Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

junctionmad

Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby junctionmad » Thu Dec 29, 2016 11:36 pm

Cause the station master has decreed I can consume only one room. To get a bigger railway room , I have to integrate it with my home office. I was thinking of using IKEA carcasses to support a baseboard. The kitchen units have no top board so technically there is under baseboard access , but in general I am designing the layout so that each board Can be removed to work on the underside , as the back is way too old to be found crawling under baseboards. The height at approx 900 mm suits a tall person like me. ( 6'4") .
Any body have any experience of this. Any suggestions etc.

Dave

Philip Hall
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Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby Philip Hall » Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:38 am

Dave,

Like you, my back no longer supports the notion of working upside down under boards, but mine are permanent. I have set track height at 45" (1140mm), so a little higher than yours, but my design is that everything will be on top of the boards. Wiring in channels etc, point controls and rodding ditto, no need to turn them over. The baseboard surface is 15mm Contiboard on a basic plywood frame, very firmly screwed to the walls. A carpenter friend has been fitting out the building and erecting the boards for me and although he says he does not normally work to such limits has achieved a top line within 1mm of dead level all the way around a large square room!

Supporting boards on units as you describe is an excellent way of gaining some storage as well as a solid support structure. I would have used them myself had I not wanted a little more height. Obviously not an option for transportable layouts! I am not quite sure whether the building is holding up the baseboards or the other way around...

Philip

junctionmad

Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby junctionmad » Fri Dec 30, 2016 11:27 am

Philip Hall wrote:Dave,

Like you, my back no longer supports the notion of working upside down under boards, but mine are permanent. I have set track height at 45" (1140mm), so a little higher than yours, but my design is that everything will be on top of the boards. Wiring in channels etc, point controls and rodding ditto, no need to turn them over. The baseboard surface is 15mm Contiboard on a basic plywood frame, very firmly screwed to the walls. A carpenter friend has been fitting out the building and erecting the boards for me and although he says he does not normally work to such limits has achieved a top line within 1mm of dead level all the way around a large square room!

Supporting boards on units as you describe is an excellent way of gaining some storage as well as a solid support structure. I would have used them myself had I not wanted a little more height. Obviously not an option for transportable layouts! I am not quite sure whether the building is holding up the baseboards or the other way around...

Philip


Thanks for that , I am thinking of raising it further , by adding small legs under the baseboards. The baseboards are open frame carrying track boards 100 mm above the base board bottom , so in fact the layout top surface is likely to be 1150mm above the ground, at the very least.

In my case I want the boards to be transportable for exhibitions, so I'll have a set of standalone trestles that can be used In that case


Like you I'm trying to minimise " grubbins" on the underneath. The only real items of concern are turnout operating units , signal operating units etc. One idea is to run a rod to the edge , and mount the servos there , ( and all the wiring etc, I'm using MERG CBUS layout control ) and then cover that with a cosmetic cover. This still leaves the actual point TOUs and cranks for the signals under the layout ( the most complex signal is a three dolly bracket ) , I still have concerns over mechanical complexity , robustness and lost motion, so may still mount the servos directly underneath , I'm building a test baseboard


The other thing , is for various reasons , I'm going diagonally across the room , is a triangular layout , this gives me 18 feet on the hypotenuse, strangely you don't see many such layouts , I wonder why? this format gives me wall space for workbenches and the computer(s) Desk , ( I write embedded software for a living ) , as well as avoiding an opening door , etc , the IKEA cabinets providing the storage

Terry Bendall
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Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby Terry Bendall » Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:19 pm

junctionmad wrote:I am thinking of raising it further , by adding small legs under the baseboards. ... Like you I'm trying to minimise " grubbins" on the underneath. The only real items of concern are turnout operating units , signal operating units etc


The basic idea sounds good but even if most things are on the top of the board, there is bound to be a time when access will be needed to the "gubbins" underneath so my advice would be to make things so that the boards can be stood on their edge for access. Possible some sort of extension to the storage units would be better than legs.

At home the layouts I have built rest on heavy duty adjustable shelf brackets - the type that have a slotted upright fixed to the wall. The brackets themselves have a piece of timber on the top surface and this will support baseboards that are up to 24 inches wide. The brackets can be adjusted for height but rarely move very much and the boards can be tipped on edge for working on. the space underneath is available for storage which in our case is other layouts in their travelling boxes but could equally be storage cupboards.

junctionmad wrote:I'm going diagonally across the room , is a triangular layout , this gives me 18 feet on the hypotenuse, strangely you don't see many such layouts , I wonder why?


