Legs for Foam Benchwork

Virginian Railway Jun 22, 2012

  1. Virginian Railway

    Virginian Railway TrainBoard Member

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    If a layout was built on a base of foam benchwork with no wood, what would be the best legs to use?
     
  2. gregamer

    gregamer TrainBoard Supporter

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    I built a foam layout and glued 1x4 pine to the bottom of the foam.mount teaches 1x2 pine legs to that wood strip with hinges. It is a terrible set-up. Not very stable.


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    Greg Amer
    The Industrial Lead
    gregamer.com
     
  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    No wood at all? I'm not certain how you'd attach legs and have it be sturdy, without some sort of framework. Are you looking at this from the angle of low weight?
     
  4. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    Why not use foam board and glue them in place or inexpensive book shelves and get some storage area.
     
  5. robert3985

    robert3985 TrainBoard Member

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    If strictly foam benchwork is stiff and dimensionally stable enough for you, then foam legs should work just fine. Oh...not realistic? Take the hint...you really need some kind of stiffeners attached to your foam...even if it is 2"...or even 3" extruded Styrofoam (if you can find it).

    If you insist on "no wood"...then go with "no legs" and buy a table with folding legs to set it on. Use metal conduit as leg extenders to get the height up. Make sure you cut all the extenders exactly the same length, remove the rubber or plastic "feet" from the stock steel-tube legs and just slip the extenders over the legs. It's a pretty steady setup, and I've used this exact thing when making my 8' long Curvo photographic set out of strictly foam....but it has several laminated layers of 2" foam...which makes it pretty stiff. This setup qualifies as adding "no wood" to your layout since you'd just be "sitting" your layout on top of it, and if you wanted to lighten it up, you could conceivably cut holes out of the top of the table to shave 50 to 70% of the original weight of the table off without compromising its structural integrity.

    Just thoughts....

    Cheers!
    Bob Gilmore
     
  6. EricB

    EricB TrainBoard Member

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    I can't find a link to it but I've seen a layout that used extruded foam to support the layout. The layout was a standard 4' x 8'. To support it, two strips of 2" x 1' foam were run the full length of the layout. Then two large sections of foam were shaped so the tops had slots in the to fit the splines and were placed towards the ends of the layout. Imagine a flat topped A with two slots cut on the top.

    I'll keep looking for a picture of the layout. It's was a project layout for a convention or something.

    Eric
     
  7. Virginian Railway

    Virginian Railway TrainBoard Member

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    I remembered I may have some would to use in storage, but it is maybe 10 years old, hopefully its not termite ridden and I can use it.
     
  8. Mike C

    Mike C TrainBoard Member

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    Here are a couple pics for all those who say foam is not stiff or stable enough by itself. Layout has been hanging this way for 3 years now and there is NO warpage or lack of stability. Second pick shows how I added a yard along the side wall. Foam is hot glued to concrete block wall. Believe me , it isn't going anywhere :cool: ....Mike


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    layout hangs from ceiling with thick yarn. Total weight probably less than 50 lbs.

    [​IMG]
     
  9. robert3985

    robert3985 TrainBoard Member

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    That's not exactly foam, all by itself. It's foam, glued to a brick wall.

    I can see why that'd be stable.

    However, without the brick wall, I can see why it'd be not stable.

    Cheers!
    Bob Gilmore
     
  10. UPBigBoy

    UPBigBoy E-Mail Bounces

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    You could make 2 channels on the underside of the foam table top, then make 2 archway legs that would lock into the channels, to make it a little more solid you could also make some foam gussets to attach between the arches and the underside of the top.
     

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