Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Benchwork Up!

Progress in the last week has resulted in the first half of benchwork being stood up! Thanks to Revit I had a detailed cutting plan to work from, and my estimate of material (from a schedule) was spot on for linear feet. If only the carpenter were as good as the computer, one mistake in my manual optimization of cutting led to having to use some scrap pine I had for one last piece... :-(

Still need to add a few more gusset plates for lateral re-enforcement but in general its quite sturdy for being made out of 1x2s! Lorenzo was happy to walk on it like a balance beam (holding hands of course). My plywood triangular gusset plates are courtesy of a Canstruction project a few years ago. Knowing that I would be building a Model RR some day I had the foresight (and spare space in the basement) to save the scraps (of course being the one with the truck I also have all the original pieces after we took down the can sculptures :-) ).

Once the final bracing is in place I'll bolt the new benchwork to the existing module and I'll be ready to start laying out and cutting sub-roadbed. I'm cautiously optimistic that I'll have (limited) running trains by sometime in July, if not summer vacations and conferences will likely put further progress on hold until late summer... :-(.

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