Perhaps not many people have that amount of space. :D If the layout is across the diagonal will you be able to access both sides without having the crawl underneath? :(

Terry Bendall

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jon price
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Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby jon price » Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:47 pm

Presumably the reason for few diagonal layouts is that radius coming off the diagonal onto the side wall is twice as tight as it would be from one wall to another, unless you have a strange shaped room. There are quite a few giant US HO layouts with diagonals, but they accept curves with extremel;y unprototypical radii.
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shipbadger
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Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby shipbadger » Fri Dec 30, 2016 3:24 pm

Previously I had my baseboards on kitchen cabinets but raised up so that I could get an arm and hand underneath. This enabled the boards to be bolted together and electrical connections from the control panel to be fed underneath as well.

Tony Comber

Philip Hall
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Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby Philip Hall » Fri Dec 30, 2016 5:45 pm

A further idea that I am using is having a slightly raised trackbed (more 15mm Contiboard in my case but anything stable or possibly much lighter would be suitable) so that slight contours, as in the station yard, could be introduced, but also to make it easier to hide rodding or other mechanisms. I concede that access to the underside might be useful, but if everything is on top of the boards, there ought to be no need, apart from an occasional repair where digging up the scenery does not appeal. I also think that making sure that electrical connections are robust and easily accessible will obviate such things.

On my previous layout, which was portable (well,we lugged it around many shows, but it was an exercise in weightlifting...no more, those days are gone now...) it was possible to get underneath, where most of the wiring and controls were. But the onset of varifocals made that less attractive.

Philip

junctionmad

Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby junctionmad » Fri Dec 30, 2016 8:46 pm

jon price wrote:Presumably the reason for few diagonal layouts is that radius coming off the diagonal onto the side wall is twice as tight as it would be from one wall to another, unless you have a strange shaped room. There are quite a few giant US HO layouts with diagonals, but they accept curves with extremel;y unprototypical radii.


Hmm. The radius isn't any tighter, then a 90 degree turn , it's the fact that the curve continues for a greater proportion of the arc then with a 90 degree. This means that the straight section begins later then with a 90 degree.

However , given the hypotenuse adds 4 feet and the layout curves anyway at the end, I still think it's a better bet

junctionmad

Re: Baseboards on IKEA carcasses

Postby junctionmad » Fri Dec 30, 2016 8:59 pm

Terry Bendall wrote:
junctionmad wrote:I am thinking of raising it further , by adding small legs under the baseboards. ... Like you I'm trying to minimise " grubbins" on the underneath. The only real items of concern are turnout operating units , signal operating units etc


The basic idea sounds good but even if most things are on the top of the board, there is bound to be a time when access will be needed to the "gubbins" underneath so my advice would be to make things so that the boards can be stood on their edge for access. Possible some sort of extension to the storage units would be better than legs.

At home the layouts I have built rest on heavy duty adjustable shelf brackets - the type that have a slotted upright fixed to the wall. The brackets themselves have a piece of timber on the top surface and this will support baseboards that are up to 24 inches wide. The brackets can be adjusted for height but rarely move very much and the boards can be tipped on edge for working on. the space underneath is available for storage which in our case is other layouts in their travelling boxes but could equally be storage cupboards.



junctionmad wrote:I'm going diagonally across the room , is a triangular layout , this gives me 18 feet on the hypotenuse, strangely you don't see many such layouts , I wonder why?


Perhaps not many people have that amount of space. :D If the layout is across the diagonal will you be able to access both sides without having the crawl underneath? :(
Terry Bendall


Unless I can make sky hooks :D , the bracket idea, has limits for diagonals

As for accessing the control well, it will be a crawl under , but that's ok , I've no opportunity for any sort of lifting section in the appropriate area.

I'm designing the baseboards so that each unit can be removed from the layout and worked n the workbench nearby. I have a good TOU , but have to look at a signal operating unit.

All wiring will be on the side panels , including all dropper wires to main Dcc bus connections , I'm determined to remove upside down working !!


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