I'm Board Stiff!
Entry posted by SouthernRegionSteam
410 views
And yet the horrific (un)witty blog entry names keep on coming... *sigh* 
Dad and I have been busy building the baseboards and legs for the layout this weekend. I did my best to cut the ply sides straight, but let's just say cutting wood straight is not my strong point! Regardless, we made a lot of progress, and as dad is in his area of expertise, he thinks of stuff I wouldn't.
So the first photo shows the first steps of the baseboard construction...
This is of course the centre board (shown upside-down for clarity). The battens have been glued to the polystyrene top with screws connecting the battens together. As you can see, with such a small board (and with the added strength of the polystyrene) very little bracing is needed - just one crossing the centre is plenty! Then the ply sides were measured, cut, and screwed on to provide something solid to align the boards with.
And now we move on to the legs...
As you can see, it is a very straightforward (and sturdy) assembly. Hinges locate the legs (these will be fitted with removable pins in due course). We then have 1m steel lengths supporting the legs, and preventing any lateral movement - keeping the legs vertical.
...at the bottom, these are bolted to the legs for easy removal during transit...
...and at the top the 3 stays are fed via interference fit into slots in a piece of ply. Thus all that is needed during transit is to unbolt the bottom, and pull the stays out from the top - simple!
The next step today was to add the curved fascia to the "blade" boards - Ply would obviously not get around this radius, and so we opted for plastic fascia from a DIY store. Easy to bend, pretty strong, and it looks quite smart too!
Yet to do is to make a small lighting pelmet to attach onto one of the small sides of the centre board (I already have the lights ready to go - having wired them today, they seem very bright considering they are energy saving bulbs!). I will need to experiment with height to achieve the desired result.
Finally, the legs on the "blade" boards will be constructed differently to how I originally planned. For a start there will be no metal stays. The legs (18mm ply) will simply be slotted between two battens, and then a bolt through the lot to keep it secure. Nice and simple - just what you want for exhibiting!
-
1
2 Comments
Recommended Comments
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now