Benchwork for the On30 Goldfield & Calico

[Music] Howdy Folks Dave here at Thunder maesa Studio where I'm excited to be getting started on the Goldfield and Calico this is the new om30 project which I announced a couple of weeks ago and it's basically a spin-off from the Thunder Mesa layout I'm taking the original Calico Mountain section and then adding on to it building a whole new section to create a freestanding layout that exists sort of in the same model railroading universe and also just across the aisle and the first thing I need to do is build a whole new section of benchwork to connect to Calico Mountain it's going to be about uh 4x5 feet approximately and be right where I'm standing right now uh this is where the town of Calico is going to be and the first thing I need to do is make a stir stand for it I'm very happy with the stand I already built for the Calico Mountain section so I'm going to take some measurements off of this and then build another one exactly like it the stand is basically made up of h two sets of trestle legs that are then tied together with these lters at the top and the bottom and the bottom ones have some threein casters on here so I can move the whole thing around the overall height of the stand is about 44 1/2 in with all of the measurements done I made a simple scale drawing on some blue line grid paper with 1/8 of an inch equaling 1 in the first thing was to build the Trestle leg assemblies the 2x two legs are 40 in long and tied together with a simple one by3 at the top this will align with the lters when it comes time to add those the bottom of the legs were joined together by a 1 by two and everything is held together with some 1 and 1/4 in drywall screws then it was time to add the 1 by two cross braces these are about 44 in long note that I pre-drilled all of the holes to prevent splitting and counter sunk the screw [Music] heads flipping the entire assembly over I added the second cross brace to the other side in just the same way then the second set of trestle legs were constructed identical to the first note that I'm using some old Lumber here from my scrap pile so not everything is going to match up perfectly eventually everything will be painted or hidden below the layout skirting so it really doesn't matter if it isn't all that pretty with the Trestle lays complete I started on the lters I would need four of these Al together two for the top and two for the bottom each elg is 48 in Long long and consists of a 1x3 rail with a 1x two attached at the top to form the L this makes for a very strong and sturdy assembly that I've used with success on many projects assembling the Alters is very straightforward I applied wood glue to the top edge of the 1x3 rail and then securely affix the 1x2 to the top with screws with a single screw placed about every 12 in with all four lters assembled it was time to put everything together turning The Trestle legs bottom side up one set of elg grids was used for footings with the wide side of the L on the bottom this is where the casters will be attached later on now the assembly was placed onto its Sid so that the top L girs could be attached these are aligned with the narrow shelf of the L flush with the top of the legs this will support the Box grid bench work of the layout deck flipping the whole thing over the process was repeated on the other side next I marked and drilled the holes for the 3-in swiveling casters I try to keep just just about everything at the studio on wheels for portability I used a Quin bit to match the Quin bolts nuts and washers I would use to hold the casters in place with all four casters installed I can flip the Finish stand over and set it on its Wheels now with the stand finished I can turn my attention to the Box grid frame and the layout deck the plan calls for a curved front PHA and that makes things a little more complicated in that I can't just build a simple rectangular box the simplest solution was to lay out and cut the deck first then build the box frame on top of it to match the various curves and angles I cut a sheet of 4x8 1/ in plywood down to 48x 60 in and then I drew my track PL full size on the good side using a bar Compass straight edge and actual o30 turnouts to ensure that the track geometry would be correct then it was time to cut everything out using a handheld scroll saw I took special care to cut the hole for the turntable making it about a/4 of an inch larger than the required 11in diameter so that I could have some room later for fine adjustments now I could lay out all the parts for the box frame on the underside of the deck knowing that everything would line up properly the frame was constructed of 1x4 boards just like the Calico Mountain section and many of them were obviously recycled from my scrap pile I secured all the corners with yellow glue and screws making sure everything was nice and square and then I added some 2 by two blocks at the corner joints to keep things strong and secure as you can see some creative engineering was required to match the frame to the layout's front profile and I used a 45° angled brace for support below the larger curved section all right now I just need to put all three pieces together the stand the box frame and the layout deck it goes right about there and the box frame sits on top like so about uh 6 inch overhang on each side and now the box frame gets attached to the stand with a few strategically placed screws now before I install the layout deck I actually want to bolt these two sections of layout together the new section with the old Calico Mountain section and that's so when I do install the deck everything will line up perfectly just going to use some C clamps to uh hold these in position clamp them together now I'll drill some quarter inch holes through here for the quarter inch bolts with thumb screws these are some 3in long quinch bolts Sloe headed hold this in with a screwdriver and give them a good thumb tighten all right now that's not going anywhere you'll notice that the deck is actually several inches higher than the box frame and that's on purpose that's so you can have U undulating terrain up here at the front and uh scenery down below the track level this is what I call the box and stilts type of bench workor and I've used it for years that's all that's on the Thunder Mesa layout so now I need to cut a bunch of stilts little risers basically that the/ inch plywood deck will sit up on top of now I've gone ahead and set the deck up here on top of the box frame and I've cut a whole bunch of 7inch long risers from some leftover 1x3s and I'll be able to do a lot of fine adjustment with these as I install them from below the first step is going to be to clamp risers at all four corners so I can get this up into the general vicinity of where it's going to be not doing any fine adjustments yet I'm just trying to get this ele elevated into the approximate position and then I can go around and tweak each one of these to get it just right now I can get this up till it's exactly where I need it to be now I want to counter sync these holes on the top so the screw heads won't interfere with the road bed or anything else what I want is when I line a piece of cork r Road bed up here it lines up perfectly with the one on this section with no gaps or step Downs or anything like that I think that's about as good as that's going to [Music] get now that I've got this side perfectly aligned or as perfect as I can get it I'm going to use my level to make sure the rest of this is nice and flat and we don't have any hidden grades sneaking in here where we don't want them that bring brings up a good point that you should probably never just assume that a sheet of plywood like this is square and flat always check for yourself this one definitely has a few undulations in it that I'm having to flatten out as I uh attach it to the [Applause] [Music] risers now the rest of this just going around and adding more risers everywhere you think one might be needed no one's going to mistake any of this for Fine Carpentry but you know it's strong and it's sturdy and could be built by just about anyone with uh access to a few basic tools and those the last two screws I think I ended up putting in 17 or 18 risers I don't know I lost count I do know it's plenty [Music] sturdy and with that the bench workk for the Goldfield and Calico is finished next will come some cork Road bed and then I can start thinking about laying some track on here but all of that is going to have to wait for a future installment because right now I'm tired and dirty and covered in sawdust or some people call it man glitter and there's really nothing left to do now except for clean up put the tools away and daydream about what comes next I want to thank you all so much for watching today hope you enjoyed the video if you did you know like subscribe share hit that notification Bell so you'll see more coming from Thunder Mesa Studio you 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Studio as always a huge shout out and thank you to our channel members who helped to make these videos possible until next time keep moving forward my friends adios for [Music] now [Music]