I am looking into possibly doing a door layout for N Scale. I may do a "L" shape. Just wondering how to go about it. 32" door suits my reach better than a 36". Then thought maybe I would also get a 36" door and cut it in half for the short side of the L. The first question that comes to my mind is, Can you cut those doors in half? If so, how do you go about it? Everett
Welcome to TrainBoard. I've cut several, and never had any problem. Just set up your door on some crates or boxes. Last time I used a 4-ft level as a strait-edge, clamped onto the door (as a fence) to get a perfectly straight cut. A plain circular saw is all you really need. As in any woodworking, protect your eyes and ears. I would suggest a helper to hold the smaller cut off piece as you make the cut. Be sure the door has plenty of support before you cut. Depending on where you cut, there may be large and scary-looking voids in the edge. You could even go back and glue in some blocks of wood if you feel the cut is too open. Good luck!
I have 2 doors in a L-shape. What I did was buy a folding closet-type door as the second one. I then cut three feet (the width of the first door) from one of the two halfs of the second door and bolted them together to make the L-shape. Worked well for me! Dave. P.S. The cut-off piece, 3 feet by 18 inches, I mounted on brackets under the layout and made a slide-out control panel. Dave.
I'm still debating whether or not I'm going with a "L", or a single door. Atleast I know I can cut it now if I have to. So you think it's normally a good idea to try to fill the end of the door where you cut it with something? Thanks
I recently whacked off about 24" from a panel, and there were some sizeable voids. I salvaged some blocks of wood from inside the discarded piece, and simply glued them into the new void with yellow glue, just for extra strength on the edge. Probably overkill.
That idea about making a fence for your circular saw is a good one. I would also recommend not using an old, dull blade. I was helping a guy frame in a new opening on the side of his garage on Saturday and we dinged enough nails, dulling the blade, that we ended up generating tons of smoke from the dull blade essentially burning the edges of the wood because of the friction. No good. If you are ripping the doors and have a table saw with something to catch the door on the other end I would recommend that. Then, if you have a choice about the edge you have toward you I would pick the edge you didn't just saw and then attach some sort of piece along the other side just to make a nice edge and keep the mice from living in your hollow core door. We had some rodents play all sorts of games chewing on some wires of stored NTrak modules in my club's trailer. That did not make us happy when we discovered that four days before a show. Adam
I've cut down many doors, not just for my railroad, but also for custom-made furniture. I would plug the void with a 3/4-inch strip of wood, cut to length, with the width being the width of the void. So, for a 32-inch door, I'd end up with a strip about 3/4 inch by 1 inch by perhaps 29 inches. Then just tear out enough of the filler material, usually cardboard, to fit it in. Glue it well. It adds rigidity to that edge. It takes longer to describe than to do. If you can find door skins (1/16 plywood) you can make your own panels with foam board in the middle.
On filling the void in the end of a cut off door, I've used two methods...... First, if you are not going to try to use the scrap piece for anything, you can peal off the "skins' and cut off an appropriate length of the exposed frame. After a bit of sanding to clean up the glue remnants it will be a perfect fit after removing some of the cardboard filler web. The second is going to be more of a natter of luck. Once you've cut your door, measure the thickness of the framing at the exposed end, then check the local big-box or lumber outlet. The last door cutdowns I did, Lowes had some finger joined 2x2s that were actual dimension around 1-1/4" thick, and a perfect fit. Regardless of what you use, a bit of wood glue and a few brads from each side will hold the filler in place.
While we're on this subject I have a question too. On my layout I opted for laying cork and track directly onto the door. Works great no track shifting issues. I have been thinking about making a asmall meandering stream on my layout. My initial thought is to cut the door surface and then fill with expaning foam that I can then cut the banks out of. My biggest worry is whether or not I am weakening my door to much by cutting into one side of it.
I gotta say this sounds like trouble to me. Then again, maybe it's not a big deal structurally, as the door is horizontal, *most* of it would be intact, and there's no big weight issue. I thought about doing the exact same thing on my last door, but chickened out. I'd be cautious about moving it once you cut the river...
The reason for a door's structural rigidity is that it forms what is called a torsion box. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsion_box Breaking the box will potentially weaken it. Small round holes, OK...more than that would get questionable as the size increased
I know it's kind of a pain in the rear at this point because you already have your track glued, but wouldn't you think it would be a bit more sound to lay down a sheet or two of foam (take your pick, pink, blue or white) to attach the track to? Then you could excavate your streambed below track level into the foam, without weakening your "benchwork".
Well now, yes I suppose, but I intentionally did not do foam because I've had foam crunching issues in the past when moving alayout and then track shifts. I wanted my track to be rock solid this time around. Also, my layout is so cluttered with track that I doubt i'll be able to squeeze in more than a hint at a tiny creek running through it. As someone mentioned. Little tiny holes.
This depends on how you have legs mounted to your door, but how bout bracing your door with a 1x8 or something running longways down the center?
Well, I wanted a layout that could be moved with little damage. In the past I've had section of my layout get pressed on and then the track would sort of get torqued. Visually there was no sign of change, but the track no longer worked reliably. On a permanent layout this shouldn't be an issue. I have read posts by others who have drifted away from foam for those reasons. I am not trying to disuade people from using foam as it is a very nice material. But for my layout I wanted rock solid trackwork. I contemplated unitrack,it would have been fine on foam as it really is the ultimate in reliable, but could not afford it and found it limiting. Once again, not trying to slam on unitrack. We all make our choices. With my choice of Atlas C55 track, I opted for the straight on door with cork approach. Maybe another layout later will have those beautiful hills and valleys I often regret not building. For now it's flat lander for me. Heck, I model the midwest anyway. LOL So back to my original question. I did add some floor molding pieces that are about four inches wide as a guardrail the prevent roll offs from the layout. these encircle the entire layout and are screwed and liquid nailed in place. Maybe with that reenforcement I will be ok cutting some small slots here and there. I wish I had a pic to show it. It would make more sense that way.
Just curious, not sure how different hardware prices are here compared to the US, but why would you use a door instead of MDF or plywood? Here it would be a much more expensive option unless you happened to have an old one kicking around...
The other possible option is to put a few supports inside the door where the cut is. How long were you thinking of making this? I guess in theory you could put reinforment across the bottom of the gap and cover / obscure it with the "water".
How about using some thin sheet foam to make retaining walls around a man made canal and adding your water detail right to the door surface, instead of using the door surface for 'ground level' and wanting the water surface lower? My only suggestion if you do use the expanding foam is to be very careful with it. You would be amazed at the power of the expanding foam to distort or simply rip apart things. If you could, I would put the whole door flat on the floor so it is FULLY supported, make your cuts sparingly, and use the foam a little at a time until it fills the space that needs to be filled, starting from as far inside the void as you can reach and working your way out. When the foam starts touching both panels inside the door I would start adding weight to the door to keep it from expanding as you add small amounts more foam. My dad and I were repairing an old camp trailer that had been hit by another trailer in a crowded parking lot. We pulled the dents out of the metal and squirted foam in figuring the extra would spill out and we could clean it up later. It quite literally ripped the metal cladding off the frame. We had to redo the entire side of the camper! Hope that helps. Mike, from DieCastoms.
