Do what Jim from Kansas did plus run diagonals length ways also so your single module doesn’t rack. 1/2 a sheet of luan, 1/2 a sheet of foam, 2-1/2 8 ft furring strips for facia all around, 4 2x2 legs and 4 furring strip diagonals. This gets you a 2x8 foot module. The wood can be cupped, twisted knotted or whatever as long it doesn’t break in half you are good to go.
I would drill slightly larger holes and install rubber grommets to protect the wires.
All of my benchwork was assembled using pocket hole screws. Absolutely the best way to avoid butt joint problems in woodworking. I forgot to mention that’s what I used…
Don Z.
Update on pricing
Local Home Depot has 7-ply 23/32" A/C plywood sheets for $24
First cut is free, the one employee I spoke with said additional cuts also free (but do you trust them to get the cuts parallel to the finished sides?).
Doc in CT.
I think what you are asking is for a way to build this layout with out the larger power tools? My thinking is build a frame that looks like a ladder. Use the square “C” channel to form the perimeter. Then the cross pieces out of the “studs”. The legs can be made out of 1" x 3" planks that are made into an “L” with screws and carpenters glue. Six legs and a few little “Y” braces. I still say that cross pieces on 16" center will support 2" foam more than adequately. No power tools needed except for a power screw driver- drill. Want to attach something to the foam or metal? “Liquid Nails”(panel glue) a 1/4’ piece of scrap plywood to it. The “C” channel comes in 10’ lengths.
2 pcs. of “C” channel
2 Studs
1 Sheet of foam
5 pcs. of 1" X 3"
Start laying track.[dinner]
Enjoy
Lee
My layout is 90 feet long and U shaped. I made it from 1 X 4’s placed 16" on centers and covered with the least expensive 3/8" plywood I could find. I made the legs in an L shape using a 1 X 4 and a 1 X 2 on edge. I glued all joints and used a lot of drywall screws too. It’s so strong, I can walk on top it.
I did spend extra money on covering the whole thing with 1" blue foam board. If you plan on using cork roadbed, the foam is not absolutely necessary, but I wanted to dig out certain areas for ditches etc.
Sure, some of my lumber was not perfectly straight, but any decent carpenter knows you place the arches up and the differences pretty much average themselves out. I was a little fussy and hand picked my pieces at the lumber yard. If you are making modular construction, the lumber yard will cut up most of your plywood for you - for cheap.
Another option is to forget the plywood altogether and cover the whole thing with 2" foam board. And,if you want inclines and raised track work but don’t want to saw out the plywood in a “cookie cutter” fashion, you can use Woodland Scenics Foam Risers.
Bottom line, you don’t need expensive and heavy benchwork. Most of us overbuild our needs.
Highly suggested for you to see the 4-page November 2009 "Lightweight benchwork" in Railroad Model Craftsman by Michael Tylic…
…for construction of a portable plywood-ripped benchwork (apx. 2’x8’) with folding legs including 15 pictures! No “stone” is left unturned in this article and even goes into subroadbed, risers, etc. There is a lot more construction and cutting consideration than 1/2" plywood strips. 1/4" plywood is used, too.
Plywood-type quote – “We used quarter- and half-inch birch plywood because of its light weight and resistance to warping.”
Framing quote – “For our framing, we cut the sheets of plywood into four-inch strips; this way the pieces were uniform and everything fit tight.”
Final paragraph quote – “Conventional benchwork may go together more quickly and may not require as much accuracy when cutting the pieces, but after all, this is a hobby.”
For what it is worth, our locale still have some family lumber yards, and I would personally go there for lumber advice, lumber selection, and custom cutting – because they are even larger than a “big box” store lumber section with better selections.
Sure 3/4" birch plywood is much better then sheathing grade but I thought he was looking to keep the cost down. I helped a friend build his bench work 3 years a go using 3/4 flooring/sheathing grade plywood and we screwed and glued it together and it hasn’t twisted one fraction of an inch. good bench work is the sum of it’s parts if it’s put together correctly and as long as you don’t have a drastic water problem in your basemnt it’s not going to warp. Maybe we just go lucky but I’ve seen it done before on other layouts as well.
To clarify the RMC article – 1/2" birch plywood & 1/4" birch plywood – each used for different benchwork support purposes. The construction is a bit more complex than just a traditional box-grid wood approach. More traditional lumber (i.e. 2"x2") are used for legs, as well as traditional wood for small corner braces and necessary gussets.
Interesting!? The benchwork books I have and the article referred to by the earlier post both mention using a cabinet grade plywood and not the cheapest you could get.
Here’s a photo of the plywood strip benchwork. Note how the vertical piece of the L girder and the joist are exactly the same height. This helps make everything line up. The joist is attached using pocket hole screws and a drywall screw up through the web of the L girder. Note the nice tight fit at the joint. The pocket hole screws into the meat of the plywood, not the end grain. Also note that there are no voids or gaps in the internal plys. You get this with a cabinet grade plywood. Cheaper subflooring plywood will have voids in it that will cause problems when the sheet is ripped into boards.
And, don’t rely on the big box stores to cut the plywood into equal width boards with parallel edges. Their equipment is not meant to do that.
I’ll second the motion to avoid BC or CDX plywood. I used 1x4 poplar for all of my benchwork framing, simply because I can buy it in 16’ lengths at my lumber store and it costs less than $1.00/ft. At the big box stores, you’ll spend all day trying to find a reasonably straight piece of #2 pine that’s loaded with knots and splits for almost the same price, plus I’ve yet to see anything longer than 8’ at the big box stores. Here’s a photo of some of my first benchwork.
