First, let me thank everyone who replied! I've never tried using a Forum before, and your response was great...
I guess I should have described the layout more completely, because it affected the way I finally decided to go. I wanted to keep the 18" x 8' "shelf as light as possible to take to shows, so its all foam and steel, and easy to tip up and reach the underside . It uses foam risers every foot of its length, with two 3/4" x 8' closet poles running Thur holes in the foam. The poles are glued in the holes and all the foam is glued together. The sectional track and foam seem to stiffen each other, so, while its hardly "rock solid," it seems stiff enough for its purpose and weights only 10 lbs for the foam, steel and track.
With easy access to the bottom of the layout, I came to think that the easiest way to attach and detach track sections was not adhesive, but bolts spaced around every 2' along the track. I think that once its all ballasted, I'd rather deal a single bolt between the rails than several beads of glue at the edges of the plastic. #6-32 bolts have small enough heads that they can be countersunk below tie level. Then the nuts are torqued to 90 lbs from the bottom. Oops, only joking!- they're really only finger tight.
We'll see how it all works out over time. I guess I should confess that I'm a retired toy designer, and living on the edge of what will probably work is a way of life... I'll try to post a few pics.
Thanks again for your interest!
Dave - bredy7
I havenn't been able to post this for 2-3 days w/ the pics; will try to do them separately...
I guess I should have described the layout more completely, because it affected the way I finally decided to go. I wanted to keep the 18" x 8' "shelf as light as possible to take to shows, so its all foam and steel, and easy to tip up and reach the underside . It uses foam risers every foot of its length, with two 3/4" x 8' closet poles running Thur holes in the foam. The poles are glued in the holes and all the foam is glued together. The sectional track and foam seem to stiffen each other, so, while its hardly "rock solid," it seems stiff enough for its purpose and weights only 10 lbs for the foam, steel and track.
With easy access to the bottom of the layout, I came to think that the easiest way to attach and detach track sections was not adhesive, but bolts spaced around every 2' along the track. I think that once its all ballasted, I'd rather deal a single bolt between the rails than several beads of glue at the edges of the plastic. #6-32 bolts have small enough heads that they can be countersunk below tie level. Then the nuts are torqued to 90 lbs from the bottom. Oops, only joking!- they're really only finger tight.
We'll see how it all works out over time. I guess I should confess that I'm a retired toy designer, and living on the edge of what will probably work is a way of life... I'll try to post a few pics.
Thanks again for your interest!
Dave - bredy7
I havenn't been able to post this for 2-3 days w/ the pics; will try to do them separately...