Well, after another health setback and a move, I’m going to take another shot at an N scale hollow core door layout.
The layout will be in a finished basement room. Carpet covered concrete floors, originally sloped for drainage. Thin paneling covered walls that have been declared off limits for modification or holes. Typical 2x4 foot suspended tile ceiling. I’ll be sharing the room with wife’s sewing and other hobby stuff.
Complications:
For all practical purposes, when it comes to working on, and eventually using, I will be in a wheelchair. I can stand for very brief periods, and walk a few steps. I need this benchwork to be able to withstand me leaning on it for support if needed.
It will require easily adjustable levelers to accommodate the sloped floor.
The HCD deck must be easily removable for work on the underside, and for taking “dirty work” outside.
The biggie…cost. Living on disability leaves VERY little to spare for hobbies.
I need help with ideas for how to construct the benchwork. Right now I keep coming up with dead ends…Not sturdy enough, too expensive, too complicated, too ugly, etc.
The first thing that comes to my mind is mount it so it can rotate. That way you can just flip it up to work underneath and also do some work on top. So that means a couple of A-frames on the ends and a center pivot point on each end with the ability to be able to lock it in different positions. This may also allow you to remove it from the frame to take it outside when necessary. The big disadvantage to that would be that it wouldn’t be able to support your weight. However, you could also make a stationary frame with legs that would slide under it when you did have to have your weight on it. And that frame would also aid you in getting the A-frame ends attached. Some type of outriggers for stability on the A-frame ends would also be a must.
What do you consider “dirty” work that has to be done outside? If you are talking about spray painting, you can use an air brush in the house with acrylic paints with out too much of a problem. No body I know takes their layout outside to work on. Plaster is about the messiest thing that I can think of, but with a module, I would think that you should be using foam. A good vacuum cleaner is a must.
Gandydancer19, your idea for a flip up top is a good one. The small layout I was working on before the move was designed to be able to do that. I’m just afraid of it’s ability to support me. Also I’m trying to simplify things this time. I got carried away the last time and ended up trying to build the “Swiss Army Knife” of benchwork.
In this case dirty work will be just about anything that would endanger the carpet, create more than a little dust, or have issues with fumes and ventilation. This comes from the Secretary of the Interior…otherwise known as “She who must be obeyed”. Her sewing and hobby stuff will be sharing the room. I know it’s going to be a pain in the butt, but still better than the alternative.
No problem on the vacuum cleaner front…large and small shop vacs, and a phalanx of household units.
My first thought was a trestle table with a tiltable top. The A frame above would work well also. A trestle table would have a verticle center post, which might mean you could stand the table at closer to 90 degrees to the floor. By doing so you could do more work from one side. However, if you can get to both sides of the table, either would work as long as you made the pivot to allow a full range of motion.
As for your leaning on the table, is the door really wide enough so that you need to. If you can roll your chair under the layout, you should be able to reach most of it. A fold up leg at each corner would help if you think you need the strength.
For leveling you could make a modified T-nut sort of arrangement. Get some 3/4 inch threaded rod and coupling nuts. Secure a piece of rod to the bottom of the leg. Take another short piece and aggach a foot on it. Put the coupling nuts at a height where you can easily reach them with a wrench.
As for the dirty work, if you did your mixing out of the area, it would limit your dusty messes, just the occasional drop of goop. To eliminate the “stuff” from falling to the floor you could use a jewelers apron, like some folks do when working with small partsl It would keep the mess virtually in your lap. If you put a velcro strip on the bottom of the apron and along the edge of your layout it would be quite easy to move along.
Although the tiltable table sounds good, the problem with it is that you have to remove everything loose on the top before you tilt it over.
I do have some questions. If I remember correctly, hollow core doors are not necessarily the lightest things. If you are wheelchair bound, how do you get the top lifted off the base and out the door? Or would you consider moving the entire layout as one piece?
So far as supporting your weight goes, did you wish to have the layout free standing, or can it be pushed into a corner so that when leaned upon it doesn’t get away?
How uneven is your floor? Portability of the benchwork, which would require rollers of some type, negates the use of permanent adjustable legs.
I did find one structure that might interest you. Bob Smaus had a series of articles starting in the December 1990 MR called the Port of Los Angeles Project. It was HO, but the top of the table was 30 inches wide by 6 feet long. This is probably close to the hollow core door size. He wanted the layout to be moveable, so the benchwork was constructed somewhat like a cart. It had wheels on one end, leveling devices on the legs on the other end, and had another set of legs with leveling devices in the middle. I scanned the picture of the benchwork and show it here:
For your purposes you could move the front lower brace to the back of the assembly, and remove the middle legs and that lower shelf. This would get you access under the table with your chair. You would probably need to add some angle braces between the two front legs and the table top to regain the lateral stability lost due to the front brace removal. You could also attach some sister pieces to the bottom ends of the two legs at the wheel end for the installation of leveling devices.
I hope this is helpful and gives you some workable ideas.
I think the idea of building a support frame like the one built by Bob Smaus would be solid enough to support your weight if you needed to lean on it. One modification I’d make in the design would be to install the two wheels on the sides of the two end legs, instead of on their ends. This design would put all the legs on the floor for lateral stability. The wheels would be installed with the wheels sticking out from the sides of the two legs with the wheel position adjusted so the wheel is barely off the floor surface, e.g., 1/4". To move the layout on the wheels, you would simply lift the end opposite the wheels until the wheels made contact with the floor and then wheel the layout around like a wheel barrow. I’ve made a large work table and two work steps for my layout room with this wheel arrangement and they work great. They’re very stable when down on the floor, but very easy to move on the wheels when required simply by lifting the end to engage the wheels at the opposite end.
