which will always suffer/have (potential) probems as a result.
The laminating system is basically the way we used to make plywood boats before someone helped out and developed fibreglass.
When laminating curved forms use spreader pads to distribute the effect of the clamps. If these are unshaped us a bigger pad on the outside and a smaller one inside. if you have the tools & skill and are using a lot of the same curve you could make up curved pads. The inside ones might be left in place to help maintain the curve.
Have fun!
Electrolove
What is the size of the room you plan on building your layout in and how will it be placed in the room? Will you be able to walk around it?
Look at the following link. There I have pictures of my layout space. Feel free to draw a trackplan for me if you want. Single or multilevel.
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=58747