Freemo - N Module help

[PiperguyUMD]

Welcome to Free-moN.

If a goal is to save time in your build, you might consider making the legs out of EMT (see http://www.nlandpacific.com/Standards.html)

Thanks! I found that not too long after I did those initial drawings - good to go on legs!



@Lemosteam - thanks for the offer, unfortunately with the free version of sketchup, none of those are an option. I spoke with the sign shop yesterday, the do have an in-house resource that I could hire to convert my drawings. I'm not crazy about the upfront cost of this, but once I have the files, I can drop of a sheet of plywood and have a few cut whenever I feel the urge to build more.

Here's my current thought - have the shapes CNCed out of half inch plywood, and attach directly to the faceplates. I will leave the cross braces out of the CNCed parts, so I can add them later using pocket holes thereby avoiding any turnout controls that might end up on the module.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Yes - 4" of foam, and 1/8" fascia on each side should be plenty strong right?

From the biggest foam fan out there... no.

If nothing else, run a 1x2 or 1x3 between your end plates. You need something to keep all those dead dinosaurs in line.

[PiperguyUMD]

Got the frames back from the sign shop. I am excited about the finished product, but they charged me twice what they quoted. To boot, by my calculation there should have been nearly a 4'x4' sheet of plywood leftover, but who ever laid out the drawings did so in an amazingly inefficient manner! The left overs were two strips, one 2"x8' the other 6"x8' and a 15"x4' sheet. Unbelievable. I am happy with the final product, but the cost my prevent any further modules from being constructed by this method.

Anyway, its nice to have something in place to visualize the finished product. I should be able to attach the endplates and foam over the weekend. My plan is to start with the four corner pieces - a glorified roundy round! Once I have the final track plan, I'll add cross bracing so as not to interfere with turnout controls.