Don Z.
Let me throw this out there - I’m building a basement sized multi deck railroad in HO scale using the cheap nominally 3/4" BC (if you can $20 ish a sheet cheap) plywood at HD.
I cut into 3" wide strips using a circular saw with a fence style attachment and build either boxes 2’ by 8’ or 18" by 8’ with “studs” every 16" or 12", then top with the slightly better, $30 a sheet (AC style) stuff. The main yard has homasote over the plywood, but the staging is laid directly on plywood. (Yes, it can be a bit loud without roadbed. No, I don’t really care as I don’t run trains back and forth in staging. [;)] )
The good cabinet grade plywood is $50 a sheet here. After the ‘cheap’ stuff is screwed together (with drywall screws, horrors of horrors!), it doesn’t move and seeming doesn’t warp, even in my unheated/cooled, but dry basement.
If you are interested in pictures - http://richmond-terminal.blogspot.com/
Check your link. I tried it and it just took me back to the MR Forum site.
Oops. Fixed.
Maybe. Now it takes me to something that says page not found. You have to then click on Richmond Terminal on that page to get to where you want us to get. Don’t know if this is the way it’s supposed to work or not.
Thanks for checking out my thread. I cut 3/4" Birch plywood for my bench work, yes it is expensive but I have seen myself that using lower quality can POSSIBLY lead to problems. The way I cut mine was with 2 saw horses, a circular saw and a cutting guide. The cutting guide is a 8’ long piece of medal that you use to help cut straight lines. I bought mine at Home Depot and it worked great.
Remember that if you want the cuts to come out right you need to do it yourself.
Chris
Lancaster, CA
Space character at the end of the URL… gg me.
Hi from Belgium,
I use exclusively plywood for all my wood structures on my Maclau River in Nscale since 25 years.
I use standard pine plywood, the stuff used to build big commercial wood box. It’s quite inexpensive.
Open grid construction is bolted on solid metalic frame, thickness is a standard 18mm or a 1.4 inch, from frame to roadbed.
I made big pieces cut at the store , but cut all the cross members myself in a whidth of a standard 150mm or a nearly 6".
Roadbed and all the other things are mounted on plywood risers.
My construction for this part of my layout, follow the sandard open grid construction structure adapted for my needs.
However all the open grid wood structure is bolted on a metalic frame tube of 1.57"x1.57" solder toghether (it’s my work) whith cross members…
The structure of metalic tubes is still lightweight but the rigidity is enormous beleive me.
I build the frame to my mesurations, it also allow me to put very few legs and a full free access under the whole layout.
More important he Maclau River suffer from two big move and I have’nt noticied any distorsion in the wood structure and in the scenery even if it’s a one piece of roughly 1.5meter by 2.5 meter and an around 120 kgs! Thanks to the metalic frame.
The poor layout is already on the way to suffer from a third and definitve move to become part of an expanding layout.
In the expand I will standardize the metalic frame from a like dominoes construction bolted togheter.
I will use also smaller metalic tube around a 1.1"x1.1" and no frame greater than a 1.2x2meters. Very few legs will be needed.
Wood construction will b
Since I am an electricial, I’ve seen metal studs in use many times. They already make several styles of plastic snap in bushings that fit into the existing holes. These bushings can be found at your electrical supply house. They also have several different thickness studs. The thinner versions are used for non bearing walls and can be cut with normal tin snips. The thicker ones are usually cut with a chop saw.
As far as wood working, I have built many cabinets over the years as well as train layouts and I don’t even have a big table saw. I use a good quality 8’ straight edge clamped to a sheet of plywood and a cordless Dewault skill saw to make the cut. My saw blade is exactly 1" away from the egde so I add or subtract this from the cut size. Theses cuts are perfectly straight and acurate, even at 8’ long. A good quality straight edge and clamps are the key. I do use a $100 mini Ryobi table saw for other cuts but it would be pretty tough to run an 8’ sheet of plywood through it without help. I do own a larger worm drive corded skill saw, but I rarely use it. My cordless Dewault saw will cut through a 2x4 with no problem. I have a 20x20 L shaped area that I will soon be filling with new benchwork for my next layout as soon as I come up with a plan. I have not deciced what type of benchwork I will use this time, but I’m always looking for new ideas.
I avoid the entire how-to-slice-up-plywood thing by using plain pine 1*4’s for the frame around the edges of modules. Buy it from a real lumber yard, the kind the contractors deal with. They have better quality lumber and they will deliver in case the stuff won’t fit in your car. Lumber at the big box stores is crummy grade and pricey. Dimensional lumber, pine, comes in various grades with “clear” being the nicest, knot free, and quite expensive. I buy the next grade down, with some, but not too many knots. It’s strong enough and a lot cheaper. Lumber is stronger than sliced up plywood because all the grain runs the length of the piece. Half the thickness of a plywood slice is cross grain which adds no strength at all.
When I have to cut up plywood, I use a pair of sawhorses, straight edge and a skilsaw. A 4*8 sheet is too heavy to rassle thru my 10 inch radial arm saw. Plywood comes in a lot of grades. At the bottom is cement form stuff. Then there is sheathing grade, and even better is flooring grade. Plywood for flooring has to be pretty void free lest SWMBO’s high heels punch thru a void with all sorts of embarrassing results. Then for a lot of extra money you can get a nice hardwood veneer (mahogany usually) on the outside. This is cabinet grade, and can be finished as smooth and nice as a new piano. It isn’t much, if any, stronger than flooring grade. Unless you are going to apply multiple coats of varnish and sand between coats, it won’t look any better than a lesser grade.