I had the wonderful pleasure of sitting through a clinic presented by the Utah legend Lee Nicholas on his amazing Utah Colorado Western. Lee is a super guy and boy did he light a fire under my butt.
Today, I went to Home Depot and loaded up on lumber!
My original plan was to use plywood as it is straighter and much easier to work with. But that would require me getting 2-3 hours of free time which my constantly PMSing wife will never let me have. She went to a movie with Taylor today, btw. So I took 20 minutes and bought just enough dimensional lumber to get me started. Thayne, we are still going to cut ply if you don't mind! I have a vacation week coming up soon!
While I'm not a fan of dimensional lumber, the supply at Home Depot wasn't too bad for a change. I originally stopped at Loews and there wasn't a straight board in the house. Luckily they are both near each other.
The first bundle is of 2x2x8 timber. The thing I hate about this type of lumber are the cracks, splits, knots and warping. However, even when using plywood, I still have needs for some of this type of lumber. These boards will be legs mostly.
I chose 1x3 stock instead of 1x4 which is what I've used on other layouts. You really don't need the 3.5" of wood. These boards were in good shape.
The large pack of 1x2x8 boards are in good shape too. They are notorious for warping. We'll use these for diagonal bracing and for the top of the L-girders. Oh, they are used heavily for the risers as well. You can't have enough 1x2's!
Notice the banding on the different boards. I always buy the bundles instead of the separate boards because they are straighter and have less issues. Yes, you may get one that has a knot or break, but that is better than having to pick through a ton of boards to find the 10 you want.
Tightbond glue appears to work as well as Elmer's Carpenter Glue and is a little cheaper. So I bought two bottles. Later, I'll keep these bottles and just buy refill jugs. I needed some screws as well, so I bought another box of 1 1/4" drywall screws.
My sweet little girl heard me say that I needed to get the leaves out of the garage so that we could work, so she grabbed a broom and got to it. She is VERY helpful and excited about building the layout. I've stacked the boards in the garage and now that the snow has stopped here in Utah, we'll use my garage for the benchwork assembly area. I'm a bit sensitive to dust so I try to cut would away from the layout room.
I've got a 30" x 6' pop up table that I use for construction. It serves as a work and assembly table, but serves another purpose as well. This table is about the same size as my maximum dimensions for a section of the layout. This is important when you have to yank it out of the house. Marie and I have been thinking about buying a new house with a bigger basement here in Utah...so I want to make sure I can take it with me. I'm NOT starting over on the AP Program ever again! We are finishing this time.
Before I left for Home Depot I checked my fastener bins. I usually keep them well stocked. There are many sizes of drywall screws that I use for the layout which range from 1" to 3".
Next, we bring out the chop saw. I love my saw and can't wait to get cutting. The shop is ready! I just need to go gather my dimensions. Our first project: the Temple Square.
This long section is 10 1/2" feet long, so we'll break it into two sections and make the sections for the wall. We'll have to put in the backdrop as well, and the sections must be removable.
Tune in next time as we sketch this assembly!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!