To make the underside of the top more accessible, you might want to attach it to the support frame with some large heavy-duty door-type hinges. With this arrangement, you could flip the top over on the hinges to work on the underside, e.g., wiring. You would have to make some arrangement for wires, etc. that would span the layout in the long axis so they would come with the top when you flip it over on the hinges.
I am steering away from the tilt top because eventually I hope to expand with a section at a right angle…the expansion would make maintaining the tilting function difficult. If I was intending this door to be stand alone I’d definitely be going the trestle table route…I’ve built a couple of them in the past.
The need to be able support me leaning on it is only in part for construction. It is largely for safety reasons…because of my medical issues and meds I have near zero sense of balance. It’s a near certainty that I will be losing my balance near by and need it for support.
My dirty work concerns are mainly with larger painting and sanding. My current plans will require a lot of cutting and shaping a lot of foam…with the tools I have available that means a LOT of dust. After dealing with the dust from remodeling our previous house, the secretary of the interior has ruled no dust production in the house. The train room has no ventilation/windows except for the heating & AC duct, and no door between it and the family room. I do like the jewelers apron idea…gotta get me one of those.
[quote user=“cowman”]
My first thought was a trestle table with a tilt able top. The A frame above would work well also. A trestle table would have a vertical center post, which might mean you could stand the table at closer to 90 degrees to the floor. By doing so you could do more work from one side. However, if you can get to both sides of the table, either would work as long as you made the pivot to allow a full range of motion.
As for your leaning on the table, is the door really wide enough so that you need to. If you can roll your chair under the layout, you should be able to reach most of it. A fold up leg at each corner would help if you think you need the strength.
For leveling you could make a modified T-nut sort of arrangement. Get some 3/4 inch threaded rod and coupling n
It will only be the tabletop that will be taken out of the house for dirty work, but the bench work may be moved a bit inside the room during the construction. Yes the doors are not light, but they are carry-able by a “normal” adult. In my case there will be 2 handles on each end of the door, and it will be moved with my wife helping…her on one end, me in the wheel chair on the other. I’ve also considered making a long/narrow dolly to stand the the table top on and roll it about.
In it’s permanent position it will have one short end against the wall with the need to walk/wheelchair around the other 3 sides.
The floor has a noticeable bowl effect…once upon a time this arae was a under-house garage, and the floor was sloped to drain to a center floor drain. I’m not intending the benchwork to be portable after construction.
That benchwork is very close to what I’ve been trying to get to, but I do not need the wheels. I do like the idea of using pre-fab shelf boards for stabilizing the legs. I’ve been trying to plan this layout to be built without having to deal with sheet plywood…I do not have the means to transport or cut it. Cross-cutting shelf boards I can do.
[quote user=“maxman”]
Although the tiltable table sounds good, the problem with it is that you have to remove everything loose on the top before you tilt it over.
I do have some questions. If I remember correctly, hollow core doors are not necessarily the lightest things. If you are wheelchair bound, how do you get the top lifted off the base and out the door? Or would you consider moving the entire layout as one piece?
So far as supporting your weight goes, did you wish to have the layout free standing, or can it be pushed into a corner so that when leaned upon it doesn’t get away?
How uneven is your floor? Portability of the benchwork, which would require rollers of some type, negates the use of permanent adjusta
Making your own apron shouldn’t be too hard. Get a piece of lightweight canvas or old sheet a couple of feet wide and long enough to drop below your knees. Sew a belt made from the same or similar material folded over a couple of times. Have it long enough so you can either tie it or you could put a velcro strip on it also for ease of attaching and removing. Sew a velcro strip on the bottom (to face your knees), then put the mating velcro strip along the side of the layout. Sit down, attach velcro, you now have a lap to catch little parts, dirt and stuff from falling to the floor.
It is quite possible that a traditional lumber yard (not a big box) in your area will both cut sheet plywood to the sizes you want and also deliver it. That’ what I was able to have done, and the extra charges were minimal.
Right now I’m leaning towards a design inspired by a picnic table…the “bents” on each end consisting of angled legs, with horizontal members top and bottom forming a trapezoid. Between the bents, a simple X brace along the center line. Leveling screws on the bottom of each leg adjusting for the uneven floor.
The trapezoid it an inherently strong structure, that I can make with dimensional lumber easily cut on my mitre saw.
I"m not sure exactly what you have in mind, but from the description Jim Hediger used a similar approach on a portion of his home railroad.
The concern I would have in any design relates to the proposed height of the table. My perception of a HCD is that it is relatively narrow. So that would mean that any support structure would have a narrow footprint. As the ratio of the table height to the base depth becomes greater, I think that the table would become inherently more unstable.
The door in question was originally 30" wide, but it has been widened to 42" using a kind of outrigger setup. The base of the trapezoid bent s will be apx 30", with the top being 24" but the horizontal board forming the top of the trapezoid will extend the full 42" width.
The height of the bents would be 30", with the total height after the door and foam had been stacked up being 36" or less.
Hopefully I’ll soon find all the pieces of my desktop PC so I can use the CAD to draw up something for a visual aid.
