Soldering one-handed should have been No. 6--but I forgot what I was doing on this bent. I'm exploring the lightest way to construct benchwork. That does not mean the cheapest. In the past I've explored foam board on wire closet racks--light weight, able to withstand enormous weight, but not very rigid at the edges, and pretty expensive, all things considered. I've explored many other techniques--thin foam core, reinforced with matte board fascias; foam core skyscrapers as supports for the next deck, triangular extensions that leave no fascias--all with varying degress of success. Well, I've had a failure. On the roundhouse section of my layout, I used a 36"wide hollow core door--lightweight, and perfectly suited for a level engine facility. But 36" wouldn't allow my 18" minimum radius for mainlines. So I added a 5-inch extension, made of solid pine. Now, I've build many cabinets in my woodworking days, so attaching this extension to the door was a snap--a subtantial hanger, and lots of crossing screws. I used a nice piece of wood, well-seasoned, quarter-sawn. With the extension, I laid the three 180-degree turns, and only the innermost track was just a bit below 18" in radius. That was OK with me. Well, the wood decided to warp in the opposite direction that every woodworking article I've ever read predicted. Instead of predicted "up" at the far end, which would have given me a nice superelevation of the curve at that location, a desirable result, it warped "down." Worse, just where it started down, and thus to negative elevation, I placed an early Atlas C55 No. 5 switch, with its problematical flangeways. Who says .002-inch difference does make a difference!? As the wood continues to warp--after two years of not warping--it just gets worse. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Pete, As soon as I read the title of this thread I said to myself " I bet he used knotty pine (bad wood)", and sure enough it was pine.
Pete, Was it the hollow core door that warped or the 5" pine extension... or both?? Lately, every piece of wood I buy gets badly warped... very difficult to build a reliable layout with 1x4's and 2x2's that can't keep their shape.
I find myself using poplar instead of pine most of the time. It's slightly more expensive than the low-grade (read "waterlogged pretzel") pine at Home Depot, but no more so than the "clear" pine, and it's far more stable than either. And since most of my work's done with 1x2 and 1x3 boards anyway, the price isn't prohibitive. The only downside is that poplar is denser than pine (thus the stability), which means that pilot holes are needed when driving screws. This slows down construction a bit, but the results are worth the little bit of extra effort up front.
How about trying birch plywood? If you have a choice, quarter inch thickness might be the ticket, mught even be overkill depending on what's to sit on top. Supports would be the same stuff, glued/screwed to the extension and attached to the door with angle brackets.
If you have the table saw to do it, ripping a 3/4" piece of plywood into 3" or 4" strips or whatever you need is the best wood you can get. Won't and can't warp, bend, split, crack, nothin.
Yes, Derek! You got it for these days! But, when my radial arm saw table was covered with model railroad stuff, and fish pond stuff, and gardening stuff, plus the stuff all the kids left when their boyfriends "retuned" their cars, it was easier to chop of a piece of nice No.1 pine. Not No. 2 common, or the now ubiquitous "whitewood." I go back 42 years with furniture making, and 36 with house construction. The wood today is bad. Rob M. suggested poplar--here in NM, it's as expensive as birch or beech. And today's poplar is unstable. I haven't worked with it for about five years, but the stuff here now is pretty bad. I chose convenience over thinking, and paid the price.
This is certainly the truth. It's almost impossible today to find a straight piece. Pine, fir, whatever. If it's not full of knots..... They're always curved, twisted, and overpriced. Boxcab E50
Although neither strong nor lightweight, I've been using MDF instead of wood mainly for the uniformity and stability. I know several of you have visited my shelf module thread where this topic was also addressed. Sorry to hear about your challenges Pete. (btw: I'm still making progress on the module and will post some photos as soon as I get a little more work done on the initial scenery)
In the home remodel last spring, I used a lot of MDF. Baseboards, closet shelves, etc. There just wasn't any decent wood. 5 years ago when I did the Kitchen, I was able to buy decent wood if I picked though it. Now the best wood looks like the stuff left in the racks back then, the last day before the new bundles arrive. My childern and I removed an interior wall, and I saved the studs for my buddy who did the heavy work. He was amazed at those studs! Knot-free, dead straight and stamped "Kiln Dried". A couple still had the price stickers on: 89 cents. Of course, that was in 1984. [ ] Karl carried those studs out to his truck like they were things of value.
