Layout table construction?

[JimInMichigan]

What materials did you use for your layout table construction?

I'm thinking 2x4's is too beefy. I'm leaning towards building the frame with 1x2's.
1/4" underlayment for the top, then the foam board on top of that.

Sound good enough?

Also, whats the purpose of the top foamboard, noise deadening? What thickness is best?

Thanx for the help.

 

[nsconductor]

I went with 2x4 legs and frame, 1/2" plywood, and 1/2" blue foam board.

 

[Motley]

I have 1x2's for frame/legs and 1/2" particle board. It's solid as a rock, I can climb on top of it if I want.

Also have 2" pink foam for the top cover. The advantages are noise reduction, no need for nailing the track down, just use cheap latex caulk. Ability to carve out ditches, hills, ponds, rivers. Heck I even made my entire mountain tunnel out of that foam.

 

[Selector]

I used 1X4 and split many of them. I used L-Girder construction with one of the split sections running along the top of one of the 1X4's.

Legs are also 1X2ish stilts with sway braces, also 1X2. Just use your instinct to make it all strong if you should fall against it rather heavily...oh yeah, at least once.

The foam is not so great for sound deadening, believe it or not. In fact, many have observed that it helps to create quite a racket with the rails on the foam and tacked/nailed into place. The foam is for carving and shaping terrain easily. You use a knife, or a hot knife (electrical cutter for foam), a wire brush, and even sanding blocks for the final smoothing. The foam can be stacked for hills, carved for contours, etc.

But the big tool for all of this, including making the tracks quiet, is to use a thin layer of the cheapest acrylic latex caulking you can find. You spread a thin bead placed along the centerline of your track plan, previously marked, and then press the tracks into that. Or, use cork or foam roadbed for a proper profile, especially if you intend to ballast the tracks. Either way, the adhesive is to be a cheap acrylic latex caulk spread margarine thin. It does a great job on the cork or foam roadbed, and then use another layer for the tracks.

-Crandell

 

[DairyStateDad]

I'm a huge fan of the all-plywood table design that Jim Hediger first developed for the Rock Ridge Central in the January 2002 Model Railroader. It's also briefly described in Jeff Wilson's book on benchwork. I used a variation on this design for my sectional layout that I'm building. A little bit more info is at my blog.

 

[Rico]

I also like all Plywood, 3/4" cut into 3" strips.
Takes glue and screws well and doesn't warp or split like 1x4's.

 

[Larry]

I used 2x2x1/8 steel angle welded together w/a mig welder. 1/2" 4 ply CDX screwed on w/#8 countersunk machine screws & nuts for all the tables(lots). Cork roadbed.

 

[Selector]

When I used the term "split" above about my 1X4 construction, I used the incorrect term...I meant that I ripped them with a table saw. Sorry for the misuse of terms.

I had no splitting problems per se. I pre-drill all screw holes when using milled lumber.

None of my lumber warped. I selected it in good condition, clear spruce, and I left it in my humidity-controlled basement for a week before I began to work with it.

-Crandell