It had to come to it sooner or later didn't it... yes - yet another set of baseboards!!! Well, basically the ones I'd recently brought out of the garage had continued to warp and I decided I'd rather start again and build something really sturdy at this stage than have to rip everything up and start again half way through building the layout!
So here it is - a weekend's work. The top surface is 9mm MDF. The framework is made from 70 x 18mm and 40 x 40mm planed pine timber. The design is pretty conventional except for the baseboard joins. Having tried the C&L baseboard alignment dowels previously and found them difficult to align properly, I came up with a simple idea of slotting one baseboard over an extending section of the frame of the other, meaning that the two baseboard surfaces can be aligned easily. The frames are then bolted together on either side.
I've made allowance for an additional basebaord to be attached at the LH end of the LH basebaord if I decide to expand the layout in future. It could also be used for attaching the fiddle yard.
The advantage of starting again is that I was able to simply use two 2' x 4' MDF boards meaning that the layout is now slightly larger - 3" wider and 6" longer.
Tomorrow I'll get some more cork sheet to cover the surfaces and then we're back in business, ready to start building and laying track.
Matt,
ReplyDeleteRather than using bolts to connect your baseboards together why not use Barry Norman's split-hinge method? I've used it with great success.
Chris
It did cross my mind. In the absense of anything to put the baseboards on (other than the floor!) so far, I can't really tell how reliable a join it is with just the bolts and integral support from the overlapping frames. I might see how I go and if I think the bolts aren't providing a solid enough join then I'll add split hinges.
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