Hi everyone,
After deciding on what to build it was time to start doing something! The first decision was whether to make the layout transportable or fixed, as this drives the baseboard design. Having seen the posts regarding East Guildford (under construction by AMRA) I thought I'd give the aluminum frame a go, with the idea that I could disassemble and move the layout if needed.
What a disaster!
The idea was to use 25mm joiners from Bunnings, 25mm square aluminum tube, and 12mm ply for the top. After 20 lengths of tube and all the joiners arrived I started cutting things up. The only problem was the joiners - they were terrible! Whilst marketed for use with 1.6mm thick 25mm tube the joiners were made of very hard plastic and completely unforgiving. The only way I could get them in was to file all 4 faces down 1 -1.5 mm - a very time consuming task. Even then significant force was required to get them to sit in properly, resulting in several broken joiners and split tubes (yes - the plastic was that hard) that then couldn't be extracted from the tube. Argh!!!!
Metalwork has never been my strong suit, so by this stage I was totally fed up with the process. After some more thinking and reassessment I decided to take a completely different tack. The tube went back to the supplier and Bunnings kindly reimbursed me for all the joiners I bought.
Given the chances of the layout being moved in the next 5+ years is highly unlikely I changed to a fixed layout, built in a similar manner to house framing. This method was used by a friend of mine in NSW very successfully so I decided to go that way myself. After waiting a month or so to get the timber (serious shortage of structural timber in Australia at the moment) I started the build. Basically I made 10 frames that were then assembled in my garage, nailed together and to the floor. Then cross pieces were added to hold the baseboards and the ply laid on top. It was all a bit flimsy at first, but once everything was nailed together it became very strong. In time I will add cross pieces coming out off the top of the frames to hold lighting and a headboard. Nothing is attached to the walls - in that way it's all free standing.
I'm very happy with how it's come together. Next month I'll cover the track laying, including some notes around the handmade points.
Cheers, Cris
