Do a search for “Door Hollow Shortline” on Google, its a large scale portable layout built from hollow core doors and its a terrific looking setup! [:D]
I think splice plates has been pretty well covered. I used everything from 3/8th" plywood to scrap pieces of 1x4. Just made sure I screwed it into the wood frame of the door. The door skin is so thin I would not depend on it to hold anything. I have cut narrow sections of Hollow core door and faced the cut edge with a strip of hard board cut to the thickness of the door plus whatever I glued on top of it. Used yellow carpenters glue and it worked great.
Ralph
Amargosa Railroad
Hi B&M1955
I would look at hinges as a medium for joining the sections I am not quite sure how its done.
I do know the pin is knocked out and a replacement removable pin is inserted in the hole the hinge will also help align the joint.
I suspect some other support may be nesassary but I cannot find the UK model railway book that explains how its done.
regards John
RMC did a 4-part series I think two years ago on Don Spiro’s layout where he used a similar shelf-type construction. He said as long as you were very careful to do it right, make sure everything was level etc., it worked out very well for an around the walls shelf type layout up to 2’ wide. I’m intending on doing something similar for my new layout. If you get the correct type of shelfing (with two brackets per unit instead of one) it is very strong. [:)]
Check my website:
http://kc.pennsyrr.com/layouts/dvollmer/
I used a hollow-core door with folding table legs for my benchwork.
But isn’t yours just one door ?
Yeah, I guess I should have read the question more closely.
I think you’d be fine cleating the doors together with 1x3s on the underside, so long as you make sure the screws go into the door frame and not the hollow part.
For mounting Tortoise switch machines on the bottoms of hollow core doors, I start with double-sided white foam tape, which allows me to make minor adjustment in location.
Once the final location is determined, I drill small holes in the luan and put in wood screws. So far, these have been holding up very well because the tape bears most of the weight.
cacole: I have built two HO scale layouts on the 30x80 inch hollow core doors. . . . I built 2x4 framing with crossmembers in the center of each door and at the ends where the two doors abutt. I used metal framing brackets and drywall screws for frame assembly, and turned the 2x4s at the door joints flat so there was more surface for the screws. <
I then glued two layers of 1/2 inch thick sound board on top of the doors using carpet adhesive. This makes for a rock-solid layout that is strong enough to kneel on. . . . <
cacole, I do not know what sound board is, would you elaborate?
Since I wish to handlay some of the track (crossings in particular), I’ll need to include Homosote as part of benchwork design. I wonder if Homosote can be adequately glued atop an extruded foam scenery base (door + 2" foam layer + Homosote roadbed)?
UP2CSX: (plastic tables) – The legs are the only downside to using the tables if you need the space underneath. If you were building regular benchwork, you actually end up with less legs using tables than if you built the normal way. <
UP2CSX, how do you control layout height and levelness with the legs on the tables? Say a layout builder wanted a layout height of, say, 50 inches? . . .
jawnt: some thoughts on hollow-core doors. They are usually made of 2 layers of 3/32" plywood sandwiching a 1x2" perimeter frame. . . . The center area has an egg-crate of cardboard glued in place for stiffness between the two skins. About the only fasteners that will hold in the 3/32" skin would be hollow wall anchors and they WILL NOT take a lot of strain. <
jawnt, hmmm, maybe a 1x2 frame with cross braces and corner glue blocks, with a plywood top for rigidity, would be better than a hollow-core door, considering the egg-crate cardboard and a need for some underneath-mounted electric switch machines? If one were to cut holes into the bottom surface of the door to mount th
UP2CSX: (plastic tables) – The legs are the only downside to using the tables if you need the space underneath. If you were building regular benchwork, you actually end up with less legs using tables than if you built the normal way. <
UP2CSX, how do you control layout height and levelness with the legs on the tables? Say a layout builder wanted a layout height of, say, 50 inches? . . .
Leveling is really the easy part. Since the tables aren’t attached to the wall, I just bought some of those screw-in levelers at Lowes and then adjusted each leg until the table surface was level. One of the advantages of a shelf layout that’s attached to the wall is that you can start with a level surface regardless of the floor level but you still have to adjust the legs if you are using them for support. My basement floor was about one inch off level over 16 feet so the leveling wasn’t too extreme.
Adjusting height is a little trickier but it can still be done. The tables are 32 inches high as they come, which was just about right for me. I can reach across the layout a lot better at that height and I like a bird’s eye view. A friend of mine constructed a similar layout but he wanted the surface to be 48 inches. He got some rigid wall conduit and through bolted the conduit to the table legs. He then used the same type of screw-in levelers to get everything level. Even at 48 inches, the structure was rigid and pretty strong once he bolted the tables together and glued down two inches of foam.
[:-^]
Hi B&M,
I have glued ceiling tile to the hollow core doors and to pink foam board and also WS roadbed to all of the above. Latex caulking will work and so will a product called “NO MORE NAILS” this comes in a caulking tube or a hand held sqeezable tube. and “YOU DON"T NEED A LOT” be very careful and it will stretch quite well. Keep those costs down…
James:! Verse:5
THERE GOES THE WOBBLY… Who said it was dead.
Johnboy out…