My first construction blog! No going back now! Sorry to get your hopes up, but while I have started the construction phase no actual construction has taken place. Well yes and no. Today we went to Bunnings (yes I dragged my girlfriend there to help with my ever doubtful nature and nervousness consisting of "is it right?" to which she replies "yes just follow the drawing" while clearly off thinking about something else). I have decided that I will be attempting to spend between $150 and $200 per month on the layout to: a) Stop myself from over spending, and b) Give myself manageable workloads to do each month. |
So what has been constructed? Great question, today after weeks of eyeing off MDF over the internet and in the shop at Bunnings I bought 2 of the 2400x1200mm 12mm deep MDF boards, and one 1800x600 12mm deep MDF board, and also the 42x9mm 3 m lengths of Pine timber for the legs and to secure the boards. 12 of the pine lengths actually. I fear I may still be short but hopefully this will get me most of the way there. I asked the Bunnings team to assist me by cutting the MDF to the desired shapes. The people at bunnings were helpful yet unhelpful...... Compliant is probably the best word for it.
The lengths came from the base board design that I posted recently. This allowed me to correctly budget what I needed and how I ended up with the number 12 for the pine lengths, not because I worked out I needed 12 lengths of 3m like a design engineer would, no as a construction engineer, I worked within the budget, not wanting to blow it all in the first month. The total cost came to $169. Fantastic! (I hope to update the sidebar to keep a running budget of how much the construction will cost me). Back to it! So what issues were found.... Well check the pictures..... Do you remember the extra 80mm I found in the lateral direction.... Well turns out that they may not have existed.... the Drawing on the computer didn't translate 100% one to one. While I did gain some distance (about 40mm) I didn't have the full 80mm. |
This has changed where the baseboard sits and fits for the bottom base board. This is not a problem, cut the base board slightly and we'll be fine. What else went wrong? To any budding engineers, mathematicians, or generally inexperienced people I have the following advice, Triple check your calculations! My 1250 x 700 board, turned into a 1250x750mm board! So I'm going to have to cut this down, as it will not fit unfortunately. Now is that all that went wrong? Pretty much yes, so I think this is a fairly good result! 2 mistakes, one good, one not as good, but it seems to cancel itself out. I haven't lost any running capability (that I know of yet *touches wood*) and these issues are easily overcome.
Right, so what worked well? Both of the sides fit together perfectly to design! The boards themselves all fit in the back of the ute as planned, fantastic!
A quick sum up of lessons learned on this one, for my future self:
1. Bunnings personnel are compliant,
2. You can rent the Bunnings trailer for free if you make a purchase,
3. Triple check your calculations!
4. Be open to a base board redesign if need be!
The Gallery of images (above) will run you through how we went with the timber.
So a heads up for anyone reading this and keeping up with the action, the next construction blog will probably be 9th August, as this is the date I've teed up with the family to help me put the base boards into their respective modules. Once the modules are constructed I'll also give them a black coat, so the timber doesn't poke through the ground detail. Hoping to start laying track by the end of September and using my tax money to procure two Uneek Turntables at Liverpool! Happy modelling!
A quick sum up of lessons learned on this one, for my future self:
1. Bunnings personnel are compliant,
2. You can rent the Bunnings trailer for free if you make a purchase,
3. Triple check your calculations!
4. Be open to a base board redesign if need be!
The Gallery of images (above) will run you through how we went with the timber.
So a heads up for anyone reading this and keeping up with the action, the next construction blog will probably be 9th August, as this is the date I've teed up with the family to help me put the base boards into their respective modules. Once the modules are constructed I'll also give them a black coat, so the timber doesn't poke through the ground detail. Hoping to start laying track by the end of September and using my tax money to procure two Uneek Turntables at Liverpool! Happy modelling!