Cardboard Baseboard?


Sudasana

Sudasana

New Member
I am planning a very small layout that can eventually be packed for several overseas moves. I need some solution that will allow the layout to be stable and strong, but still be able to come apart once or twice a year. My current strategy is to build a 2.5 x 5 foot layout in two sections (each 2.5 x 2.5 feet), so they can be stacked and packed.

My question is: is there any way to use cardboard to build a strong baseboard? If I layered corrugated cardboard at 90 degree angles, stacking them to 3/4" or 1" thick and fixing each layer with wood glue, would this provide a stable base? I can have the layout sit on a flat, stable wooden table normally, so it would have support from beneath during operation. I'm just concerned that no matter how much I glue the layers, it may sill bend when I apply the track and plaster ground cover to the top.

By the way, the layout I'm looking at is the first one on this page, with some alterations.

Thanks!
 
I think you'd be better off using 2-inch thick extruded foam. I'd think cardboard would warp like crazy if it ever got wet - paint, glue, ballasting, etc., maybe even in high humidity?

One guy who writes for MR used foamcore board - it's foam sandwiched between two layers of some kind of thick paper. (Mike Danneman's Rio Grande N-scale layout, I think...)
 
I would say yes, but a trial would be very handy and informative. The secret would be in the quality of the cardboard, how much material comprises the cardboard and corrigations, and how you assemble them in such a way that they don't become compromised from the effects of water glues. Also, how many mutually supportive layers you glue to each other, and how you arrange them from an engineering standpoint will be somthing to work out.

Compression on edge will be good pressing against the cut ends of such sections of cardboard, but I'm not sure about compression, or resistance to deflection, along the sides of any panels you cut...and this is where you would need several layers to provide resistance to side forces.

Finally, though, and for me this would be key, is that cardboard is not great for puncture resistance. Each good dent or hole will weaken the whole that much more.

One solution, meaning a lot more work, is to make this laminated structure and then provide a skin of fiberglass or a hard ballistic plastic...or in a compromise, maybe Luan or masonite...doorskin, or maybe a layer of countertop arborite.
 
There are many, many better ways to build light and strong, such as thin plywood in a waffle-style frame, gatorboard, etc., etc.

Building benchwork out of cardboard is a false economy both of money and weight, IMHO.
 
Thanks for the advice, everyone. I think what I will do is pick up some foamcore or gatorboard and make some small test baseboards, building up layers and testing the strength.

Selector - thanks for your summary of the issues involved. I hadn't even thought about puncture resistance.

Beachbum - do you know in which issue of MR that layout appeared? I have a subscription and I believe I can access articles from earlier issues online.
 
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